Hey All,

Out of curiosity, and for those interested, I was wondering what the most popular question asked by new podcasters is. If you are a podcaster and new people joining the ranks ask you, or if you yourself asked these questions when you first started, or if you are new and have these questions, I am curious as to what they were/are...

What was the number one question you had when you started podcasting?

I'm late to this post and it's probably been abandoned but I figured what the hell. I think the most popular questions are:

1. What gear is everyone using. I think people constantly associate the quality of a podcast with the gear involved.

2. How do you promote your podcast and get listeners. Nobody likes talking to themselves.

3. How to record skype calls. With the Internet you can have guests coming on from anywhere and everywhere. Why not do a few interviews and guest spots right?

Just my 2 cents.

It's hard to say what the biggest question is, but promotion is one of the most common. The best approach is to find something that nobody is doing yet because if it's a known system then it's done to death and is no longer effective. You do want to be listed on iTunes, if just to make it easier for your listeners to subscribe, although you're just going to get buried behind the professional and more established podcasts. I found torrentcasting very effective, but that's not podcasting and those downloads don't show up in podcast stats.

Although community based promotion, such as promo exchanges, still works well but you really need to get your promo on a podcast that is already getting a decent amount of listeners and gets much the same audience that you would appeal to. Forum posting also works, although you really need to participate in those forums. And forums are everywhere with many forums loosing readers. And of course if you tried posting to too many at once then you'd appear to be a spammer. Even this forum is hardly what it was a couple years ago.

And of course you need to do a really great show to hold your listeners once they check it out. Or talk about Lost or Harry Potter.

There's a forum thread about equipment: http://www.podcastpickle.com/forums/index....showtopic=51784

The number 1 question: Do you like the show?

Feedback from listeners and peers was very important starting out. Feedback offered a sense of direction from the audience, acceptance, and encouragement to keep going.

I hear a lot of "What is an RSS feed?"

Questions about equipment and feedback were big on my list. I also struggled with a format. That was helped by listening to several shows and determining what I did and did not like. I hated hearing that first episode of every new podcast: "This is the format. I will do this for 3 minutes and then talk about that for a bit. I will put some music in here and then blab away a few minutes more before closing like this." Don't tell me about your show: give me a show. I want to hear it, not hear about it.

By listening to a bunch of shows, I got my questions about format answered. When I finally heard the format that I liked (the old Endurance Planet with Tim Burquin) it was an 'ah-ha' moment for me. I can still clearly remember exactly where I was when that took place. By the time I finished my morning run that day I had the format nailed down to exactly how I am doing the show 2.5 years later. I am talking about Missionary Talks, not the one that has no format, My Thought Spot.

Format was the biggest question I had.

A common one i have see (and have myself) is how do you record all audio?

mic, and whatever would normally be playing through your speakers. (IE, you record, record skype, and record anything you might be doing with winamp or other music player or sound board)

One common question that is fortunately less common than it used to be is "How do I make money podcasting?" My answer to that is to first come out with 100 episodes and then look for a funding source. By then you'll have experience, a reputation, and a lot of contacts.

I think that there's a growing realization that podcasts aren't a great way to make money directly. You really need a large audience and as the competition from both professional and amateur sources grows that's increasingly hard to get. (It's not so much the number of episodes as the size of audience.) However, they are still a good cheap form of advertizing so it does makes sense to do a podcast to promote your product.

Good question. My experience:
+ Where to be hosted.
+ Should I transition to a "real" website?
+ The RSS thing
+ Getting onto iTunes (still trying to get my "description" filled in right)
+ Have yet to master the phone interview (need to spend a day with Skype)

The question i had was what the hell is a RSS feed. LOL

Lol, thanks for the questions guys. I seem to have gotten majorly sidetracked, but I appreciate them nonetheless.

Don't worry, I'll get around to answering them, and I will keep you posted.

How long does it take to get a new podcast to show up in the "New Podcast" section?

Well, I've just started up and at the moment my biggest questions are 'What are the copyrighting issues with playing music on a podcast' and 'How can you record over skype'.

I've just started myself, and the way I'm recording my Skype call for podcasting is using PowerGramo. It's really easy to use, but I'm not really sure it's the best option. It's working for me right now. The concerns I have about it is the quality of the recording. I'm getting some echo's from the remote caller. I'm not sure if it's PowerGramo or Skype that is causing it.