On this episode I answer the question of what is a podcast. This is a basic question but it is necessary to answer that question so we can build on that and answer more advanced topics

Welcome to podcast answers the very very very first episode of podcast answers

that's right guys we are kicking off the new show podcast answers and we are so

so so glad that you are here with us today and we are actually going back to

the basics today and we're talking about what is a podcast because for us to talk

about what a podcast is we have to build on the very basic building blocks of what

a podcast actually actually is so if you have never ever ever actually seen us or

heard of us which we are very new so you probably have not what we do and who we

are is this we our goal is to help people start and grow their podcast by

answering any podcast questions along the way so we want you to ask us questions

so that we can answer them on our show and help you grow your podcast to be a

better podcaster what we do we we are also on youtube at youtube.com slash at

podcast answers we are also on Facebook and Instagram at podcast answers and

Twitter we're there too but we have a different handle there it's podcast

answers one because podcast answers was not available so you can find us there

and we'd love to hear you have you there I would desperately suggest subscribing

to obviously listen a podcast app any podcast app is gonna have podcast

answers in it but also subscribe to our YouTube channel if you would because

that way we with our YouTube channel we're gonna do a lot of stuff here that

ends up being ends up being visual in nature and because of that that's because

we're doing a show that's about podcasting it but we're gonna be talking

about lots of stuff that's hands-on and the stuff that you're gonna need to see

so I would suggest joining our YouTube channel because that way you can see

videos of every one of our episodes and you'll get that hands-on if we're

talking about a specific software you'll actually be able to see that software

instead of just hearing us describe it in audio so basics what is a podcast it

is a audio show or video show that's recorded onto a computer so that's what

we're doing here we're doing audio and video we're not gonna be delivering this

necessarily in the traditional sense of in a podcast app but it is in your it is

in your YouTube if you want to see the video but so it's essentially it's an

audio show that you can listen to in any podcast app and so once you have your

audio files you're gonna hook up your microphone you're going to record your

episode edit your episode and then you're gonna post it somewhere because you

need to get it to the world so there are several several several different

podcast hosts but the ones that I recommend are blueberry and captivate

that's blueberry blubrry.com and captivate C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-E dot FM and the

reason that I say that I like them is any podcast hosts you know all they do is

serve your files you need to have a podcast host well the reason that I

like them is because they're innovating and coming up using some of the new

podcasting 2.0 namespace tag features adding some new features of

podcasting that other podcast hosts are not necessarily adding so I will one of

the things that you need a podcast for is because when you can't you know you

may have a website that you have you may have a website for your business or for

your personal or whatever but if you put your file right on to your web host

well that file may not be a very large file but if you get one hundred one

thousand two thousand ten thousand people downloading that file all at once

your web host is gonna crash whereas a podcast host is set up to handle all of

that traffic all at once and it's gonna be a better it's gonna do a better job

at handling those files and not necessarily crash so you need a podcast

host I suggest blueberry or captivate just based on the fact that they've been

around for a while and they're innovating they're coming up you know

they're using the new namespace tags helping advance podcasting even further

so once you have your file up on a host there's also something called an RSS

feed and I'm not gonna get super technical here but think of the RSS feed

as the broadcast tower for a radio station it tells it sends the information

out it tells your podcast app where to look for you know what tuning you know

where to tune in to find your podcast so it's essentially just a text file that

is XML and in there there's tags that explain on the show level what the show

name is what the show description is and also what the cover art is and and

things like that and then what it does is it also has an entry for every one of

your episodes and that has the title of your episode it has the description of

your episode it has the location of where the file is so when you your podcast

app looks and takes that XML file it knows exactly where to find that that

audio file and you're good to go now most podcast hosts will create or actually

all podcast hosts are gonna create that file for you so if you go to blueberry

or captivator or any other podcast hosts you upload your file you type in what

the title is you type in the description and hit publish and then that feed

updates and that's great you can also do what I do I do a little bit more advanced

I have my own website and I recommend you have your own website because if

anything happens whatever you people are gonna be able to come back to you to

your website you can do more like put on you know deals write blogs you can sell

things from your website where you can't do that with the website or a that

that the podcast host is gonna give you so most of them won't give you just a

simple website for the podcast but I suggest having your own website but for

me I actually use my website to create my RSS feed I host on blueberry are not

honest not blueberry I host on a different podcast host but I I then use

that link and just create my own RSS feed now what you may be thinking is do I

need to upload all of these things to like Spotify or or Apple podcast like

once I have my my file do I need to upload or tell those podcast apps where

that's at you do not need to load each episode up to each podcast app you know

whether it be Spotify or Apple podcast what you do is you take your RSS feed

and you submit it to them so that it's a directory you say hey Apple here is where

my RSS feed is at and then you take Spotify and you upload it to them so

that way when you're in the app you don't need to know where each location is

for you know the website which you may so think of it like your own you know your

favorite website you you know let's say you're gonna go to local cookie shop

calm and you could just type that in but instead of just typing that in because

you may not know what their website is what their web address is we use

something called a search engine and think of the directories kind of like a

search engine Apple has their own directory Spotify has their own directory

podcast index is a directory there's different directories that you can

basically tell you submit your podcast to them and and then tell it so that way

when I go to that directory like I look an Apple podcast I just search for

podcast answers and my my podcast app will be able to come up and know exactly

where it's at so just like kind of think of it like Google it does that now what

one of the things that you got you've just submit to a lot of different places

but a lot of apps are gonna either use one of two places so you know there's

lots of different podcast apps that you can you can listen to podcast on but a

lot of podcasts are gonna be pulling their directory from either Apple

podcast directory or podcast index so one of those two places is where it's

they're gonna pull from so you really you don't need to like submit to every

little app out there you can submit to a lot of the major directories and then

you will find it now in in one of the other important things about creating

your own podcast is having it really good audio quality I would suggest going

out and getting a simple mic you don't need anything super expensive you don't

need a big mixer board you can get something like a Samsung Q2 you and

then that plugs directly into your computer that or a sure MV7 microphone

those plug right into your computer the sure is one is gonna be a little more

expensive than the Samsung but you can start out with just that you record

into something like audacity audacity is a free program that you can edit into

you can record right into if you want to and record right into those podcast

apps and then I would say that's you know if you're gonna be in a large room

with lots of noise don't do that one of the best things that you can really do

is go into your closet especially if you're not doing video you can go into

your closet and record there amongst your clothes because that will help damp

dampen the sound so that's one of the best things that you can do so we've

covered here some of the basics of podcast look what a podcast is we're

gonna be building on top of this with lots of different advanced topics and

we are going to have we're going to be covering things that you ask about and

so we suggest that you would go ahead and put if you have any questions that

you want us to answer on the podcast we would suggest that you go to podcast

answers dot com slash contact because that will allow us to that will allow us

to answer your questions and be able to take care of any other questions that

you have for this podcast so with that guys one other thing that I want to tell

you is if you want to get you can this podcast is value for value enabled which

is a new something new that the podcast index is starting up which is allowing

you to write in your podcast app send small amounts of Bitcoin and so this

podcast is pot is value for value enabled and we're reading out some of the

people's boosted they're called boostograms if you boost us we'll be

reading out those donations and what you put in in in there so if you aren't

comfortable with crypto though you can still support our podcast with value for

value which is if you get any value out of this podcast returning that value to

us and you can go to podcast answers comm slash support and that will allow

you to that will allow you to go in and be able to join our buy me a coffee which

you can either become a monthly subscription or you can do a one-off

donation to us to help support this show help us get new either equipment and or

services to test out to help you become a better podcasters if you've enjoyed this

podcast please go ahead and do that and we are planning on we're planning on

releasing a new episode every week probably on Thursdays so if you look

for the new episode in your podcast app you will find it on Thursdays so without

that with guys we we appreciate you we hope to help you grow your podcast and

make your show a better sounding show so guys we look forward to seeing you next