A podcast basically consists of an MP3 file and a text file called an RSS feed. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication," and the file tells Podcasts and other podcatchers, like iTunes, how to find and get your podcast. An RSS feed also lets people subscribe to your podcast and automatically get updates of your new content.

To create your RSS feed, open a text editor, such as Microsoft Word or Notepad. Copy and paste the code below, and then replace all the blue text with your own podcast information.

iTunes has a more complicated xml feed since they offer more features. To see the specifications for an iTunes feed, view this link

<channel>
<title> Title of your site </title>
<description> A description of your podcast show </description>
<itunes:author>Your Name </itunes:author>
<link> http://www.yourserver.com/YourPodcastHomepage/ </link>
<itunes:image href="http://www.yourserver.com/YourPodcastPicture.jpg" />
<pubDate> Sun, 09 Oct 2005 21:00:00 PST </pubDate>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright> Copyright Year Your_Name </copyright>

<item>
<title> This is just a test </title>
<description> A description of your podcast episode </description>
<itunes:author> Your Name </itunes:author>
<pubDate> Thu, 16 Jun 2005 5:00:00 PST </pubDate>
<enclosure url="http://www.yourserver.com/podcast_file.mp3" length="3174554" type="audio/mpeg" /> </item>
</channel>
</rss>

"PubDate" is the time you last updated and published the podcast.

"Length" is the size of the file in bytes. On a Windows computer, you can find this by going to the MP3 file in Windows Explorer and right-clicking on the file. Select "Properties." The exact size of your MP3 is under "Size." On a Mac, select the file and click "Apple+I" to see the file information. The file size will be shown under "Size." Enter in this number without commas.

Note: Every time you add another podcast episode, you will need to create another podcast episode, or "item." Copy all the code from <item> to </item> and paste this text after the last </item>. Now, update all the blue text with information for the new podcast episode.

Note: Some other podcast directories have created their own code extensions to standard RSS. One example is the iTunes directory. For more details on adding iTunes' additional code, visit the iTunes RSS specifications In the spirit of encouraging an open standard, Yahoo! Podcasts has not created any additional code of its own, but supports commonly used standards, including iTunes'.

After you've made these changes, save the file in plain text format and with the file extension "xml" (for example, "MyPodcast.xml"). Upload this file to your web host, just as you did earlier for your MP3 file.