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Create your own podcast for free

James Thornton

James Thornton

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You could be the next Howard Stern. If that's what you wantHaving recently taken part in my first podcast, I’ve become aware of the sheer number of obstacles that lie in the way of becoming a radio star. Aside from our producer having an accident with his laptop and losing some of our ‘valuable’ material, we were amazed at how much you can end up paying for editing software, promotional tools and hosting. Thankfully, there are a number of reliable utlities you can pick up for free that take care of various aspects of your podcast production. Best of all, you can pretty much run the whole show using web apps, making it great for collaborating with the possé remotely.

Before you even pick up a mic, it’s a good idea to get a taste of what’s out there at the moment, be it to gain inspiration or spy on what your competition is up to. Podcast.net contains a well-organised directory of online shows to help you research the field you wish to explore. Once you’re ready to lay down your inane banter then head for podOmatic, an online service that lets you record and edit your own shows through an easy-to-handle interface.

After you’ve recorded a podcast, you’ll quickly realise that it’s simply not viable to just invite everyone round your house in order to listen to it. No, you need to find a host for it. Luckily, Gcast provides a free hosting service, as well as some useful tools for mixing playlists online and recording over the phone.

What good is a podcast that no one knows about? No good. So, head for Clickcaster, which takes care of the licencing and promotion of your radio show with the minimum of fuss. Another great Web app to try is Transcribr, which helps audiences find and use your podcasts with enhanced searchability and indexing. It does this by creating a transcript of your podcast and although it’ll cost you $1 per minute, you’ll have a fully indexible transcript within three days.

James Thornton

James Thornton

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