Women in Podcasting

Is the world ready for The Podcast Sisters?

Well as you read about recently, Anna and I met up recently in Dublin. It would have been great to have had more time, but Dublin traffic conspired against us. It actually took Anna less time to reach Dublin airport flying in from the UK than it did for me to drive there!

As you can imagine we had alot to talk about. It was just too bad that Heather was not able to join us.

Anyway the seeds of our new venture together were sown - "The Podcast Sisters".

It is a new business podcast that Anna, Heather and I will be starting together - actually we are meeting tomorrow for the first time.

Our goal is to provide provide inspiration and guidance for women in Europe on how to engage with the internet to progress their personal and professional goals.

We will be sharing knowledge and tips all from blogs to podcasts, from websites to wiki's.

However "The Podcast Sisters" is for you, so do let us know what you would like us to cover to accelerate your online success.

I'm sure it will be entertaining listening knowing Anna and Heather - you can be sure that there will be times that our different experiences and backgrounds will show through as we share our personal success and all that we have learnt in our foray into this wonderful online world.

So watch out for "The Podcast Sisters Podcast" coming to a CD/iPod/MP3 player/your Mac/your PC very soon.

The Blueprint - How To Podcast

Gosh, its been a while since I swung by to contribute here and as usual, Anna's being a superstar and keeping things current. Love the 25 Reason's to Blog and Podcast series - great stuff...

Anyway, back to work after the Easter break and I came across a quite superb podcast - The Mixtape Show presents: Episode 65, The Blueprint - How to Podcast which I thought I should share here.

The Mixtape Show is presented by seriously cool cat Dex Digital who's been producing it since 2005. Usually dedicated to hip hop, Dex devotes this entire episode to sharing some of the basics of podcasting - and he does it all on a hip hop tip - I mean he's not rapping it or anything quite that cheesy, but he's essentially lecturing over various 'beats' and has edited in loads of little comments for stress or humour etc - it's superb - I can't really do it justice here... best just listen to it - it's great listening and highly educative. This guy is really good! 

Goodness knows what he'll make of a bunch of UK women checking him out, but I guess its all part of the social media revolution... You'll find Dex and his entire podcast series right here: www.MixTapeShow.net

Recording Telephone Conversations

I often get asked what would be my quick tips for recording telephone conversations...here is what I posted at Podcast Freq. In terms of technical I use - Skype, and Skylook but in terms of other learnings here are my top 6

1) Close all other programs down so that you computer can concentrate on the recording.

2) If you are using Skype and the connection is bad, then ask the person if you can ring them back and try again. Explain you want to ensure that they sound as good as possible.

3) Always record your voice on audacity as a back up, even when using something like Hot Recorder. Sometimes for no apparent reason your voice does not record.

4) Be aware of the mute button if you use a headset microphone…often you can be talking away oblivious to the fact your arm caught it and the other person cannot hear a thing!

5) Always save the file as a WAV not a MP3 file…this way to do not compress the file before editing and resaving (and recompressing) as a MP3.

6) For the best recording get the person at the other end to record in audacity and then send the file to you. You then align the tracks and you have a much better sound quality.

Hope these tips help you NOT to make the same mistakes that I have made !

Podcasting Do' and Don'ts

There is a great article on <a href="http://www.promotionworld.com/internet/articles/070312Podcasting.html">Promotion World on Podcasting</a>. I have listed the sub headings but check out the full article for the detail, it is a good summary and also a reminder for us all.

DO
1. Make it Professional
2.Transcribe
3. iTunes Support
4. Content
5. Subscribe To Your Podcast Feed

DON'T
1. Stray
Do not stray too far from the topic.
2. Ramble
3. Forget Meta Data
It is critical that you include appropriate and relevant keywords in your podcast feed title and description, this will help listeners locate your podcast.
4. Skimp on Bandwidth
5. Listen to Your Audience
Create a venue for listeners to communicate with you, whether it be through email, a forum or a blog. Listen to what your audience is saying, and even more importantly listen to what they are not saying.

Two New Members

You will see that we have 2 new female blogging/podcasting fanatics on board as we try and develop on on line support community to share our experiences and enjoy supporting each other in this brave new world. Both Claire and Barbara are new contacts for me, I have only got to know them through new media and is a wonderful example of why you should give it a go. I now have 2 new friends who I love speaking to and keep me motivated when I am stuck at my desk trying to earn  enough to feed my cats!

As I said we want to arrange some meet ups in the North and South of England for people who want support, who want to understand more, who just want to meet like minded people....so watch out for details. In the meantime, remember all of us are in London on the 19th March and would love you to join us for a night of wine (or in my case cider) and chat.

Hello!

Thank you for inviting me to join you on this blog, Anna. I have been podcasting regularly since August 2006 and absolutely LOVE it! It is great fun and I am "meeting" many fascinating and interesting people through my podcasting. I started from scratch - a total novice who hadn't even heard of podcasting until last May - and now I'm about to give a talk at the 2007 European Podcast Summit in March.  It isn't difficult - come on ladies, give it a go!!

Overcoming the Fear of Podcasting

If you listen to podcasts and find yourself thinking I would like to have a go - then don't let fear or embarrassment hold you back. Rest assured all of us have felt this kind of self-confidence crisis at some time or another. In fact, when you get over the negative self-talk of "I won't be able to do it", "I don't know where to start", "People will laugh at me" there is one final hurdle to climb...speaking into the microphone.

At first it sounds and feels uncomfortable, but once you have done it a few times it becomes the norm - trust me I am an accountant! That is why it is a great idea to record the first few shows and not post them to the web....so you can get your gaffes out of the way within your home. Ask friends to listen and give feedback, you listen to them...fine tune your delivery. I wish I had done that at the start - mine are there for everyone to laugh at!

But you soon realise that people value you having a go, talking about your passions, they will understand that you are not a trained presenter - that is the fun and power of podcasting.

If you are too scared then contact me through the sidebar or e-mail me at anna@theengagingbrand.com

Podcasting for the Beginner

Both Heather and I openly admit that we are non geeks and one of the reason we started this blog was to build a community over time that will support other people who want to podcast, want to blog but are frightened of doing it.

To help I write a blog called Podcast Freq that has beginners tips and a guide to podcasting. It is for non geeks! It is just a hobby blog but if you are new to this area, you may well find some tips and tricks which will help you.