Learning More About Creation
Creating content isn't just about exporting audio and video files. It is about what microphone is right for you, picking intro music, what device to you record to, all those things.
The Libsyn Blog has a great series that walks through some of these considerations for the beginner all the way up to the pro. Additional details can be found here.
The team also offers a Recommendation Guide that they give out at their QuickStart Webinars. This guide offers some (not all-inclusive!) recommendations on hardware and software you might consider if you haven't set up your gear yet.
Audio Encoding
Once you have your recording and you have edited out about all the umms and deep breaths you can manage to edit out, your media needs to be exported and encoded in a format compatible for podcasting. Here are some best practices for generating files compatible with podcasting at a file size you AND your audience can handle.
Audio Files
Audio files should be exported as an MP3, though Libsyn fully supports other popular formats. MP3 is the most widely supported format among podcast directories, including Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Podcasts to name a few.
Details on proper audio file encoding can be found here.
Video Files
Video files should be exported as a .H264 file, we recommend MP4 for greatest compatibility though an M4V will work as well. When setting encoding settings for the audio piece, generally AAC is used.
What resolution is used depends on where you plan to distribute, but sticking to at least 720P or higher would be recommended. Keep in mind podcasts are traditionally downloaded, so you need to consider the trade between the file size and the quality of the media on the device it will most likely be played from (desktop computer, smart TV solution, mobile, etc).
Now that you have your encoded audio or video file, it is time to think about your podcast host.
On to step 2!