Podcasting. You hear about it everywhere. What is it, and, more importantly, how can you get in on it?

Put simply, a podcast is simply a sound snippet (an interview, an opinion, a story) in digital audio form, to be downloaded and listened to later. Imagine your favorite radio show segment. If it's a podcast, you can not only download it to listen to on your computer, on your iPod, or on a CD, you can sign up to have new episodes automatically sent to you as they appear.

It's a bit like a magazine subscription...except it's free! The newsstand where you can check out the world of podcasts is Apple's iTunes Music Store: http://www.apple.com/itunes/st ore/podcasts.html
Picking and choosing the podcasts that interest you, you can easily program' your own radio station. Here's a link that will show you how to download and listen to podcasts. http://www.apple.com/ilife/tut orials/itunes/it5-1.html

Once you spend some time with podcasting, you'll find it's like a Tivo for the ears. But there's something even cooler. You can do this too! Anyone with a computer, a microphone, and an Internet connection can be podcasting in less than an hour.

Anyone can have the same access to a worldwide audience as anyone else in the media game. It's an amazingly level playing field. An audio and electronic village commons' where everyone can take a turn at the soapbox!

On iTunes, you'll see a continually updated listing of the top 10' podcasts. Notice who's on there...as of this morning some big media names, but three out of ten are independent indviduals like the Grammar Girl and NinjaCast. The range of subjects is as wide as the Internet itself.

Who's listening? More than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players
29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen at a time of their choosing. 9.2 million web users have downloaded a podcast within the last 30 days.

These people are generally educated, relatively affluent, technically savvy and skeptical of traditional media. All segments of great interest to marketers. Some podcasts have mini-commercials in them or are sponsored by an advertiser, who, in turn, can create a very targeted message for the podcast's audience...people who have made an active choice to listen, as opposed to just hearing traditional radio in the background.
Where do I start?
There are multiple routes to podcasting. I recommend:
1)A Mac with Apple's iLife 06 (Garage Band) There is also free (non-Apple) podcasting software called Audacity, but I have not personally used it.
2) .Mac subscription (You can put up a site and host your podcast here, plus you can watch great video tutorials on how to put together and launch a podcast.)
3) A microphone like the Blue Snowball or the Logitech Premium USB headset

If you have difficulty putting your podcast together, you might want to sign up for Apple's ProCare program, where you can get one-on-one tutorials (once a week if you like!) for just $99. When I was getting started and had to get a podcast up quickly, I spent an hour with one of the Apple Creatives and was up and running in.
Spend some time listening to podcasts to get a feel for how they're structured. Many are less than 10 minutes long, but some are hour-long, in-depth pieces. When creating a podcast, think like a radio producer: begin by identifying your podcast, make notes of what you'll cover, and create a standard close that you use for each episode.

Soon, you'll be an expert. Really-this technology has only been widely available for two years or so. That means everyone who gets into podcasting now is a pioneer!

Learn more about this author, Kate Yandoh.
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