One of the things you always want to do if you are hoping to sell learning content is to appear professional. Everything you do has to be polished. Everything you do has to look like you know what you are doing.

That includes your podcasts.

People are used to listening to professional broadcasters on the radio and on television. This is the standard you need to meet when creating your podcasts. Fortunately, with modern computer technology it is quite possible to make your podcasts polished and professional sounding.

Here are seven tips you can use to help put together a professional podcast.

1. Always edit your podcast if only to remove the dead air. No one is 100% perfect. In fact, you don't want to be perfect with your podcasts. However, you also don't want to be focused on getting it right while you are recording. And everyone leaves dead air at some point or other. So use editing to correct your mistakes and don't worry about it during the recording session.

2. Volume isn't as important as having a consistent volume. Notice that when you listen to the radio only the commercials are at a different volume. People sometimes obsess over getting just the right volume level. But that's why the audience has a volume control on their headsets and computers. The one thing that you need to focus on is not perfection but consistency. All your podcasts recording need to be at the same level so that if you patch them together your audience doesn't always have to adjust the volume control.

3. Plan your podcast first. Every once in a while someone will get it into their head that they can just wing it. Don't bother. You'll just be disappointed with the results and have to spend more time recording it and editing it. Planning doesn't necessarily mean writing a full blown script. It can be as simple as listing all the points you want to raise. If you do the outline method aim for one point for every minute to speak (or one minute of talking per point if you prefer).

4. Practice, Practice, Practice. One of the characteristics of a professional podcast is a polished and professional broadcaster. The only way to become polished is to practice. Either that or be born as a naturally talented public speaker. Which isn't very likely.

5. Use music to your advantage. Have you ever wondered why they use music in movies? Have you ever listed to a movie before they've added the music? Listen to a professional radio news magazine. They use music to transition. They use music to introduce. And sometimes they even use music to set the tone.

6. Find a theme. No I'm not talking about a unifying topic to your podcast -- although that's a good idea too. I'm talking about a musical phrase that will be used for all your podcasts -- especially for the opening and closing credits.

7. Always have opening and closing credits. If you listen to a radio news magazine (the BBC and CBC both produce good ones), you'll find they have an opening and closing segment for each podcast. In the opening segment they introduce what segments they will be providing and who is involved. In the closing segment they provide who worked on each segment (recording, producing and editing). You need to do the same thing.

Do you want to learn how to create information products (learning content)? Check out my new free eBook "7 Myths and Seven Tricks in Nine Steps": http://www.learningcreators.com/myths.htm

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

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