Choo Choo everyone,
I've wanted to start my own show for a while, but life got in the way. Most of you know I had to move way north of home for my awesome wife and family, and I've gone from owning a swanky town home in the city to a horse farm in the middle of nowhere. But now that's done and I have so much more free time and space, I think it's time to begin the madness of my own podcast.
I'm doing a variety show where I try to share my manly knowledge with the geek boys of the world who know are geek man. manly topics like how to fake driving a stick, or getting a geek girl to drive yours for you... Huh huh.... You know. And of course do reviews and news, email bag, and generally insane rants and true stories. Cause all my story's are true, just ask bobby blackwolf.
I have no production talents at all. I don't know how to make cool little sounds bites for between parts, or how to set up a mic properly, or even what software to use. I've tried teaming up with other podcasts before, but RPgrinders was a huge failure so I told them to fuck off. But meaner and with more cussing
anyone know anything they want to tell me? Maybe some software or something I could look up online that works? I'm hoping to send Rob and Bob something this weekend to sample.
Thanks, I'm going to go play phantasy Star and make out with my wife.
Xo, Js

Well, for software, there's Audacity for recording and mixing stuff. And it's free.
There's also Adobe Audition, which is probably better, but it costs money too.

Other than that, I don't know that much about podcasting, but I would also like to know how (mics and other technical stuff, like podcast hosting).

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"I LOVE THAT SONG" - Now on the VOG Network!
Current ILTS article - Working by Evan LE NY from Spacechem

I'm probably not the person to answer this question. But my advice is to just try it. I'm sure there are ppl here at vog that would listen to you ramble on for at least a few eps. And you might come across more answers by just doing.

I attempted to make a podcast at one point... basically just having a mic during dnd sessions. Wich turned out to be quite an endeavor when it came to editing.

Get Audacity (Google search and you will end up with like 5 different dl links) and jsut get a small mic... try it and see if you like the process... it wouldn't take much to make a little opener theme (just vocalize yourself: hoppin on the jim sally train! choo chooo!). Heck mabie one of the vog'ers would be so nice as to make one for you... after they hear an eps or two. Just try not to get overwhelmed with several hour long shows and huge segments to fill...

You keep hearing bobby and rob saying that podcasting is a labor of love... now just find out if you love it... You do have a small fanbase... id listen.

Can I just say first off, shaking and C R Y I N G at the potential of JimSally having his own show??? I'm clearing space on my iPhone already.

Okay, but getting there to your first and second episodes will be a challenge.

There's two perspectives to consider:

From a content perspective:

Great advice was already given by Bochikawa. Jump in there and do it. However, before you jump in any swimming pool, there's always a few preparations you make (sunblock, floaty things on your hands maybe, don't eat 30 minutes before). Podcasting is no different:

1. What is your show?

Even if you decide your show is "Me on a mic rambling", what are you going to ramble about? What is the point of your show? Will you tell one funny story a week? Tell a funny story then review a movie from Netflix? Play a game and give your impressions? Have a guest on that you B.S. with? Same guest every week or rotating guest? Recorded in the same room or over Skype? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CREATE? Figure this out before you press record. It will bring a massive amount of structure to your show. Some shows like OLR use showrolls which bring a little bit of structure to the show. Here's where Loki will talk about Xbox One, here's where Jamie will read e-mails, etc. I think a tiny bit of structure is a good thing if there will be more than just you. If it's just you, be at least prepared as someone who would give a speech would be prepared... index card with bullet points.

2. Commit yourself to a regular recording schedule no matter what

This is a made up statistic, but 9 out of 10 podcasts flop because the hosts start making excuses to not want to do it anymore when the creative spark isn't striking them. Therefore I say make a habit. Will you tape every week? Will you tape every other week? Will you tape five shows on a Saturday once a month? No matter what you choose, mark it on your calendar and commit to your schedule for three months NO MATTER WHAT. When you start making excuses to cancel shows early on, you're losing your passion and therefore doomed. Real talk. Now obviously realy stuff might happen like someone's in the hospital or whatver and if you have to cancel for that then fine, but schedule a makeup time. Be your own horrible nightmare boss when it comes to being punctual to your own show.

3. Realize that if your first show has only two listeners, you are still a success

No one gets famous overnight. If you are podcasting to be famous, just stop right now and don't bother cluttering up the iTunes store with your narcisstic bullshit. If you have passion and dedication though, that is what builds loyal listeners who will help spread the word about the show. Passion is contagious. Think of it, you are about to create a permanent record of an aspect your life in one way or another that will outlive you. I'm not saying this to scare you, I'm saying this to say "Holy shit this is a great reason to do this for myself!"

Do not rely on e-mails and listener feedback to carry you from show to show week to week. You have to earn those e-mails and feedback thru your dedication. If you are not an established film or television star getting into the podcasting world and believe you will be flooded with e-mails right out the gate, you and your ego are in for a surprise.

From a technical perspective:

1. Get a microphone

Do you play online MMO's? You probably already have a half decent one. The cheaper the mic, the cheaper it's going to sound. If you want your show to sound professional, you're going to have to invest in a professional mic. The good news is that honestly, you can get a really decent mic for $40 at radio shack. Get the kind that looks like it belongs on a mic stand at a rock concert. Not the kind that looks like it belongs on a childs boombox because guess what- the one that looks like it belongs on a childs boombox will have child boombox quality. If it's just you, you don't really need a mixing board or any of that shit. A lot of people who skype their shows use headsets to record, which works too. If you listen to yourself and it sounds fine then go for it.

2. Get Audicity or Adobe Audition or Garageband (mac or iPad)

It's hard for me to give a lot of advice because I don't know what audio editing software you will pick, but honestly, it's not even as scary as it looks. All the waveforms are are visual representations of the word you are saying. Deleting, copying, pasting and stitching waveforms together is just as easy as it is in a Microsoft Word document once you get used to it. You might be overwhelmed with all the options for quality. OLR and Horde House publish in 64kbps, 44khz, Mono format. Youtube has an abundance of tutorials for any audio editing program you can think of- go ye forth and watch.

I don't even really edit "my" shows as much as you might think. Again this is something you will have to decide. Do you want your show to have the "live" feel (OLR), or would your show benefit if you clean up the parts where you aren't speaking for a bit (Bobby). There's really no right or wrong answer, it's what you want.

3. LISTEN TO YOUR OWN FUCKING SHOW

If you can't bear to listen to your own show then how in the fuck will you be able to ask other people to listen to it. Your own worst and most honest critic will be yourself. If you think your mic quality sounds like shit then you know what you are probably right. Now even though I say this, don't be toooooo hard on yourself. Did you say too many "ums" or "ahs" or do your P's pop too much on the mic? Don't freak the fuck out and throw your whole show out because of it, just make a note of it for next time. Find one thing in every show you want to do better the next time and guess what... because you committed to 3 months of recording, you're going to have a pretty sweet show by the time you get thru it. See what I did there? I put you on a path to success. <3

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I realized I left out the part about hosting/RSS setup. Oops! Well you know, without proper .mp3s to host, there's no reason to even consider this step, and I honestly would say don't worry too much about this part until you've actually recorded your show.

Here's where you might run into some financial committments, but it really shouldn't be too bad. Can you go without 2 frappuchinos a month? One less video game? You can affoard it.

I know Libsyn is an extremely popular option for podcast hosting/feeds. I haven't used them myself so I can't endorse one way or another, but my friends that use it seem pretty happy with it. If you need someone to just do all the work for you-- look into it.



But maybe you want a more personal/custom/potentially cheaper option and you just wanna get your hands dirty. Let's talk about two custom built podcast feeds I know well- OLR and Horde House

OLR was a completley custom RSS feed built by VxJasonxV with I believe a few tweaks by Deekman when he set up Joomla on the OLR website. Remember OLR existed before podcasting was even in iTunes. It was harder to do back then and custom solutions were sometimes the only real option. I'm going to be honest. These two did all the work for me, so I can't tell you much on the specifics. I owe them greatly for it.

Really though, both OLR and Horde House are set up via custom RSS feeds. That's all a podcast is you know-- an RSS feed with Audio Attachments.

Wordpress does RSS feeds easy. So if you can set up a Wordpress blog, BAM you have a podcast feed. Horde House is kindly hosted on a Wordpress frame built and hosted by Brad from Podculture. But for about the first 15 episodes before Brad offered to help, I had it set up on blogspot.com which is google's free blogging service. Now when you try to promote and get your feed out there, iTunes is sort of an "industry standard" for what your feed should look like. Google's Feedburner does this very well, and it's what I use on Horde House. It converts the Wordpress feed into a "Ready to submit to iTunes and Stitcher" feed, and allows you to track statistics even, so you can kermit flail when you see you've gone from 10 listeners of your 2nd show to 12 listeners of your 3rd.

So lets recap how I did that for very low cost:

1. I set up a new blog on google's blogspot
2. I would write the description for the show as the blog post and "attach" the Show MP3 as a link
3. I set up Feedburner to use this blogspot to convert to an iTunes friendly feed
4. ???
5. PROFIT

So the only thing that's left for you to figure out is that part in step 2. Where do you upload the MP3? Welp, there's about 5,000 different web hosting options out there where you can dump MP3s via FTP. GoDaddy? DreamHost? There's tons of options. Just be mindful of any bandwidth limits, you don't want to wake up to a rude awakening if one of your shows "goes viral" which although I said don't expect that to happen, it very well might.

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Not gonna lie I would tune into this.

I did have some experience with Audacity putting the two best-ofs for OLR together, it's a good program once you get the hang of it.

I wish I could be more help on the technical side, buuuut I'll settle for "moral support" and anxiously awaiting the first episode.

Best of luck launching a new show!!! XD

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OLRmy since 6/23/2002!
OLR Wikia | OLRChive (now with Vanilla skie episodes!) | OLR: Best Hits Volume 1 (highlights from our first 30 episodes) out now! | OLR: Best Hits Vol. 2

Thanks for the tips everyone. And the advice. I've taken everything rob had to say about content and decided he's right, I need a show roll to keep my on track, we don't want the Sally Express to go off the rails..... Do we?
I just get worried I'm not video gamey or geeky enough for VOG, the topics and thing I want to discuss are maybe to much about me. One of the segments I'm making is comparing audio tapes of me, talking about my life to someone, for about 30 mins, while buying bananas. But like rob said, JimSally Makes a show roll, and if JimSally want to talk about banana, then we talk about banana.
Rob, if I email you my banana show will you play it at the end of OLR sometime? Like a teaser for what's coming soon.....
Choo Choo babies

Cuz if it's much like OLR, it'll go off the rails a bit anyway

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The OLRchive - now with more Guys on a Show! Also, 14 episodes of Vanilla Skie, the one that started it for me :3

We have too many shows about video games on VOG anyway. Don't worry about that!

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Bobby Blackwolf
Co-Founder, Editor in Chief: Technical
Host - The Bobby Blackwolf Show
LIVE Sundays 8PM ET/5PM PT