Are you listening to podcasts? Have you thought about starting a podcast?

Here are some simple steps to recording and launching a podcast.

1. What’s it all about? – First things first. You need to decide on a theme/subject for your show. Sure, you can just turn on the microphone, and start rambling, but you’re not going to get many repeat visitors if you’re offering a scattered, unfocused podcast. Finally, if you’re starting a podcast to help promote your business, don’t just talk about yourself! For example, if you’re a realtor, record a podcast about the 3 Steps To Buying Your First House.

2. Equipment – An inexpensive USB, headset microphone will work perfectly in the beginning. Once you’ve recorded a few episodes, and you know that podcasting is for you, then you can upgrade to a more expensive microphone to get a better sound.

3. Software – Again, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. If you’re a Mac person, you can easily record and edit your podcast via Garageband. If you’re on a PC, Audacity is probably the most popular software for recording and editing podcasts, and it’s free.

4. Hosting – This is the issue that I had a hard time understanding initially when I started a podcast. If you’re small business, and you don’t have unlimited bandwidth, you need to find a host for the actual Mp3 files of your podcast episodes. Why? Every time someone downloads your Mp3 file, you’re using a sizable chunk of your web hosting bandwidth. If 50 people download your podcast, then multiply that one download fifty times.

Don’t worry though. There are several, low-cost hosts for your podcast. I recommend Libsyn. Their basic plan is cheap – $5 per month, your bandwidth is virtually unlimited, and Libsyn currently hosts tons of podcasts, including many well-known, heavily trafficked podcasts such as Grammar Girl. Once you finish recording and editing each podcast episode, you sign in to your Libsyn account and upload the file to Libsyn.

5. Blog/website – Again, you can do this for very little money. You can start a blog at Google’s Blogger or Wordpress.com. After you create your blog, you can write a Post announcing the first episode of your podcast, including a link to the MP3 file hosted at Libsyn. Note - this is something that confused and frustrated me initially, if you register your podcast with iTunes (so that it will show up in the iTunes podcast store), iTunes will use the title of your blog post for the title of your podcast episode. So, if you want the title of your podcast to be “Episode 1 of the Exciting Podcast,” then you need to title your blog post exactly that, “Episode 1 of the Exciting Podcast.”

6. iTunes – it’s easy to register your podcast with iTunes. The first time you submit your podcast to iTunes it will take 2-3 days for them to review your podcast and add it to the iTunes store.

7. RSS Feed – I recommend that you use Feedburner for your podcast’s RSS feed. Feedburner offers you lots of great stats about your podcast feed.

I look forward to hearing your podcast.

Photo by Duchamp on Flickr.

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In case you missed #etsyday on Friday, Geoffrey Fowler explains on the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog. Etsy is an online marketplace for artists to sell their wares. Susan Schumann, an etsy user who sells her photos, decided to start her own grassroots campaign to increase awareness. She encouraged people to Twitter about etsy and to post fliers in their car windows or local coffee shops that read “Did you Etsy today?”

Keep in mind, Schumann took on this campaign herself. She has no connections with Etsy. She simply wanted to organize a one-day event to try and get the word out about a site and service that means a lot to her. (If you’re in doubt about Etsy’s faithful, buoyant fans, check out the comments on the WSJ.com story. I quickly scanned more than 60 comments and could find only one negative comment buried amidst positive raves from Etsy fans).

Again, Twitter proved its viral nature as #etsyday reached the top of Twitter discussions for Friday.

Numerous companies are trying to figure out how Twitter will fit in with their digital marketing efforts. However, before companies try to figure out how to replicate an #etsyday of their own, they should stop and study #etsyday. Schumann was so passionate about the service that etsy offers, she started the campaign herself.

Are your customers so passionate about your product or service that they want to tell thousands of their family and friend and strangers? If not, before you try to manufacture a Twitter or grassroots digital buzz, maybe you should think about what steps you could take to create a product that customers not only use – but love.

If you’re a B2B company with a product or service that people depend on, but don’t necessarily love, what can you do to fan the digital flames of a grassroots movement? One possibility is creating a definitive resource for your customers – and potential customers – to learn about industry news, trends, and issues (even – gasp! – if that news doesn’t include mention of your product or service). If a B2B company worked long-and-hard to build a vendor-neutral clearinghouse of industry facts, figures, and news, I’d bet money that someone in their industry would Twitter about using the resource.

B2C or B2B, what can you do to create an etsy passion with your customers?

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Josh Bernoff, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, a book that I highly recommend, recently wrote a column for Advertising Age about how the term “media” in social media is tripping up many marketers and business executives who often associate media with being a one-way communication channel.

I thought Josh’s column was interesting, but what really surprised me was the vitriolic comments blasting social media as a fad and navel gazing. Here are a few selections:

– I want to tell you a story but social media doesn’t allow me much space so I have to go. bye! Wait, how “social” is that? In ten years I see a new industry that will teach people how to communicate.

- Tweeting, texting, blogging but never actually speaking to anybody. Maybe “social” needs to be replaced with “anti-social” as well.

- What is the perverse attraction of the Internet? Why do advertising and marketing people insist in discussing aspects of the Internet endlessly? Because it is all totally meaningless!

And, my absolute favorite:

- Do any of you people work for a living? Whatever you want to call it, this “social” thing is part narcissism, part anonymous communication (which is very much anti-social) and part work avoidance. No wonder why the economy is horrible, so many people are “socializing” at the big internet water-cooler and nobody is working.

Admittedly, Twitter has exploded into the media spotlight within the past 4 weeks or so, beyond any web app or technology in recent memory. Last Friday, of course, Oprah discussed Twitter on her show and launched her own Twitter account. Then, this week, on Wednesday, Twitter was mentioned in three separate New York Times stories in the same day:

In the Dining section, a woman in N. Ireland who tweets recipes.

Also from Dining, the restaurant critic from the Daily News is suing a guy who is pretending to be her on Twitter.

And, finally, Maureen Dowd interviewed Biz Stone and Evan Williams, the co-founders of Twitter.

In the glare of media overexposure, it’s interesting to see the antipathy of the Advertising Age commenters. And, they’re not alone either, I’ve seen other comments comparing Twitter users to fat guys sitting in their parents basement Twittering in between dungeon runs in World of Warcraft. And, finally, there are many people who use the oft-repeated example, “Why the f*ck should I care what you’re eating.”

That misconstrued perception of Twitter simply isn’t true. Initial tweets about meals and minutiae have fallen away to reveal powerful discussions and information exchanges (yes, 140 characters long).

I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t get Twitter at first. I glanced at the site, followed a few people, posted a tweet or two, but then didn’t really follow up. Now, I firmly believe that that first opinion had to do with the Twitter User Interface itself. Now, that I use a variety of Twitter desktop clients – Tweetie for Mac, Nambu or Tweetdeck – the power of Twitter revealed itself.

People can scoff or lash out at Twitter, but they may as well stick their finger in a dike and try to stop the evolution of communication technologies. Ever since Thomas Edison set up his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and even before that with Leonardo Da Vinci’s many inventions, the progress of technology has marched forward unstopped.

Twitter, or some variant, will be with us for a long time to come. Instead of sending mass emails, then managing the chaotic back-and-forth email conversation, Twitter allows people to carry on discussions and conversations with a wide variety of friends and acquaintances, and manage that information flow in whatever style suits you.

And, the stereotype of someone Twittering their every thought and action during the day will eventually dwindle as well. Plenty of people dip in and out of Twitter for short periods of time throughout the time and join the conversation. Then, at the end of the day, they turn off their machines, and converse and break bread with friends or family members, in normal, well-adjusted conversations. And, many of those people will probably mention ideas or news that they were exposed to via Twitter.

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If you’re curious why I’m posting these, check out my explanation.

It’s Friday afternoon, it’s five o’clock somewhere, and it’s time for some more country music lyrics.

Summertime by Kenny Chesney

Summertime is finally here
That old ballpark, man, is back in gear
Out on 49
Man I can see the lights

School’s out and the nights roll in
Man, just like a long lost friend
You ain’t seen in a while
And can’t help but smile

And it’s two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio
Sing along ’cause it’s one we know
It’s a smile, it’s a kiss
It’s a sip of wine, it’s summertime
Sweet summertime

Temperature says 93
Down at the Deposit and Guarantee
But that swimmin’ hole
It’s nice and cold

Bikini bottoms underneath
But the boys’ hearts still skip a beat
When them girls shimmy off
Them old cutoffs

And it’s two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio
Sing along ’cause it’s one we know
It’s a smile, it’s a kiss
It’s a sip of wine, it’s summertime
Sweet summertime

The more things change
The more they stay the same
Don’t matter how old you are
When you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout
Yeah baby when you got

Two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle rollin’ on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio
Sing along ’cause it’s one we know
It’s a smile, it’s a kiss
It’s a sip of wine, it’s summertime
Sweet summertime

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If you’re curious why I’m posting these, check out my explanation.

It’s Friday afternoon, it’s five o’clock somewhere, and it’s time for some more country music lyrics.

Chiseled in Stone by Vern Gosdin.

You ran cryin’ to the bedroom
I ran off to the bar,
Another piece of heaven gone to hell,
the words we spoke in anger
just tore my world apart,
And I sat there feeling sorry for myself.

Then that old man sat down beside me
and looked me in the eye,
and said “Son, I know what you’re going through,
You ought to get down on your knees
and thank your lucky stars that you got someone to go home to.”

(Chorus)
You don’t know about lonely,
Or how long nights can be,
Till you lived through the story
That’s still livin’ in me,
And you don’t know about sadness
’til you faced life alone,
You don’t know about lonely
’til it’s chiseled in stone.

So I brought these pretty flowers
hoping you would understand
sometimes a man is such a fool,
Those golden words of wisdom
from the heart of that old man,
showed me I ain’t nothing without you.

You don’t know about lonely,
Or how long nights can be,
Till you lived through the story
that old man just told me,
And you don’t know about sadness
’til you faced life alone,
You don’t know about lonely
’til it’s chiseled in stone.
You don’t know about lonely,
’til it’s chiseled in stone.

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Is True/Slant the Future of Journalism? I doubt it. But, at this point, if anyone says they know what the future of journalism is, I certainly don’t believe them.

There are a lot of digital journalism experiments – True/Slant, Outside.in, Placeblogger, etc – being thrown at the wall right now, and who knows what’s going to stick? I sure don’t. Though, I do think that advertising-funded, publicly traded newspaper companies (i.e. The New York Times) are going to have a tremendously difficult road ahead. In fact, if they don’t diversify beyond newspapers, I will guarantee that they’ll have to either go private, so that they’re not buffeted by market demands for X% increase every quarter and every year, or else they’ll transform into non-profit organizations with endowments.

But enough about newspapers, what about True/Slant? Walt Mossberg wrote about True/Slant this morning in his Personal Technology column in the Wall Street Journal.

In Mossberg’s words, “It covers a wide range of topics, such as politics, culture, sports, business, health, science and food. It is launching with 65 journalists, or “knowledge experts,” assigned to specific topics. Each of these contributors gets a page to house their journalism and, it is hoped, an active social network of followers who will regularly discuss the articles they read there.”

For someone so conversant with technology, I’m surprised that Mossberg didn’t point out the similarity between True/Slant and About.com. Sure, for True/Slant, the “knowledge experts” will be published journalists, but they’re curating, finding, selecting news, just like the About.com guides do.

It’s certainly a laudable idea and effort, but will they be able to drive enough traffic, attract enough eyeballs to make money from digital advertising? The realist in me says, “That’s going to be awfully hard to do.”

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