What Is a Podcast And How Does It Work? No.1 Free Guide

How are you all my dear friends, I am Anand Patel, and you are welcome to this post of WEBMASTERSGYAN, today we are going to understand What Is a Podcast And How Does It Work? here, we are going to reveal all details about the podcast, so don’t forget to read this post till the end, and if you are new, so don’t forget to subscribe to our bell notification to get updates on this type of technical information.

What Is a Podcast And How Does It Work? – The podcast is an online audio broadcast as we listen to the radio in the same way with the help of the internet, we can listen to the podcast on our smartphone. The podcast is created by mixing two words, iPod and broadcast after mixing and combining them podcast is created.

If you are here and reading this post, that means you also have some questions in your mind related to the Podcast, like what is a podcast and how does it Work? most popular podcast formats, how to start a new podcast? what equipment do you need for a podcast, and all, so here we are going to learn all about podcasts, be with us till the end, and you will get all your answers related to podcasts and many more.

What Is a Podcast And How Does It Work

In the last 15 years, podcasts have gone from mainly a niche market to the mainstream, there’s a world of information and entertainment for people of all interest

Podcast Meaning

What Is a Podcast – The podcast is an online audio broadcast as we listen to the radio in the same way with the help of the internet, we can listen to the podcast on our smartphone. The podcast is created by mixing two words, iPod and broadcast after mixing and combining them podcast is created,

in the podcast, we can listen to the audio files anywhere in-home, on the bus, at the time of workout, at the time of going office, and anytime wherever we want, the best amazing and interesting thing about the podcast is, recording and publishing a podcast is so simple, easy and cheap.

Podcast Definition

“A podcast is simply a piece of audio or story or an interview or a documentary series that you can download and listen to whenever you want”

Content Types On The Internet

There are three famous content types are available on the internet, internet is the content hub of the world, and you get all the content on the internet, but the content on the internet is kept in some formats as =>

Text/Image Content

We are so much familiar with this type of content, every content has their different platform as text and image content is found on blogs and social media platforms.

Video Content

This content type is so much popular nowadays, video content is mostly used for information, marketing, and entertainment, there are so many video content platforms are available like youtube, and so on.

Audio Content

This type of content is called podcasts, this was not so much popular before 2014 but nowadays this is also a popular form of content available on the internet.

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Why Podcast Is Being So Much Popular

The podcast is growing very well in India, there are more than 500 million internet users in India, and 40 million of them like listening podcast, in 2018 60% growth was seen in podcast listeners in India

There is a very genuine reason, why the podcast is being so much popular these days, as we all have so much busy life and we don’t have enough time for watching videos and reading texts, and like if you work in an office and you daily spend two-hour traveling, and you want to utilize this time in learning something,

If you open any text or video content to read or watch than it is so much difficult because you have to concentrate on the text or on the video to get the exact information but in the podcast, you only have to listen that you can do easily at the time of traveling or even driving or workout, and with performing any work, this is the main reason why the podcast is being popular in these days

Most Popular Podcast Formats/Podcast Topics

Podcast formats are the podcast topics on that people create their podcast and publish it, here we are going to discuss some of the most popular podcast formats/topics, are some podcast examples =>

Solo Podcast

In a solo podcast, you directly interact with your audience, you don’t need anyone else to listen, just pick a topic, and speak to your audience.

Interview Podcast

In an interview podcast, you take an interview of someone, it is a one on one interaction between you and the interviewee. so many people do interview podcast, in interview podcast, people tell their real stories which is so much inspiring, and people connect with them so quickly, and because of that people like interview podcasts.

Conversational Podcast

Here you get some people with you and you all discus on a particular topic with each other.

Story Podcast

The podcast is a good platform for storytelling, so many starters have started their digital journey with podcasting, in the start, they start with telling inspirational stories because at the time of starting they don’t know much about interview podcast, and other, so for starting, storytelling is the easiest way to start a podcast.

Review Podcast

You can create a podcast of reviews, it can be product review or movies review and so on.

News Podcast

In this podcast, you can podcast the latest news of local, national, and all over the world people also love to listen to news on podcasts.

Theme Based Podcast

Most of the people keep a pre-decided theme for their podcasting, they select a theme or niche for their podcast, and release podcast about that, they share their knowledge, experience, and learning in their podcast, for example, if there is a niche fitness or health, fashion, movies or storytelling or inspirational talks, they select one of them and create a podcast on that topic and share their experience and learning.

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What Should Be The Length Of a Podcast

You can make a podcast between 1 minute to 3 hours, you can make any podcast between these time durations, generally, when you take an interview of someone usually it takes 30 to 45 minutes when you make a solo podcast, then it depends on your topic that how much deeper you want to talk on that topic if you want to tell about any topic in detail then you can make a log podcast.

Podcast Frequency

when you start podcasting or in the start, you can start with releasing one podcast in a week, and if you are good in your niche and you are comfortable, and you can do well consistently, then you can go with daily or regular releasing podcasts.

Difference Between Podcast And Podcast Episodes

The podcast is a series of podcast episodes, which means a combination of all podcast episodes is called a complete podcast like if you watch any TV serial, the channel operator daily shows an episode of that serial, but the complete serial is a collection of all those episodes.

Here we have learned what is a podcast, its topics and so many other things related to it now we will learn how to start a podcast.

How To Start a New Podcast

Podcasting is a powerful marketing tool and its ability to fit snugly into our busy lives gives it a lot of potentials. Your audiences can listen to it during their commute, at the gym, or even at their desks, listening to a podcast is a very connecting experience, and it can establish a strong connection between you and your listeners.

Here, I am going to tell you how to start a new podcast and sharing the best software, hardware, and other services that will help you record edit, and publish your podcast quickly. I want to help you build an online presence quickly, here I’m talking about how to choose a microphone, audio recording and editing software, and online publishing services,

So, you can focus on your content and getting your podcast started! I’m sharing tips and tricks that I learned the hard way so that you can build on my experience and save a lot of time. make sure you stick around to the end because I’m going to share two free podcast hosting sites for your next podcast.

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What Equipment Do You Need For a Podcast

In podcasting, audio quality is as important as content, it is so much important to create great quality audio because audiences will not tolerate podcasts with bad quality audio. This is unfortunate because even though you might have something valuable to say but people won’t take you seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously first and invest in some good hardware.

Here we are going to tell what equipment do you need for a podcast, that you must have to start your podcast =>

Computer

First thing that you need is a computer or laptop for recording, editing, publishing and for all work.

Microphone

Here’s how you can choose a good microphone, the first thing to remember is that most mics are built for a very specific purpose, and they behave differently in different circumstances, knowing this is the key to buying a microphone that works for recording podcasts. Specifically, there two things about these mics that you need to understand their type and their pickup patterns there are two types of mics in the consumer market right now

Condenser Mics

Condenser mics are designed to be super sensitive to all frequencies and sounds and intended to capture high-quality sounds like that of the vocals of a singer, these are the mics that you see in professional audio recording studios, unfortunately, because they are so sensitive when you bring it into a normal room like yours or mine, it picks up even the oddest of noises like the echoes in the room or the cat screeching on the world outside your house, and that is why condenser mics are often used in rooms which are soundproof like recording studios

Dynamic Mics

Dynamic mic however is more robust and picks up sounds only near the mic, dynamic mics are the ones you see singers use at a concert, I always suggest you get the dynamic mics for podcasting, specifically because most of us don’t have a soundproof environment

The second thing about microphones that you need to know is the pickup pattern, the pickup pattern will tell you from which direction the mic will pick up audio signals, now let’s put all this together and find out which is the best microphone for podcasting which is my recommendation the best value for money mic that you can get is the audio Technica area 2100,

So here’s why I love this microphone for starters

• It’s a dynamic microphone so like I told you above, I prefer dynamic mics over condenser mics for podcasting.
• It’s got a cardioid pickup pattern, which means it picks up sounds well from when the sound is in front of it but it rejects or suppresses sounds when the sound is coming from behind it and that is good when you’re in a non-soundproof environment like your room, so when you’re talking into your microphone it’s going to pick up your voice much better than it’s going to pick up the echoes in your room that’s coming from behind it or the sound that’s coming from outside your room.
• It’s built really well
• It’s got the great sound quality
• Connector types that it has, it has an XLR output, a USB output, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Now every microphone requires some accessories to make it convenient to use, here is my recommendation for the absolute required accessories for microphones =>

Pop Filter

A pop filter or a pop shield is a noise protection filter for the microphone, it serves to reduce or eliminate popping sounds caused by saying closes like the letters P’s and bees which is caused by the mechanical impact of fast-moving air on the microphone’s diaphragm,

Additionally, a pop filter can also protect against the accumulation of saliva on the microphone elements, a pinch of salt in our saliva can actually be corrosive to the microphone, so using a pop filter may improve the life span of your microphone, so essentially a pop filter reduces the plosives and gives you cleaner audio to work with.

Now there are two types of pop filters one is the foam pop filter and the other is a nylon windscreen pop filter both do a great job but I have found that the foam pop filter is more practical for everyday use.

Microphone Stand

The audio Technica area 2100 and some other mics mostly come with a foldable table stand, while they work for best results, I would recommend that you get yourself a scissors boom mic stand with a shock absorber, there are two main advantages of having your mic mounted on these stands, when you mount your mic on a table stand the noise from your table, hand, mouse movement, and keyboard typing travel through the stand and into your recording you don’t want that,

Having your mic mounted on a boom stand reduces this problem to a great extent, and if you choose to add a shock absorber it will remove the problem entirely, this stand also allows you to move your mic freely around your workspace without getting in the way of your other devices really a great advantage if you should ask me many companies provide great quality scissors boom stand, and I will leave this up to you which you want to buy.

Okay, now that we’ve got all the hardware we need, let’s talk about software to record and edit your podcast

Best Free Software To Record And Edit Podcast

There are so many software available on the internet for recording and editing podcasts but here we are going tell which one we have used, tested and found best for podcasting

Audacity

Audacity is a free open source software and does a fantastic job of recording, editing, and even editing your mp3 metadata, and is the go-to software for millions of podcasters, you can download audacity by going to audacityteam.org, you can find downloads for windows, Mac, and Linux and once you’ve downloaded it all you need to do is open it up, set your primary microphone, and start recording it’s as simple as that.

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Best Podcast Hosting For Beginners

Once you’re done producing your podcast, you will need someplace to host it, while your first start would be to host it on your own server or website, that might not be a great idea while you can publish your podcast on your website it’s always best to keep your podcast stream separate

Because traffic from your podcast can affect your website’s performance or vice versa hosting with dedicated podcast hosting services will provide you with an RSS link which you can later share with iTunes, Stitcher, or any of the popular podcast search engines so that people can find your content easily

Best Podcast Hosting For Beginners(Paid)

• Podbean,
• Libsyn
• Soundcloud

Now there are many paid services out there that do a great job and honestly, you don’t need my recommendation because they are all great a quick google search will tell you which ones to buy, but I suggest a free service that does it in a slightly better job and the two of them are podcast.com and anchor.fm

They are two surprisingly best podcasts hosting for beginners for free, that gives you free podcast hosting with unlimited bandwidth and storage, you might want to check these two services out before you pay for an account with services like Lipson or Soundcloud

Conclusion

Here we have discussed what is a podcast? how to start a podcast, podcast formats and all I am sure, that you can easily start your podcasting after reading this guide, but before starting you need to understand your interests, and passion for it, because like all other fields it also has competition and for being successful in podcasting you need passion and dedication