A Guide to Podcasting by Phil Byron of Progressive Beats
- Hosting the podcast:
Firstly you need to find somewhere to host the podcast. It is possible to host it yourself if you have a web server and are able to create an RSS feed, but as most people don’t know how to do that I would recommend an internet host as its more reliable and the good ones do the hard stuff for you. The one I use is Jellycast.com It’s not free but it’s only £10 one-off admin fee to sign up and you get 25gb a month of bandwidth for free with that which is pretty good..... I would recommend it. - RSS:
iTunes gets the podcasts via RSS feeds, these are basically a form of web link used for regularly updated content. The way it works is that you upload the file to your podcast host’s server, you then fill out the info fields (stuff like title of the podcast, created by, genre etc...), press submit and the RSS feed is created ready for iTunes to connect to it. You then have to submit the RSS link to iTunes, I’ll come back to that. - Bandwidth:
Bandwidth is a really important thing to consider when setting up a podcast. As I mentioned before, Jellycast (the host I use) provides 25gb a month for free. This sounds like loads, and is pretty good in comparison to most podcast hosts who charge monthly fees for really low amounts of bandwidth, but there is a limit to it... Every download of the podcast eats up some of that bandwidth and even with 25gb it is pretty easy to use it all up over the course of a month. Of course, as with all podcast hosts it is possible to buy more bandwidth, but this starts becoming expensive pretty quickly and will often go up in stages such as £10 per month for an additional 10gb, check this before you sign up as if the podcast really takes off it could end up becoming quite expensive... - Size Matters:
A common mistake, and one which I made when I started my podcast was making the file size too big. I figured that I wanted to provide the best sounding podcast I could; so I made my first one a 320kbps mp3, which for an hour long mix resulted in a file size of over 100mb! This is way too big, only allowing for 250 downloads of that file before all the bandwidth is used. Go for a 96kbps file which makes an hours worth of music a far better 35mb, you’ll get about 720 downloads a month from that and the quality isn’t hugely detrimental (assuming that the original recording is good and a certain level of mastering has been applied before it is released), bearing in mind that this is a PODcast – so often people will be listening on an iPod through cheap headphones anyway. You can easily upload a high quality version to soundcloud and provide the link in the podcast info field. - Size really matters:
The other thing to remember is that people won’t just be downloading that month’s podcast. Once the podcast has been running for a year there will be 12 podcasts in your channel on iTunes. As soon as you get a new subscriber, they will generally download all your current podcasts. If you make the file size too big then 12 x 100mb = 1.2gb (roughly) so from only one new subscriber, 5% of your band width will have been used, without anyone else having downloaded that month’s episode! I repeat, keep the file size as small as possible. - Information:
iTunes likes podcasts which have loads of information with them, so it is important to provide as much as you can. Write a short summary of what the podcast is and what people should expect from it. Write a short intro for each episode (I say short because there is only a small space where this info is displayed on iTunes). An early bit of feedback I got is that people like the track list to be provided for each podcast (even if its also provided on the soundcloud link). Make sure there’s a logo picture submitted for the podcast as a whole, and each episode. Specify the correct genre for the podcast, ie: music...... This all sounds really obvious, but you’d be surprised at the number of podcasts by “big names” who don’t do this, so don’t get so many subscriptions... - Website:
Really important! Provide a link to an external website so people can get more info about the podcast and especially the events. This can be a link to the Facebook page, but I personally think it is better to link to an individual website as it looks a lot more professional. I know you don’t have one at the moment, but this could also be done really cheaply. Domains are currently available for about £10 yearly. Even if you don’t decide to set up your own website, I’d encourage you to buy the domain anyway just to stop some other fucker from getting it! If you did want a website creating contact TILT Web Design for professional help. - How to do it:
So, basically this is the order that you do things in:
1. Record the first episode of the podcast (keeping the file size nice and small)
2. Sign up to a podcast host
3. Upload your podcast, fill out the info fields and press “go” to generate the RSS feed
4. Protect the RSS feed. This is something I haven’t mentioned yet, but it is an important step... Basically, the iTunes interface for podcasts is pretty poor, so once you’ve uploaded the RSS feed it can’t be changed or altered at all. This means that if you decide you want to change the hosting for your podcast for example, you cant! Rather than having to start back from the beginning in this kind of scenario, you can protect your RSS feed by using a free service provided by google called FeedBurner (http://feedburner.google.com) You enter the RSS feed into this and it generates a 2nd RSS feed for you. It is this 2nd feed that you submit to iTunes. That way, if there is ever a problem with your hosting, you can just replace the RSS link in feedburner and your iTunes channel isn’t affected. You can also get some good stats from this.
5. Submit the feedburner RSS to iTunes. You only do this once and it’s really easy to do:
Open iTunes
Click on the iTunes Store (top right corner on the new iTunes)
Click the Podcasts link
On the right hand side of the page click “Submit a podcast”
Follow the on screen instructions, making sure you submit the feedburner RSS not the original one. It is here that you submit external links to websites etc too...
Once the podcast link is submitted in iTunes it takes between 24 and 48 hours for the podcast to appear (sometimes faster).
That’s pretty much it. Each new episode should be uploaded to the podcast host and you shouldn’t have to do anything in iTunes at all once it is initially set up. - Things to know:
iTunes provides no feedback – if your podcast charts, or if it is featured in their “New and Noteworthy” or “What’s Hot” lists, iTunes don’t tell you. The only way you find out about this is by noticing in your stats that the number of downloads has increased massively (mine went from 200mb per day to 2.5gb overnight!), or by regularly checking the charts and lists in iTunes. There doesn’t seem to be anything like beattracker for the iTunes chart.
iTunes provides no stats. The only way to get stats on how many episodes people have downloaded and how much bandwidth you are using is through your podcast host. Some of these are better then others but most provide at least those basic bits of info. Feedburner also provides some info around geographical downloads etc.
Thanks to Phil for the Podcasting Guide. You can check out his work at Progressive Beats
