The Blubrry PowerPress podcasting plugin gives five methods for creating your podcast RSS feed from WordPress. Here’s what each one means and when you should use them.
If you’re trying to make a page for your podcast at `/podcast` but keep getting `/podcast-2`, then you have a WordPress slug conflict. I’ll show you how to fix that in WordPress and PowerPress.
Learn about Apple’s new podcast specs for iTunes, what this means for podcasters (especially the new cover art recommendation), and how PowerPress 4.0 meets these needs and adds new features.
Learn how to setup Blubrry’s PowerPress plugin for WordPress, including feed and iTunes settings, category podcasting, channels, and how to attach podcast episodes.
[…] with a downloadable podcast episode in your WordPress post without double players. There are two methods to doing this, depending on your needs, workflow, and website setup. PowerPress embed field If you want full control over your embedded video, you’re probably familiar with copying and pasting embed codes from YouTube. You can get a YouTube video embed code from the Share panel, and it would look like the following. This is HTML code, so it would have to be pasted in the “text” editor in WordPress, or use it in the PowerPress embed field. Follow these instructions to enable the embed field. Go into PowerPress > Settings > Basic Settings. Checkmark “Embed Field (Enter embed code from sites such as YouTube, Viddler and Blip.tv).” Under that, checkmark “Replace Player with Embed (Do not display default player if embed present for episode.)” Now, when you insert a podcast episode, you’ll have a new field labeled “Media embed” where you can paste this embed code. WordPress’s oEmbed feature will not automatically embed videos from just their URLs in this field. You can only paste full HTML embed code as shown above. Display player toggle You may prefer to let WordPress’s oEmbed automatically embed your videos from just a URL. Some plugins or WordPress themes will handle videos better if they’re either embedded with the URL or with the embed code. Paste just the URL of a YouTube or Vimeo video into its own paragraph in a WordPress post. Then follow these instructions to enable the display player toggle. Go to PowerPress > Settings > Basic Settings. Checkmark ” Display Player and Links Options.” Under that, checkmark “No Player Option (Disable media player on a per episode basis)” or “No Player & Links Option (Disable media player and links on a per episode basis).” Now, when you attach a podcast episode with the widget in the post editor, you can disable displaying the player, and you won’t have double videos on your page! Manually position PowerPress with a shortcode If you want more control over your PowerPress position than just above or below your content (configurable in PowerPress > Settings > Media Appearance), then you need the shortcode! Simply insert where you want your player. I like to place the shortcode below my video. http://youtube.com/watch?v=JxEfEGPUgUs Learn how to include […]
Hear the latest about Audacity’s update, an important security update for PowerPress, the “podcasting patent” from Personal Audio, SpeakPipe’s new paid plans, New Media Expo, and more in this “eleventy-first” podcast episode.
[…] it work. To better understand HTML5, in simple terms, I recommend reading “What is HTML5, and Why Should You Care?” or the HTML5 entry on Wikipedia. Blubrry PowerPress 2.0 supports Flash and HTML5! I’ve previously praised Blubrry PowerPress and version 2.0 brings a load of new features. Most notable is that you can now […]
[…] Your podcast title, which could be more helpful with a tiny description (such as “the Ramen Noodle – clean-comedy podcast”). FeedBurner > Optimize > Title/Description Burner > New Title PowerPress > Podcast Channels > Feed Settings > Feed title PowerPress > Category Podcasting > Feed Settings > Feed Title WordPress Settings > General > Site Title Libsyn > Settings > Edit Show Settings > Show Title, or Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Advanced Options > Show Title Override 2. Description What people should know about your podcast before they subscribe. Make your description interesting and accurate. I like to include feedback information, too. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast summary PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Summary PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Summary PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Program Summary Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Summary 3. Number of included episodes The total number of episodes listed depends on a lot of things. First, make sure you gave iTunes and podcast directories a podcast-only feed so blog posts don’t bump out podcast episodes. (If you didn’t, then see #5 below.) Then you need to raise your feed item limit in your RSS feed. PowerPress > Podcast Channels > Feed Settings > Show the most recent PowerPress > Category Podcasting > Feed Settings > Show the most recent PowerPress > Settings > Feeds > Show the most recent WordPress Settings > Reading > Syndication feeds show the most recent Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Advanced Options > Episode/Post Limit 4. Cover art Make sure you’re using a beautiful 1,400 × 1,400 image for your podcast. This should go in your RSS2 tag, ID3 tags for each episode, and especially your iTunes image tag: FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast image location PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Image PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Image PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Image Libsyn > Settings > Edit Show Settings > Artwork 5. Feed URL 301 redirects can work great for moving everyone to a new RSS feed. But if you submitted an all-inclusive RSS feed (blog posts and podcast episodes) and want to split to a podcast-only feed, then use the iTunes New Feed URL feature. FeedBurner > Delete Feed… (with permanent redirection) PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes New Feed URL PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes New Feed URL PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes New Feed URL Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Advanced Options > Redirect Feed to this Web Address 6. Categories FeedBurner allows you to list in up to five categories, PowerPress allows three. But iTunes will only display and feature you in whatever is your first category. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Category and Use additional categories PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Category and More PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Category and More PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Category and More Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > iTunes Categories 7. Tags (not shown) Your podcast-level tags no longer affect your findability in iTunes. FeedBurner will allow one-word tags, PowerPress allows multi-word tags. Don’t use more than 12. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast search keywords PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Keywords PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Keywords PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Program Keywords Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Keywords 8. Author This would be your name or network. In some rare cases, like for The Audacity to Podcast, you may be listed under two different authors because one is your network affiliation. In my case, this is the TechPodcasts Network. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast author PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Talent Name PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Talent Name PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Talent Name WordPress Post > Author Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Author 9. Website This is a clickable link back to your website or a podcast landing page on your site. PowerPress > Podcast Channels > Feed Settings > Feed Landing Page URL PowerPress > Category Podcasting > Feed Settings > Feed Landing Page URL PowerPress > Settings > Feeds > Feed Landing Page URL Single sites: WordPress Settings > General > Site Address Multisite: Network Admin > Sites > Settings (for the selected site) Libsyn > Settings > Edit Show Settings > Website Address 10. Copyright Here’s a copyright symbol for your easy copying: ©. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Copyright message PowerPress > Podcast Channels > Feed Settings > Copyright PowerPress > Category Podcasting > Feed Settings > Copyright PowerPress > Settings > Feeds > Copyright Libsyn > Settings > Edit Show Settings > Copyright Notice 11. Clean/explicit Mark whether your whole podcast is clean (no foul language), explicit (lots of foul language), or don’t include (G to PG rating). FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Contains explicit content PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Explicit PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Explicit PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Explicit Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Content Rating Note about clean/explicit tag. In Feedburner “Yes (Cleaned)” gives the “Clean Lyrics” badge in iTunes, but in PowerPress, this is labeled as “Clean – No explicit content.” FeedBurner leads you to think that “Cleaned” means you used to have explicit content but removed it. But iTunes’ specs make it clear that “explicit” is for explicit content (and may be blocked in some countries), “clean” is for clean content, and “no” is for no advisory tag. 12. Email address (not shown) This email address won’t show in iTunes, but it will be accessible in your RSS feed. More importantly, this is how the iTunes team will contact you if there are problems or announcements. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast author email address PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Email PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Email PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Email WordPress Settings > General > E-mail Address Libsyn > Settings > Edit Show Settings > Public Contact Email, and Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Owner Email 13. Podcast subtitle (shown in podcast subscriptions) This text won’t display in the podcast catalog, but it will display to your subscribers in their subscriptions area. FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Podcast subtitle PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Subtitle PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Program Subtitle PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Program Subtitle Libsyn > Destinations > Edit or View Existing > Libsyn Classic Feed > Subtitle Episode-level information PowerPress gives you the ability to override per-episode information if you enable select options in PowerPress > Settings > Basic Settings. Use these at your own risk, but I’ve found that they’ve worked well for me. 14. Episode titles At the moment, the only way to set your individual episode title is your post title in WordPress. WordPress Post > Title 15. Episode subtitles Since so little of this displays, try to come up with a subtitle of only a few words. If your podcast episodes are titled similar to “Episode 3,” this could be a good spot for something more descriptive, like “10 ways to be awesome.” WordPress Post > iTunes Subtitle Field (if enabled) WordPress Post > Excerpt (if used) WordPress Post > Blog post (first 250 characters) 16. Episode descriptions This would be the further information that displays with each episode. Unless you override it, iTunes will pull your entire blog post. I like to include my excerpt, outline (sometimes), shownotes link, and feedback information. For example, here’s the episode description for this episode: Everything about how your show is listed in the iTunes podcast directory (and many other podcast directories) is pulled directly from your RSS feed. Here’s what you need to know to change the information. Get Social Subscribe & Follow Icons for your WordPress website! http://subscribeandfollow.com Register for my Learn Audacity webinar on May 18! http://LearnAudacity.com Follow me on http://twitter.com/theRamenNoodle Links and shownotes at https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/126 FEEDBACK Call (903) 231-2221 Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com Send a voice message from http://TheAudacitytoPodcast MAILING ADDRESS The Audacity to Podcast PO Box 739 Burlington, KY 41005 FeedBurner > Optimize > Summary Burner WordPress Post > iTunes Summary Field (if enabled) WordPress Post > Excerpt (if used) WordPress Post > Blog post 17. Episode clean/explicit If a particular episode should be marked differently from the rest of your feed, you can indicate that just that episode is clean or explicit. WordPress Post > iTunes Explicit Field (if enabled) FeedBurner > Optimize > SmartCast > Contains explicit content PowerPress > Podcast Channels > iTunes Settings > iTunes Explicit PowerPress > Category Podcasting > iTunes Settings > iTunes Explicit PowerPress > Settings > iTunes > iTunes Explicit My new premium plugin for bloggers and podcasters! Check this out: Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS Podcast RSS YouTube X Facebook Android That (and the similar […]
How to setup WordPress and PowerPress to let your one website host several podcasts. Learn about custom channels, category podcasting, and third-party providers. This topic was requested by Jonathan Downham from The Critical Care Practitioner Podcast. Consider before you start another podcast Starting another podcast can be fun, but also stressful. I previously shared 16 things you should consider before launching another podcast, which you should review before continuing. Here are the main points, for quick reference. Should your improve your current podcast(s) instead? Do your have time for another podcast? Will your other podcast(s) suffer? Does your new podcast fit, expand, or break your “brand”? Where will your new podcast live? Separate categories on one WordPress site Separate WordPress sites WordPress Multisite Crosspromote between your podcasts Don’t feel like you have to make a network Focus on content for one podcast at a time Reuse tools and techniques that you already have Have separate email accounts for each podcast Leverage your whole community for big things Setup separate affiliate IDs Consider separate social-media accounts Get things right from the start with this launch Avoid crossover content, unless concise Use Blubrry’s free or premium stats for separate tracking Revisit episode 113 to learn more about these considerations. But let’s assume that you know another podcast would be good and you’ve chosen to host it on the same website as your current podcast. To host multiple formats Your regular show may be audio, but you decide to also release the video. This would mean multiple formats: audio and video. Or if you already publish video and you want to offer standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) versions, then you would have multiple formats. Or you may be interested in offering supplementary content, like I do with The Audacity to Podcast’s Podcasting Video Tips—where the content is usually different from my normal audio show. If your content is available in different languages but you have a single WordPress post in one language (or you do something complicated for multiple language from a single post), then you would need separate media formats for each language. Each of these separate formats would be best served with PowerPress’s “custom podcast channels” feature. This allows a single post in WordPress to have multiple “Podcast Episode” entries with separate media and information for each. How to setup PowerPress’s custom podcast channels Go to PowerPress > Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the page and checkmark “Custom Podcast Channels.” Click Save Changes. Now go to PowerPress > Podcast Channels. (If you don’t see this in the menu yet, you may need to refresh your browser.) Your current podcast feed is the Default feed (usually /feed/podcast). You may click on it to adjust any settings specific to this feed. Add a new channel by entering the feed name and its slug. (The “slug” is what the URL will be. Instead of /feed/podcast, your channel could be /feed/video.) Customize this channel’s settings just as you would for any other podcast feed, including title, cover art, iTunes information, and more. Click Save Changes. Create a new post or edit an existing one. You’ll now have a second “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor. Anything you put in it will publish to only your new custom channel. Remember that channel feeds will always be podcast-only. The feed will only include episodes that are attached through the channel’s own “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor. To host multiple shows Instead of releasing the same or complementary content in multiple formats, you may want to release entirely different content as a separate show. For example, you host a podcast about video gaming and want to start a new podcast about your favorite TV show. Generally, I recommend having separate websites for completely different content. But when the content is related (like a spinoff series), or you’re building a single-domain network, then category podcasting is your solution. Unlike custom podcast channels, PowerPress’s category podcasting uses the same “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor. To separate the feeds, you have to place an episode within a particular hierarchy via categories. This is the only time you need to use PowerPress’s category podcasting feature. If you just want a podcast-only RSS feed, PowerPress already provides that with /feed/podcast, which works by default without activating custom podcast channels. How to setup PowerPress’s category podcasting Create a new category for your existing show, if you don’t already have one. Name it according to the show. Create a new category for your new show, if you don’t already have one. Name it according to the show. Go to PowerPress > Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the page and checkmark “Category Podcasting.” Click Save Changes. Now go to PowerPress > Category Podcasting. (If you don’t see this in the menu yet, you may need to refresh your browser.) You most likely have no podcasting categories setup yet, so pick the category you want to enable in the left-side drop-down. Click “Add Podcast Settings to Category Feed.” Customize this category’s […]
[…] up! Quick overview of my recommended process Change your public feed URL wherever it is. Plan ahead and notify your subscribers for at least a month. Use PowerPress’s iTunes and Feed settings and turn off FeedBurner’s SmartCast feature. Export your FeedBurner feed’s email subscribers and import them into a service like MailChimp. Activate the “new-feed-url” tag in PowerPress. Wait a couple weeks and delete your FeedBurner feed and use their 30-day redirection. Wait 15 days and re-open the same FeedBurner feed and delete it again for two more weeks of redirection. Then re-open it again. Leave the original FeedBurner feed operational and using your new feed as its source. If this is all too complicated, I’m available to do this all for you for $200 per feed with quantity discounts. Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com if you’re interested. I’ll have an official request form available soon. Is FeedBurner shutting down? As of September 24, 2012, Google has not announced that FeedBurner will shut down. But the following events will give you pause. The FeedBurner API was deprecated as of May 26, 2011 and will shut down on October 20, 2012. These APIs were used for tools like FeedFlare, subscriber chicklets, Feed Awareness plugins, and such. This will affect subscription-number widgets where people show off their RSS subscribers (built into themes like Standard Theme). The Feedburner Twitter account was “retired” on July 26, 2012. Google simply wasn’t using it. But they did refresh it with a new post to alert followers to recent issues (see below). Also on July 26, 2012, Google announced that the AdSense for Feeds blog would be closed. Again, this makes sense because they weren’t posting much content and even acknowledged that. Google failed to renew the Japanese feedburner.jp domain and lost it, resulting in many last subscribers for Japanese sites. On September 19 (earlier for some), FeedBurner stopped reporting subscriber counts and stats and then dropped to 0. This is a known issue that Google has acknowledged and said they’re working on. It’s also not the first time this has happened. FeedBurner alternatives like FeedBlitz jump all over things like this, trying to get people to switch to their service. FeedBlitz looks good, but may still be unnecessary going forward. What if FeedBurner does shut down? Again, I don’t think FeedBurner will shut down. But if they do, they’ll probably offer options similar to the “delete feed” feature I describe below. The worst case is that your feed will disappear and you’ll lose any subscribers who were subscribed to it. Change your public feed URLs Whatever your new RSS address will be, it needs to be the public URL everywhere your old FeedBurner URL was. This would be on your site, in podcast directories (I’ll explain iTunes below), and anywhere else you link to it. Make sure you stop publicizing your old URL whereverit is, even if you have to edit old posts! Plan ahead and notify your subscribers Some of these methods will work seamlessly, but others could break subscriptions for some of your subscribers. Because of this potential doom, start telling your subscribers that you’ll be changing RSS feeds and that if they’re using anything other than iTunes, they may want to resubscribe to your new feed. Make sure you do this several times for weeks in advance. If a subscriber is using a system that doesn’t seamlessly update their subscription to your new feed URL, then they’ll at least know to watch for it and what they should do to continue receiving updates. How to migrate your podcast settings If you host a podcast, then the first thing you want to do is get your podcast setting right. I already recommend using PowerPress to configure your RSS feed instead of FeedBurner’s SmartCast. And this will be crucial for moving away from FeedBurner. Login to FeedBurner and open your podcast feed (only one at a time). Go to Optimize > SmartCast. Open a new tab/window and login to your WordPress site. Go to PowerPress settings > iTunes. Copy all the information from the Feedburner fields to the PowerPress fields. Copy any other FeedBurner information into PowerPress settings > Feeds. Save your PowerPress settings. Deactivate FeedBurner’s SmartCast feature. Now, all your podcast information—like category, keywords, cover art, etc.—will come from your WordPress site instead of FeedBurner’s. Congratulations! You now have more control over your podcast settings and access to advanced features that have been around for years but FeedBurner never supported! How to migrate your email subscribers One of FeedBurner’s still handy and automated features is Email Subscriptions, which sends new content at a preselected time every day there’s something new. These are the easiest subscribers to migrate because you have their exact information—their email addresses. Log in to FeedBurner and open your feed (only one at a time). Go to Publicize > Email Subscriptions. Click “View Subscriber Details” at the bottom of the page. Click “Export CSV.” Open a free MailChimp account or use another email newsletter service. Login to your email service and follow their instructions for importing your CSV from FeedBurner. Follow your email service’s instructions for setting up a manual or automatic RSS-powered email newsletter. How to migrate your RSS subscribers Moving away from FeedBurner is risky because you could lose some RSS subscribers. The only way to prevent that entirely is if your public feed has always an only been a URL that you control. This could be on your domain as a WordPress feed (like theaudacitytopodcast.com/feed/) or FeedBurner’s free MyBrand feature (which would result in something like feeds.noodle.mx/). But let’s assume you’re not setup either of those ways. What are 301 redirects? Just like when you change addresses and notify the Post Office to forward your mail, we need to do the same thing on the Internet. When somethings moves from one URL to another, there are different ways to redirect visitors who have the old URL: A 307 redirect is temporary. Requests for that URL (such as a download, a click on a link, or typing the URL in a browser) will be seamlessly redirected to a temporary URL. Nothing changes on the visitor’s system or software. A 301 redirect is permanent. Requests for that URL (such as a download, a click on a link, or typing the URL in a browser) will be seamlessly redirected to a new, permanent URL. Many systems and software will see the redirect and appropriately update the address that they look for. Most podcast and blog subscription apps and sites will recognize a 301 redirect and stop checking your old feed URL and switch to checking your new feed URL. But a 301 redirect is only good while it exists on the original URL. If you tell your local Post Office to forward your mail for just a day, anything after that one day will still go to your old address. Tell your Post Office to forward for a year, and that gives plenty of time for changing your address everywhere people have it. If you have a 301 redirect for just a couple weeks, then anyone who tries to visit the old URL after those couple weeks will hit a dead end. Learn more about 301 redirects for podcasts from PodcastFAQ.com. Redirect iTunes and subscribers iTunes is a smart podcast client. If you implement a 301 redirect, iTunes will figure out what you intend and will update for future use. But there’s another feature you’ll want to start right away before you try a 301 redirect. Assuming you now have power and full control over your podcast RSS settings (by using PowerPress instead of SmartCast), follow these steps. Log in to your WordPress site. Go to PowerPress settings > iTunes. Click “Set iTunes New Feed URL.” Enter your new podcast feed URL in the empty field. Click “Save Changes.” This will tell iTunes subscribers and the […]
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