Create a Free Audio Podcast

It is possible to create an audio podcast with a free Wordpress.com account. To do this you will first need to upload an audio file to a webserver or to a service that enables you to store media files (e.g. Archive.org or Blip.tv). However you must know the full or direct link (URL) to that file.

When you have uploaded your file, you need find a direct link to your mp3 file. 

Now start a new post on Wordpress,  enter a Title and some text for the post. Then we need to create a link to the audio file in the post.

 

Select some text and click on the part of the tool bar that looks like a chain.  

You are presented with a window for pasting in the URL of the mp3 file. Put the link details in the "LINK/URL" field.

Now click on "Insert", then then return to your post and your link should have appeared in the text.

Click on "Publish" on the right of the screen. 

 

Embed a streaming audio player 

You may want to add a preview of the audio file.  You might also call this a "click and listen" version. Again you need to know the full URL of the where you have that media file stored. This must be a direct link to that file.

Once you have a direct link to the file then you can create an entry in your wordpress.com blog to stream the audio file with a flash player.

Create an entry which describes your file and add the following code within the body text of the blog entry. 

 [audio http://www.example.org/linkto.mp3]

This will look like this in the Wordpress interface.

 

Then click on "Publish" clicking on the button on the right.

Then when you look at your blog, if you have the flash plug-in installed, you'll see a player which you click on to play the audio file from your browser.

 

The player is quite basic but very functional. 

Now that you have created a Podcast with streaming audio, you should learn how to find and promote your blog.