Santa Fe Macintosh User Group

"Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting" is pretty much what the authors set out to accomplish, as they state in their introduction: "We're not geeks, and this isn't a geek book." However, they also cover the other end of the spectrum by saying, "...we don't think you're a 'dummy.' Podcasting isn't for dummies." What the book does is strike a balanced middle ground to achieve the goal of helping the reader start making their own podcasts.

To do this, the book is arranged in a logical progression, starting with what all the hype is surrounding the idea of audio on the web that can be automatically delivered to your computer or MP3 player (hence the name podcasting, derived from Apple's iPod). Before you take a stab at creating one of your own, though, it's a good idea to first listen to podcasts to test the waters, learn about the culture, and develop some knack for discriminating between good and bad podcasts. Besides, you can also learn about about it from the end user's perspective.

Next, the book gives a very brief overview of podcasting how-to tips, essentially a framework for synthesizing the remainder of the book as a developer, creator, and syndicator of your own podcasts.

The rest of the book delves into the nuts and bolts of podcasting - planning your podcast (coming up with a concept after answering the questions, "Who are you, and why would anybody want to listen to you?"); getting the right tools (can you say, "microphone"?); recording your podcast; editing it after recording to give it a professional sound; preparing the audio file before making it available to the world; serving it up so others can access it; what you can do to ensure your podcast is both heard and subscribed to by others; and finally (not surprisingly) how you can MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR PODCAST!!! (as if there are altruistic people in this world anymore).

The book comes with a CD packed with a variety of software for both Windows and Macs (freeware, shareware, and demos) covering all aspects of podcasting, from recording, editing, tagging, creating the RSS feed, and subscribing to podcasts. Mac users will benefit from knowing that the book was written prior to the release of Apple's iLife '06, which for $79 includes all the tools you need to create professional podcasts from a single suite of integrated programs. Sure, there are a variety of free tools you can use to kluge together your podcast, but if you're serious about getting into podcasting, you might as well spend a little money upfront to save frustration over working through a fractured workflow.

All in all, the book is written in clear, straightforward text, is amply illustrated with screenshots to augment the text, and can be read either front to back or as a reference for those topics you need to learn about right now.