The amount of people who listen to podcasts is increasing every month. There’s no better time to submit an episode, or better yet, create a show.
Here, we talk you through how you can publish your podcast and host your episode on the different podcast hosting platform options: Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
There’s also a quick summary of how to make the most of free offers, and list of the best ways to check your platform and software is best for your audio. We also explain how to optimize and submit your RSS feed and publish your file episodes and features in the best way to gain new listeners and please your audience.
What Kinds of Podcast Can I Publish?
There are two main types of podcast: audio-only, and audio and visual, which can incorporate streaming. Depending on your content and features, the way you create and publish your show will be different. With so many ways to host your podcast, upload your episode, and create an RSS feed, it’s difficult to know which website is best for your show.
How Do I Make a Podcast?
There are five quick steps you need to follow to get started creating a podcast episode. Although you don’t always need to use complex new podcasting equipment, make sure that you have the basis: a concept, a way to record your audio files, and an idea of who you want your podcast listeners to be. For more information on the best equipment, you can look at these statistics.
Easy Steps
1. Record
Step one: record your first podcast episode. Whatever the media, show notes, and podcasts host, you need to record one episode to get started. Have a vague plan of the structure you want your show to take before recording new podcast episodes. This will start to fill your RSS feed with good content.
2. Edit
Edit your show episode. There are many types of software you can use to edit your podcast. It’s a good idea to decide roughly how long you like your podcast episodes to be. Users won’t mind if there’s some difference, you need to keep the length consistent to attract a regular audience from directories. These statistics show you the average lengths for different genres.
3. Export
Export your podcast file and add tags. You need to choose a title to fit the content of your podcast before you publish the file. You also need to add other information so that your listeners can easily find it in directories: this includes the month and year published, podcast host, genre, and an image to make it look great when it’s uploaded onto a platform like iTunes.
4. Choose Your Platform
Choose your podcast hosting platform and prepare your new episode. This is a tricky step, so we’ve explored some of the best podcast hosting platforms below. Check that your content and file are finalized and your media and audio are ready to go. Podcast hosting is the website or app that you upload your file to. They often have good podcast directories and you can start to fill your RSS feed.
5. Upload – The Key Step in “How to Publish a Podcast”
Upload your new episode to the podcast hosting platform and optimize your content. This can be done through things like adding a brief description of your file, putting links to relevant files that you mention, and adding a relevant RSS link. The idea is to make your show as appealing as possible to your target audience, and encourage them to start listening regularly every week or month.
How Can I Improve?
Getting started making an episode seems simple, especially if you just use audio, but there are ways to get more listeners and improve your podcast: a website, RSS feed URL, excellent files. We have lots of great tips for the best ways to upload episodes, fill your RSS feed with great podcasts, get noticed in podcast directories, and show the podcasting world you’re one to listen to. Or you can start recording your podcast with video to upload on YouTube.
Further reading:
How often should you publish a podcast
How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Podcast?
A Guide
The costs to publish a show or one podcast episode depends on your podcast hosting platform. We’ve created a short guide to three major websites: Apple Podcast/iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Before you choose a website it’s a great idea to have a plan of what features you want from the podcast platform, your budget/if the software or directories you use it need to be free, and the audience you want your show to appeal to.
Apple Podcasts/iTunes
Price:
Free
How to Use:
- Before you can upload one to Apple you need: A Podcasts Connect Account and an RSS feed URL which includes artwork, at least one episode of your show, and required tags. Apple specifies that your episodes can be audio, video, or text. Required tags include things like language and podcast host or podcast hosts. You can also link your website or RSS feed.
- Apple Podcasts/iTunes also specifies that there are three types of content that users can submit as one episode: full (the complete content of your show), trailer, or bonus (extra features or new fun content). These will show in your RSS feed.
- You can then submit and publish your file to Apple Podcasts/iTunes. You need to test your audio and visuals and validate your show before you can publish it on your RSS feed.
- How you upload your podcast files to Apple Podcasts/iTunes depends on the type of product you’re uploading the show from so make sure to check Apple Podcasts’ easy to use support directory. Once you’ve figured it out just click submit on your new episode and watch your RSS feed expand and your show appear on podcast directories.
Good For:
Apple has a clear divide between its music, on iTunes, and podcasts, with a separate app for its podcast directory. The app is free so when you submit episodes if new users want to find new podcasts they can easily discover your podcast episodes.
Bad For:
Most podcast hosting platforms make it easy to submit media and files. ITunes’ information directory and list are harder to use as they’re more complex and could do with a new website format. New users who don’t have much podcasting experience may not like the complexity of the plan. For example, not everyone knows what an RSS feed is so users may struggle to publish their file.
Spotify
Price:
Free
How to Use:
Spotify makes it easy for you to host your podcast:
- You need to visit their site.
- Click on the ‘get started button’.
- Submit your RSS feed — this is usually done by pasting in your RSS feed URL.
- Submit new episode information like show notes, content, genre, language, and country that can be searched on their directories.
- Publish your podcast episode.
Good For:
Getting statistics. Once you upload your podcast files you get a daily list of data reporting information like the followers and listeners of each episode. You can also see the people who start and stream your show. New data on your podcast is updated every day, giving you the ability to analyze what Spotify users want and make great content that your listeners will love — that’s up to 31 podcast updates per month. You get these features for free.
Bad For:
Lack of dedicated podcast host and other audio separation. Spotify is known primarily as a music app that has branched out into podcasting — although this might help you to attract new listeners who stumble across your show notes, it means that the website and app are less streamlined than some other services.
Price:
Free
How to Use:
It’s simple to upload your audio. Get an account; submit your RSS feed with required tags, such as show notes, host, number of episodes, and year and month the media was released; verify ownership of the episode or episodes; wait for your file to be reviewed (it can take up to five working days to review one episode), and then you’ll get your show or episode in Google’s podcast directories.
Good For:
Google hosts some of the biggest names in the podcasting and media world, such as the Joe Rogan Experience, which is the highest-earning Podcast show. This shows that it has an established and comprehensive podcast directory and having a list of your episodes on the website could get you more listeners per month.
Bad For:
The show recommendations can be a little generic so it may be more difficult for your media to get noticed unless your show host is already popular. Make sure that your show notes for each episode are detailed and eye-catching to attract new people to experience your audio or other media.
Where Can I Upload for Free?
You can submit for free to most websites. Although Apple, Spotify, and Google are popular free sites to submit a list of visual or audio files to, shows also flourish on smaller websites that specialize in podcasting and podcast directories: for example Pocket Casts. Pocket Casts is a good example of a podcasting app and can be downloaded in Google Play. Indeed, if you want to submit a new episode or file to a fresh website or list, try searching Google Play or a podcast directory for inspiration.
Get Ready to Publish
This article should have given you an overview of one or some of the podcast directories that would be perfect for your show: now all that’s left to do is find a show host, get creating audio, and upload your media to the app or website of your choice.
