Everything you wanted to know about podcasts, but were afraid to ask

With thanks to Jason Van Orden and his “Podcasting, Blogging, and RSS in Plain English” session:

A podcast is “portable, on-demand, digital media” allowed to be downloaded onto a computer or other storage device.
A podcast feed is just:

1. A text file…

2. …with information about the podcast…

3. …listing individual episodes in reverse chronological order…

4. …with a specific web address.

WordPress and FeedBurner are a great 1-2 punch for getting your podcast out there…
How do you create a podcast?

1. Record an audio file with Audacity.

2. Compress the file to MP3 in Audacity.

3. Upload the MP3 to your web host in your directory.

4. Blog about the podcast.

5. Include a link to where you uploaded the MP3 on your site in your blog post.

6. Publish!

7. Let syndication services and directories know you exist.

Three places to do market research on blogs and podcasts in your field:

1. Technorati

2. iTunes 

3. EveryZing

Got legal questions about podcasting? Creative Commons has a guide here.

And the three things your podcast content must do:

1. Inform

2. Entertain

3. Create a sense of belonging

Could it be any easier?