Audio at Home

Before you get all excited about starting your podcast and go spend hundreds of dollars on equipment (we’ll discuss hardware/software budget in the next installment), you need to be sure that you actually have something to record. You might be geared up for your first couple of posts, but what comes after that? The last thing you want to do is spend loads of time and money getting your podcast going and then run out of steam after the first month.

Remember when you were in elementary school and the teacher would have you all go sit in front of the chalk (or white) board? She’d say, “When I say Christmas, what do you think of.” Okay, so I’m aging myself a bit because I don’t think you can really talk about Christmas in public schools anymore, but you could twenty years ago when I was in grade school.

So the teacher would ask about Christmas and you and your classmates (except the weird girl who still picked her nose in the third grade) would all wave your hands wildly, wanting to be picked first. The teacher would say that it was okay to just say your ideas aloud without being called on as long as you didn’t create pandemonium. The room would fill with tons of ideas (from angle to fruitcake) and the board would fill as well.

Ah, nostalgia. Anyway, your teacher told you then that brainstorming was a great way to get started with a project and I am going to tell you the same thing now. In this installment of Podcast Primer, I present seven ways to brainstorm possible episode topics for your podcast.

• Read Blogs/Listen to Podcasts - search for your niche topic on various engines and see what sort of results you get. Find out what questions and problems people have regarding your topic. You want to provide a unique solution for these problems/questions to gain attention and respect.
• Mind Map - Write down your main topic and then branch out to subtopics. From there, sub-subtopics and so on. Once you are done, you will have a whole list of episode ideas and some mini-outlines as well.
• Poll Your Audience - If you do not actually have a way to directly communicate with your target audience, you can judge their answers by what they are already reading and/or listening to. Find out where the visitors you want are visiting. Directories and search engines are great for this type of polling.
• Lists - Choose a specific amount of time during which you will freely write down anything that comes to your mind. If you are brainstorming alone, 10-15 minutes might be enough. If there are others involved, make sure you allot enough time for everyone to get his/her ideas out. This is traditional brainstorming at its purest. Do not stop to think, do not cross things out and never, ever criticize these ideas. You can decide they’re ridiculous later, but not during the allotted writing time.
• Stumble - Everyone loves Stumble-Upon for a reason: it is fun and useful. As long as you can stay on task (don’t get sucked into a new game or some random tech blog), this is a great tool for finding terrific ideas. This is related to reading blogs, but in this case you don’t necessarily have to stick to your niche. You can get ideas for your podcast from any type of site about any topic.
• Research - Get off the computer and out of the house. Head out to your nearest public library and do some research on your podcast topic or anything that might help you develop ideas. If your blog is high tech and your local library, like mine, is not too cutting edge, you might think there is nothing there to help you. I challenge you to try biographies of innovators, productivity guides and other business books. If nothing else, you can use the time to learn more about business.
• How To . . . For Dummies - Create a list of How To or For Dummies topics you could record. Above all, people will listen to your podcase to learn something new. What topics can you speak on fluently. By thinking in terms of a How To, you will come up with a bunch of ideas you would not have thought of otherwise.

If you can come up with 50 - 100 solid ideas for your podcast, then you are ready to go. Now you can move on and create your hardware/software budget. In the next installment, I will introduce you to some equipment and application choices for recording, editing and publishing your podcast.

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