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Here’s a short guide we wrote to hosting your first Skypecast:

1. Choose a subject for your Skypecast

You can host a Skypecast on any subject you’re interested in, from classic cars to learning Japanese; from how to bake banana bread, to watching World Cup matches together. The more interesting your subject, the more participants you’re likely to have for your Skypecast. If you’re having trouble picking just one subject, don’t worry — you can host as many Skypecasts as you want and it’s totally free.

2. Create your Skypecast listing

Visit the Skypecasts directory to create your listing

You’ll be prompted to enter a title and description, this is your opportunity to sell your Skypecast to the audience, explain why they should join and what you’ll be talking about. You’ll also need to add keywords (also known as tags) to allow users to find your Skypecast by searching the directory. These keywords will also determine which syndicated listings your Skypecast appears in. By entering several relevant words to describe your Skypecasts subject, you’ll help users to find your Skypecast and will also ensure your Skypecast gets the best possible promotion.

Don’t forget to make a note of the time of your Skypecast so you remember to sign in and host it and don’t leave your audience waiting in silence.

3. Promote your Skypecast

Promoting your Skypecast will boost the number of participants you have in your discussion making it more lively and interesting for you and your attendees.

There are lots of ways to promote your Skypecast such as emailing friends, posting your Skypecast in a related forum or even adding a HTML snippet or Skypecasts feed to your website or blog.

4. Hosting and Moderating

You may wish to run your Skypecast as an open discussion or a one-way broadcast with questions and answers at the end. Either way, the Skypecasts moderation tools will help you. Once your Skypecast has begun you can mute or unmute selected participants or all participants from the Skypecasts controls.

Muting participants will help to improve call quality for you and your participants. When participants are muted, they can request the microphone if they wish to speak. You can use chat to ask them what they wish to talk about and then pass them the virtual microphone to speak.

If certain participants are being disruptive you can eject them from the Skypecast.

That’s all for the guide fow now. If you have any questions or comments, please visit the Skypecasts forum

Photo attributed to miss_rogue on flickr.com