Podcasting - It's Easier Than You Think! 

If you are like most people the sound of Podcasting sounds foreign and overly technical. The name Podcast floods the brain with thoughts of being behind the times or out of the loop. To most people Podcasting sounds like something any twelve year old can do and no one over 30 can. Well I am here to tell you that anyone can podcast and I will show you how.

Podcasting according to Wikipedia.com is; “the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers.” Simply put it is the broadcasting of audio and video with code wrapped around it so you can ‘grab’ it from the internet. We’ll delve into the ‘grabbing’ part in a bit. 

Podcasting is a relatively new way for information to change hands. Like any commodity Podcasts come in all flavors. The web offers podcasts for all walks of life; Cooking, Automotive, Pets, Sports, News and Music to name a few. You can also view Vlodcasts or Vodcasts which is a Video Podcast. Like Podcasts Vodcasts cover a spectrum of topics. For more on Vodcasts visit Vodstock for a concise listing of various vodcasts. 

Now that we have covered what they are now we'll talk about how make a podcast.

Lets Open The Podcast Tool Box

To make a podcast you will need two very basic tools.

1. Microphone - You will need a basic microphone to capture your voice recordings for your Podcast. For this article we are going to do a basic podcast so we won't need an overly expensive microphone. If you computer came with a microphone, just use that one.  Or run down to your local electronics store and buy one for $15-20 (don't forget a stand!)
   
   
2. Computer - Your computer will store your voice and audio recordings, as well as allow you to edit them. For PC users the easiest possible way for you to create a podcast is by using the built in Sound Recorder on your Windows system.

You can get to this by opening your Start Menu. Click on All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder  

View Image Below

The program looks like this

How To Record Your Podcast

1. Plug in your microphone to your computer
   
   
2. In the Sound Recorder interface, press the red ‘Record’ button on the lower right and begin to speak into your microphone
   
   
3. Hit the ‘Stop’ button (to the left of the record button) when you have stopped speaking
   
   
4. Play the new file by hitting the ‘Play’ button
   
   
5. There you go. You have created your first Podcast! 
   
   
6. Didn't hurt a bit, did it?

It shouldn’t have.

Now you are half way to doing what any twelve year old can do! Next we will be discussing ‘grabbing’ it.

'Grabbing' A Podcast - Explained

In order for our new audio file to become a podcast we need to upload it to your site and wrap in some code so users can ‘grab’ the podcast. By grabbing I mean that users can subscribe to your podcast. The podcast has an XML code attached to it that turns it into a RSS feed. RSS simply means Really Simple Syndication. This is the code that subscribers need to listen to or view your new podcast. In the example I used a journalism student to cover stories and post them on their site, once this is done whoever has subscribed to the podcasts can be notified when there have been updates. Think of it as getting the newspaper every morning. Many things happen throughout the day and the people at the newspaper compile it and deliver it to your door. In this case the stories are the podcast, the paper is the ‘code’ that wraps the stories and the people at the newspaper are the Podcasters. Did I lose you yet? Understanding is half the battle so I hope this helps.

Get It Out There - Sharing Your Podcast 

Once you have your new audio file and you are ready to share it there are various methods to do this. If you are not familiar with coding there are alternatives to this. First, if you are a client of Schipul The Web Marketing Company using the Tendenci Membership Management Software we have made it very easy for you. Simply upload your audio file to an article on your site and the RSS will be automatically generated for you.  

Below is a screen shot of an RSS link to All syndicated content( This is the top link) and also an RSS link for the particular article( This is the highlighted link) 

This link is the key to podcasting. This is the link that a user can subscribe to and be updated every time you post a new podcast. This RSS code is generated automatically for you by our Tendenci software.  

If you click this link you will be taken to the actual code of your syndicated content.

Below is a screenshot of what this actual code looks like 

As you can see in the above code all pertinent marketing information is collected and when read by an RSS reader like itunes this information is shared with the end user. 

For more information regarding Tendenci and Podcasting please visit the Podcasting page on Tendenci 

For users who are not Tendenci clients there are a couple of avenues you can go from here. 

One way you can do this is to host your own podcast on your own server and write your own code to syndicate it. If you do not know how to write the code there are various software programs available on the internet that can do this for you. These come at a price though. The most reasonably priced one out there is FeedForAll. This program can create the code for those that are not Tendenci users. 

There are also some free sites on the web that will host your files and generate the code for you. These free services do have their limitations. The biggest one is size. These sites will only provide a certain amount of space and are NOT customizable. The best one out there today has to be Castpost. For the casual user Castpost offers a great albeit limited service. The drawback for these free services is that if your company is competive and you are using podcasts to market your business, directing potential clients to a free site doesn’t promote a great picture.

Go Forth and Multiply