What plugins should you use? How should you host your files? Lots of questions and a few answers in this one about how to get going with your podcast using WordPress.
A follow-up question from @rsmith to my post for Tools, Gear and Hardware for a First Time Podcaster:
@iChris Follow up: WP plugins for generating iTunes feed? Any other big places worth sharing them on?
— Ryan Smith (@rsmith) January 22, 2015
WordPress Plugin for Podcasting
As with most things podcasting, there’s a ton of plugins for WordPress to use. What I’ve settled on is using the Blubrry PowerPress plugin:
Blubrry PowerPress brings the essential features for podcasting to WordPress. Developed by podcasters for podcasters, PowerPress offers full iTunes support, Web audio/video media players, exclusive subscribe tools, podcasting SEO features and more.
Once you activate PowerPress on your WordPress install – subscribe to my YouTube tutorial series if you want to see how – PowerPress has a great walk through on getting all your details written in so that your podcast can be ready to be submitted to iTunes.
Hosting your podcast media files on your WordPress install is ok at first but I’d really recommend investing in some sort of media hosting platform – Blubrry‘s looks great but I haven’t tried it yet. Libsyn is a service I do use and works great.
As with the earlier post, I’m glossing over a bit of the details here so I don’t get lost in the weeds.
Update: Ryan had a follow-up question that I felt was worth adding in here:
@iChris Are you advising against self hosting your audio mainly due to bandwidth concerns or is there a larger reason?
— Ryan Smith (@rsmith) January 23, 2015
Two reasons: One is certainly bandwidth concerns. Each web host will respond differently to having a 50MB – 100MB file being downloaded by a whole bunch of people. Hosts like Libsyn or Blubrry are set up as content distribution networks (CDN for techie nerds) specifically for podcast – fast downloads or streaming of your podcast to your listeners is important. Just like you don’t want to wait for Netflix to catch up, you don’t want your listeners to have to wait.
The second reason is stats. This assumes you’re at least as vain as me (…pause for a moment while I go check the stats on my podcasts… Ok, I’m back.) and want to know if anyone is listening. It also helps if you should ever want to pursue sponsorship for your podcast – potential advertisers will want to know accurate download numbers.
This isn’t a requirement when you’re just starting out, but it’ll help when you get further down the road. Do you want to spend a couple bucks on your podcasting hobby or just keep it all cheap/near free? It’s up to you.
Services to Share Your Podcast With
At goodstuff.network we use iTunes as our primary focus but we’ve had good success with podcasts being featured in podcast apps listing services – i.e. Pocket Cast – but we’re also playing around with Stitcher and iHeartRadio. Still too early to tell if it’s worth it.
Now What?
I love podcasting and think it’s a vastly under-utilized medium. I’m taking on clients to help them get started using podcasting – contact me if you’re wanting one-on-one help with any aspect of podcasting.
As I said </tools-gear-and-hardware-for-a-first-time-podcaster/”>the first post, feel free to leave a comment below or ask me on Twitter if you have specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer all questions in a future post or a video.
