Before you even begin an interview, you should make preparations to ensure that everything runs smoothly. A good interview is something that has been painstakingly prepared even the interview happens.

One of the things that you should do is to answer some questions yourself. How long do you plan to hold the interview? Are you going to let the interview play out or are you going to edit it? How will you edit it? You should also be ready to give your interviewee information — like who the audience will be and what are the expectations for the interview. You should also provide this information in the pitch letter that you will send your potential interviewee.

There are interviewees who may ask for some of the questions beforehand. This is a perfectly safe request for most “friendly” interviews.  A good tip is to start off the interview with a killer question — one that immediately grabs hold of the audience’s interest. After a couple of intriguing questions you can ease back and ask background questions afterwards.

The last post I made was on how to reduce background noise when recording. It is interesting to note that the PC itself can cause significant background noise that can creep into your podcast. That’s why, one great workaround to a cleaner, background noise-free recording would be to totally eliminate the PC from the recording process.

There are small gadgets in the market that allow you to record audio for your podcasts without the use of a PC. These standalone digital recorders are easy to use, very portable and allow you a great deal of leeway in terms of creating the perfect recording space.

One of the best standalone digital recorders out there is the Zoom H2. At just 200 dollars, the H2 is the perfect companion for the budding podcaster. Its size is quite diminutive and yet despite its size it is capable of recording CD quality sound. The recordings are stored automatically on the SD card that you insert on the SD card slot. Propping up the H2 is easy as it comes with two different stands — a small handle and a tripod like stand.

You can record your podcast using the H2′s very good onboard mics (it has more than one), or you can also use another mic because it has a mic adapter. finished recordings can also be transferred through a USB port.