Create your own podcast

A podcast can be anything: your political views, mock interviews with your pets, or something practical like a "live" trade-show report to share with coworkers.

Before you pick up the microphone, though, you should do some planning, especially if you're not used to speaking extemporaneously.

• Listen to some of the more popular podcasts to get a feel for style and content. A good place to start is Podcast Alley.
• Write an outline to help you avoid long, awkward silences in your show.
  
  

Once you have a sense of what a good podcast should be and have narrowed down your topic, you can focus on hardware.

Other than a computer, the only hardware you need is a microphone; the better the model, the more professional your recordings will sound. You can use the mic that came with your PC, but for better recording quality, you should invest in a PC headset such as the Sennheiser PC 150, which offers a built-in microphone and noise-cancellation circuitry.

Some of the best podcasts are "road diaries." If you're on the go, don't forget to pack a portable recorder.

Many of the latest MP3 players have line-in jacks so that you can plug in an external microphone. (No, the iPod doesn't have one, but the iRiver H320 does.) Just make sure yours can record at a decent sampling rate--at least 32Kbps for MP3 and 44.1KHz for WAV.

If you're parked in front of a PC and don't have headphones plugged in, be sure to mute your speakers. Otherwise, feedback could ruin your recording.