coming soon...
can be found here
A Podcast is simply an audio or video file that allows the viewer of your site to subscribe to it, similar to subscribing to a Blog that you read or another website. BTW, to subscribe to this website, click here.
Part one is the creation of the content, the mp3 file or video file itself. You can use Audacity (a free download) or any other audio editing software. If it's video, you will need more equipment and a nonlinear video editor, such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro (only available for the Mac). This may be covered in greater detail in a future tutorial. Let's look at doing an audio podcast.
Equipment (other than the editor) will be a microphone, possibly a mixer, some royalty free music and your time, along with the topic of the show.
The RSS feed.
The real magic of the subscription is the xml file. A typical RSS feed likes like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns="http://my.netscape.com/rdf/simple/0.9/">
<!--<rss version="2.0">-->
<channel>
<title>WicketBang.com--Website Maintenance, Tips and Tricks etc...</title>
<link>http://www.wicketbang.com/</link>
<description>RSS feeds</description>
</channel>
<!--Item 1-->
<item>
<title>Backup/Restore a MySQL DB</title>
<link>http://www.wicketbang.com/DBtips.htm#restoredb</link>
<description>Need to backup and restore a MySQL Database stored on GoDaddy's servers? Then follow the link to learn more...</description>
</item>
<!--Item 2-->
<item>
<title>PHP Image Rotation Script</title>
<link>http://www.wicketbang.com/phptips.htm#rotate</link>
<description> Here's a script and tutorial that will allow you to rotate which image gets displayed on the page without using Flash. This makes for an easier time of updating the images that will rotate. </description>
</item>
</rdf:RDF>
<!--</rss>-->
While this works fine for most blogs and websites, you need a bit more than this.
Enter RSS 2.0.
The xml file has a lot of the same content; however, it also includes and <enclosure> tag, which has the link for the mp3 file (your podcast) . In addition, you may need to consider iTunes specific tags as well. A large portion of podcast viewers are using iTunes. Here's a sample file below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Open for Business</title>
<link>http://www.greymatterideas.com/podcasts/current.htm</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>℗ & © 2008 Greymaterideas &</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>Open Source Software</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Brian K. Vagnini</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>Discussion of Open Source Software and it's implications in business</itunes:summary>
<description>Discussion of Open Source Software and it's implications in business</description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Brian K. Vagnini</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>brian@greymatterideas.com</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:image href="http://www.greymatterideas.com/podcasts/images/open.jpg" />
<itunes:category text="Technology">
<itunes:category text="Open Source"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="TV & Film"/>
<item>
<title>Open for Business-Episode-0001</title>
<itunes:author>Brian K. Vagnini</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>Open for Business-Ep.0001</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Placeholder with intro and a coming soon</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="http://www.greymatterideas.com/podcasts/Open4business-ep0001.mp3" length="591830" type="audio/mpeg" />
<guid>http://www.greymatterideas.com/podcasts/Open4business-ep0001.mp3</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 May 2008 14:36:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>0:36</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>credits, music</itunes:keywords>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
The length attribute is expressed in bytes, NOT kilobytes or megabytes. The easiest way to get this is to right click on the file and select Properties. Copy the filesize (591,830) and paste into the xml file, removing the comma.
You can use a client, such as Juice, or you can use my.yahoo.com (if you have a Yahoo account).
An example of the finished product can be found here at http://www.greymatterideas.com/podcasts/current.htm