What do you need to podcast?

Okay, so your church has decided to make the services/sermons available for access and distribution for podcasting.

What do you need and what do you need to do?

Step 1: Record the audio files

You need to make audio files. This means having a sound system in your sanctuary that can pick up your sermons! If you are recording other content, you will still need a microphone and a device that can record an audio file. Mac's come with a program, Garage Band that makes both recording and editing files very staight-forward. I do not know of wintel program quite as good. If anyone knows of one, please add this in the comments.

Step 2: Edit the audio files

You may in fact wish NOT to edit the audio files. However, it might be helpful, especially if you are hoping for this podcast to be used by people outside of your congregation, to use a computer program and, at the very least, add a few second intro to the file. (Tell the listener what Sunday or session they will be hearing; perhaps introduce yourself; give them a reason to listen to the next 15-60 minutes of content!).

Step 3: Store the audio files

Next you will need to store the audio files on a website. This could be your church's website, your own personal website, iWeb, etc.

Step 4: Publish the audio files - transform them from audio file to podcast...

At this point, your files are sitting on your computer. Likely someone could go to your website and download the sermon/service/lecture. However, you probably want to publish the website. This will require iWeb (or another web server that automatically can do podcast publishing) or a blog (note; the blog will likely NOT host the stored audio files, but will be able to publish them).

But really, this is where things get exciting, so let's spend some more time on this:
Publizicing your podcast.