Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular around the world and you can use podcasts for educational or pleasure reasons. In this guide we shall show you both the easy way and the more advanced way to start your own podcast.
Podcast Basics
To be able to learn how to podcast you must first understand the basics of what a podcast is and what it consists of.
A podcast is an audio file that is uploaded as an MP3 file format. The audio file can contain whatever you want it to contain – ranging from sermons through to talk shows and music. The file is then uploaded with an RSS file to your websites server through which your visitors can subscribe to your podcast.
The benefit of a podcast is that people can subscribe to it and receive automatic regular updates without having to keep going back to the website to see if any new audio files have been uploaded – it is very similar to a magazine subscription that is delivered straight to your door.
They can then listen to your podcast through their computer or MP3 player such as an iPod at their pleasure!
The Simple Way to Start a Podcast
Not everyone is interested in learning the detailed approach to starting a podcast – perhaps you want a simple way to get started. There are hundreds of websites that have programs specifically designed to do all the complicated hard stuff for you so that you can get on with creating your podcast.
These websites are often free to use and have step-by-step approaches so that even the most computer-illiterate people can start up their own podcast. Some websites are more advanced than others – with some even allowing you to record live webcasts over your phone using a toll free number! Others will simply take care of the complicated coding part of creating a podcast to save you a lot of time and hassle. We shall look at some of the steps to creating your own podcast below.
Like with any approach to podcasting the first step is to create a quality audio file that you want to send to your subscribers. You need a good idea for your podcast and create something interesting and exciting that people will want to subscribe to and something you can update relatively regularly.
Once you have a well recorded and mixed audio file you must ensure that it has been saved as a .MP3 file, and the higher the encoded rate is the better quality the file will be for your listeners. Approximately 128 kbps is a good level of encoding rate if you are uploading speaking such as a sermon.
When you name your podcast make sure the name and date are clear so it’s obvious to listeners what they are listening to as they may be subscribed to several podcasts at a time.
Once your file is saved you will need to create your RSS podcast feed. There are numerous free services out there that can help you to do this – one of the easiest ways it to do it through a blog. You will then need to post your podcast on the internet which can be done in several ways. If you have your own website then you can put it onto the server as an .rss file and use that as your host, or you can host your files on a website that offers free storage (however this involves you having to publish the podcast manually), or you can sign up to a website that both hosts and publishes your podcast – usually for free.
If you are hosting your podcast on your website’s server then you will need to upload both your RSS and audio files onto the server before adding a link to your podcast onto the appropriate page.
How to Publish your Podcast
One of the easiest and most popular ways to publish your podcast is through iTunes as this is a free and readily available program for everyone. You will need to sign up for an iTunes account and then you should go to the iTunes store and click on the podcast link. You will then be given an option to submit a podcast with easy to follow directions.
It often takes a few days for it to go up on iTunes – so keep checking back to see if it is there.
