Podomatic is a free website that enables users to create and publish their own podcasts. A podcast is an audio or video file placed on the Internet for anyone to see, hear and subscribe to. You can listen to or view podcasts on an Internet enabled computer, or on any device that plays mp3 files (for example, an mp3 player such as the Apple iPod).

First Steps

Before you create your first podcast you must go to http://www.podomatic.com/ and

1. register,
2. choose a template for your podcasting page, and
3. log in.

Once you have logged in, go to your My Podcast page, and select Post an Episode.

Creating Audio

You now have two choices:

1)    create your audio files in an external application (e.g. Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net/, mp3 player, digital recorder, etc)

2)    record directly into Podomatic.

If you use method 1) you will have to save the audio file you create as an mp3 file and upload it from your computer or storage device. To upload audio files to Podomatic use the IMPORT button

Posting Your Episode

Before you post your episode you will notice that Podomatic requires you to provide some other information to accompany your audio:

1. Title
2. Tags – key words that assist others search for your podcast
3. Comments – enter information about length and topic of podcasts.        
4. Picture (optional) Note: images will not be seen if your podcast is listened to on most current mp3 players, but will be seen on more sophisticated players like the latest iPods. However, it will be seen on your computer screen.

5. Podomatic then asks if you want to notify friends and contacts by email that you have a new podcast. (This is optional).

Note:

• Your Podomatic site has own its own URL.
• All posts to your podcast site have their own URL.
• All audio (mp3) files within the post have their own URL (for direct linking to the audio file).

Comments Feature

When people visit your Podomatic site they can respond to any post

1)    by submitting written comments. These appear on the site immediately and are public.

2)    by recording an audio comment. Audio comments are sent to the owner of the Podomatic site via Podmail (all Podomatic users get a Podmail account automatically) and are private.  (Your Podmail account can be used separately as a voice email tool.)

Editing Posts

It is possible to edit or delete posts at any time. If you go to your My Podcast page you will see each episode posted there with accompanying edit or delete buttons.

Footnote

Podomatic is a new site and is becoming very popular and frequently ‘misbehaves’. (It is a free tool after all.)

The site is still evolving and occasionally changes its appearance and layout, and adds new features. This can be quite confusing. It should stabilise in time. 

Examples

To see Podomatic in action, you might like to visit:

http://michaelc.podomatic.com/ (Michael’s site) or

http://deliab.podomatic.com/ (Delia’s site).

(site created 15/7/06)