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Most of us do not own servers but rent space from a hosting company. The terms of agreement with these hosts varies but generally you are given a set number of email addresses, a certain amount of hard drive space into which you load the files for your website and a monthly data traffic allotment that can be accessed through that account.
For example, the company hosting my website at LearningCraft.com allows me 600 MB of disk space for my site. I also get up to 25 email accounts. But if I were to host a podcast from my account, I'm allotted 50 GB of monthly traffic. While this seems like a huge amount of data space, some quick math will tell me if I have enough. For example, if I were to create a 10 minute show once a week, then my file size could be around 10 MB per show. Each time a subscriber links up to the server to download my podcast that's 10 MB that's being subtracted from that 50GB total. At this rate I'm limited to about 500 downloads of my program per month. If my podcast becomes popular, which is a goal, I might end up having several thousand hits per month. While most hosting services have plans that cover high traffic, it will cost more. That said, if you go over your monthly allotment the surcharge can be high. In my case I would end up paying $25 more for every 1000 MB I go over on any given month. Perhaps not as shocking as going over your cell phone minutes but increased traffic can certainly add up.
If you currently don't have a hosting server a site like WebHosting.info may help you out. Remember, hosting is an area where you may end up getting what you pay for.
The next step is to get your program packaged up and in place so that your listening audience can start listening. In my next column I will take a closer look at the steps required to get your audio file encoded so that it becomes an official podcast through the use of RSS and linking tools.
How a podcast becomes a podcast
To better understand how podcasts are set up to become distributed requires an understanding of RSS.
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and is a way of adding XML "hooks" to text and audio files that makes them available to podcast client software. The goal of podcasters is to make content available to potential subscribers on a periodic basis. In order to have broadcasts download automatically, special software is required that can look for and grab embedded files.
Podcaster clients are basically scheduling tools where podcast aficionados can create "playlists" of broadcasts they want to access on a regular basis. Often referred to as "podcatchers," these programs serve as a jumping off point for grabbing updated podcasts because of their ability to look for specific XML coding on web pages.
There are a growing number of podcast clients available. While features may vary, the main goal of most users is to have a place to manage links (think bookmarks) that are part of a podcast queue. Most of these client packages add and manage web addresses that will direct them to new content periodically. Depending on the schedule selected, these programs will run through the list and check for new programs. If a new file is available, the client will hook to and download that file. This file is then saved on the subscriber's hard drive most often in a format that is compatible with Apple iTunes of Windows Media Player. The user can then listen to the broadcast on their computer or transfer the files to an MP3 player and take them with them.
To get a podcast or RSS feed to be recognized by a podcast client requires special website coding that corresponds with the URL that the podcast client is being directed to. This code identifies that there is a valid content link, passes some information to the clients such as the name of the broadcast, its file size and a short description of the program and then a pointer that shows where on the server the downloadable file resides. If all checks out, the file can then be downloaded.