General Overview

There are many components to creating a successful podcast, which I'll summarize in this article. In-depth posts for each element will follow. Most of these steps will take a little bit of time, and very few things will cost money. In fact, I've only invested about $150 in our podcast--I've used free software and services to handle everything else.


Recording - You will need to be able to record your sermon in a digital format. I choose to record the sermon as it's being preached. I also know of some pastors who have access to a studio environment and preach it a second time, just for their audio distribution. One pastor I know changes his delivery to be more conversational, since it will be listened to by one person at a time, instead of a large group.

Editing - During the editing step, you will manipulate the audio file to sound its best. This is when you can eliminate the goof you made when you said "Job" instead of "Lot." Or, you can cut out the section of your sermon which you just wanted your congregation to hear. Since I record most of the service, but only publish the actual sermon, this is where I trim my recording to just the parts I want distributed.

Production - Can you get permission to add music to the beginning and end of your sermon? Do you know a radio personality who can help you introduce and close your podcast and give it a professional feel? Those happen in the production step. Also, during production, I apply "amplify" and "compression" utilities which give the recordings a more consistent volume.

File Conversion - During this step, the audio file is converted to a mono, single-track file and converted to MP3. As you experiment with different levels of conversion, you will have to make decisions about the tradeoff between sound quality and file size. I have chosen to go with a higher level of sound quality, because I believe that people are more willing to download a larger file if they know that it will be a comfortable listening experience. I've listened to too many sermon podcasts that have a high-frequency reverb because they've been compressed too much. If I don't want to listen to one entire episode, small download size would not entice me to download another episode!

Tagging - Using iTunes, I embed file information into the file. This information includes a logo for the podcast, my name and my church's name. This information will appear when played with an iPod.

Upload - Assuming that your church already has a website, you'll need a folder to keep all of your audio files. If you don't have a website, please check out YourChurchWeb.net for many affordable hosting packages. During the upload step, you'll simply upload your file to your website.

Linking - If you visit www.capenazarene.org/sermons, you'll see that I've linked to each sermon file individually. This is technically not part of my podcast, but it's one more way to help people find a sermon. I've found that my Easter sermon is the most downloaded sermon, but that it's primarily been downloaded through this page, not through the podcast.

Blogging/Syndication - If you've followed every step up until now, you've simply created audio files of your sermons and put them on the web. Blogging is the engine that drives your podcast, because your blog develops a feed that can be read by iTunes or another podcatcher. You can also use that feed to drive nifty gadgets, like the mini-player found at www.capenazarene.org. You'll want to create one post per episode, with that post linking to your audio file. You may also want to include your title, the texts that you used, and a brief description of the sermon.

Promotion - As with any web service that your church provides, it's not enough to simply make it available....you need to tell people about it. You'll want to submit your podcast to all the podcast directories you can find. You'll want to tell people in your congregation about it--they may have a friend or relative who can't come to church but would love to listen to weekly sermons.

That's it!

I know that's a pretty basic overview, but it's enough to give you the basic direction of what we're going to try to cover. I'll be adding posts to help develop each one of these steps.

And, of course, your questions are always welcome--simply add a comment to one of the posts, or send me an email at jon@yourchurchpodcast.net.

Grace and Peace,

Jon