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Creating Your Own Online Radio Station
More and more podcasts continue to pop up online now that there are more than 80 million iPod units sold (14 million expected to be sold this 4th quarter). Podcasts started out on the grassroots, amateur level.
Over the last year, though, mainstream radio broadcasters (PBS, CBSRadio, Clear Channel, and many others) have been podcasting their own show programming, ready for download through iTunes or directly from their websites.
Even non-radio media companies and marketers have started their own podcasts (Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, USA Today and more), proving podcasting can do business.
Podcasting has leveled the playing field for people around the world. No longer do you need a FCC license, transmitter and tower to broadcast your content. With just a few tools, you can quickly and easily set up your own talk show on the topic of your choice. All you need: a computer, a microphone, and a passion to share your knowledge with others.
If you have the itch to begin podcasting, a cottage industry has sprung up to easily set you up and help you make a pretty slick professional-sounding show. But which tools should you use?
The Jointblog periodically offers suggestions to help demystify podcasting. Kim Roach, editor for SiteProNews & SEO-News, offers these excellent ideas:Here are 5 basic steps to creating your own podcast...
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1. Get the right equipment (buy a quality mic, don't use the one on your computer).
2. Produce and save your podcast (free download Audacity at open-source site SourceForge.net or the Sound Forge Audio Studio package; insert downloadable music intros from music.podshow.com, podsafeaudio.com or audiofeeds.org).
3. Create an RSS feed (save as a low-bandwidth mp3 file. For talk shows and audio books, I would recommend a bit rate of 48 - 56k Mono. However, if you are recording music or music/talk combinations, you'll want to choose between 63 - 96k Stereo. A high bit rate (around 160kbps) is great for music. Don't forget to edit the ID3 tags identifying the artist, title, and genre to make your podcast more findable).
4. Upload your podcast to your website (Audacity, Podmaxx, iPodder and Audacity all can help you with easy functions. Of course, use your own blog. Or find some favorite forum or MySpace websites that encourage podcast uploads. If you can get onto iTunes, you know you made it big.).
5. Publicize your podcast (Make it RSS capable for easy directory listing and easy subscription downloading for automatic synching of new programs. An RSS file is created in XML and will contain four main items: title, description, link, and enclosure. You can also use your RSS feed to provide your listeners with additional information, including file length, file size, file name, category, topics, and channels.
For easy RSS file generating, go to tdscripts.com podcast-generator).
If you would like to provide your visitors with convenient play buttons for your podcast, you can do this using odeo.com or audible.com.
Publicize your podcast using a custom podcast chicklet at TwisterMC.
Make sure you auto ping Weblogs.com.
Submit your podcast to iTunes as well as other major and minor podcast directories. You can find a complete list of directories at masternewmedia.org.
The video podcasting ninja offers some tips
How Podcasting Works
What is Podcasting?
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, December 06, 2006,
