One of the great things about podcasting is that it can be done on a very low budget. In fact, many of you may be able to get it all done for free. That’s right many of you can produce and publish a acim for free. But there is always a catch when things are free, isn’t there.
This podcasting tip is going to go through the basics and give you a rough outline of a small, medium and large budget podcast. I will give you some ideas on what it will cost in terms of equipment, software, etc. and then you can take that information and determine what your podcasting budget will be. Keep in mind what we are talking about here is the basics. What it would take, bare-bones, to create a podcast.
Microphone
Let’s start with what I think makes the most sense. At some point you are going to record a podcast episode, right? So you will need a microphone.
Free
Many laptops and computers nowadays come with some form of built-in microphone. If you already have a computer with a built-in microphone then you have the recording equipment necessary to start your podcast. Now keep in mind, the sound quality that you are going to get from a built-in microphone is going to be marginal at best. Your listeners are not going to be sticking around for long if you don’t have good sound quality, so while it is free, this is not the route I would recommend.
$15 – $60
The next category of microphone falls into one of two categories, you can go the USB headset/mic route or for this price category you can get a low-end desktop microphone.
When I first started podcasting, I bought a USB headset/mic for $29.99. Believe it or not I got great sound quality for the prices. My listeners were happy, I was happy, there was just a lot of happiness going around at the time and for a price like $29.99 you can’t really beat that.
Over $250
If you have decided to go for studio sound quality, then you are looking at a price range starting around $250. What does that $250 get you? It gets a studio quality microphone with a desktop mic stand, a mixer with a USB output that connects to your computer and a microphone cable.
This will give you superb sound quality, but you pay for it.
Software For Editing
Unless you are a master podcaster, you probably will have to touch up your podcast in post production. Editing out spoken missteps, pauses, coughing, etc. For that you will need some editing software.
Free
Audacity is a free software package that allows you to edit your podcast. The functionality is there to do everything you will need to produce your podcast. I have briefly toyed around with Audacity and it looks like a nice package but I don’t use Audacity because I am lazy. I have a Mac that I use for my recording and editing. My Mac comes with GarageBand, which is what I learned to use first. I don’t use Audacity because then I would have to learn the ins and outs of a new software package and like I said, lazy.