14 DAY TRIAL // What is a Podcast? A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. This is almost the same thing as RSS. At RSS the user reads the feeds on his computer, for podcasts he will use the IPod. For that you can use podcast clients like iTunes, Yamipod (for MacOS), Amarok (for Linux, Unix), BePodder (for BeOS), Kinoma Player (for PalmOS), FeederReader (for PocketPC), Nokia Podcasting Application (for Symbian) etc.
How does this work? The first thing you will have to do is create the audio file (mp3 or mp4) you want to share. Upload the file to the server, put the link to the file in an article in your blog and Wordpress will automatically insert a link in the RSS or Atom feed. The subscribers of the feed will download the file through their podcast client. Make sure you use a complete, absolute URI when linking to the files: Softpedia podcast. Another step is to make the RSS feed available, inserting a link in your webpage: http://www.softpedia.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2. To make things easier for iTunes users, link to your podcast feed with the itpc:// protocol : itpc://www.softpedia.com/path/?feed=atom .
A perfect plugin for your needs is PodPress. Podpress is designed to make Podcasting with WordPress as easy as possible. Configuring the plugin is very easy. In the admin panel define the podcast setings and the iTunes specific settings. Also from here you can set the iTunes-specific settings and get an instant preview of what it will look like in iTunes. The result will be a Flash Player that will display information about the podcast and will have download links for every media file.