I think podcasting is where the line between my technical youth and old age was drawn. I thought I was pretty up to speed until podcasting came along, and suddenly, I felt the way my Dad did when he was faced with setting up the family Tivo: confused, and annoyed with science in general.

However, I know that podcasting is not going away, so I wanted to find out if writers can benefit from doing it, how and when.

First I asked Pete Davis, the Chief Marketing Officer of ClickCaster Inc., which "to build the most powerful, affordable and easy to use podcasting solution in existence." So he is probably a little biased. He wrote me:

"Podcasting, like blogs, allows anyone to speak their mind...literally. I find podcasting easier than blogging, since it is easier to talk than taking an hour trying to make your written word not only grammatically correct, but also enjoyable to read and gets my point across.

So, why should a freelance journalist embrace podcasting? Four reasons:

1) It allows you to stretch your skills beyond the text into broadcast journalism for both audio and video.

2) It gives you the ability to integrate multiple media components into your story. Show notes or "mini-blogs" give you the ability to enclose links, photos etc. More importantly you can reference to other work (articles, bi-lines, and Press Releases).

more after the break

3) It's personal. It amplifies the emotion of the content you are writing about. It also gives the listen/viewer the opportunity to make a connection with you that doesn't necessarily get achieved with print.

4) Click here!"

I also wanted to get the opinion of somebody more on the writing side of the podcasting equation, so I spoke with freelancer Damon Brown, who wrote The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the Ipod. "Podcasting has been around for a couple of years," he says, "but it was relatively underground. It's only recently been sanctioned by Apple, whereas previously people who podcasted used different shareware programs than iTunes, but now you can download podcasts through it for no charge.

A podcast is basically an audio blog. Some people put them out weekly, some people do it monthly. Like a blog, you can put pretty much any content in your podcast that you want."

However, don't think podcasting is the way to fame and fortune. "It is not revenue-generating," says Brown. "It helps if you have a site that already has a following. Otherwise, it's like if you set up a blog but don't tell anybody about it. You might be doing it but nobody is necessarily listening."

The podcast offers more flexibility than just a blog. "You can do things with a podcast that you can't necessarily do on-screen," says Brown. "For instance, people were podcasting from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. To have to have a really good podcast, you need to utilize the medium." Thus, if you have a literary blog, just reading your material is probably not going to be very popular. Think interviews, documentaries, on-site stories. "Podcasts are great for people who like to listen instead of read," said Brown. "Or, if they live in a location that's very audio-specific. For instance, I live in California so I'm always in my car, so it's easier for me to listen to somebody's podcast than to read their blog."

I think of podcasting now sort of as college radio. It can be really crappy with nobody listening to it. Or, it can be high quality and develop quite a following. But as Brown says, if you're going to podcast, it's best used as a supplement to a site that you know people already read. If your blog has a small following, adding a podcast will not help disseminate it.

If you want to learn more about how to put together a podcast, check out podcastingnews. Damon also adds, "One excellent resource I can give is iLounge. It is massive,
well respected and was invaluable when I was working on my book. Anything
iPod related - it's in there. I hope it helps.". I found several posts on Lifehacker on the how-to, including free podcast hosting, how to turn your feed into a podcast and how to record your first podcast. If you want to listen to other podcasts, there are listings available from iTunes and Yahoo, but beware: you never know for sure if you're getting good ones (although it might be good, if you're investigating podcasting for yourself, to hear what works and what doesn't.)