LEARN HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN PODCAST

Now you can take all the things I've shown you so far and apply them to podcasting. Podcasting is simply using the audio files you've created and putting them on the web in a format that can be easily downloaded to listeners.

Previously I've shown you how to stream short audio files directly from you web page. Podcasting is for longer audio files that can be subscribed to and/or downloaded by the listener for later playback.

It's like having your own radio station! You can do it as a hobby, to promote your music or for business marketing. The free audio editor I showed you in Editing Audio is now your free podcast producing software.

I know several local businessmen who have a one hour radio show once a week. It's a simple matter to convert that show to a podcast so people who can't tune in to the radio broadcast can still hear it at their convenience.

If you have just arrived at this page you can go through the rest of the site to learn how to create audio for the web and receive podcasts. Next, there are some things specific to creating podcasts.

• Convert your audio files to MP3
• Properly label (tag) your MP3 files
• Upload the files to your web server or a podcast host (NOTE: podcasting requires more space/bandwidth than static sites)
• Use podcasting software to create your podcast feed
• Place a link to your podcasting feed on your web page
• Submit your podcast feed to podcast directories (optional)

In the series of tutorial videos below, you can click on the movie. It will open and play in a new window... Scroll down for resource links and relevant articles.

First, I've included a short video on how to save files specifically for podcasts. It covers saving MP3 files in Audacity using the podcast tags necessary for listeners to find your podcasts. It also covers dbPowerAmp and RazorLame converters. RazorLame is nice because it can batch-process files.

More on saving MP3's and ID3 tags
bitrate/filesize chart: https://www.libsyn.com/rec_size_chart.html
http://www.podcast411.com/id3tags.html
http://kosso.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/

There are three ways to publish your podcast:

Through your own web site This video shows how to upload software called Dircaster to your site to create your podcast feed on a Linux web server. It takes your MP3's and adds the 'enclosure' needed for podcatchers to read the list of your podcasts.

More on web site podcasts
podcast icons: http://www.timmadden.com.au/podcast-logos.htm
Dircaster: http://www.dircaster.org/

Through your own blog

While blogger.com is not recommended for podcasts, there is a way to do it if you use Feedburner to convert Atom to RSS. However, WordPress and Moveable type have plugins that you can use to ease the process.

A note on Wordpress: if you want to have a podcast feed separate from your blog feed you need to create a category like "podcasts" and create a feed for that category. I was going to do a video on the WordPress podcast plugin (PodPress) but there's already an excellent video tutorial that I've linked to below.

The PodPress plugin will also work for video, so I'll go into greater detail on it in my other website 1stwebsitevideo.com

More on blog podcasts
PodPress plugin: http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/
PodPress Tutorial: http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/podpress-tutorial/
Moveable Type plugin: http://brandon.fuller.name/archives/hacks/mtenclosures/
Podcasting with blogger.com http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/Make_Podcast_Blogger.html

Through a podcast host

While bandwidth costs are about a tenth of what they were two years ago and hard drivespace is cheap, a popular podcast can use up huge amounts of both. While I like the control of podcasting from my own server, many of you may opt for a podcast host, especially if you expand out into video.

One of the best is libsyn.com which has 4 levels of space, but the nice thing is that your podcasts are archived each month for free and you have the same amount of clean space to work from each month AND there are no bandwidth limitations.

There are others like podbus.com where you get 20GB of space and 400GB bandwidth per month for $5 and the price goes up depending on bandwidth used, and hipcast.com and podlot.com, but I still like libsyn.com best.

One other thing... every good podcast I've listened to has brief intro and exit music to set the stage. You can review the procedures to create your own background music on the Audio Editing page or do it the easy way with  www.frontandbackmusic.com