Education
Click on the title of this blog posting to listen to this podcast episode. The transcript is provided below.
:: Transcript ::
Now that you've created your blog and made your first posting, it's now time to create the XML file that is required for your podcast to push media content to subscribers. One major reason for using a blog as a means for posting a link to your podcast on the Web is that most blogging software automatically creates an RSS feed necessary for a podcast. What is RSS you might ask? RSS is commonly used to refer to "Really Simply Syndication," is a popular method for sharing content without requiring readers to continually visit a website to see what is new. More details about RSS is covered in the workshop entitled, "Creating and Using Blogs" offered by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.
RSS files are in XML format, with XML standing for Extensible Markup Language. What's important to remember is that the XML file is the element of the podcast that enables the "pushing" of the media file(s) to the subscribers rather than them having to manually revisit your website or blog to download the content.
Blogger automatically creates an XML feed of your blog and updates it every time you make a new posting to your blog. But, you need to make sure that you have the "Site Feed" option enabled. After logging-in to blogger and accessing the dashboard of your blog, click the "Settings" tab and then the link for the "Site Feed." Make sure that "Publish Site Feed" is set to "Yes" and that "Descriptions" is set as "Full." Further, note the Site Feed URL for your blog. You're going to need that in just a moment to create your podcast feed.
You might be thinking….ok…if Blogger automatically creates an XML feed of my blog and updates it every time I make a new posting, isn't that all I need? On some blog services, the automatically-created XML file is fine. However, Blogger doesn't save the media extensions necessary for podcatching software such as iTunes to see the locations of the .mp3 media files. Therefore, you need to take one more step before people can begin subscribing to your podcast.
Make sure that you've noted the site feed URL that Blogger lists in your blog dashboard. Write it down or copy & paste it into another browser window so you have it saved. Then, go to www.feedburner.com and enter the feed address that you just saved, check the box next to "I am a podcaster!" and then click "Next." Follow the step-by-step instructions provided to create your podcast feed on FeedBurner. You'll be prompted to create a free account on FeedBurner that you can use to return and modify your feed settings or add other feeds at any time. When you've finished this registration process with FeedBurner, you'll be provided with a link to your podcast. That URL is the URL that individuals wishing to subscribe to your podcast need to subscribe to using iTunes or some other media aggregator in order to receive your new episodes automatically. You can email the URL to those you wish to invite to subscribe, or you can add a link to your blog so that anyone who visits your blog will be able to easily subscribe to your podcast if they wish. In the next episode we'll discuss how to add a subscribe link to your podcast feed.
:: Transcript ::
Now that you've created your blog and made your first posting, it's now time to create the XML file that is required for your podcast to push media content to subscribers. One major reason for using a blog as a means for posting a link to your podcast on the Web is that most blogging software automatically creates an RSS feed necessary for a podcast. What is RSS you might ask? RSS is commonly used to refer to "Really Simply Syndication," is a popular method for sharing content without requiring readers to continually visit a website to see what is new. More details about RSS is covered in the workshop entitled, "Creating and Using Blogs" offered by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center.
RSS files are in XML format, with XML standing for Extensible Markup Language. What's important to remember is that the XML file is the element of the podcast that enables the "pushing" of the media file(s) to the subscribers rather than them having to manually revisit your website or blog to download the content.
Blogger automatically creates an XML feed of your blog and updates it every time you make a new posting to your blog. But, you need to make sure that you have the "Site Feed" option enabled. After logging-in to blogger and accessing the dashboard of your blog, click the "Settings" tab and then the link for the "Site Feed." Make sure that "Publish Site Feed" is set to "Yes" and that "Descriptions" is set as "Full." Further, note the Site Feed URL for your blog. You're going to need that in just a moment to create your podcast feed.
You might be thinking….ok…if Blogger automatically creates an XML feed of my blog and updates it every time I make a new posting, isn't that all I need? On some blog services, the automatically-created XML file is fine. However, Blogger doesn't save the media extensions necessary for podcatching software such as iTunes to see the locations of the .mp3 media files. Therefore, you need to take one more step before people can begin subscribing to your podcast.
Make sure that you've noted the site feed URL that Blogger lists in your blog dashboard. Write it down or copy & paste it into another browser window so you have it saved. Then, go to www.feedburner.com and enter the feed address that you just saved, check the box next to "I am a podcaster!" and then click "Next." Follow the step-by-step instructions provided to create your podcast feed on FeedBurner. You'll be prompted to create a free account on FeedBurner that you can use to return and modify your feed settings or add other feeds at any time. When you've finished this registration process with FeedBurner, you'll be provided with a link to your podcast. That URL is the URL that individuals wishing to subscribe to your podcast need to subscribe to using iTunes or some other media aggregator in order to receive your new episodes automatically. You can email the URL to those you wish to invite to subscribe, or you can add a link to your blog so that anyone who visits your blog will be able to easily subscribe to your podcast if they wish. In the next episode we'll discuss how to add a subscribe link to your podcast feed.