What is a Podcast and How to Make One?

Podcasts, which have been very popular abroad for 15-20 years, have become something that we have heard quite often and spread rapidly in our country in the last 3-4 years. However, there are valuable people in Turkey who have been recording podcasts for much longer. Originally designed to be listened to on iPods, podcasts can now be listened to on many different platforms. We can define podcasts as radio programs that you can listen to whenever you want in the shortest and easiest way and that you can easily access. However, podcast programs usually develop around a specific topic.

Podcasts have no speaker limit. While one person can record a podcast on their own, there are also podcasts that take the form of interviews or panel discussions. You can do a program with the same people or you can have different guests every week. Another important element for your podcast, which you can continue with any concept you want, is the topic. Podcasts usually revolve around a specific topic. These should be topics that people will be interested in when they listen to you. In order for your podcast to generate a financial income, it is important that it is listened to a lot.

How to Make a Podcast?

As mentioned above, it is most important to decide on the concept and topic before recording a podcast. Once you have found a topic that you believe many people will be interested in and listen to on a regular basis, the rest is technical, but there is no need to worry, these details are easy to learn.

Once you have found a good topic and decided to record a podcast, you will need some equipment if you are going to record it yourself at home. This equipment will be shaped according to your needs because it depends on your budget, the quality you are looking for and your target audience. You can start by buying relatively inexpensive equipment to test yourself and see how things go. If you want to test the waters, you can even rent the equipment for a while, depending on how often you record podcasts and how many episodes you have accumulated.

What Equipment Do You Need to Record a Podcast?

A budget of 1000 TL may be enough for beginner podcast equipment, but if you want to start this business with quality, it would be better to allocate a budget in the range of 3000-5000 TL.

Microphone

No matter what kind of podcast you want to record, the first and most essential item you need to buy is a microphone. It is important to have a good microphone to deliver clear, smooth and high quality sound. At this point you will need to choose one of two types of microphone. These are Analog and digital microphone types.

Analog microphones, like most things, are better in terms of sound quality, but they can be larger and a bit more difficult to use. However, digital models, i.e. models with USB connection, also stand out with their ease of use.

Static background noise during recording, delays when listening to the broadcast with headphones, difficulties in using multiple microphones, and quality concerns all favor analog microphones over digital models. In USB-connected models, such problems are significantly reduced as the price increases.

POP Filter: The POP filter is not a must for recording podcasts. But if you intend to record some professional podcasts, and you want to get maximum return, you should use a POP filter. This will not only prolong the life of your microphone, but by using a filter you will also avoid sound bursts during a conversation.

Sound Card or Mixer

If you choose an analog microphone, you will need a sound card. To connect your analog microphone to your computer, you need a sound card or mixer. Sound cards can provide better quality results in this regard. If you prefer a mixer, it can make a big difference whether the model you buy has a digital sound card or is fully analog.

Headset

You may also need a good headset to measure the quality of your own broadcast. Even if you have a good microphone, if you don’t have a good headset, you will still not be able to hear the real quality of your own broadcast. For this reason, buying a headset with good sound quality is also very important for you to understand the quality of the broadcast.

While your headphones may be a compromise in the early stages, if you have an ongoing podcast, you can improve the quality of your podcast by getting good headphones as soon as possible.

Microphone Handle

You may need to buy a microphone holder or microphone arm so that your microphone doesn’t vibrate and the sound quality is as good as possible. This is a step that you can skip in the first step, but it is a tool that is important to have at some point in order to make the most complete and accurate audio recording.

The microphone arm or handle has a movable body with more than two axes, allowing you to fix the microphone to a table or similar area. The microphone is mounted on the top of the microphone arm and is protected by a shock mount, which prevents the sound quality from deteriorating due to possible impacts.

Advantages of Podcasting

Although podcasts were not originally produced to replace radio, they have emerged as a necessity of our age to complement a shortcoming of radio. The fact that live broadcasts cannot be listened to if they are missed and are not easy to record has led people to look for a platform that can be listened to at any time and is more easily accessible. In this way, podcasts have been very popular abroad for 15-20 years and in our country for the last 3-4 years.

The biggest advantage of podcasts is, of course, that you can listen to them anytime and anywhere. It is a great advantage and time-saver to be able to listen to a topic you are curious about or someone you like to follow while doing other actions, especially in traffic, traveling, hiking, sports. In the current era, especially for those of us living in big cities, there are many things that we don’t have time for as life goes by at a fast pace. At least we can make our obligatory actions a little more enjoyable by filling them with our interests. Podcasts help us to allow that in our lives, to make time for ourselves and our interests.

Corporate Podcast

This momentum of podcasting in recent years is just as important for organizations as being early on new social media channels and capturing the target audience. Podcasts are seen as an inevitable part of communication and marketing activities, and it is very important for organizations to reach their audiences and to produce or sponsor podcast programs on topics that may be related to their own fields in different ways.

Considering that business and especially entrepreneurship are talked about all the time nowadays, podcasts about business have a certain audience and target group. If you are a company that cares about being on different channels and getting your name mentioned (which you should in this age), think about what you can do with podcasts.

As Digibus, we produce 3 types of podcasts for corporate companies;

• Podcast production
• Converting webinars or Youtube broadcasts into podcasts
• Translation of written texts into podcasts in the desired language with Text to Speech technology.

For detailed information Communication You can visit our page.