Please evaluate my understanding of podcast files and RSS files

[rudy45]

Before we begin, let me emphasize that I'm logged in and that my beeber already is set to stune lol.

I understand that a single podcast can consist of a single episode, or of multiple episodes. In the former case, I would upload the single episode plus one RSS file that points to the episode, correct? Then I would tell the aggregator the location of the RSS file. When I'm finished, the aggregator points to the RSS file and the RSS file points to the single podcast file (?)

What about the latter case, where a single podcast consists of multiple episodes? Do the multiple episodes (in this case, assume audio mp3 files) EACH have their own separate RSS file (each of which would point to its own episode file and also to the other RSS files), or is there only one RSS file that applies to all of the episodes as a whole? In other words, does an RSS file pertain to the podcast level or to the episode level?

Last: what recommendations do you have for software for creating podcasts and RSS files? I don't know XML, so I would be looking for a "wizard" of some sort that could create the XML for me. Thanks.

[rudy45]

Another question: assume the second case is the correct one, i.e. that the RSS file applies at the podcast level, rather than the episode level, i.e. there’s only one RSS file for the podcast regardless of number of episodes.

Suppose I upload a new episode every week. It seems, therefore, that at the same time I would need to upload an updated RSS file, and that that new RSS file would overlay/replace the previous one? The first time, the RSS file would have a reference only to episode 1. The next time, it would refer to episodes 1 and 2, etc. Thanks.

[relee]

That looks to be the case, a new RSS per show ...

[ShadowAce]

[JerseyHighlander]

The easiest way to do this is to use blog software that has RSS/Atom feeds already written into the software.

For Blog entry 20080108
-upload the podcast.
-use the blog backend to autocreate your RSS feed for the blog entry.
-done.

To the question about an RSS entry having a single or multiple podcasts included, this is a design conceit of the publisher, you can do anything you want.
Further, say if you have a 6 part podcast series, you can also send out a seventh RSS entry that is a compendium of all six previous podcasts. And again, using blog software is the easiest way to go about this.

On your blog, you have a blogroll on the side, you can create a sub menu area to list just podcast entries, or create a link to a secondary blog entry list just for your podcasts inside your main blog to make it easier to categorize your blog entries. Further, most blog software allows the owner to add keywords to their blog entries, you can simply reserve the word “podcast” as a keyword for podcast blog entries, and then copy the keyword hotlink for “podcast” and use that as your index of podcasts.

Too many options to list, but those are very simple ways to go about getting podcasts sent out on RSS/Atom feeds.