Introduction
Making your own PodCasts
Getting up on iTunes
Merchandising your PodCast and Making a Book Cover
Different voices and accents for your PodCast
Improving the quality of your PodCast
Introduction
Recording your own PodCast is a lot of fun. It's also a reasonable amount of work. However, there are a few things you need to know before you get going. This pages details the issues you'll run into and covers various options on how to address them.
Making Your Own PodCasts
I've begun looking at how to make my own PodCast. Previously, I have written a couple of books so I gave myself the job of turning the first chapter of one into an audio file. Since then I've bought a book on the subject. Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting (Solutions)
. I've hosted the file I produced on my GooglePages solution. It's about 7MB and it's the first chapter. Now, this is not the way to host a whole book but for now it's Ok for this example. You have to be aware of the bandwidth restrictions of whatever site you're using. I initially tried recording the story on my Dell XPS 600 machine but the Mic pickup was so low I was shouting into the Mic and I gave up out of frustration! I even dipped into my Pocket and bought a professional Condenser Mic a Marshall MX which was no better on the PC. I realized (in my case anyway) that the PC was not an ideal recording device. Out of sheer frustration I bought a digital voice recorder and on EBay I came across a European EBay shop called Luzern Tech, see Luzern Store on which I bought a Goodman's X-PRO GPRD-1 which was refurbished. Using this hand-held device I just speak into it and then I hook it up to my PC and it becomes a standard USB drive. It produces a WAV file. (Later, using Audacity I changed it to an MP3.)
I had no great expectation of the sound quality but it turned out Ok for my needs. The next challenge was once I got my 'PodCast voice' sorted by trying several recording I started to act out the lines a little. It was easier for me as I'd written the story so I had a good sense of how to deliver the lines but do not underestimate how easy it is to do a recording 95% Ok and then goof up a word here or there. For the editing process I used Audacity, on http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ which allows me to stretch out the recording and replace the lines I goofed up. The technique was to record onto my digital voice recorder and them simply cut out and paste my new lines in.
Problems with Audactity Audacity is not perfect but it's free. Recently, I've been considering podiobook as a way to promote my work and they require that the format is 44100 using Joint Audio. Audacity doesn't support this presently and I've wasted a lot of time building episodes and then have to convert over. Also, my hand-held recorder produces 48000 Hz recording and this is also annoying in that it burns up my time and sometimes causes the sound to come out a little strange (but not in a really bad way) after being transformed. Therefore, plear bear this in mind. With audacity, save often and change the name of a recording to v1, v2 etc; once you're happy. There is nothing more demoralizing than when you have a recoding spot on and it gets corrupted. I recall one unhappy Sunday when this happened.
Here are some useful links.
Audio Format conversions. DBPowerAmp
MP3 Player and Podcast Subscriber. iTunes. Of course, it has lots of iPod features but you don't have to use it with one.
Build a simple free Web Site with GooglePages Of course, it really helps if you have a google mail account.
Longer term I'd like to put my whole book up on iTunes. To do this yourself, take a look at this link on how to make your own PodCast, see http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html
The story itself is called Engines Under Ursus and this is the recording
Establishing your PodCast on iTunes
In an earlier posting, I described how to make your own MP3 file. In this posting, I will explain how to prepare and submit a PodCast to iTunes.Step 1: Have your content hosted in a good location.
In my case, I've decided to host my content on Archive.Org (Engines Under Ursus Novel location). This is a non-profit organization. One of the first questions you'll need to ask yourself is about Copyright implications. Do you want others to take your work and do whatever they want with it? I chose the Creative Commons NonDeriv-NonCommercial option which means others can take it and copy it but not for commecial use and not change it. I remain the author of the work. I chose iTunes because I love iTunes and I love PodCasts. I don't normally say I love something but I am such a fan of Apple. I also own an iPod as do millions of others.
If you're uncomfortable with archive.org, you can join libsyn which is fee based but doesn't have bandwidth restriction and gives you accurate logging of the traffic you'll get. This is the downside you using archive.org. Traffic measuring is quite hard. You need to use another service. With libsyn it's all in one (for a small fee.)
Step 2: Setup your feed.
This is an
Feed validator (simply plug your feed in)
Or the iTunes recommended validator
It turned out I'd hidden rich media in my file and then my dates were not using the correct formula. Et Voila! Once I'd fixed those problems, the feed was accepted (in a test scenario) and I was able to tweak the data fields I was exposing.
One other small point, the first episode on your feed is the one which iTunes plays by default. So, if you want the current episode to be the one which possible subscribers find, then put it at the top of your item list.
My feed is added at the end of this. I've hosted this on my googlepages setup as it's pretty light weight.
Step 3: Submit your feed to iTunes
Then once you're happy, submit it to iTunes. Instructions are on the iTunes tek link. You'll need an iTunes account but there's no credit card charge. The item is then reviewed.
Appendix A: The Sample Feed with one episode
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Engines Under Ursus Science Fiction Novel</title>
<link>http://www.storytwig.com</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>℗ & © 2006 Martin Brady</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>A Science Fiction Novel</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Martin Brady</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>This is a Science Fiction novel called 'Engines Under Ursus'. The Nanoteks are called N-Teks in the story and is set far in the future on a world co-inhabited with other aliens who compete firecely with the humans. The N-Teks themselves are millions possibly billions of years old and have been around long before the new alien colonies arrived and settled Erstol and are essentially harmless. The center of human power in the city is CityNet on Erstol but something goes wrong; the normally harmless N-Teks start attacking CityNet, probing it out attempting to undermine it and they are succeeding. No-one knows why they are attacking CityNet. Could the other aliens be behind it? Only one man could possibly know but he was placed in the Tank for having done experiments with the N-Teks - a punishable crime. Now they must take Tom Fowler out of the Tank, the man whom they imprisoned for working with the N-Teks; the only man who can now possibly save human power on Erstol. The aliens with whom they once warred look on, offering no help; the competition between them is as fierce as ever. But what about Fowler, does he care enough to help out his own kind; especially those who took away his freedom and now want his help? Check out more examples of my writing at http://www.storytwig.com. The novel is covered under the Creative Commons Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/</itunes:summary>
<description>This is a Science Fiction Novel which I'm turning into a PodCast. The novel is already fully written so I'll narrate one chapter each week or so, depending on how busy I am. </description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Martin Brady</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>mbradyie@aol.com</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:image href="http://www.storytwig.com/storytwig1.gif" />
<itunes:category text="Arts">
<itunes:category text="Literature"/>
</itunes:category>
<item>
<title>Chapter One</title>
<itunes:author>Martin Brady</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>One. They'd taken Fowler out of the Tank...</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>The warden wants to see you.</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="http://ia331335.us.archive.org/2/items/EnginesUnderUrsus/NTek01.mp3" length="7235035" type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>7:32</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>science fiction, audio book, nanotechnology, adventure</itunes:keywords>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
It took iTunes a day to check my content and I've now been added to the iTunes index. Simply search for Engines Under Ursus and it brings up the page with the latest chapters of the Novel.
Yes, already the frustration has set in! I have successfully added my PodCast feed to iTunes and I'm wondering how I am doing. The problem is I have no idea of the traffic I am getting. So what to do? You can use an URL rewriting mechanism on the mp3 on the tech site but I didn't like it.
So what next?
Ok, so we're back to Feedburner again. Google should buy feedburner! I think Feedburner is fantastic. It now has iTunes support for PodCasters.
I've been a little too late to the game, I've already added my feed but I'm sure I can fix it. So what's the big deal about Feedburner? Well, it tells you how many subscribers you have and what the traffic is.
I already use it to promote this Blog and it's slick and it's almost never let me down.
So why should Google buy Feedburner (if they haven't already?!) The next wave is PodCasting IMO either Audio or Video. And folks are going to want some way to advertise their popuular (or not) content. It's the logical evolution of a WebPage. Wouldn't it be great if you could setup a feed and associate some tags and get some ads which are targeted to that content? I realize Feedburner are already doing this themselves. Then again maybe Feedburner wants to be the next Google! :) And why not...
I realize this news isn't exactly new (iTunes + feedburner) but I'm going to highlight every snag I hit with my PodCast I what I did to fix it.
Feedburner iTunes support 2005
I also want to promote my PodCast beyond just iTunes. So here's a great link to all the available PodCasting solutions. I will use the FeedBurner for this; leaving iTunes feed as it is for the moment.
Where you can submit your PodCasts
So my feedburner feed for 'Engines Under Ursus' is for those of you who are curious.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EnginesUnderUrsusScienceFictionNovel
Lots of good advice on how to organize your PodCast from the closest thing we have to professionals in this fledgling industry.
Applet Seminar
Last night I added my feed to PodCastAlley which appears to be one of the major PodCasting sites. I already have it added to iTunes and the mp3 is stored on archive.org.
I found PodCastAlley a little trickey initially as I added my PodCast and then I couldn't find it! It didn't show up on the Search results. I guess this may take a little time as they need to rebuild the indexes periodically (guess). The tricky part for me was Claiming My Feed. I had created my profile but it had no idea that I owned the feed. This must be to stop others taking credit for a PodCast which they didn't produce.
To do this, I had to add some content to the xml rss feed which they gave me. I put it in the description field of the feed. I was redirecting my feed through Feedburner so I went into the Troubleshootize link and did a resync.
I claimed my feed and then dropped out the changes and fixed up the rss feed information so it looked better inside podcastalley.
Then I went into Feedburner and went into the Publicize tab and turned it on. This means Feedburner effective acts as my virtual publishing agent, distributing my content to the major feedreader and any one who might be interested in my content. So far I've as many subscribers to this blog as I have to the story in 24 hours which is pretty impressive in my mind anyway. To be honest it's not that many but this Blog has been up and running for several months now.
Longer term, I expect the Ad situation with PodCasts to be resolved so it would be nice to see that piece of the puzzled sorted but right now I'm having a blast! I'm presently finishing off the beginning of Chapter 2. I'll discuss how the whole publishing side is working out for me in a later entry.
Create a brand idendity
In my case the brand is the book cover. For this, I used Adobe Illustrator to create my Book Cover. You can use whatever tool you want but having some kind of Logo is essential in creating a brand. Believe me, graphic artists have a real skill and it's not easy to replicate this so you can buy in some skill by going to iStockPhoto. You'll need to put your hand in your pocket and spend some money. It's up to you.
Free Photos For Your Project
In my case the project was a book cover. It's not easy to find a good place to find high quality free photos on the net. The best place I've found so far is The Morgue File. Yes, I know. It sounds creepy. However, unlike the name, it's not pictures of the deceased. There's lots of stuff. I used one for my book cover.
Leveraging the brand
Once you have a logo you can now go down the traditional route that many bands use at concerts; namely, selling T-Shirts and Caps and stuff like this. There is a site out there called CafePress who will take your logo and help you build a free customized site around your logo - so you'll be able to see TShirts with your logo and so forth. The site is designed that you can up the base price by a couple of dollars and this is your margin. Here is my site.
Get your book published
Additionally, they have a book printing service which I have yet to try out but it all looks interesting and could be a good way for someone unable to break past editors in book companies who keep refusing a script. It's not vanity publishing because CafePress only prints the books which are bought! A very nice model indeed but I guess many books like this are starved of the oxygen of publicity that a major label provides. However, it's a good first step imo. You'll also need to understand PDF and have a front and back cover designed.
You can also us lulu to get your book published. This seems like the leader in this space presently and is a print-on-demand service. I'll add more detail as I find it.
I recall watching 'Into The West' with Tom Criuse. He absolutely murdered the Irish accent. It was one of those terrible caricatures of Irish people. Recently, I tried to do a hard gruff American accent on my PodCast and my wife heard it. It was awful and I had to redo almost all of it. When she heard it first she said I should put in an accouncement to the episode that I did it in revenge for the movie 'Into The West'. But seriously, how does one do an accent or even attempt it? Professional actors get voice coaching. Truth is, there are many Irish, English, Scottish, American accents.... the list goes on for each country. Where can one find reference accents? I googled for such an place and here it is. It's a Website with different sample accents. The Speech Accent Archive. Enjoy.
Improving the Production Content with Sound and Segments
If you tune into my latest episode of Engines Under Ursus (currently Episode 10 as I write), you'll notice that I now welcome the listener. Before this, I didn't and just launched into the episode. I believe less is more and I have to admit I get annoyed with audio book episodes that talk too much and don't get into the story. So I'm not advocating telling your life's story in the Intro. Here's what I've come up with. It's not proscriptive just a way of structuring the listening experience.
In my case, I welcome the listener and have a 'previously on' segment which is a nice refresher. For Music you can go to PodSafe Audio. I've seen my traffic grow since I did this. I'd like to thank all the UK listeners for pushing me up the rankings! That's it for now. Just listen to the current episode to see what I'm describing. You don't need to subscribe on iTunes, you can just click on an episode link. I've also created 'Episodes' which have a title. It's all obvious stuff really and TV does it all the time - for a reason - it works!
Warning! Look after your tags!
I have fallen into the trap of adding segments and releasing the sound file only to find traffic falls off. This
could be because the episode is not that good but watch out for bad tagging. Not everyone uses iTunes. Many use
iPodderX or other tag based players. Choose the episode name format, author name, album, track and category. Keep
them consistent or you'll lose listeners (as I suspect I did!).
Adding content to PodCast Alley (non-iTunes service)
I added my feed to PodCastAlley which appears to be one of the major PodCasting sites. I already have it added to iTunes and the mp3 is stored on archive.org.
I found PodCastAlley a little trickey initially as I added my PodCast and then I couldn't find it! It didn't show up on the Search results. I guess this may take a little time as they need to rebuild the indexes periodically (guess). The tricky part for me was Claiming My Feed. I had created my profile but it had no idea that I owned the feed. This must be to stop others taking credit for a PodCast which they didn't produce.
To do this, I had to add some content to the xml rss feed which they gave me. I put it in the description field of the feed. I was redirecting my feed through Feedburner so I went into the Troubleshootize link and did a resync.
I claimed my feed and then dropped out the changes and fixed up the rss feed information so it looked better inside podcastalley.
Then I went into Feedburner and went into the Publicize tab and turned it on. This means Feedburner effective acts as my virtual publishing agent, distributing my content to the major feedreader and any one who might be interested in my content. So far I've as many subscribers to this blog as I have to the story in 24 hours which is pretty impressive in my mind anyway. To be honest it's not that many but this Blog has been up and running for several months now.
Longer term, I expect the Ad situation with PodCasts to be resolved so it would be nice to see that piece of the puzzled sorted but right now I'm having a blast! I'm presently finishing off the beginning of Chapter 2. I'll discuss how the whole publishing side is working out for me in a later entry.
Merchandising your PodCast and Making a Book Cover
Now, that my PodCast for my story is up on iTunes, one of the next challenges apart from getting it out there is to see what possibilities there are to make some money on it. Google Ads won't work as there is no technology available for this presently. Your best hope is to get into the top 10 and then use that as a way to get more traditional spots for advertisers. However, there are only 10 in the top 10!
Different voices and accents for your PodCast
Improving the quality of your PodCast
This is the next article in my tutorial on Creating and Setting up your own PodCast series. I have several articles littered throughout the Blog and I've pulled them together into one HTML page in the right rail on my GooglePages account. I'm hoping there will be a few nuggets of information that you can use to get up and running on the Web. So far, I've got my Audio Novel up on iTunes plus a bunch of other free RSS syndication services. One of the nice things I've noticed is that some services are now picking up my PodCast without me having to actually register with the service in question. So how does one improve the quality of a PodCast? The answer is to improve the production content.
