Hands On - Creating to a Podcast
- Launch Audacity on your computer
- Click the record button (red dot), and record a 10 second sound clip. Click the stop button (square) when you are done.
- From the menu, select File -- Export as MP3. Fill out the appropriate fields, and click OK.
- Close Audacity.
- To download the rss.xml file:
- Create a new directory on your desktop entitled: "podcasting101"
- Right-click on this link, choose "Save As", and save this file to the newly created podcasting101 directory.
- To edit the rss.xml file:
- Open the file with your HTML editor, and fill in the appropriate fields of the XML file.
- Pay special attention to the 2 fields for the link to the MP3 file. For these 2 fields, the URL will point to the place where you will be copying your MP3 file on the Internet server--likely to be something like: http://www.yourwebsite.com/podcasting101/myfirstpodcast.mp3. If this information is not added correctly to the XML file (based on the actual file location), the podcast will definitely fail.
- Be careful not to delete the opening and closing tags for each field in this XML file.
- Save your file when finished
- To copy your files to your web server:
- Launch your FTP program, log in to your web site, and determine the location where you will be saving your MP3 and XML files. We recommend a directory entitled: "podcasting101"
- Copy the MP3 and XML file to the newly created directory
- Write down the full URL to the MP3. It will most likely be:
"http://www.yourwebsite.com/podcasting101/rss.xml".
- To test this URL to make sure it works appropriately, open up a browser window and type in this URL. The MP3 file should begin playing.
- If the MP3 does not begin playing, please verify that you have the appropriate URL. If the correct URL is different than what you originally entered into the rss.xml file, please return to Step 6 and type in the correct URL for the MP3 in BOTH locations.
- Launch iTunes, and subscribe to your own podcast (using the URL mentioned in step 7 above). Listen to your podcast to ensure that all is functioning correctly. If the podcast does not download and play, please go through each step to determine if an error was made.
- If the podcast does work properly, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You are almost done. We have one more exercise for you to complete. Click here for the final project.