The podcasting movement allows everyone to be a radio personality from home. Forget being a Muppet DJ for the corporate machine. Podcasting puts you at the drivers seat. It’s a liberating experience but also requires that you learn to wear a number of hats.

You will need to create great content, read that content fluidly when needed and improvise effectively. All the recording and audio production is also your responsibility. This involves getting a decent sound with a mic, recording your voice, plus editing in background music tracks or sound effects. Lastly, in order to broadcast your opinion to the world you will need to learn some basics about Web technologies and publishing.

It all may sound a little daunting at first. Luckily you can take it step-by-step. Your first attempts at audio recording for example may be crude, however you will get better as you go along.

People with tech saavy and voice talent no doubt have an advantage in this space. Ultimately those skills come with experience. What is most significant on the onset is that you have a topic you’re passionate about.

“The Skeptics Guide to the Universe” is now an incredibly popular podcast with witty commentary about popular science, a balanced panel and well-known guests. For their anniversary show the host looked back at the first episode and the panel poked fun of the poor audio quality and awkward speech. The lesson here is even the best podcasts on the Web started from humble beginnings.

Beside a few solid ideas all you need to get started is a microphone, audio interface or soundcard, plus the right software and web tools. Here we will be focusing software and the technical know-how required to get your podcast online.