FranchiseOpportunities

Happy Tuesday, Everyone.

I wanted to dedicate a single post to podcasts. Some of you have expressed confusion and had some questions about how exactly to get a hold of the podcasts posted on this site. I will bullet-point some basics about podcasting, then some more advanced ways you can use podcasts.

Please enjoy.

What, exactly, is a podcast? Well, simply stated, it is a conversation, interview, or any type of audio (usually in mp3 format) that contains a person (or people) talking about a particular topic hosted on a web site.

1. Just because it is a “podcast” does not mean that it has to be listened to on an iPod. The iPod was really the first place where these digital recordings could be placed and listened to remotely. Thus, they got the name. But if you don’t have an mp3 player, fear not, you can listen to the file on any computer that has a media player.

2. Where can I find podcasts? They are everywhere. You will find them on a lot of web sites today — especially informational ones, blogs (which makes them a blogcast), podcast directory web sites, and if you’re advanced in podcasting, you will know how to make them come to you via an RSS feed.  

3. What is a blogcast? It’s what I do. A blogcast is the publication of a podcast(s) on a blog. I, however, refer to mine as podcasts because I want to eventually make them available to you via RSS feed.

4. What is an RSS feed? Who is RSS and why is he always hungry?  Well, in this context, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a way to share broadcasted information with an audience. On your end, you would visit a web site on a regular basis - we’ll use this blog for example - and get to know and like it. So, instead of having to visit the site whenever you want to see what’s going on, you can “subscribe” to it by selecting one of the sharing icons. That way, whenever I update the blog with a podcast, you will automatically get the information at whichever destination you’ve chosen.

5. I’ve heard iTunes is good for podcasts feeds. How do I do that? This is pretty advanced for most people. And unfortunately, my podcasts are not set up to feed into iTunes yet. But, when they are, you first need to make sure that you’ve got the most recent version of iTunes installed on your computer. Once you see that you have a “Podcasts” category on your left menu, you will need to change your preferences under “edit” > “preferences”. Then, select the podcast tab. From there you can change all of the options to your liking as far as when you get new podcasts, how often you want iTunes to check for them, etc. You would then select the XML button on the blog (this is the RSS feed that we do not yet have), and drag it into the “podcast” option on the left menu bar in iTunes. And voilà! You are subscribed.

6. What is iTunes? For our podcasting purposes, iTunes would be the “podcatcher,” or, software or that can receive a podcast. It is not the only podcatcher out there, though. Some alternatives include: Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, Mediafly SyncClient for Windows, Juice, which is a multiplatform podcatcher, Doppler  for Windows, Podget for Linux and Podracer, also for Linux.

Please feel free to comment or email me with any more questions you have. I would love to post them just in case other readers have the same question. Just remember: The only stupid question is one that is not asked.

Until next time,
Amy Greene

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