A Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting With WordPress

Podcasting has become immensely popular all over the Internet in the last few years and gives users the opportunity to broaden their web presence while increasing traffic simultaneously. Nearly 46 million Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis.

Numbers like those are hard to ignore. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about podcasting with WordPress and help you get started by introducing you to some of the best plugins to get the job done.

Let’s put all of this into context before we move on.

An Introduction to Podcasting

Although the concept has been around since the 80’s radio boom, podcast is a relatively new term which is a mishmash of Apple’s iPod media player and the word broadcast. Podcast is defined as:

“A digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer.” Source: Dictionary.com

Adam Curry and Dave Winer are behind the creation of iPodder which forms the building blocks of modern day podcasting. The purpose of the site was to provide users with an elegant broadcasting mechanism enabling them to listen to audio content whenever they’d like.

The Rise of Podcasting

Podcasting has been around since 2004 and, over a decade later, they’re regaining popularity among the masses. According to a study, more people are listening to podcasts in the United States than ever before.

• Nearly 46 million Americans listen to podcasts per month.
• 27 million Americans listen to an average of 6 podcasts per week.
• More than half of the podcast listeners consume them on their smartphones.
• 45% of the podcasts listeners hold a college degree.
• 25% of podcast listeners plug their smartphones into their car’s audio system nearly every day.
• Apple has surpassed 1 billion subscriptions for podcasts via iTunes.

Podcasts are trending once again and this time they’re here to stay for some time. Most of the podcast listeners are young, affluent, and well-educated people who crave audio content on their morning commutes and running their daily errands.

Apple’s products come with the stock Podcast app whereas other apps like SoundCloud, Tune In, and Stitcher are also widely used.

Podcasting in WordPress

Podcasting and WordPress are like two peas in a pod (pun intended!). WordPress is an immensely popular CMS and its users like to keep up with the latest trends and styles. You’ve probably noticed that most of the WordPress hubs have added a podcast to their site to supplement their daily blogs covering everything from the latest happenings to tutorials. In a way, website owners are translating written content into audio content.

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by Maria Ansari via SitePoint