podcasting

You can publish your audio file by linking to it in your blog. For the purposes of this lesson, we'll use a Wordpress blog to upload the podcast.

Sign into your Wordpress blog. When you create a new post or edit a post, you will see an "Add media" menu above the composition window. Click the icon for uploading audio, which is a pair of music notes.

A window will open asking you to select and upload the podcast file. If you click Upload from Browser, you can navigate to the file. If you have already uploaded the podcast onto a web server and know its URL, you can fill in the From URL field instead.

Once the podcast is uploaded, be sure to add a title and description. When you're done, click Insert into Post. This will add a link to your post. You can add any other text or materials to your post.

When published, the post will include a link with the title of the podcast.

Anyone who clicks on the link will go directly to the podcast file, which will play in most browsers. (If you are hosting your own copy of WordPress--that is, not a wordpress.com blog--you can install plug-ins that allow you to add an audio player directly within the blog post. One of the most common and reliable plugins available is simply called the "Audio Player plugin.")

Wordpress also has a Podcasting page that gives some insight into how you can distribute podcasts. It explains the steps needed to create a secondary RSS feed dedicated to your podcast. Perhaps most helpfully, it includes descriptions and links to specific Wordpress plugins that will help you feed, tag, and, in some cases, add podcasts to the iTunes Podcast Directory.

By publishing the podcast file on your blog, you can also configure a service like Feedburner (which is free) and its Smartcaster feature, to help you distribute your podcast to blog subscribers. FeedBurner will also convert it to an RSS enclosure, which can then be read by programs like iTunes. You can view a video of how to set up a FeedBurner feed. With the podcast RSS feed set up, you can go to the main Podcast Directory page in iTunes and ask iTunes to list your podcast.