Podcasts are audio recordings, usually with people talking about a particular subject. Thousands of people around the world have created podcasts, which are available for download on the Internet and can be easily played on your iPod or any other mp3 player.
To create a podcast for visitors to your website to listen to, follow these instructions:
A. Create your audio content
Your audio content can be anything you like, including audio books, music, "radio" type shows, interviews, or even sermon. For examples of podcast, visit here.
Audacity is a popular and free application you can use to record and edit the audio sounds for your podcast. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems For more information about Audacity or to download a free copy, visit here.
Another free application for Mac users is GarageBand. For more information about GarageBand or to download a free copy, visit here.
Save your finished audio show at maximum quality in the native format of your audio application so you can go back and edit it or reuse it.
B. Convert the audio file(s) to MP3 format (.mp3 file extension)
Once you have your audio content, you need to save it in MP3 format. MP3 is the defacto standard format for podcasts. (Using anything but MP3 will mean that some users may not be able to use 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
For more information on how to save your audio files in MP3 format, click here.
C. Publish your MP3
If your website was published using Wordpress, we recommend the following instructions obtained directly from the WordPress support site: http://codex.wordpress.org/Podcasting. Otherwise follow the instructions below:
Upload your MP3 files to your Netfirms web account to a location inside the www folder. For instructions on how to publish to your web account on Netfirms, click here.
Once your MP3 files are uploaded, you may test them with any MP3 player.
D. Create your podcast newsfeed file (.rss or .xml file extension)
For a brief introduction of to RSS, click here.
For details on RSS Specifications, click here.
You can use any text editor to create an RSS news feed. However, most podcasters use blogging programs or other applications to automatically generate newsfeeds.
Podcast feeds are RSS files that describe your podcast, along with information for each show. An RSS file is a text file that links to your MP3 file.
If you have a blogging tool that lets you reference enclosures, create an item for each MP3 file you publish, and use URL of the audio content as your enclosure.
Otherwise can edit your RSS file with any text editor to add the enclosure tag. Here's an example from the Trade Secrets podcast newsfeed:
<enclosure url="http://static.podcatch.com/manila/gems/un/TS20041107.mp3" length="49885056" type="audio/mpeg"/>
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.
We suggest that you order your podcasts in your news feed from newest to oldest.
E. Publish your podcast news feed
Transfer your podcast RSS file to your Netfirms web account using similar instructions followed in step C above.
You can validate your RSS by using a free online RSS Validator such as the one available from http://feedvalidator.org/.
F. Test your podcast with iPodder
You can use an iPod or other portable media player to listen to audio files obtained from podcasts.
G. Publicize your podcast
To automatically sync files to your iPod, you'll need to use a podcast client. iPodder is a free, open-source client that is available for Mac OS X, Windows & Linux. For more information about iPodder or to download a free copy, click here.
1. Here are some podcasting logos to help make it easy to find your podcast on your website.
2. Add your site to the Podcast Directory.
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