Review: Podcasting & Blogging with Garage Band and iWeb
If you have been considering Blogging and/or Podcasting and didn't know how to start, you should definitely check out 'Podcasting & Blogging with Garage Band and iWeb' by best selling authors Robin Williams and John Tollet.
It' a quick and visually aesthetic read - 10 Chapters weighing in at a mere 166 pages w/ indexing. If those iWeb and Garage Bands are unused and taking up room on your dock, do yourself a favor and do what your Mac is made to do - create.
Start at the Beginning
Its a beginner level book that starts by answering the questions 'What is a Blog?' and 'What is a Podcast'. You can't get more granular than that. The book takes an unassuming path that shows you how to get your creative juices flowing and make use of two of the coolest programs in iLife 06'.
The book assumes that you have the following: A Mac, iLife 06' (for Garage Band and iWeb), and a .Mac account. While you don't necessarily need a .Mac account to blog or podcast, their content is centered around that, at least for the content publishing.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction and background on the whole phenomenon of Podcasting & Blogging, and how & why you might want to create one.
In chapters 2 & 3, you are stepped right into making your very first iWeb Blog site. Very quickly you realize how easy iWeb is to use as they provide simple steps for creating a good looking site right away.
Since many readers of this book may be at the novice level, the authors do a good job of covering all of the bases in general iWeb content creation. I especially like the fact that they go so far as to show you how to password protect your site & even add comments to it. These are important parts - and concerns for privacy. You may want to keep a personal journal online, only for specific people to see. This gives you a bit of control over who reads your content.
Planning & Creating
While only a few pages long, Chapter 4 in particular, covers the most important part of podcasting: planning. It is important that you consider a podcasting style (ad-lib, scripted, guests), the content you want to cover, and an overall idea of the audience you are trying to reach. Without focus, your podcast will probably become a mess, and you may get discouraged and 'podfade'.
The help you get focused by giving some hints and tips before you start your show, For example, you want to have all of your notes, clips, etc. in order. Not only does this save tons of editing time, but most people prefer a tighter sounding show.
Chapters 5-6 cover how to start recording your podcast with Garage Band. Most recent Mac users already have a built-in Mic, which will do the job (albeit with poor sound quality) to get your podcast going. In a later chapter, they discuss other options for choosing a higher quality microphone to use.
They cover all of the basics in these chapters: How to start a show, edit it, mix in some of the new jingle & sound effects features, and even create an enhanced podcast. If you aren't familiar with the podcast lingo, enhanced podcasts have chapter markers, album artwork, and show notes. Each of these chapters are superbly written and the visual tutorials make following along a breeze.
As I was reading the book and following along, it dawned on me how easy this is to do. Kudos to Apple for making apps integrate so well!
Come Together
Once you have a podcast, now you need to integrate it with iWeb on your .Mac account. This is very easy to do, and they cover each action step by step.
After you have published, you want people to hear your show, right? If not, why would you go to all of this trouble? Williams and Tollett cover the bases there as well, showing you how to submit your new show to iTunes 6, add RSS feeds, and how to promote your show.
Note: After the book was published, iTunes 7 was released, and changed the overall feel of iTunes. However, the process is basically the same, and the slight changes shouldn't be a hurdle for most.
Make it Better
Once you are more comfortable with the whole Blog -> Podcast workflow, you will definitely want to increase the quality. It's only natural - when you first start, your shows won't sound very good. It's cool that you created a podcast, but does it sound good enough that people really want to listen to it? If you are like me, you will self critique. I always think, 'I could do this better', no matter how negligible something is.
Once you are at that point, you will enjoy jumping into the Advanced Tips section. It covers all that you need to know about reasonable upgrades. Microphones, headphones, mixers, and recording chats for having guests. I would've loved a resource like this about 11 months ago when I decided to start my podcast.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner, and you have wanted to make use of those wonderful iLife apps that sit on your dock (iWeb and Garage Band), then this book is essential. It's a short read, and you will be Blogging & Podcasting in just a couple of hours. The commentary and diagrams cover all of the bases, and it will instruct you from start to finish.
It's a fantastic book for anyone (even kids & grandparents) that want a quick and easy tutorial to get your words and voice online. Everyone has something to say, and armed with this book + Mac, it couldn't be any easier.
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