The Internet has opened the doors to a diverse congregation that exists beyond the traditional borders that communities have become accustom to. Using technology as a communication medium has not been lost on spiritual leaders and many have embraced the Internet as a medium to spread their faith podcast studio.
The Internet has made spreading faith significantly easier. In the past, community residents were limited to the churches, temples and houses of worships that were available within driving distances. Coordinating schedules with sermons could be challenging for busy families.
The Internet has opened the doors to a diverse congregation that exists beyond the traditional borders that communities have become accustom to. Using technology as a communication medium has not been lost on spiritual leaders and many have embraced the Internet as a medium to spread their faith. It is rare to find a house of worship that does not have a website or Internet presense. Expanding upon this theme, parishes looked to podcasting to further expanded the reach of their spiritual counselors and ministers. Many preachers record homilies, hymns, services, sermons or gospel teachings, for parishioners and interested listeners.
Podcasting allows followers to listen to mass or sermons on their way to work or at a time and place of their choosing. Integrating technology into spiritual messages has become a modern solution to chaotic schedules in an online world.
Audio Recording The first step to creating a religious or spiritual podcasts is to record the sermon or material. There are a number of both hardware and software solutions that facilitate the recording of audio content. Many Churches and Ministries already record many of their sermons. If that is the case, its just a matter of properly formatting the file for podcast distribution. In order to maximize the sermons compatibility, the recorded file should be saved as an MP3 file and transferred to the Internet.
Create Podcast A podcast feed is an RSS feed that contains audio enclosures in the feed’s items. To create a podcast, the URL of the audio files must be placed in the enclosure field of the RSS feed. RSS feeds can be constructed manually by using a text editor.
Most desktop podcast solutions provide free evaluation versions that can be used for 30 days. This allows users to determine if the software meets their needs prior to making a purchase decision. In other words, you can create an entire podcast using a free download, if you wish to continue to update the podcast with the software each week or month you will need to purchase the software.
Once you have constructed a podcast, you will need to transfer the RSS feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP client (FTP clients are often integrated into desktop podcast creation applications). .
Promoting Podcast Now that a new communication medium is available for followers, it is important that you properly promote the podcast as a communication channel. Be sure to share information related to the podcast with parishioners, placing notices in the congregations weekly bulletins or monthly newsletters. Add a mention of the podcast on your community website.
In order to increase exposure of a religious podcast, religious organizations can submit their podcasts to podcasting directories and RSS search engines. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine, or you can use software to automate the process. There is even a portal specifically designed for religious and spiritual podcasts.