Creating a Podcast

Podcasting is easy to get involved in for anyone who wants to create a podcast. The first thing necessary is access to a web server. The user needs to be able to upload files to the server itself, so podcasting can't be done from a simple blogging or journal site.

It's probably best to register a domain and find a host for the site. Once the site has been set up and the user has access to the host server, a small program called dircaster.php should be customized for your site, and can be used to automatically generate the RSS feed that the subscribers will download. The mp3 files should be uploaded to the proper directory after all the information about the file has been attached.

After they are in the directory, the address of dircaster.php, as long as it is in the same directory as the mp3 files, will generate an RSS file that will tell your subscribers where to download the latest podcasts from. To update and and a new episode, create and upload the new mp3 file to the same directory. When dircaster.php is accessed, it will recognize the new file and relay the information on to your visitors.

With these steps, it is easy for anyone to create a podcast with a small expenditure of time and effort. The site is easy to set up; domains and hosting are now cheap enough almost anyone to have a small site, and the programs necessary are all easy to find and use.

I'll take you to Music Podcasting in the next post.