Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Stephen R. Covey, American Speaker/Trainer/Author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"
Podcast RSS Feeds
A Podcast RSS feed is what allows the entire system to
function. To begin at the beginning, a podcast is a
regular distribution of audio or visual files, called
episodes, to a users podcast client. The people who use
a podcast are called subscribers, and the podcast client
is what allows them to subscribe to a feed. The podcast
client is a program that connects to the internet, looking
for a specific file the user has subscribed to, or told it to
look for. That file is an RSS feed, a machine readable
piece of coding that sends information back to the
podcast client. RSS feeds can be used to distribute
many kinds of information, and were originally used for
blogging and distributing blog posts to subscribers. As
time went on, however, a few people had the idea of
enclosing information about media files within the RSS
feed so that software could be written to find that
information and download the files described.
The Podcast RSS feeds became a hit, and podcast
clients were quickly written to allow people to use the
new encoding. Podcasting became a means of quickly
and cheaply sharing episodes with subscribers. Rather
than requiring subscribers to visit the site that hosted
the files everytime they wanted to know if a new
episode was released, users could rely on the podcast
client to do the work for them, keeping track of
numerous podcast rss feeds that interested them and
downloading the files to be viewed when they wished.
Podcast RSS feeds are now used to distribute a number
of different types of podcasts. Some producers use it as
way to share a comedy or news program that they
produce, others podcast in order to share music files
they create, and some podcast to share video files they
have created and to showcase their work. Podcasting
allows the producers to become radio or television stars
without the large investment in time and money that
wuld be required to do that. Because podcasting has
such a low entry cost, requiring little more than a server
and a domain to host the site and a way to record the
media, thousands of people who otherwise would not
have a chance to work in a media environment have a
chance to do so through their podcast rss feeds.
In this way, podcast RSS feeds allow media publishing
over the internet at a fraction of the cost of other forms
of media distribution, permitting people with much
smaller budgets to compete in some way. However,
podcast rss feeds are also attracting more established
companies and groups as well, bringing people from
NPR radio stations and news organizations like CNN
who use podcasting as yet another means to distribute
their product to end users.
History Podcast
News organizations and websites thatmillions of people easily.
Not only do they episodes from within the site. These computers will what host it is that holds the domain's information. The file tells the for the user to view or listen to.
How To Download A Free Podcast
By Steven Sharpe
 Its easy to find and download a free podcast. The best way to find free podcasts is probably to check a podcast directory.
A podcast directory is a listing of many, sometimes thousands of different podcasts. The podcast directory will usually organize the podcasts by topic and genre, making it easy to find the type of podcast that is sought.
In addition, podcast directories often allow the visitors to comment on the podcasts listed, and provide a list of the favorite podcasts on the site, making it easy for users to find the best podcasts available. These podcast directories can be used to browse through, introducing users to many different podcasts they otherwise would not have found.
Once a podcast has been found that interests the user, it is necessary to download the free podcast. The vast majority of podcasts will be free, but there will be a few that may cost a small amount of money. The process to subscribe to and download the podcasts is the same in either case.
First, a podcast client needs to be found and installed. There are many free podast clients available, all providing a slightly different user interface and range of options. They come with many different names, such as Podscape, or Nimiq, and searching for 'free podcast client' or something like it will turn up many possibilities.
When the podcast client has been installed, inputting the feed address will allow the podcast to be downloaded. The podcast client will check the address given for a small, machine readable file called an RSS file. This file will contain information about the podcasts, perhaps some text about the individual episodes, as well as the location of the episode file. Once the podcast client has been located the file referred to in the RSS feed, it will be downloaded and stored on the users computer until the want to view it.
Sometimes, of course, access to a personal computer is not available, but it is still necessary to check a certain podcast.
Fortunately, many podcast directories offer built in podcast readers in the site. Not only do they often show each recent episode that is available, they may also offer a way to view or listen to those podcast episodes from within the site.
By using the viewer contained within the site, it is no longer necessary to even download the podcast episodes. However, the ability to move and share the episodes after downloading is one of the wonderful things about podcasting.
The files can be placed on almost and media player, ranging from iPods to the new Play Station Portable. This flexibility is one of the reasons podcasts have succeeded, despite other technologies like streaming music and video. The desire of consumers to have control over technology cannot be over estimated.
Steve is the CEO & Editor in Chief of Article Land. He is offering a free ebook on his site entitled Article Marketing Avalanche, a great read, a great book, go get it now.
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