Six minutes of audio translates into roughly 6 megabytes of file size, so even a short podcast like that won't exactly download in flash. If you want your podcast to reach as many listeners as possible, keep your file size small.

You might want to try setting a timer for yourself. We use a digital kitchen timer and actually incorporate its insistent beeping into each podcast. It's an auditory cue or sound effect that signals the end of our podcast is nigh.

Prepare an outline
Whether you're podcasting solo or with a friend, it always helps to have an outline. Before recording your podcast, decide what talking points you want to hit.

You don't have to sit down and write out your podcast speech word-for-word, unless that makes you feel more comfortable. If you're a confident speaker, you can work from a loose outline to help your podcast sound more spontaneous and lively.

Kay and I find that just agreeing on certain bullet points before we hit the record button helps keep the conversation going smoothly. We know, for instance, what particular events and movies we want to cover, then we ad-lib and riff on those subjects.

If you're amazingly good at improvisation, you can try winging it without any sort of outline. But, I'd recommend against it.

In my next article, I'll tell you what equipment we use to record our podcast. Kay and I discovered that not all audio recorders are created equal. If you learn from our mistakes, you might save yourself some money and hassles.

Dr. Humayun Bakht completed his Ph.D at the School of Computing and Mathematics in Liverpool at John Moores University. Prior to his current course of studies, he has successfully completed his MSc Software Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineering from University of Liverpool UK and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Humayun's research interest is mobile ad-hoc networks, in particular, the development of a new routing algorithm for this type of networking. He can be reached at humayunbakht@yahoo.co.uk and you can visit his Web site at http://www.geocities.com/humayunbakht/.