Podcasting 101

Listening to Podcasts
Podcasting is the process of syndicating audio and video content over the internet. The content can be accessed via a website, an aggregator like itunes or ipodder, or a portable media device.  

To find podcasts on the internet, one could simply conduct a web search with the word “podcast” included (try “church planting podcast” on Google) or browse any number of podcast directories such as christianpodcastdirectory.com or christianpodder.com.  Most podcasts allow users to listen or view at least a sample of the content using a web browser.

Apple ipod users know that the easiest way to find and subscribe to podcasts is through the itunes software.  Itunes is used to synchronize ipod devices with content that is stored on a computer hard drive, thus allowing podcasts to be heard and viewed anywhere.

The new Internet Explorer7  browser has an rss subscription feature built in.  Podcasters use rss 2.0 to syndicate their content across the internet. IE7 allows the user to subscribe to podcasts directly from the rss feed source.  An rss feed has a url address like a webpage (see http://feeds.feedburner.com/churchplantingpodcast for an example), but most current internet browsers are not configured to read the rss code.

Recording Audio Podcasts
Audacity is free multi-track digital recording software that is very popular with podcasters.  The software with the optional Lame plug-in converts digital audio to the mp3 format necessary for podcasting.  

Recording a Video Podcast
A simple video tutorial on creating video podcasts is available at freevlog.org.

Uploading Podcasts
A podcast is comprised of two files which are hosted on the internet.  The mp3 audio file or mpeg video file needs a home on the web.  Some web hosts will allow a limited amount of storage and bandwidth suitable for storing a few podcast episodes.  However, additional website resources may be needed and can be expensive.  A number of websites (such as christianpoddcer.com and Ourmedia.org) provide free media storage and distribution.

Rss files take up very little space and can be hosted on most websites.  Feeds can be created and uploaded with software such as Feedforall.  However, the easiest way to create rss feeds is to use free blogging software such as blogger and the smartcast feature of feedburner.com.  A complete tutorial on how to turn a blog into a podcast is available at podcastingnews.com.

Podcasting by phone
Podcasts can easily be recorded from any telephone by using audioblogger.  Audioblogger works in conjunction with blogger to provide a simple solution to podcasting.   Audioblogger automatically turns telephone calls into mp3 files and makes them accessible on blogs hosted by blogger.  Except for the cost of the phone call, audioblogger is a free service.