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Contents
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Table of contents
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Introduction
Begun as a correspondence between Bill Albing and Ceil Hall, this topic records the items learned about podcasting. We are both beginners in this arena, so feel free to chime in and add more content about making podcasts, posting podcasts, and finding podcasts.Be sure to read the book review on Podcasting Solutions: A Complete Guide to Podcasting.
The folks at Common Craft have produced anther great primer: Podcasting in Plain English.
Comprehensive Podcasting "How To" Resources
- Read: Podcasting Bible by Mitch Ratcliffe and Steve Mack
- Ask Tom Johnson of www.techwritervoices.com
- Read Tom's blog: www.idratherbewriting.com
Making Audio Files
- There are many ways to make audio files, from recording on analog devices and them digitizing them to simply recording on an MP3 player or computer and saving the file.
- Audacity is free, open source audio software; many podcasters use that. WavePad by NCH is also an excellent, free tool.
- Recommend reading "Podcasting for Dummies" or "Podcasting Solutions" or The Podcasting Bible.
Getting Recording Equipment
- Recommend reading "Podcasting for Dummies" or "Podcasting Solutions" or The Podcasting Bible.
Podcast Delivery Methods
There are 3 basic delivery methods by which you can offer your podcast to the public:
- Connecting your podcast files to a streaming media player on your podcast website.
- Placing link to the sound files on your website, which people can use to download the files to their computers.
- Offering a subscription to your podcast via an RSS feed.
You can get a really good, free streaming media player that is easy to implement on your site at 1pixelout.net. This plugin was meant to go into the WordPress blog software, but you can easily implement it on any website. A link to simple instructions is included on the site.
There are a number of different RSS feed generators. Some of them are:
The thing you want to look for, unless you want to hand-code a lot of tags, yourself, is iTunes compliance. If you are serious about distributing your podcast, you will need to submit it to iTunes. If you want to become one of the top podcasts listed on iTunes you will need iTunes-compliant tags in your RSS feed document.
For more information about submitting at iTunes, see their Podcaster Tech Specs.
Using Widgets
You can also use a widget (such as those available from Widgetbox) to include a podcast in your own web page. (We blogged about this service here.) Here's a widget for Tom's Techwriter Voices:Hosting the Podcast on the Web
There are many options for podcast hosting, ranging from posting your own audio files to allowing a third-party to host your podcast and to offer search capabilities, etc. This market is changing rapidly, but so far we have found these podcast providers:You can find many others by conducting a simple website search, using they keywords "podcast hosts" or "podcasting hosts."
Features they provide:
- Storage place for your sound files
- Free RSS feed-generation tools
Note: If you are hosting a serious, money-earning podcast to which you intend to drive large amounts of traffic, do not use one of these hosts. They offer you "unlimited" or "unmetered" bandwidth, but that isn't really true. As soon as your bandwidth reaches a certain level, they black out your podcast or start charging you enormous fees. If you ever use a podcasting host that works with a shared-server model, and they offer you "unlimited bandwidth," make sure you read the fine print. Chances are, you will not really get that unless your traffic/download volume is low.
People who want to host a high-volume podcast are much better off renting a server. You'd be surprised how affordable that is. In fact, the cost of a very robust server is less than the highest-level cost of bandwidth at GeneticHosting.com.
You have to know what you are doing to rent a server; most "server farms" require that you administer the server yourself (set it up, update the operating system and virus software, etc.). Some companies, such as 3Essentials do offer managed server hosting for a bit more money. But others, such as ServerBeach, do not offer managed plans. However, there are small businesses that serve as server farm resellers, and for modest fees they will manage/administer the server for you. One of them is Coyote Technical. They have very good prices and are easy to deal with.
Interesting Podcast Sites
- Grammar Girl (grammar.qdnow.com)
- techwritervoices.com
- waxxi.us (mix between wiki and podcast!)
Podcast Receiver Software ("podcatchers")
Other Podcast "How To" Sources
- From the iTunes dashboard interface, open the Store page, click the Podcasts link at the top of the Store page, and on the Podcasts home page, scroll to the bottom left corner. There are numerous sources of information about podcasting, including actual "podcasts about podcasts" under the Learn More heading.
Social Networks and Podcasting
If you want to spread the word about your podcast, there is no better way than to use social networks. Two in particular that are set up to help you with this are:
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