Web Sites Do-It-Yourself for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. Podcasting Your Own Show

• Preparing a podcast

• Recording a podcast

• Editing an audio file

• Publishing a podcast

If you haven't been hiding in a cave on Mars, you've probably already heard the term podcasting. It's one of the hotter Internet buzzwords of recent years, and many people have scrambled like mad to incorporate podcasts onto Web sites.

The techie explanation is that a podcast is any audio file stored on the Internet that can be downloaded and played later on either a computer or a portable device. In real terms, a podcast is a radio show that you can take anywhere on a portable device, such as an iPod, or play on any computer that's connected to the Internet. Podcasts are better than radio programs because you can start, stop, and rewind whenever you want. You can play them any time, anywhere. Podcasts enable you to connect with your site visitors or community through music or talk or both, enriching the experience or content your site has to offer. You find examples of how sites put podcasting to use in the nearby sidebar "Who's podcasting?"

A good podcast can consist of a live interview that's available to listeners for as long as a Web site hosts it, a lecture by a Nobel prize-winning professor that students can use to help them study, or the wail of a newborn infant taking her first breaths. A podcast can be a long-winded blogger's rant that will be heard only by a ...