Considering a podcast to get your brand or company message out? Don't start without this thorough guide to the art and science of podcasting.

Whenever I approach a new online technology I try to factor in the same kind of considerations that I use when making home repairs.

1. No matter how straight-forward the project seems, there will be something that prevents it from being finished on time
2. Enthusiasm isn't a good substitute for planning
3. Sometimes it's more cost effective to hire a professional to do the job

I bring this up because I doubt I am alone in my optimistic perspective when it comes to estimating the amount of time required to integrate a new type of marketing technology or get the guest room painted.

I recently set out to learn all that I could about the how's and why's of podcasting with an eye on how online marketers can use this technology to reach prospective customers. While an understanding of the technology and how it can be applied can be fully understood in seconds, implementing a podcast requires a lot more than meets the eye.

Today I would like to share with you what I've learned during my brief foray, so that you can benefit from my sweat and often distracted thinking. First, let's cover the basics:

• A podcast is an audio file that can be shared with others. Podcast topics cover a wide range from targeted interest talk shows to independent music feeds to monologues. These programs are recorded by "broadcasters" and placed on servers where they can be accessed by "subscribers."
• Podcasts that have been subscribed to are automatically updated to that consumer's computer or MP3 player when new content is made available. This is done using RSS feed links and encoding.
• In only 87 steps you too can start a Podcast of your own.

Well perhaps it's easier than that but the truth is that there are a number of steps required to get a podcast up and running if you're starting from scratch. Perhaps most important is the creation of the podcast recording itself.

Setting up a quick and cheap recording studio

At the barebones level a microphone attached to the soundcard of your computer will allow you to record audio. Using professional sound recording software can give you more options in creating a quality file. I recommend Audacity which stands out as being of good quality, available for both Mac and PC formats (and Linux) and free!

Audacity is a simple audio mixing programming that offers a handful of audio effects and multiple tracks. It's worth checking out.

You may also need to invest in a quality microphone. Audio recording, like most multimedia projects, is generally a case of Garbage In/Garbage Out (GIGO). If you use sub par materials you will often get sub par results. For as little as $20 you can get your hands on a solid condenser microphone/headphone combination at RadioShack that will most certainly be better than the microphone shipped with your computer.

Because most podcasts are not professionally produced, basement offices and guest bedrooms are often the recording environment of choice. Ambient noise is always a problem but with consideration to time of day and use of noise canceling filters in the recording software you can bring the quality of the recording up.

I'll also mention that coming up with an entertaining format for your show is a huge plus. While a monologue format will get your main points across having a standardized 'show' format (think musical intros and information segments) will make broadcasts more appealing and easier to update.

Postproduction considerations

Audio files are generally large. While there are ways to select lower sample rates and compression algorithms that will bring file sizes down, the amount of data being collected for every minute of a broadcast is still sizable. The final file size may not amount to a great deal as far as storage on your hard drive is concerned but the larger the final file, the more data throughput it will require from your server.