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This week I managed to figure out how to podcast. It wasn’t too hard, but there was a small learning curve. Here is a small how to tutorial that I am placing up because I know there are a lot of friends of mine that would love to know how to do this…

(Disclaimer: I am not a podcast guru)

Here is a simple format for setting up a podcast for sermons…

+ First things first…you will need to record your sermons. It money is an issue; a good software would be Audacity. Audacity is a freeware device that allows you to record and save to mp3 format. (I currently use Audacity to record our sermon series, and Adobe Audition for editing.)

+ Once you have your sermons in mp3 form you will need to upload them to your web server. Keep it simple by creating a folder called “podcast” and placing all your mp3’s in there.

+ You also need to think about creating an icon that will be used in iTunes. Whatever you create, keep the size around 400x400 pixels. Place the icon in the podcast file (the same as where you are placing the mp3’s)

+ Here is where you will need to use your brain. You will have to create an “xml” style sheet that iTunes can read. If you don’t know how to do that, it’s ok, because I have placed a copy of what mine looks like to be downloaded…as well as a link that will explain what all the tags mean below…(You should be able to just put your links where you see my links…and change the information within the tags to make it your own.)

Podcast.xml

Podcast411-Howto

+ Once you are done with your xml style sheet, save it in the root directory of your website. (If you were to link to it, it would look like this…http://www.yourwebname.com/podcast.xml)

+ Now that you have everything in place it’s time to submit it to iTunes…you can do this by opening your iTunes and proceeding to the iTunes Store. Once it opens up, on the left hand side is a menu. Click on the “Podcast” link. Once it takes you to the podcasting section…scroll down, and again, on the left hand side you will find a link, near the bottom, that says “submit your podcast”. Click it. The page that opens next will be a place for you to submit your xml style sheet URL. (It should read something like, http://www.yourwebname.com/podcast.xml)