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Free Website Content
What Exactly Is A Podcast?
What Exactly Is A Podcast?
By Sharon Housley
The term "podcast" was initially used
to reference an RSS feed that contained audio files
in the item's enclosure field. The meaning of podcasting
has since expanded, and now refers to RSS feeds that
contain all types of media, including audio and video,
in the item's enclosure field. For the non-technical
folks, podcasting is simply a means of syndicating and
distributing rich-media files via the Internet. The
content contained in a podcast can vary significantly,
from a song, to a educational lecture, to a political
debate, to just about anything else. One great thing
about podcasting is the wide variety of content formats
it can contain. And unlike radio or television broadcasts,
the recipient can listen or view at their leisure, choosing
for themselves when and where they wish to listen or
view a podcast.
How To Create A Podcast
While it may sound complex, the software
and technology available today can make the process
of creating a podcast quite simple...
1. Record The Content
The easiest way to create an podcast/RSS
feed is to use software designed specifically for that
purpose. There are a variety of audio and video applications
available that make recording and editing rich-media
files quite simple.
2. Create The Podcast Feed
Again, the easiest way to do this is
to use dedicated software. There are applications available,
such as FeedForAll ( http://www.feedforall.com
), that will walk you through the process of creating
a podcast feed. Or if you prefer, you can manually create
the RSS feed following the steps at "Make RSS Feeds"
( http://www.make-rss-feeds.com
). There is also a tutorial at http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-tutorial.htm
.
3. Publish The Feed
After the RSS feed is created, put it
on your website, using an FTP client that is built into
your podcast software or another FTP transfer tool,
making it available for others to receive.
Podcast Promotion
Once you have the podcast created and
uploaded to a website host, the next step is to let
your website visitors know that it's available. In order
to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed containing
content related to the website is available, you should
include a colorful graphic on the website. It has become
a standard that nearly all websites having RSS feeds
available will use colorful graphics such as flags as
indicators that RSS feeds are available for specific
content. The flags were initially bright orange rectangles,
but as the popularity has grown, some webmasters have
bent the rules a bit. Use an icon that works well within
your website design, and link the graphic to the podcast
feed.
Another way of letting your visitors know
that your podcast feed is available is to take advantage
of the RSS "aggregators" in use by your visitors. Aggregators
are used by people who subscribe to various RSS feeds,
providing them with a consolidated view of the content
from multiple RSS feeds in a single browser display.
They will automatically detect an RSS feed on a website
if you add a small bit of code in the header field of
an HTML page:
[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="RSS" href=http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml]
In the above example code, be sure to
replace "http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml" with the
actual URL to your specific RSS feed, and also replace
the "[" and "]" square brackets with "<" less-than and
">" greater-than symbols.
In order to increase exposure of your
podcast, it should be submitted to the various Podcast
search engines and directories. This can be done manually.
Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web
page to a search engine, you will need to submit the
link of the actual feed located on your website to the
Podcast directories. There is a large list of Podcast
directories at http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm
.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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This article may be used freely in opt-in
publications and websites, provided that the resource
box is included and the links are active. A courtesy
copy of the issue or a link to any online posting would
be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
.
Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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