Expert Podcasting Practices For Dummies®

Chapter 30. Tell Me About It: Recording Promos and Quickcasts

In This Practice

• Spotting the difference between a promo and a quickcast

• Recording promos of the right length

• Listing what goes into a promo

• Knowing when and why to record quickcasts

“If you podcast it, they will come.”

Maybe that was true back in 2005, but since the great iTunes rush of September 2005, the podosphere has become rife with podcasters, all with their eyes on the iTunes Top 25 or an article in The New York Times. There have been dynamic personalities — Scott Sigler, Ronald D. Moore, Mur Lafferty, Steve Eley, Michael Geoghegan, Dan Klass, and Rob Walch — blazing trails for future podcasters, inspiring them to get their names and voices into the podosphere. With the competition for attracting listeners (and keeping them) as fierce as it is, many current and would‐be podcasters go back to the trailblazers to try and figure out how they achieved success.

The common link is quite simple with all these podcasters: They told people about their podcasts.

What Is a Promo?

When podcasts are in the early stages of production (as discussed in Practice 29), a promo is one of the first things planned out, along with the first few episodes of the podcast itself. The reason a promo should be thought out beforehand is that many podcasts start out of the box strong with episodes, but they find themselves at a loss for words when other podcasters contact them and ask, “Do you have a promo? I would love to feature it on my show.”

A ...