Today, podcast is a very intuitive way to connect with people and get loyal long-lasting subscribers. Podcast is much more personal than a blog post. You can actually hear the voice of the person of which you subscribed for the blog posts. Speaking, that is podcasting, confirms that you are actually present which increases your authenticity. But as per my opinion the biggest benefits of podcasting is approaching to new audience and tell people things that you just cannot write in the blog post.
For new people who are just starting out on the web may not afford the premium podcasting services or they just want to take a test on producing podcasts or whatever be the reason, they just want to start podcasting for free.
If you are one of them, then surely you are going to love this post. If you are not one of them, you are still going to love it, trust me. To start a podcast you need some of the following set up ready:
A blog
An RSS feed
An mp3 file(your recorded audio)
A hosting service to host your podcast
1. Creating a Blog
Starting with the first one, that is the blog. If you have not created a blog till now you can create it for free at Blogger or WordPress. But I prefer for premium blog as you can have the whole independency in your own hands but for trying and experimenting you can go for free too.
Blog is needed because it will be the main source that will run your podcast. Yes, your blog will run your podcast. Running a podcast is a bit tricky. It’s not like that you upload your mp3 file and it’s done.
You have to set up a blog in a clean and neat way. You can create posts on the topic of your blog. We do offer a free WordPress blog setup for our readers in case you are interested.
2. Creating RSS Feed
Going to the second step – creating an RSS feed. If you haven’t heard before anything about RSS feed than you are going to learn it in the next 5 minutes.
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or in technical terms it is Really Simple Syndication. This is the format that is used over web to syndicate data automatically.
Often subscribers use RSS feed so they do not have to come back to the site every time it is updated. They just have to read the update. Here is the screenshot of webloggerz.com’s RSS feed from FeedBurner.
This is what a feed looks like in FeedBurner. If you have WordPress or Blogger you have already set up your RSS feed because it is preset by them. So nothing to worry here. What you have to do is to put your mp3 file in one of the post and everything is done.
3. Creating a New MP3 File (Your Recorded Audio)
Let’s see the third point on creation of an mp3 file. You want to start a podcast because you want to say something to the people in your own voice. The best way of doing this can be to record your voice in the computer with the help of a headphone and mic.
Once you have an mp3 file recorded you have to do some changes to make it readable by web services or web media players. You have to tag your file for that. Tagging means inserting metadata about your file. It is very simple and it can be done easily with PodBean (We’ll discuss it later).
4. Finding Hosting Service to Host Your Podcast
Fourth and the last stage of podcasting – Podcast Hosting. PodBean is the service that will host your mp3 file and do all other things such as file tagging for free.
Before starting with PodBean let me first clarify you a fact that you need to know about podcasting.
A question – Which is the best place where you can get the audience for your podcast apart from your blog? The answer is iTunes. iTunes is currently the most preferred podcasting platform on the web.
Okay, moving again to PodBean, first you need to create an account on PodBean. You can go to PodBean from here.
After signing in it looks something like this.
Click on the big Publish button.
After clicking on the Publish button, this screen will appear. Write the title of your podcast. You have to write something introductory about your podcast on your blog. Then write a brief description about your podcast.
Now upload the file that you recorded earlier in step 3 and select the file type as mp3. Select the category and logo for your podcast.
After the Duration menu there is the menu called Post specific settings for iTunes. Click on that and you will find the following options.
These are the most important settings as this information will show on iTunes and other platforms where your podcast will be live.
So first one is Subtitle – this is the subtitle you want to have in your podcast.
After subtitle is the Summary. Insert a small summary of what is your podcast is all about.
In Author name you know what to do. Insert your name.
Explicit is the option if your podcast is not for people under the age of 18 or has the content that may not be suitable for certain audiences. If it is, select Yes or else No.
And the last one is Block and that can be used if you do not want that your podcast appear on iTunes. Select the option as per your choice.
Filling all the details relevant to iTunes settings was tagging what we discussed earlier in step 3 of mp3 file creation. How simple was that!
Hit the blue Publish button to publish your podcast but still there is one step remaining to be done.
Submitting to iTunes
And that one remaining step is telling iTunes that your podcast is ready to go live. You need to have iTunes on your computer for registering your podcast on iTunes. Here’s the link.
After clicking publish button go to your site that is created by PodBean. You can go there by clicking view site.
You will see your blog that has been created by PodBean. For free membership you have to use the blog given by PodBean instead of WordPress or Blogger or your own premium one. You can go premium and can use your own blog.
You will find your PodBean RSS feed link that will look like this:
This is the RSS feed link that you need to submit to iTunes for registering your podcast on iTunes. Podcast registration is free on iTunes. Open iTunes in your computer and go to iTunes Store. Then select Podcasts from the upper menu.
This is the podcast category in the iTunes Store. In the Podcasts quick links last second link is - Submit a Podcast. Click on that and it will look like this.
You have to submit your feed URL that we just saw above here. Click Submit and you are done. After submitting your URL iTunes will review and will register within around 48 hours. You will need an Apple id and you can get it easily for free on the Apple website.
Recommended Reading: How To Get Traffic To Your New Blog
From first step till the last you can create a whole podcast for free. This is it. You have done it. You have made your first podcast for free.
If you have any questions or queries, please ask them via comments below.
The post How To Start A Podcast (Free) Step by Step appeared first on Webloggerz.