Now, inside the RSS file are several directions created in what is called Extensible Markup Language or XML. It’s similar to HyperText Markup Language or HTML.
If you’ve ever written any HTML or just seen the code of a webpage, then you might know web pages are created using what are called “tags” like:
<Title> This is the Title of my page </Title>
XML uses a similar tag system to describe exactly what is inside the RSS file.
The good news is, you can copy another RSS file as your template and then modify it as needed.
Having said that please understand that the following example may or may not work with whatever particular online services you are using. This is only provided as a tutorial in understanding the basic concepts of creating an RSS file. I STRONGLY suggest potential Podcasters make use of the easier and no-coding-necessary options available such as:
ClickCaster
BlogMatrix
Libsyn
MyRSSCreator.com
Additionally, there are some free and fee-based RSS file generators you might find useful which do the hard work for you:
Podcast RSS feed generator
ListGarden RSS Feed Generator Program
Simple RSS File Generator
Now, back to the tutorial. Open up your windows Notepad by clicking:
Start | Run| and typing in Notepad then press ENTER
It’s important you use a text editor like Notepad because a text editor does not include any text formatting like a word processor. If you used Microsoft Word to create your RSS file, it would fail miserably because of the hidden formatting.
Now, with Notepad open copy this code into it:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
- <rss version="2.0">
- <channel>
- <title>My Program</title>
<link>http://www.mywebsite.com/myaudio.mp3</link>
<description>My first podcast</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>2005</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Today’s Date*</lastBuildDate>
<webMaster>youremail@whatever.com</webMaster>
<ttl>1</ttl>
<item>
- <title>Todays Radio Show - Monday</title>
<description>Here is my Monday podcast. Hope you like it.</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:56:00 GMT</pubDate>*
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
(* Make sure you express the date in the format of: Day:Date:Month:Year: hh:mm:ss . Also, you have to tell what timezone you are in, relative to GMT.)
