Planning topics to discuss, possible guest interviews, and the duration of your show in advance will go a long way when producing a professional sounding podcast. Since you'll be recording your podcast in an almost live fashion, you will have the flexibility of going back and re-editing sections before committing your show as "podcast-ready".

Before you started, you'll need:

A web publishing tool (Try Blogger, TypePad, WordPress or MoveableType)

A file hosting service (Try LibSyn for free, AudioBlogger is also a good choice)

Recording software (Try Audacity for Window-based PCs or Garageband on Mac - both are free)

Microphone (Try a good headset microphone or better yet the Marshall Electronics MXL 006 Condenser USB Microphone for only $129)

Identifying The Theme - The Nucleus of Your Podcast

Developing your podcast description is a necessary step in the branding process. When you are brainstorming your podcast description, make sure that it explains the purpose of your show and accentuates the theme of your podcast. This description should be no more than two to three sentences in length.

Selecting a Name - Personify Your Podcast

When selecting a name, be sure that the name of your podcast reflects the content that you are recording. For example, if your subject matter is about travel, your podcast name should be branded to complement your show.

To illustrate, a podcast about travel might be called Globetrotter, Passport Podcast, The Travel Guide, and so on. Make sure that the name you choose is also available as a domain name online. Try to make your name unique but easily understood and recognizable.

Acquiring a Domain Name and Blog Name

Once you have picked a name for your podcast, purchase the domain name for your podcast. This is extremely important because interested listeners and inquisitive searchers will be able to find your podcast in Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others.

As a reward for consistently branding your podcast, search results will display your website and podcast accordingly.

Get Your Podcast on the Internet

As you probably know, once your first podcast is recorded you'll need to upload the MP3 to a web hosting service. By doing so, you'll be making the audio available for download by anyone with Internet access.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Did you know you had options as to where to upload? Well, now you do and here they are:

Free Podcast Hosting Services

The easiest solution is to host your MP3 at a podcasting hosting service, such as LibSyn.com or HipCast.com. These are wonderful web services that will not only store the MP3 file of your podcast, but also provide you with some statistics including number of downloads.

Regular Web Hosting Services

If you currently have a web host, for example, the company that is already hosting your web site, you can just as easily work with this set-up. You may need your webmaster to assist you with configuring this part, however in short, you'll need to create a new directory on the server called "podcasts" and upload the MP3 file to that directory using FTP, short for File Transfer Protocol, which is the standard means of adding new files to a website.

Once you have these two steps accomplished your small business podcast is up and running.