HOW TO MAKE A PODCAST

This is intended as a fairly simple guide to making and posting a podcast. For more detail, please see Apple's Podcast Technical Specifications Page.

Firstly, you need to record your first podcast episode in an audio editor, and save it as an mp3 file (not Windows Media, RealMedia or Flash). Don't include any spaces or accented characters in the name - stick to plain letters and numbers, and - or _. Upload this to your iDisk or another server and note the URL by which it can be accessed.

Now you need to write the 'feed' file which tells iTunes and other services about your podcast.  There are programs which can do all this for you and make the process a lot simpler: one such, for Macs, is Podcast Maker, and iWeb can also do this; I don't know about Windows but there must be similar programs. Personally I wouldn't mess about writing my own XML file - in fact I use Podcast Maker (right) which can also make enhanced (illustrated) podcasts.

If you are going to write the file yourself: copy the sample XML file below and paste it into a text editor. Amend the sections in red (of course they'll probably be black in the text editor) with suitable information. Note that there must be no line breaks between the < and > tags (the browser display may have put some in).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
 
<channel>
<title>THE NAME OF YOUR PODCAST</title>
<link>THE URL OF THE WEB PAGE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>&#x2117; &amp; &#xA9; YEAR, AND YOUR NAME (OPTIONAL)</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>A PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING THE SUBJECT OF YOUR PODCAST</itunes:summary>
<description>A BRIEF SENTENCE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>John Doe</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>AN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR VISITORS (OPTIONAL)</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:image href="URL OF AN IMAGE FOR THE PODCAST" />
<itunes:category text="CHOOSE A CATEGORY FROM THE APPLE LIST (SEE BELOW)">
<itunes:category text="CHOOSE A CATEGORY SUBTITLE"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="ANOTHER CATEGORY (OPTIONAL)"/>
 
<item>
<title>TITLE OF THE EPISODE</title>
<itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE FOR THE EPISODE</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR EPISODE</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE" length="FILE SIZE IN BYTES" type="FOR AN MP3 FILE - audio/mpeg" />
<guid>THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE</guid>
<pubDate>DATE, E.G. Wed, 15 Jun 2005 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>DURATION H:MM:SS</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>ENTER KEYWORDS FOR SEARCHING</itunes:keywords>
<itunes:explicit>yes IF CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL, OTHERWISE no</itunes:explicit>
</item>
 
 
</channel>
</rss>

Apple provide a list of suitable categories here and it's best to stick to them. The URL for the media file given in the 'enclosure' tag  must be a direct link to the file, not using a script to force a download, and scripts redirecting to the actual file may not work. Also, your episodes cannot be password-protected (and you cannot charge for your podcast).

A caveat: if you are hand-writing the feed you cannot use the '&' character directly, e.g. 'Apples & Pears'; you must use the html code for it: 'Apples &amp; Pears'. A loose '&' in your feed will cause it to be unreadable (since its presence indicates the start of a code which you are not supplying or concluding).

The 'Podcast image' which appears on the iTunes Store page (see the illustration below) is referenced in the 'itunes:image' tag; some people have found that it can take several days to show after the podcast first appears, or if you change it it can also take several days before the change comes into effect. Note that when people subscribe to a podcast they do not see this image: the explanation for that is here.

Save the feed as a plain text file with the name rss.xml or podcast.xml - or any name but the extension must be .xml (and not .txt). Upload this to your iDisk or server.

When you come to add further episodes, duplicate the <item>...<item> section and place it above the present <item> section (so you get latest items on top - unless you want them on the bottom of the list). Enter the data for the new episode, save and upload.

To test your feed: open iTunes: from the 'Advanced' menu choose 'Subscribe to Podcast'. Enter the URL of the feed file (not the audio file) and hit return. If the feed works your podcast and episode(s) will appear in iTunes and you can check if it plays. If so you are ready to submit it. (You can delete it from iTunes at this point).

If it doesn't work, go to http://www.feedvalidator.org/ and enter the feed URL - this will show any errors. (It may throw up a few insignificant ones).

If all is well, you can submit your podcast. You will need to be logged in to the iTunes Store. Enter this URL in your browser: https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast. This will open iTunes to a pane where you can submit the podcast: again, enter the feed URL, not the URL of the media file. iTunes does not store your media, it just uses the contents of the feed file to provide the details and access on the iTunes Store. (None of this will cost you anything).

It may take some days before the podcast is accepted, since each new podcast has to be checked. You may be rejected for unauthorized use of copyright material, bad language and sexual content, libel, or racist comments - but of course you would never do any of those things, so you should be OK.

When your podcast is accepted, iTunes will give you a URL which will open iTunes to your podcast. You will also eventually be able to search on its title, though this can take some time to become available. However searching just on the category in the iTunes Store is most unlikely to throw up your podcast. There are thousands of podcasts out there, and it would be quite impossible to display on one page the entire list for any category. What you see are 'featured' podcasts, chosen by Apple as being special; please see this Tech Note: note that there is no way you can influence the selection other than making your podcast really special (bribery won't work).

When you want to add an episode, upload it and amend and reupload the feed file as described above (new episodes above the old ones). It usually takes at least 48 hours for the new episode to appear, though subscribers see the changes immediately (since they are accessing the feed directly, not through the Store). Regrettably the iTunes Store provides no way of monitoring the number of people who visit your podcast.

iTunes isn't the only method of disseminating your blog: there are various sites which can do this, a popular one being Feedburner: you give it the URL of your feed file and your episodes will appear in a web page. However, though Feedburner can submit your feed to the iTunes Store I strongly advise against doing this: there have been complaints of it re-writing the XML and causing problems. If you want your podcast in iTunes, submit your feed file directly.

If you need to move your podcast to a new server, you need to place a <itunes:new-feed-url>URL OF NEW FEED</itunes:new-feed-url> tag in the section of the old feed below <channel> and leave it there for a few weeks. For more information see:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html#changing