What are Podcasts?
The term podcast was adopted in 1999 and depending on source, officially accepted in either 2003 or 2004. It is a combination of the word "iPod" and the word "broadcast."
An iPod is not required to enjoy podcasting, and podcasts can be played back on virtually all MP3-capable playback devices, or home computers, once they the Podcast stream has been downloaded in MP3 format.
Podcasts are subscription-based like a magazine. And like TiVo, only the information that you're interested in is delivered.
You select what you'd like to listen to, subscribe to these podcast "channels", very similar to an RSS feed, download to your computer or iPod, or MP3 player.
When you synchronize your computer with your MP3 player, it will download automatically. From then on, you can listen to the Podcasts when you want to on any MP3-compatible play-back device.
And once you're subscribed, anytime you are online; the podcasts will automatically update for you- just like a magazine subscription.
The main advantage of podcasts .vs other popular types of broadcasting is that Podcasts combine the best of radio, portable CD players, and satellite radio, in one convenient and popular easy-to-stream file format.
Similar terms that directly relate to the same technology as Podcasting are:
- Palmcasting (PDA devices that can send and receive Podcasts);
- Punchcasting (a method of downloading podcasts into your RSS-equipped smartphone without having to computer-sync it first) .
Benefits of Podcasting
- Organizations like non-profits, schools, and churches can utilize podcasts to keep people abreast on what's going on, such as services, speeches, meeting transcriptions, news, seminars, etc.
- Businesses can benefit with podcasting by establishing their brand awareness in the global marketplace. They can offer tips, strategies, and information on their products, as well as position themselves as experts within their industry.
- Individuals like to podcast because everything goes in podcasting. From opinions and rants, to artistic offerings audio treasure-hunt contests... everything's fair game with podcasting.
The quality and format of podcasting is extremely varied, including monologue podcasts (1 person simply recording their ideas into a microphone), and dialogue podcasts (2 or more people, such as an interview), as well music.
In order for you to download and listen to podcasts, you need a free retrieval program (also known as a media aggregator), which is a program designed to automatically access an online podcast file (a podcast feed), and automatically download the audio or video file associated with the feed.
There are hundreds of these media aggregator programs, such as Juice, IpodderX, PodSpider and
Nimiq. Once your podcast retriever is installed, you basically locate a podcast you're interested in and point the program to retrieve it for you, just like an RSS feed.Just as with any other downloadable media types, there are large Podcast repositories for both free and paid podcasts.
Creating your own good Podcasts is very similar to Blogging, or Vloging, except the audio counter-part. It is far better to start out with 2 to 5 minute high-quality Podcasts, than merely putting out 20 minutes of fluff that will ultimately send your listener elsewhere.
Naturally, doing this a good job on a regular basis requires some discipline and legwork on your part, and the most important point to bear in mind (especially when you are trying to attract new podcast subscribers) is to keep your podcast content fresh, lively and interesting.
To host your own podcasts, you'll want to acquire an easy-to-find PHP code, called dircaster.php and you'll want to edit it to include the specifics of the site; then upload it to your Postcast file host site.
Dircaster.php generates a feed file by checking the contents contained within its directory folder, which is where you'd upload your Podcasts to. For maximum Google love, be sure that the meta tag data (spiderable info about your MP3 file) is correct before uploading.
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