What is this PodCasting thing?
Podcasting is one of the hottest phenomenons sweeping the world of computing and electronic media. It is simply the availability of millions of hours of quality audio recordings that can be automatically downloaded to your computer and transferred to any portable MP3 player for on-demand enjoyment.

Listening to audio clips from your computer has been around for some time, but with the advent of special programs that allow you to easily “subscribe” to audio content, and the explosion of portable music players such as Apple’s iPOD, the term PodCasting was born.

Why Christian Podder?
Ever wish you could hear an encouraging message from your favorite speaker - when you had the time to listen? So often it's difficult to find time to be by the radio to listen to a particular Christian teacher or speaker when their show is broadcast. Listening to CD's in the car is great, but it's hard to find everything you want to hear... not to mention the cost of purchasing all the CD's you would need.

What if you could go to one location to find a world of quality Christian audio content - absolutely free? What if you could go a step further and actually pick out exactly the type of content you prefer and have it delivered directly to you automatically? Listen when you can on your computer or take it with you anywhere via your portable MP3 player.

Experience the new world of Podcasting with the help of christianpodder.com. Everything you need to begin enjoying content immediately is contained in one easy-to-use web interface. Learn the basics, get the tools you need and connect with others who are seeking direction or inspiration in the same areas you are.

Find Just the Right Content
If you have ever tried to find Christian podcasts on the web using traditional directories, you probably have been discouraged with the difficulty and time involved trying to find just what you are looking for. Christianpodder.com was designed around a sophisticated search engine that makes finding and acquiring audio broadcasts easy. Search by topics, keywords, speaker, passage... even people with similar interests. Whether you are brand new to the world of podcasting or a savvy veteran, christianpodder.com quickly will become the only resource you need to experience the very best “family-friendly” audio content available on the web.

Home Page
The Home Page is the best place to start. The left side of the Home Page provides several methods for finding just the right content. The middle portion of the Home Page displays our featured podcasts and the right side of the Home Page provides podcast categories for “Top Rated”, “Top Subscribed”, and “New Comers.”

Finding Content
A search panel is located on the left side of most pages. You can search for content using the following methods:

Keyword Search – Enter any keyword and search the podcast and episodes for matching criteria.
Advanced Search – Provides numerous matching criteria that you can specify for searching. The matching results are presented in highest relevance sequence. You may also use your profile information to locate content intended specifically for you, which can be a real time-saver.
Subscribe Search – Similar to Advanced Search only results must be an exact match. You may want to create a subscription to the search criteria. Then new content that matches the criteria will automatically be added to your personal queue for download. Subscribe to a Bible book, category, specific demographics, and so on, and when a match is published it will automatically be added to your personal queue for automatic download.
Others Like Me – This search finds podcasts that other users have subscribed to with similar demographics to yours. Users that provide complete and accurate information in their profile help benefit the entire community, and themselves, through features like this.
Browse – Each podcast is located in a Christian category. You may wish to just browse the categories looking for content.

Using Content
ChristianPodder.com provides three ways to enjoy content:

Preview - All podcast episodes can be previewed in their entirety, no 30-second limitations here.
Queue – Each episode will have a queue button that will add the individual episode to your personal queue for download. This is very handy when you don’t necessarily want to subscribe to the podcast, but find a particular episode useful.
Subscribe – A user may subscribe to any podcast by selecting the subscribe button. Once subscribed to a podcast, each new episode will automatically be added to your personal queue for download.

Engage the content.
ChristianPodder encourages the community to engage the content by providing ratings, reviews, and even reporting objectionable content.

While using ChristianPodder.com there are a few icons you should be aware of: page indicators used for navigating to the next or previous page that look like little circles and are found at the top of search result pages and podcast pages, rating stars that are located on podcast and episode pages that display the current content rating on the top row of stars and allow you to add your rating by clicking on a star on the bottom row.

Other icons that you will notice on podcast and episode pages allow you to enter reviews, report objectionable content, and email a direct link for a podcast or episode to a friend.

My Casts
The My Casts page is your personal page for managing your queue, subscriptions, casts, and personal profile.

Queue – here you will find any episodes that you have added to your personal queue by using the queue button on an episode or that have been added because you are subscribed to a podcast. The queue contains all the episodes that are waiting for your podcast software to download. This is where you will also find the RSS feed that is required to add to your podcasting software to automatically download the queued episodes. Read the next section for more on RSS.
Subscriptions – here you will find all your podcast subscriptions. Keep in mind a subscription to a podcast causes any new episode of that podcast to automatically be added to your personal queue for download. If you have subscribed to specific search criteria it will also be listed here with the name your provided during the subscribe search process.
Casts – This is where you will contribute or maintain a podcast if you so desire. Contributing a podcast has never been easier, all you need is something to say, sing, or play. Most people can fill that requirement. Before contributing your first podcast please review the Contribute page for important information on how to achieve the best podcasting results.
Profile – This is where you can edit your personal information provided during the registration process. Please provide as much information as you are comfortable with as it helps the entire community. All of your information is kept confidential (see our privacy policy). The more you tell us about yourself, the better ChristianPodder.com can serve up what you are looking for.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to automatically download queued content
Here is the real power of podcasting. RSS feeds which are technical specifications that provide the communication between a podcast and podcasting software like iTunes, iPodder, and so on. A podcast is a collection of audio episodes that are available on the Internet.

Podcasting software is located on your personal computer and is responsible for checking your subscribed podcast for new episodes and downloading them. ChristianPodder hosts podcast and provides you with numerous ways to locate, preview, queue, and subscribe to all the hosted content. When you queue or subscribe to content on ChristainPodder.com it is placed into your personal queue waiting for download. ChristianPodder.com provides you an RSS feed that can be added to your favorite podcasting software. Your podcasting software uses the RSS feed to automatically download any episodes that are in your personal queue.
All you need to get started is free podcasting software. Some popular choices are provided below.

Once you download and install the software, simply add your personal RSS feed located in “My Casts” to your podcasting software. The podcasting software will automatically check for new content added to your personal queue and download the files to your computer, so you can play them immediately or load them onto your MP3 player to listen to later. It may sound complicated, but it really isn’t.

Just follow these simple steps:

1) If you haven’t already registered with ChristianPodder.com take a moment and fill out the brief online registration form here. There is no cost to join and all of your information is kept confidential (see our privacy policy). The more you tell us about yourself, the better christianpodder.com can serve up what you are looking for.

2) Install podcasting software on your PC if you haven’t already done so.
Some free popular podcasting software programs are:
· iTunes (For Windows and Apple PCs)
· Juice (For Windows, Apple and Linux PCs)
· jPodder (For Windows PCs)

3) Add your ChristianPodder.com personal queue RSS to your podcasting software. Go to “My Casts,” select “Queue,” you will see two buttons, one named “iTunes” and another named “RSS.” If you have already installed podcasting software you are now ready to add your Christian Podder personal queue RSS to your podcasting software.
If you are using iTunes, click on the iTunes button. iTunes will launch and automatically add the RSS feed for your ChristianPodder.com personal queue. If you are using podcasting software other than iTunes, click on the RSS button and a browser page will be opened with the RSS XML displayed. You will need to copy the URL from the address bar of the browser and paste it into your podcasting software where you add RSS feeds.

You have now connected your podcasting software to your personal queue at ChristianPodder.com. ChristianPodder.com will add episodes to your personal queue anytime you select the queue button on an episode, or whenever a new episode is published to a podcast that you have subscribed to. The episodes will stay in your ChristianPodder.com personal queue until your podcasting software request them to be downloaded. Most podcasting software allows you to specify when to download new episodes. Options normally include: when you start Windows, at a defined time frequency, and so on.

Enjoy the service. Remember to use the Queue and Subscribe buttons to add content to your personal queue for automatic download.

What makes a community great - participation
In a community we all do our part to make the community better for everyone. Here are some ways you can engage in the ChristainPodder.com community for the betterment of all:
Every podcast and episode can have user reviews and ratings. Please provide this information when you feel it is important to share your thoughts and ratings with other users and podcast contributors.
A strong community must also help police itself. ChristianPodder.com will make every effort to prevent malicious, harmful, or hurtful content from being published on the site, but we need the community to assist with this endeavor. Each episode has a place for you to identify any content that you may find objectionable. You will be asked to state your objection to the content. The objectionable content will be reviewed by ChristianPodder.com for possible removal from the site. Please keep in mind ChristianPooder is a Christian community with members of varying denominations and beliefs. 

Discussion board - ChristianPodder.com is more than a podcast repository, it is a community of Christian podcasters and listeners. In the Discuss section, you will be able communicate with others in the same categories as your favorite podcasts.

Your personal profile
The amount of personal profile information that you provide when you register with ChristainPodder.com is absolutely critical to the success of this service as a community. Here are some ways that this information helps the community.

Users that provide personal information such as gender, age, ministry role, ministry interest, and so on can be used in many ways to benefit not only that user, but all other users. For example, a user provides the following information in their personal profile: I am a married male age 19-25, Southern Baptist, in a Campus Ministry role, with some theological training. This user can locate content specifically targeted to them based on the target demographics supplied by the contributors. This user can also search for content other users with similar profiles frequently access. To update your personal profile, go to “My Casts,” select “Profile.”