I had been wanting to podcast my writing and blog posts for a long time.  I didn’t do it because I thought it would be complicated.  I thought I needed mics and headphones and mixers and de-essers and aural exciters and fancy software and a Barry White voice (although that couldn’t hurt – hehe).  Well as it turns out, you don’t “need” most of those things and if you have a WordPress site, it’s stupid easy.  So easy that even a writer can podcast.

I did it and so can you

I researched “MP3 recorder” on line and after a number of false positives, I ended up with a great (and free!) program called Audacity which is an open source audio editor.  I thought, “Well, THAT was too easy!”  And it was.  Download took a few minutes and the program is way intuitive.  I recorded a test immediately.  It worked fine.  I adjusted the levels and I was ready to go.

Here’s what you need:

• A mic/headset combo.  Wal-Mart has ‘em for about 30 bucks.  They will do just fine.  They plug into your USB port and away you go.  You can also use your built in mic on your computer bit they have a tendency to sound tinny and they can pick up unwanted noise.
• Audio editor software.  Audacity worked just fine for me and I absolutely recommend using it.  If you decide to be a professional Podcaster in the future then you can certainly upgrade to a whistles and bells version later.
• The Podcasting plug-in.  It took a minimal amount of searching for this plug-in and it works great.  It wasn’t rocket surgery to set it up and thus far it has worked without a hitch.  For your blog posts, it puts a button/player right up at the top – no muss, no fuss.

That’s it!

Here’s what you do:

1. Plug in your headset
2. Open Audacity
3. Have a window open for the blog post you want to Podcast
4. When you’re ready, press the red record button in Audacity and sally forth!
5. Don’t be nervous, just read and you’ll be fine.
6. When you’re finished, press the stop button.
7. Press play and listen to the recording.  Pay attention to background noise and excessively loud breathing noises.  Also make certain the levels are ok.  Not too soft, not too loud.
8. If all is good, you can save the file and then export as a mp3.  Remember where you export the darned thing to.
9. In the WP dashboard, go to “Add New” under your Library tab.
10. Upload the MP3 file.
11. Copy the file location.
12. Paste to the URL file location under the Podcasting section in the dashboard.
13. You’re done!  Welcome to the world of podcasting!

Give it a whirl and then come back with some URL’s so we can check out your writing podcasts!