If you are podcasting as a hobby or as part of a startup business then distributing your podcast through a website or an RSS feed will define your options. These aren't by any means bad options, and they will be the choices of the overwhelming majority of podcasters and their listeners. One option often asked about is password protecting an RSS feed. It's possible to do this, but it's not particularly easy, and many of the RSS aggregators don't handle passwords with any grace. It's much easier to password-protect your site (or particular pages from your site) to place limits on the people who can reach the XML button to begin with. If you're not an expert in web scripting, you should get someone's pre-written scripts to use. One option is to build your site, with the blog features for your show notes and management of all your content using scripts from http://www.newsscript.co.uk/. The Xtra version of the software costs $19 and has scripts that convert HTML code into RSS feeds, making one less thing that you have to worry about. NewsScript is a complete content management system that includes password protection among its features. Another possibility for corporate-sponsored podcasts is distribution on USB flash memory drives. These small devices can be purchased for low cost in bulk, and for small memory sizes, and make superb transport mechanisms for MP3 files. Easily branded with corporate identity information, they are easy to use in bulk recording devices for distributing podcasts to lots of people in a very controlled fashion.
|