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Episode 4

The Podcast Launch

October 2, 2015 ·

Ep04: The Podcast Launch What are the steps to launch a podcast? Episode Summary: Learn. Create. Move Forward

Episode Summary: The full start-to-finish process for launching a podcast — planning, assets, production, hosting, RSS feed setup, directory submission, and promotion — the exact steps used to launch this show.

What You’ll Learn

  • The full 7-step process to launch a podcast, start to finish
  • Why media hosting and RSS feed setup are the trickiest steps to get right
  • How to actually submit a podcast to iTunes and other directories
  • Why promotion doesn’t stop once the first episode goes live

The Podcast Launch: Start to Finish

Steps to launching a podcast:

  1. Planning
  2. Graphics & assets
  3. Production & tagging
  4. Media hosting
  5. RSS feed creation
  6. Submitting to podcast directories
  7. Marketing

1. Planning

Start date: pick one to give yourself a real goal. At least 4-6 weeks is recommended, more if an interview format is planned. Mike Murphy Unplugged launched in one month — a couple more weeks would have helped. Everyone knows their own pace best, but picking a start date is what actually gets things moving.

Show planning (very important): What is the show about? What value gets delivered to listeners — knowledge, humor, insight? What’s the format — solo, interview, co-host? What’s the frequency — daily, weekly, monthly? Be consistent. What’s the approximate length — 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour? Be consistent. Who is the audience? This one’s big, and it’s genuinely okay not to know exactly at first.

Tip: when recording, imagine speaking to one person, not an entire audience — it changes the tone for the better.

2. Graphics & Assets

Website: every podcast needs a home. Divi by Elegant Themes is the best WordPress theme used to date, and highly recommended.

Podcast cover art: genuinely important, and worth outsourcing if needed — Fiverr is one option among many designers who specialize in podcast cover art.

Music: Incompetech, AudioJungle, AudioBlocks.

Sound effects and voiceover intros: Fiverr again.

Tip: don’t get stuck gathering assets — done is better than perfect.

3. Production

Write a script — developing a repeatable template, like a story, helps a lot. Scrivener is the writing tool of choice.

Record the podcast. Adobe Audition is the tool used here; other popular editors include GarageBand, Reaper, Pro Tools, and Audacity.

Edit, add music and sound effects, export as an MP3 file.

Tag it. ID3 Editor handles this — the metadata embedded in an MP3 file. To see it in action, open iTunes, right-click any song, and select “Get Info” — all that text and artwork comes from ID3 tags. Not hard, but important.

4. Choose a Media Host

This is where the MP3 podcast file actually lives — just like a website needs hosting, a podcast needs a media host. Media host used here: Libsyn (recommended as download-only).

Tip: for maximum flexibility, don’t publish the RSS feed directly through Libsyn — use it strictly as a download-only server, so switching hosts later stays easy.

Runner-up: SoundCloud — genuinely liked for its design and vibe, but it retains too much control over the feed, which is why Libsyn won out instead.

5. Use the Blubrry/PowerPress Plugin for WordPress

Install the plugin on WordPress. PowerPress generates the all-important RSS feed submitted to iTunes — the same feed that notifies subscribers every time a new episode goes live. (Ever subscribed to a blog and gotten notified about a new post? That’s RSS at work.)

Tutorials to learn PowerPress: setup can feel a little intimidating — go slow, since every field matters. Watching several tutorials before diving in helped a lot. Pat Flynn’s popular 6-part series on launching a podcast is excellent, and video 5 in that series walks through the PowerPress settings specifically. John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire has a free 20-episode podcast course on iTunes — genuinely inspiring, and a great way to understand the whole podcasting puzzle. Daniel J. Lewis at The Audacity to Podcast also has great tutorials.

After PowerPress is set up, at least one episode has to be published on the WordPress site before iTunes will accept the podcast — a private or scheduled post won’t work, it has to be live.

Publishing episode 1: create a new blog post, then paste the episode URL from Libsyn (the MP3 file) into the PowerPress blog post module.

Steps 4 & 5, summarized: record the podcast → export as MP3 → upload to Libsyn as download-only → install Blubrry/PowerPress on the website → create a new post like any other blog post → paste the Libsyn MP3 URL into PowerPress → PowerPress generates the RSS feed submitted to iTunes → the RSS feed notifies the audience of every new episode. Repeat that loop each week and the audience gets notified automatically every time.

6. Submit to iTunes & Other Directories

The big moment. Once episode 1 is published: go into the PowerPress settings and copy the podcast feed URL (typically the website address with /feed/podcast/ at the end). Open iTunes, go to Podcasts in the iTunes Store, and look for “Submit a Podcast” in the upper right. Paste the RSS feed in. Wait 24-48 hours for the iTunes congratulations email — that’s it, done.

Other directories to submit to: Stitcher, TuneIn, Miro.

7. Promote, Promote, Promote

Share the podcast with the world, and keep reminding listeners to subscribe and leave ratings and reviews. Landing on iTunes’s New & Noteworthy section is the goal, and downloads, subscriptions, and ratings are exactly what gets a show there.

Learn. Create. Move Forward.

Music: “Life of Riley” & “Wallpaper” (incompetech.com).

Show Notes & Links