How to Create a Podcast (without tearing your hair out)

There was no photography focus, as these weekends are sort of choose your own adventure. So I spent the bulk of my weekend writing and creating my first podcast. It's called "Six Degrees of Salisbury Cathedral" and is posted as a separate blog entry. Since this is a new endeavor for me, luckily I've the writing part and genesis of ideas came to me in only three hours, the rest of it, well...that is another story! I think writing this "how to" about the podcasting process itself will be of use to me in the future, so it seemed like a natural blog entry to round out this weekend. Here are my steps in a straight-forward guideline:

1. Prepare your podcast narrative with something catchy and inventive. Do some research or pick something at random. For me, this is the first step in any creative endeavor, i.e. I originally wrote four different scripts and then chose my “best” of the four. 
2. You will also need to decide if you want to use music for the background. Please remember that there are many Fair Use copyright considerations; that said if you are looking for some music on the internet,try Creative Commons or Free Music Archive.
3. Next, record the audio version of your narrative, in MP3 format if possible. If don't have a hand-held dictation recorder, you can use the built-in Windows voice recorder program (Start->All Programs ->Accessories->Sound Recorder). But, be warned, this will only create a proprietary WMA file, and since its not an "MP3" you will have to get a converter like Switch Sound File Converter to change your file to MP3. Note: if you use a program like ZamZar you will have to check your spam/junk mail since they will email you the MP3 file. (If you use Switch Sound, you perform the action and no emailing is required.) Keep in mind,if you are using music, then you should check to see if the file is MP3, if not, use the converter for the music file as well. 
4. At this stage, you’ve got your recordings set up, now you’ll need to upload them into a sound mixing program like Audacity. I used the Beta version for Windows 7 and did not have any problems with it, bug-wise. Just choose the right download for your platform (e.g. Vista, XP, etc.) 
5. There are some online tutorials and wikis available and you will have to read a few of them to get the gist. In the audio editing program, you’ll need to sync-up the certain parts of music to match the audio narrative you recorded. This is a bit trickier than it seems. Using a number of methods to get the audio where you want it (this is where actually reading through the guides comes in) you can cut and paste the parts you want, or in the inverse, you can simply “silence” the parts you don’t want to hear.
6. When you have your music and your narrative in sync, you’ll need to save the file. But, programs like Audacity only save their files in a special file extension, and it is not an MP3. So, for example, you must find another program that will decode Audacity's “.aud” file into MP3 format, like Lame. You’ll need to download this software and follow the instructions; export the file from Audacity and then it should save as an MP3.
7. All of this sounds easy right? Well, it took me the better part of the entire weekend to figure this out, just to make a 3-minute podcast, so my advice is give yourself plenty of time, and if possible, have someone around you so that you can occasionally get a hug or simply cry on their shoulder --tears of joy because it’s at that point that you realize you are almost done!
8. In order to post this wonderful MP3 Podcast you have created, you will need an internet host so that you can link it to your blog. (If you don’t have a blog, well…that’s another story, too.) Try a program liker DivShare; otherwise, you can’t upload. Note: you will have to sign-up for an account with this hosting site (and all the basic accounts are free.) After all of this, you can sit back and let your minutes long blog (which took you way too long to post) collect comments and kudos from your friends!