As a podcast consultant, I recently had someone send me a file that was exported at 190 kbps. What is a kbps (kilobit per second)? We don't care (and not its bit, not bytes). Think of it like this: The more paint (bits) you use, the more accurate a picture you can paint. With this in mind think of these settings as
64 kbps = AM Radio
Not bad for shows that are primarily talking.
96 Kbps = FM Radio
Not bad for shows who want decent sound quality, but don't need CD quality (this show is done at 96 kbps).
128 Kbps = CD Quality
When I changed the bitrate to 96, it cut the file size in half, and (in their case being mainly talk) it made almost no noticeable change the audio quality. Keep in mind the higher the number the longer it takes to download (and the 190 kbps took forever).
For those podcasters who do a show that primarily features music. Anything about this (in my opinion) is overkill.
One Way to Make Money With Podcasting
My Friend Mark from the A1Blues.com podcast (great podcast if you love “rockin' blues) features music from great musicians. He often pointed people to Amazon.com and I noticed he was not using affiliate links. I pointed out that you can become an “associate” (amazon's term for affilaite) and make some cash (a little cash) sending people to buy these artist's albums.
The easiest way is when you sign up to become an amazon affiliate, install the “associate bar” (I believe was the name of it). Then when you login to your affilaite area you can then browse to ANY page on amazon and make a link to the page (I typically use the “text link” settings).
If you are wanting to promote items on iTunes, their affiliate program is through linkshare.com
This show originates from www.schoolofpodcasting.com
