by Steve Humphrey
If you've been online recently, I'm sure you've heard about Think of a podcast as a way to deliver audio content to a First, the name is a little misleading. It comes from 'iPod' Podcasting is made possible by RSS (a type of XML computer Having an iPod or similar digital MP3 Audio player is not There is a lot of free podcast audio for you to listen to What's out there? Music, interviews, seminars, educational Not True. However, podcasting is changing the face of online So where can you find these podcasts? Check out any of these www.podblaze.com Or search for more of these directories with Google, Yahoo, What about making your own podcast for your own business or All that's left is to get them up on the web somewhere and For example, you could open a Producer account at: You can start with the free account, which lets you store up That's an easy and risk-free way to try out podcasting. They Now why would you want to podcast? I can think of many good
podcasting. You might be wondering "What's in it for me?"
Or perhaps "Why should I care about that?" There are many
valid reasons for you to get informed about this hot new
technology.
very large worldwide audience. The easiest analogy is to
think of this technology as giving you the power to create
your own online radio program.
and "broadcasting". It doesn't mean you need an iPod to get
involved. You can listen right on your computer.
code). But have no fear! You don't need to know programming
at all. RSS is simply a delivery system that allows people
to subscribe and stay up to date any time you add a new
podcast show.
required. You can download audio files to your device and
take the audio shows with you. Or you can simply stream the
audio and listen to the podcast show on your computer.
online. Do a search for "podcast" or "MP3" and you'll see
what I mean.
shows, technology shows, news, sports...the list of topics
is amazing. Some people say that podcasting it's going to
replace radio and TV.
audio and traditional radio. Podcasters already number in
the thousands. The number of businesses and individuals
making podcasts is growing at a rapid pace.
sites:
www.podcastalley.com
www.podcastbunker.com
and other search engines and directories.
website? That's not exactly rocket science. Get some sound
recording software (Audacity or WavePad, for example) and a
microphone. Then record some MP3 files yourself.
have them formatted into RSS. Some blogging software and
services allow you to attach audio to a blog post. There's
even free programs you can use.
to 40MB of MP3 files on their server. It's enough for about
four half-hour shows.
also have paid accounts for people who want to do more than
experiment with this new media.
reasons. Here's a few: Put some recordings of your band up
and maybe you'll get a recording contract. Sweet!
If you did a teleseminar, make it available to the world. Maybe you know about news items that the local and national Whatever your reason for wanting to put your music or voice ============================================================ About the Author
Steve Humphrey spent almost 20 years in the telecom industy before becoming a free-lance programmer and consultant. He's taught himself 7 (or more) computer languages and written two ebooks that teach people how to use CGI, Perl and PHP. He was using the Internet several years BEFORE the Web existed. He started building web pages the old-fashioned way - by hand in NotePad. Likes DreamWeaver but still works mainly in text editors.
Position yourself as an expert and people will take you more
seriously.
media won't pick up. Podcasting gives your story a chance to
be heard. Maybe you just want to share something personal
with the world.
on the web, podcasting is an easy and inexpensive way to do
it. So pick up that microphone and record your thoughts. I'm
waiting to hear it.
Steve Humphrey is a programmer, web designer and author of 2
ebooks on programming. His latest project is making podcast
technology easy enough for anyone to use. Visit these sites:
and
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