When, at the encouragement of friends I started The Fourth Estate podcast, a primary concern was the most effective and efficient way to gather information. The nature of my podcast requires a good deal of facts procured from Internet sources. This in addition to future interviews.
The single tool that covers this challenge is Evernote.
Evernote is well known to users like college students to business people to pastors to bloggers to teachers. Ebooks have been written explaining how to use it. Today I want to mention three specific benefits for using Evernote for my podcast.
1. Stackable notebooks with virtually unlimited notes.
While Evernote has a monthly upload limit I have never come close to approaching it. Docs and webpages can be stored as much as needed. Each “notebook” (think: “folder”) will stack two deep. As such, I can have a Podcast Notebook with notebooks Episode 001, Episode 002, Episode 003, etc. Into each of these I can put the information I collect for each episode, primarily using…
2. Evernote web clipper.
This tools is an extension for web browsers like Chrome, Safari and Firefox. It allows any web page to be “clipped” and sent directly to the Evernote notebook of my choosing. In my case, articles for Episode 001 were clipped into that folder, and each episode in line. In the browser based clipper, various styles of the page are available several of which exclude the sidebar ads. All include the hyperlinks from the original article. Also, the original URL is linked at the top of the note in the notebook. All the information I need is saved.
The Evernote web clipper for Safari on the iPhone integrates with the Evernote app. Using the “share” button at the bottom of the browser brings up a menu. Evernote appears alongside the mail and message options. (You may need to check the “More” button.) The page in the browser window can be added to any notebook in Evernote.
3. Evernote email to inbox.
With each Evernote account the user is assigned an email address unique to his or her Evernote account. Anything sent to that email address creates a new note in the designated notebook. For me that notebook is named Inbox.
Once the email and its contents are in my Inbox, as with almost any digital filing system, I can move it to the Notebook of my choice.
The email function also works well with some native browsers in apps. The Twitter iPhone app, for instance, offers both email and open in Safari options. Emailing the article directly to my Evernote Inbox saves a step or two.
Another great thing about Evernote is that it has a free version. While not quite as high powered at the premium version it has a lot of flexibilty and is more than enough for basic users.
