Day 4

Subject: Time for the techie stuff, [firstname]

Hi [firstname],

Today I want to talk about the technical stuff you're going to need to get your podcasts started.  Oh, and don't worry if you're not “techie”.  This is all pretty straightforward.

One thing I want to state right from the get-go, is you should always invest in good, quality equipment – and make sure everybody you interview does the same. People will judge you 100% on the quality of your audio recordings, so if they sound crackly and boxy, people will think you're not very professional and will turn off, never to return.

Specifically you will need… 

A computer or laptop.  If you can do your recordings on something that's solid state and doesn't have cooling fan humming away, so much the better.

Headset and microphone.  This can be a combination headset mic, or (better still) a separate microphone and headphones.  Don't skimp here.  This is the tool you'll be using most, so get the best quality you can afford.

Recording and sound editing software. There are lots of different types out there, but the one I like to use is Audacity.  It has Windows, Mac and Linux versions, and can be downloaded for free from here: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

There is a bit of a learning curve to some Audacity functions, so to get all the sound levels right and to remove any hum or hiss, you might want to use a sound processing service like Auphonic (https://auphonic.com/). You can process up to two hours of audio each month for free.

Skype. If you're doing interviews, Skype sounds way better than over the phone.  It's a free download from https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/.

Skype recording software. You can use Audacity, or specialist software like iFree Skype Recorder (https://www.ifree-recorder.com/)

Hosting.  Podcast MP3's take up a lot of space and bandwidth, so your web hosting company won't thank you if you host them there.  Amazon S3 (https://aws.amazon.com/s3/) is good when you're just starting out.  Move onto Libsyn (https://www.libsyn.com/) when you start to build a following.

Talk soon!

[Your Name]

PS. Don't forget your copy of my podcasting success guide!  Here's the link [link to sales page].
