How and Why I Podcast

I have produced a weekly podcast for about five years now. It started out as one of my content creation tactics but quickly became an important way to gain access to leading authors and marketing professionals. In fact, I’ve often referred to it as my secret weapon.

I’ve developed a pretty stable following and the show generally ranks in the top twenty on iTunes for the marketing and management category, but I would do it even no one listened because of the doors it has opened.

Podcasting isn’t the red hot trendy topic these days, but it’s still a very solid tool to put in your content bag. Every now and then I get asked what tools I use to produce my show and so I thought I would write a post to spell my routine out.

My shows are all interviews done via a phone line

• To capture the calls I use SkypeIn line so guests can call from a landline but I capture the call on Skype (Obviously Skype to Skype calls work well too)
• To record I use a Skype plugin called Call Recorder (Pamela on PC) – this plugin has feature that also allows me to split the tracks so my guest and I are can be edited separately.
• For my sound I use a Sennheiser USB headset – a little pricey but always a great place to spend your money.
• To edit the show I use Garage Band on a Mac – you can also use Audacity on a PC
• I purchased intro music track from iStockphoto
• To host the show I use Libsyn – I don’t use all of the features from this tool but the hosting and streaming bandwidth is inexpensive
• I use this WordPress blog to publish my shows so I use Feedburner to make the category feed podcast and iTunes friendly
• Occasionally I’ll transcribe an episode using Casting Words

You can listen to the show by subscribing the feed in iTunes or a variety of other free services such as Google Listen (Use this RSS feed) or you can buy the Duct Tape Marketing iPhone app. (iTunes link – Cost is $2.99) or Android app and listen to the show as well as about ten past shows on your phone.