In this chapter
With your podcast files prepared and ready, it's time to let the world hear what you've created. You could simply put the file up on a web server and tell people to click on a link, but automated downloads and synchronizing with portable MP3 players are among the strengths of podcasting. You allow your listeners to take advantage of this automatic synchronizing by creating small files that implement RSSReally Simple Syndication or, in another version, Rich Site Summaryon your site. RSS, a special application of XML, allows readers who use one of the many RSS reader or podcast receiver software packages to click on a single link placed on your website, and then have their software check for new podcasts on a regular basis. When they find a new podcast file on your server, their computer will download it automatically, then place it on their MP3 player at the next synchronization session. Now, it's important to understand that RSS is used for many things that don't involve podcasts. News sites, blogs, weather alerts, product announcements, and many other pieces of information can be served through an RSS feed, and captured by a reader that won't handle podcasts at all. We're going to be talking about RSS and XML without paying much attention to these other uses, but you shouldn't forget that there are lots of other RSS and XML applications out there. In this chapter, we'll look at what XML and RSS are and how you create an RSS document. We'll then talk about how you tie all the pieces of RSS and your podcast together, and how to be listed on all the big podcasting directories that can bring thousands of listeners to your podcast. In the next chapter, we'll look at ways you can limit those who listen to your podcast, but for right now we'll assume that you're ready to release your podcast to the worldlet's go. |