The NMP Network

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This is our 100th Episode for Podcaster Training!

During Phase 1, we discussed the history and basics of podcasting, including recording and editing your podcast using Audacity. I have produced a screencast showing the steps that was outlined during last weeks show. You will find this screencast on the blog.

This week, in Phase 2, we will be discussing prepping for your podcast. A lot of novice podcasters don’t realize the importance of the pre-show prep in order to insure a quality podcast.

The pre-show prep can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on what your subject matter is for that podcast. Now, obviously, if you have an open forum or open mic style podcast, then your show prep is minimal at best. For the sake of this discussion, I will assume you have a niche topic or subject that you are covering in your podcast.

Let’s take this show as our example. On Podcaster Training, we cover a wide range of topics and subjects. Many can be handled “off the cuff”, however, in the case of the history portion of last weeks episode, that took some research to insure that I was giving you the proper facts.

When prepping for an audio only podcast, the prep time for this show takes normally about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Again, depending on the topic, it can take longer. I begin by creating my show outline which is a top down listing of how the show will play out. This helps me to stay on track and not stray too far off course during the show. Since the outline doesn’t vary much week to week, I mainly have to change the show date and title and the weekly challenge. After that, I begin my blog post for the show notes. This helps me to develop my thoughts and at the same time keeps the show notes as detailed as possible. Even though I don’t read the show notes verbatim, they are there, just like the outline, to keep me on track and on topic.

During the creation of the show notes, I take the necessary time to do my research on my main topic, again, to insure that all the facts are properly introduced.

Once the show notes are compiled and saved (not published yet) I then bring up my MP3 player and pre-load the intro and Wordpress Weekly segment as well as other audio that might be played that night. All audio is then put into the proper sequence to prepare to play.

Once show time comes around, I fire up the chat room, log in on my cell phone and then once that connection is established, I then log in via Skype so that I can broadcast my audio for the show. During the 15 minutes before the actual show time start, I test my audio to insure that everything is functional. If it isn’t, I attempt to correct it and finalize preparation for the show start. During this time too, I try to send a tweet out to let everyone that follows me on Twitter know that I am going live.

So, as you can see, it takes time to prep and a lot of this prep must be done before you even think of hitting the record button. I had some additional prep before my Halloween episode as I put together a special Halloween Intro for the show. Again, this took additional time, however, I accounted for this prior to the show and fit it into my prep schedule.

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Tags: novice, podcaster, prep, show, training