Now that you have the website for your podcast created, you need to get your audio file on the web and out to the masses. The final 2 things you’ll need are media hosting and a means of managing distribution.

Media Hosting

Like website hosting, media hosting is a space on the web dedicated solely to your audio files. Hopefully your podcast is going to receive plenty of downloads and listens. You need a server that can handle that amount of traffic and sharing with your website servers is the wrong way to do it.

Several media hosts are worth looking into:

• Libsyn.com– Libsyn has some of the best rates and dependability in the market. You won’t regret using Libsyn.
• Blubrry.com– Blubrry is very comparable to Libsyn in terms of rates and performance. Where they lack is in the usability of their website. It’s very clunky and difficult to navigate. Besides that, they are another quality choice.
• Soundcloud.com– Soundcloud is growing in popularity and taking steps to being a real competitor. They don’t compare with the previous two companies listed, but they should be a solid contender soon.

A tip on plans- estimate how much data you’ll need per month before signing up for a plan. For example, if your average podcast audio file size is 50mb and you plan on a new episode every week, that’s about 200mb needed per month. Try finding a plan that is a little larger than that (like 250mb) to avoid overage fees on your uploads. Last, make sure statistics are part of your plan package. Statistics will make it easier to see which shows are performing well, what areas are listening, and more.

Distribution

So how are you going to get your podcast to iTunes and the rest of the world? If you are using a WordPress website, get the Blubrry podcasting plugin. It’s the number one podcasting plugin and it’s free. Plugins extend WordPress to do almost anything. In this case, it’s to extend your WordPress blog to sync with your media host and play your podcast episodes.

You’ll need to do a bit of reading on the Blubrry site, but basically this is how it works:

• Install the Blubrry plugin via the “plugin” option on your WordPress admin menu. Activate the plugin.
• Go over the settings to configure things like the podcast rss feed, how the audio player will display on the post, and more.
• Create a post for each episode you have done. Include the show notes- summary of the episode, hyperlinks to important things discussed, etc. There is also an area to put that audio file’s hyperlink (the link to where it is on your media host) and some fields to fill out information for iTunes.

After making a few posts and configuring your Blubrry plugin, validate your podcast feed. Your podcast RSS feed is different than your websites regular RSS feed and it’s what iTunes uses to keep your podcast up-to-date. Your feed will mostly be “www.yourwebsite.com/feed/podcast” and you’ll need to paste that into a site like castfeedvalidator.com. If that checks out, you should be ready to submit to iTunes.

Built right into the Blubrry Plugin is a link that launches the necessary process to get your podcast synced with iTunes. Click the link, set up or log into your iTunes account and submit the feed to get the process started. Within a day or two, you should see your podcast live in iTunes.

Tips before submitting a podcast to iTunes

• You have about 8 weeks to make it on the ‘new and noteworthy’ section and gain extra exposure. To maximize your chances of this happening, wait to submit your feed to iTunes until you have at least 3 episodes live. That way you have more content to consume and a higher chance of people investing in your podcast.
• Make sure you follow the expectations for the iTunes cover art. This is the picture that represents your entire podcast so give it some thought. Cover art “must be in the JPEG or PNG file formats and in the RGB color space with a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 2048 x 2048 pixels.”
• Once the podcast goes live, make sure to leverage your social networks to get involved. Make words like “subscribe,” “review,” and “share” part of your common vocabulary. The more people you can get involved and promoting your podcast, the better.

 

Final thoughts and feedback

Starting a podcast is a lot of work but it’s not as difficult as it seems. Hopefully this post gave you some helpful information on how to start your own podcast. Still have questions? Want more help? You can find me here on my site or at our company’s page,  ComeAliveCreative.com.