The last two years we have seen the rise of a new technology named podcasting. It is in short a content syndication technology, sort of an extension to RSS, which delivers not only text and image data but also multimedia content to consumers.

Podcasting has been changing the way businesses communicate with their end-users and prospects. It also allows everyone to speak out loud and reach global audience without spending a fortune.

But still, I have seen people are still confused about how to get started. In a special report I outlined 4 different ways to start publishing podcasts using simple, free and inexpensive online and offline tools.

If you want to get a copy, subscribe to my Weekly Podcast Profit Tips to get a copy. Sorry, there is no exception.

Before we start, there is an issue to clear up first. People use the term podcasting in two different context. The first one is the action to record and publish a podcast. The other refers to the steps consumers take to download and listen to a podcast.

Both of them are true, but nowadays there is a newly invented terminology to replace the latter. It is called podcatching.

While the context of which it will be used is usually self explanatory, it is wise to use separate terms for each different actions.

In short, these are the steps you need to take to create a working podcast:

1. Create audio content
Podcast could take any format, as long as it is audio (or video for vidcast). If you have read and recorded your article into podcast, that could do it. Audio books, music, interviews, teleseminars, radio type shows are another examples of podcast content.

Most operating systems and some sound interface packages include audio recording software. If you need one, you can get Audacity for free.

2. Save audio file to MP3
While you can publish any audio format as a podcast, the most popular format is of course, MP3. Afterall, you want people to listen to your podcast, so you want a common format that all platforms should be able to playback.

Other podcasts have included WMA (Windows Media Audio) and RM (Real Media), but you don’t have to go that way, at least for now.

For voice only podcast, you can convert MP3 in 16-24kHz settings. Not only they are small and fast to download even for dialup listeners, but also save your hosting space and bandwidth.

Tip: If you plan to stream your audio podcast through the web via a Flash audio player, you need to encode at a rate that is a multiple of 11.025kHz. Encoding in any sample rate other than those will introduce what we call the chipmunk effect — where during playback the voice sounds like a chipmunk.

3. Publish the Podcast
Podcast taps into the power of RSS to syndicate content. Because most blog software support RSS nowadays, it is the recommended and easiest way to publish podcast using a blog.

Other people might tell you otherwise, but I personally think using a blog to publish a podcast has a bunch of benefits not available via other methods. Although it is possible to do it the other way, I find no reason why you don’t leverage the power of a blog.

To publish audio and video content, the blog should support the enclosure tag. It looks like the following:

<enclosure url="http://www.example.com/mp3/podcast1.mp3" length="1023100" type="audio/mpeg">

FeedBurner allows you to convert typical RSS feeds to podcast compatible RSS feeds. It even helps in supporting the iTunes specific tags. Definitely worth to take a look, considering the amount of additional stats data you can cultivate even with the free version.

That’s it! You have just record and publicize you podcast. While they are slighly more complicated, these steps should be able to get you rolling.

To easily receive updates on podcast and podcasting articles, subscribe to Podcasting Scout today.