Podcasting Creating Audio Podcasts HOW TO MAKE PODCASTS...2 Delivering Your Podcasts...2 Domain Names...2 Hosting Your Files...2 Show Note Hosting...3 FREE & EASY & UPGRADEABLE PODBEAN...3 Registering with Podbean...4 Initial Login...6 Podbean Account...7 Uploading Files...7 Posting your Show Notes...9 Subscribing to your Podcast...12 BACK TO YOUR DOMAIN...13 Mark Morley 2007
How to Make Podcasts Delivering Your Podcasts Once you have created your podcast file (mp3), you need to upload it onto the Internet, so you need a hosting service. You ll also need a website or a blog to tell people about your podcast. And lastly, you ll need to create the feed to tell your subscribers whenever there is a new podcast available for them. Domain Names The Domain Name is the distinct address (URL) of your presence on the web. You need a suitable Domain Name for your podcast. You may be happy with a less than memorable address assigned by one of the free hosting services; if not, you ll need to think up a memorable and unique name, and then register it with one of the companies that do this. Some examples are GoDaddy.com, 123-reg.co.uk, and 1and1.co.uk, but it is suggested that you do a search on Google for Domain Name Registration and compare the prices and services of a few companies. There is usually a text input box on the home page of these sites to type in the name you want and check to see if it is available. Chances are that it is already taken and you will be offered other names that are less appealing and have online or official tagged on. It is worth having a list of possible names you like and going down the list until you find one that isn t taken. You will probably be offered a list of your name with different domain name extensions, like.org,.net,.tv, which you can also register to protect your name, but that is your choice and it will cost a lot more. Probably the ones of most interest will be.co.uk or.org.uk (and you might be interested in.com). As an individual it is recommended that you should pay the bit extra and choose to have your domain listed as private in the WHOIS registry, otherwise all your contact details will be listed for all to see. Hosting Your Files Media files (audio and video) can be very big files. Most web hosting companies charge for the bandwidth traffic you use per month, i.e. the amount people download from your site. So for example a 30 minute audio podcast is about 10 to 15MB in size; if 1000 people download it that is 15GB of bandwidth traffic per month. It is then easy for you to exceed your bandwidth allowance per month, which can lead to additional, expensive costs. Famously there was a case of a podcast about the television programme Lost, produced by two individuals, which became so popular that they had to shut it down due to bandwidth problems with their hosting company. They were victims of their own success. However, there are some companies that have a different business model for their hosting charges, specifically for the podcast phenomenon. They charge a monthly fee for filespace and allow unlimited downloads. Probably the oldest of these is Liberated 2
Syndication (www.libsyn.com), which hosts some well know podcasts. Other companies include PodBean (www.podbean.com), Switchpod (www.switchpod.com), Podcast FM (www.podcastfm.co.uk), and Cyber Ears (www.cyberears.com). Again, it is suggested that you do a search on Google for podcast hosting and compare the prices and services of a few companies. Many of these services are designed to upload your files via the web, which is the easiest way if you are not used to other methods of file transfer between computers. Show Note Hosting To provide information about your podcast, commonly called show notes, you ll need either a web site or a blog. The majority of podcasters use a blog, and this is generally becoming the standard. You just need to decide which service to use. A blog hosting site is an easy way to create the web pages you ll need to run along with your podcast files and to give links so people can directly download your files without using podcatcher software if they wish. Free & Easy & Upgradeable Podbean Some of the podcast hosting sites have free facilities to allow you to try out and get started before getting more serious about your podcasting. You can then upgrade you subscription to a more comprehensive service. Podbean is one such provider, available at http://www.podbean.com/ 3
Registering with Podbean To register for the free service, either click Sign Up in the top right or within the Free Podcast Hosting box click on Sign Up Now. Both lead you to: The Basic Free service is the box on the left, so click the Sign Up Now button. Now you get a choice of totally free or paying $1.99 for additional bandwidth, storage and FTP functions. 4
Scroll down and fill in the registration form. Under Create Your Account is the Member Name. You need to choose this carefully as it will be what your podcast feed is called and you can t change it. Fill in the rest of your details. Read the Terms of Service and if you are happy, check the box. Type in the Verification number, and then click Sign Up Now. 5
Initial Login Your username and password are emailed to the address you gave and you are taken to a login page. Type in your Username and Password, and then click Login >>. You re logged into your new account, and firstly you are asked to upload an image that will be displayed within your account and in itunes. You can skip this for now. 6
Podbean Account You are placed in your account Dashboard. From here, using the menu items you ll do all your blog publishing, upload your mp3 audio files, and manage your account. Uploading Files You should upload your files before you start your blog post. (If you do it the other way round, when you finish your text and come to upload your file you lose all your text.) Click on Upload and the Media Manager opens: (FTP Upload is not available on the free registration.) 7
Click the upload button to see: Use the Browse button to locate your mp3 files in your hard disk folders. Click on the file and then click Open. The file name then appears in the 1st file: text box. Click the Upload button. The file is uploaded into your account and appears in the list of Current Media files. Repeat the process until you ve uploaded all the files you need. 8
Posting your Show Notes Now you re ready to create your blog, which will be the show notes for your podcast. Click Publish The Tag can be a keyword relating to the episode subject or simply the episode number. It has to be a minimum of two characters. Enter a suitable Title. Type your episode show notes into the Post text box, including any links. You then need to add the mp3 file to your posting. Under the Podcasting section click Add your audio/video. 9
For Select from account: use the dropdown menu to select a file from those you uploaded into your account earlier. Simply click on the file you want to attach to this episode. Then click the publish button at the bottom. A new Write Post page opens and at the top it shows you that the page was saved successfully and that you can now view it. (Note: you need to complete and publish a blog page within an hour or the content is lost.) An example from a podcast called Poddoom: 10
Clicking the View site >> link gives: If you view the blog you need to click your web browser Back button to get back into your Podbean account. You can listen to your audio by clicking the Listen Now: speaker icon. (I ve found this always gives a distorted representation.) Or you can click the Audio MP3 icon and, depending on your setup, the file will play within a web page. Now you just need to personalise some of your settings. 11
Click the Settings menu item on the top to open the General Options page. Here you can upload your logo image and activate it so it appears on your show notes blog. Also we need to change the Brief Description: which is the text that appears under your title and needs to reflect your podcast or be a tag line. Use the dropdown menu alongside Channel category: to select an appropriate subject category for your podcast. When you ve finished, click the Update Options >> button at the bottom of the page. If successful, Options saved. appears at the top of the screen. You can change the template of your show notes blog by clicking Layout from the menu. Subscribing to your Podcast If you view your site, down on the bottom right of the default template you ll see the Subscribe and Feeds icons. This means visitors to your show notes can automatically subscribe in itunes to your podcast by clicking the top icon. Or they can click on the RSS Podcast icon to get your podcast feed URL, which they can copy into any podcatcher software. 12
Back to your Domain If you had a domain name set up, it is currently parked doing nothing with your registry service. You need to go back and have the URL redirected to your new show notes pages. Then you can publicise your podcast name and it will direct users to your show notes. 13