Business Podcasting: RSS Feeds, Publishing, & Apple Podcasts
Podcasts seem to be taking over the world today. They cover a wide array of topics, giving audience niches everywhere fresh new content to enjoy. If you’re one of the millions of people who regularly listen to podcasts, you understand why they have become so popular. And perhaps you yourself have thought about giving the podcasting game a go. Maybe you are extremely passionate about a specific niche topic. Or perhaps you have insight and expertise you want to share with others. But what do you really need to do to start your own business podcast? What is an RSS feed? How do you publish an episode? How do you get your podcast into iTunes/Apple Podcasts? Over the next few blogs, we’re going through the ins and outs of podcasting ranging from creating an RSS feed to submitting to Apple Podcasts.
Catch up on part one, part two, and part three.
How to Start a Business Podcast: RSS Feeds, Publishing, and Apple Podcasts
There are a number of things you’re going to need to consider, learn, and experiment with if you are going to start your own business podcast. Over the course of these blogs, we have covered a number of these topics giving you all the information you need to begin. In today’s final blog, we will review:
- How to create an RSS feed
- Publishing your episodes
- Submitting to iTunes/Apple Podcasts
Step 9. Creating an RSS feed
Now that your hosting is finalized, you’re ready to create your RSS feed. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. RSS is an easy way to distribute a list of headlines, update notifications, and content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading. RSS works by having the website author maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standard way. This list of notifications is called an “RSS Feed”. People who are interested in finding out the latest headlines or changes can check this list.
Your feed will depend on the hosting you chose, If you are on Libsyn, simply login to the dashboard and fill in all the boxes under the destination tab and your feed will be ready to go. If you’re using blubrry (through your WordPress site), you’ll create your RSS feed using the PowerPress plugin. This is a free WP plugin and something we recommend using for your WP site regardless of where you host your audio.
If this seems like a lot, don’t worry. Creating your RSS feed is as easy as filling in the feed info such as title, author, description, artwork, etc.
Step 10. Publishing Episodes
We’ve approached the final countdown. You’re now ready to put your first podcast episode online. Upload your final mp3 file to your media host and press publish! If you have a website, make sure the episode can be found there. Your blog or a podcast page would be good places to start. We also suggest putting an audio player that someone can use to listen to your podcast right there on the page. Both Libsyn and blurry provide these players for you.
Congrats you have a podcast online that is available to the public!
Step 11. Submitting to iTunes/Apple Podcasts
Now your podcast is accessible on the web. And in order to get the most “bang for your buck”, you’ll want to get into podcast directories. Podcast directories are the place where most people will find and subscribe to your podcast. The #1 directory for podcasts today is iTunes/Apple Podcasts. Being on Apple Podcasts will account for, on average, over 75% of listeners. That’s because Apple Podcasts will forward your podcast into other directories automatically. (Other directories fill their own libraries with podcasts accepted into Apple Podcasts).
To submit your podcast, follow this link, and sign in with your Apple ID. From there, you can upload the URL for your RSS feed and click “validate”. Apple will then show you a preview of your podcast’s information. Double-check everything looks correct and then click “submit”. There will be a 24-48 (and unfortunately sometimes longer) wait before Apple will send you an email to confirm your submission.
Once you’ve been approved, you can begin promoting your podcast in the ways you see fit!
Business Podcasting Bonuses
At this point, all that’s left to say is congrats. You’re now a business podcaster! You made it this far which means you’ve passed the first true test and are ready to start cranking out episodes. You’ll be on your way to episode 100 in no time!
Podcasting has a number of benefits for businesses. However, we want to make sure we disclaim that it will take some time and effort. Podcasting requires you to carve out time and invest hours into building your platform and audience. And just like your business, you may find it’s often on your mind.
The good news is that podcasting also comes with its plethora of benefits. They include:
- It’s an Alternative to Video
- Helps in Building Better Relationships with an Audience
- Easy to Create and Start
- Highly Engaging
- Great Method for Teaching
- Creates Brand Awareness
- Increase Traffic Generating
- Builds Authority
- Additional Revenue Stream
- Vocal and Communication Skills
Strategy Before Tactics with onCOREventures
Strategy is Doing the Right Things. Tactics are Doing Things Right
At onCOREventures, we believe in the method of strategy before tactics. The first step in realigning any marketing approach and establishing a plan is by taking the time to understand your audience. Once a target audience is identified, you can begin uncovering the key issues those audience members face. If you can understand their pains, you can begin connecting with them on new levels based on the trust that you understand their specific challenges and headaches.
Strategy is about picking the right goals and objectives, while tactics are how you go about achieving those goals and objectives. Tactics are much easier to implement if you have a strategy – and that’s because an objective and direction are already defined. While tactics are wonderful and are required for your business’ growth and success, it’s the strategy that focuses on the bigger picture aimed towards results.
It can be extremely difficult to pull back and look at your marketing strategy without any bias. If you feel your marketing strategy could use some tweaking or know you can help more people but don’t know how to reach them, the team at onCOREventures is ready to brainstorm and strategize the best marketing solution for your business. For a FREE Marketing Check-Up report and consultation, click here!
