Getting started
with podcasting is easy. All you need is a computer
with an Internet link and a portable media player. I'm
going to provide you with 6 easy steps to help you create
your very own podcast. If you still have questions,
there are other articles to help you at www.findpodcasts.net.
So here you go:
1. CREATE YOUR CONTENT - This is really the most fun
part of podcasting. You can create a podcast for just
about anything you can dream up. You can talk about
religious, politics, entertainment or even your kids.
Really, the content can be anything. There's no formula
for what makes great podcast content.
It also doesn't matter what platform or application
you use to record the audio, or whether you're using
a PC or a Mac. Don't worry about the quality of the
microphone or the recording. Especially when you're
just starting out, it's more important to actually finish
making your podcast than anything else. One option to
consider is Audacity, a free open source application
that let's you mix together multiple audio files. On
the Mac, GarageBand is a popular choice, because it
is free and also powerful.
2. SAVE! SAVE! SAVE! Once you've created the content,
make sure to save your finished audio show at maximum
quality in the native format of your audio application.
That way you can go back and edit or reuse it and you'll
have a good version.
3. CONVERT. Now that you've saved the audio file you
have to save it to MP3 format. MP3 is the defacto standard
format for podcasts since it's the most universal. Stick
with MP3 unless you've got a very good reason for using
another format. Using anything else will mean that some
users may not be able to listen to your podcast.
Use the minimum bit rate that provide good results.
Here are some suggested settings:
* 48 - 56k Mono - sermons, audio books, talk radio
* 64k+ Stereo - music, music & talk combinations
* 128k Stereo - good quality music
4. PUBLISH. Save your MP3 files to your web server,
and test them with any MP3 player. The files can go
anywhere on your site, but you may want to put all of
them into one directory, so they are easy to find and
manage.
5. CREATE A NEWSFEED - Podcast feeds are RSS files
that describe your podcast, along with information for
each show. An RSS file is bascially just a text file
linking to your MP3 file. RSS newsfeeds normally feature
news Items that contain a title, link and description.
Each item in a news feed provides meta-information about
a URL on the web. In the case of a podcast newsfeed,
each item describes the content of an audio file referenced
by the enclosure URL. Save your RSS file with a .rss
or .xml extension.
Normally, you'll want to have one news feed that contains
all of your recent podcasts, ordered from newest to
oldest.
6. PUBLISH YOUR NEWSFEED - Transfer your podcast RSS
file to your webserver, like you would any other content.
Validate it using an online RSS validator. If the podcast
news feed is valid, it's ready to be published to the
web.
That's it! Check your podcast and publicize it. Several
designers have come up with some great podcasting logos,
so make sure you make it easy to find your podcast.
About the Author
Steve Wright is the webmaster for the podcasting community
at http://www.findpodcasts.com/ Go there to find helpful
tools, ask questions, read articles, and increase your
podcasting knowledge.
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