A screenshot of the information on Podcast #1 recorded July 24, 2016.
When I started freelance writing full-time in September 2016 I had already recorded and uploaded a half dozen podcasts. It was something I had no intentions of getting into simply because I didn’t think I could afford the equipment I thought I needed. Sure, I had a fairly decent Mac computer I could record directly to if I wanted and plenty of desktop tools to use for editing but that did not appeal to me one little bit.
The thought of editing a five minute piece of audio sort of scared me. It had nothing to do with anything other than memories that kept flooding back from my old radio days. That was back before digital recording and time spent in an editing studio meant a lot of reel-to-reel tape, a razor blade and splicing tape. Sure, I could do it but did I really want to put that much effort into editing my own project material?
Okay, let me explain that as much of a perfectionist I am, one thing I do not do is spend more time than necessary in editing. If you looked at any of my numerous videos and video interviews you may think there is some kind of polish to them but I call myself a ‘one-take video interviewer’ for a good reason – I record everything once and as long as there are no extremely blaring errors contained within I will use the raw footage. I will not edit anything if I don’t have to.
My desire to get things right the first time actually forced me to hone my adlibbing skills, my interviewing skills and any other skill that may have crept into any of my productions. But when it came to recording podcasts I was entering a different world. I was not so sure I wanted to cut a whole lot of video of me talking about whatever was on my mind. Even if the technology was now digital as opposed to analog in the old days.
I had been a subscriber of a few different podcasts long before I started doing it. Even then I didn’t see it as my calling. I remember one program outlining all the equipment they were using and the effort that went into their slick production of three 5-minute podcasts per week. I just could not see myself going anywhere near there – even though I had one person prodding me to do them and knowing myself that the audio part would be fairly easy due to my ‘radio voice’ and adlibbing skills.
Then one day the light bulb went on. We already had a small handheld audio recording device on the house and I didn’t have to produce a podcast that had both audio and video. After that realization I decided it was worth looking into a little further. I quickly discovered I did not need a fancy studio or sound booth. I did need a podcast host, though. Think of a podcast host as the same thing a website host does but the file format is different.
I located one that was affordable and offered enough monthly storage that I thought there was maybe something to this podcast idea after all. Then I started to consider the content I would record and frequency. I thought weekly would be often enough and once I developed a routine, it would be easy to zip off a podcast one morning a week. The content took a little longer to come up with and I eventually decided to provide simple life hack-style tips with a Top 5 List in each episode.
Then I was on my way. Notes for each podcast are sparse with mostly a couple of points I want to make and the Top 5 List. All the rest of each podcast I adlib completely keeping within the framework of the weekly content. I have consistently produced 10 to 15-minute podcasts with some going a little longer. What has taken the longest to develop is the following. However, in the past month the podcast download stats have taken a spike and I can see between 50 and 100 direct downloads a week. I have no idea if that is good or bad.
To find my podcasts just visit my Podcast Channel “Ninja On The Loose.” The podcasts appear in several online podcast directories and will pop up when you search for them by the Podcast Channel name. Another way to find them is to go directly to the podcast hosting site at www.looseink.podbean.com and look through the archives of all (at this point) 33 podcasts that are there. I figure I’ll keep doing them until I run out of ideas and so far, so good.
The thought of editing a five minute piece of audio sort of scared me. It had nothing to do with anything other than memories that kept flooding back from my old radio days. That was back before digital recording and time spent in an editing studio meant a lot of reel-to-reel tape, a razor blade and splicing tape. Sure, I could do it but did I really want to put that much effort into editing my own project material?
Okay, let me explain that as much of a perfectionist I am, one thing I do not do is spend more time than necessary in editing. If you looked at any of my numerous videos and video interviews you may think there is some kind of polish to them but I call myself a ‘one-take video interviewer’ for a good reason – I record everything once and as long as there are no extremely blaring errors contained within I will use the raw footage. I will not edit anything if I don’t have to.
My desire to get things right the first time actually forced me to hone my adlibbing skills, my interviewing skills and any other skill that may have crept into any of my productions. But when it came to recording podcasts I was entering a different world. I was not so sure I wanted to cut a whole lot of video of me talking about whatever was on my mind. Even if the technology was now digital as opposed to analog in the old days.
I had been a subscriber of a few different podcasts long before I started doing it. Even then I didn’t see it as my calling. I remember one program outlining all the equipment they were using and the effort that went into their slick production of three 5-minute podcasts per week. I just could not see myself going anywhere near there – even though I had one person prodding me to do them and knowing myself that the audio part would be fairly easy due to my ‘radio voice’ and adlibbing skills.
Then one day the light bulb went on. We already had a small handheld audio recording device on the house and I didn’t have to produce a podcast that had both audio and video. After that realization I decided it was worth looking into a little further. I quickly discovered I did not need a fancy studio or sound booth. I did need a podcast host, though. Think of a podcast host as the same thing a website host does but the file format is different.
I located one that was affordable and offered enough monthly storage that I thought there was maybe something to this podcast idea after all. Then I started to consider the content I would record and frequency. I thought weekly would be often enough and once I developed a routine, it would be easy to zip off a podcast one morning a week. The content took a little longer to come up with and I eventually decided to provide simple life hack-style tips with a Top 5 List in each episode.
Then I was on my way. Notes for each podcast are sparse with mostly a couple of points I want to make and the Top 5 List. All the rest of each podcast I adlib completely keeping within the framework of the weekly content. I have consistently produced 10 to 15-minute podcasts with some going a little longer. What has taken the longest to develop is the following. However, in the past month the podcast download stats have taken a spike and I can see between 50 and 100 direct downloads a week. I have no idea if that is good or bad.
To find my podcasts just visit my Podcast Channel “Ninja On The Loose.” The podcasts appear in several online podcast directories and will pop up when you search for them by the Podcast Channel name. Another way to find them is to go directly to the podcast hosting site at www.looseink.podbean.com and look through the archives of all (at this point) 33 podcasts that are there. I figure I’ll keep doing them until I run out of ideas and so far, so good.
RSS Feed
