Learn how to setup Blubrry's PowerPress plugin for WordPress, including feed and iTunes settings, category podcasting, channels, and how to attach podcast episodes.

UPDATE: Although PowerPress is now to version 7 and it contains several changes, the following still mostly applies to the Advanced setup mode.

Install PowerPress

Setup PowerPress for podcasting

  1. Configure each of the tabs under PowerPress > Settings:
    1. Basic Settings for how you'll attach episodes to posts.
    2. Services & Stats for adding a media redirect for statistics (including using Blubrry's great free or premium stats).
    3. Media Appearance for how podcast episodes will appear on your page. I recommend above content and in the excerpts.
    4. Feeds to get and adjust your podcast-only feed, including setting the item limit (separate from WordPress's limit) and RSS2 image (144 × 144 edition of your podcast cover art).
    5. iTunes for configuring your feed for iTunes. This can be used, and is recommended, instead of Feedburner's SmartCast feature. But if you still use SmartCast, its settings will override PowerPress's. Make sure you include an iTunes image (600 × 600 1,400 × 1,400 edition of your podcast cover art).
    6. T.V. for setting your content rating.
  2. If you release the same podcast content in multiple formats (like audio and video or several video formats), enable Custom Podcast Channels and configure it just like your normal podcast feed.
  3. If you publish multiple podcasts (separate shows, not episodes) on the same site under different categories, enable Category Podcasting and configure it just like your normal podcast feed for each category.
  4. Go your Audio Player Settings (and video, if you have a video podcast) and switch to the HTML5 player. Upload a new play button if you want.

Upload your media

Whether you host at LibSyn, Blubrry, your web host, or somewhere else, upload and copy the link.

Write your shownotes

Make sure you write great podcast shownotes!

Attach your podcast episode

If you configured your “Default Media URL” under PowerPress > Settings > Basic Settings > Advanced Episode Entry Settings, then just enter the filename of your episode under the “Podcast Episode” widget of your post editor.

If you don't have a “Default Media URL,” then paste the full URL to your media file.

Click the Verify button.

Repeat this process for any additional channels.

Publish

When you have all your shownotes written, media attached, and appropriate categories and tags, hit publish.

Your podcast is now online and in your RSS feed!

Ask your podcasting legal questions for upcoming guest

I'm very pleased to say that Gordon Firemark will be joining us for a few future episodes. He is an entertainment and new media Lawyer, and the author of the Podcast, Blog, and New Media Producers Legal Survival Guide. He also hosts the Entertainment Law Update podcast.

So send me your legal questions to ask Gordon in upcoming episodes.

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About the Author
As an award-winning podcaster, Daniel J. Lewis gives you the guts and teaches you the tools to launch and improve your own podcasts for sharing your passions and finding success. Daniel creates resources for podcasters, such as the SEO for Podcasters and Zoom H6 for Podcasters courses, the Social Subscribe & Follow Icons plugin for WordPress, the My Podcast Reviews global-review aggregator, and the Podcasters' Society membership for podcasters. As a recognized authority and influencer in the podcasting industry, Daniel speaks on podcasting and hosts his own podcast about how to podcast. Daniel's other podcasts, a clean-comedy podcast, and the #1 unofficial podcast for ABC's hit drama Once Upon a Time, have also been nominated for multiple awards. Daniel and his son live near Cincinnati.
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Jeremy Sarber
12 years ago

Thank you, Daniel. Thank you. I’ve been podcasting a couple of years so this episode in particular was not helpful to me. However, your podcast is one of the very few podcasts about podcasting which is still talking about podcasting. I don’t mean to insult others, but I listen to shows like this to hear about podcasting and that what’s I get with you. Sometimes it’s technical info and sometimes it’s just good advice, but it’s always about podcasting. I appreciate that.

Nicola
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Sarber

Good morning. Is it possible to automatically import podcasts from the spreaker RSS feed? Also is it possible to create three categories where podcasts taken from the RSS feed are automatically inserted without doing it manually? Thanks

Jason of TV times Three

Just wanted to mention something about audio player selection when using Powerpress. As of right now the only audio player in Powerpress that can be used with the Embed option is the default Flow Player. While I wish that I could use other player options to do this, I very much like the idea of people being able to embed my podcast on their blogs/websites.

Yes, it’s a Flash based player, but I had some friends with iPads/iPhones go to my site and apparently an alternate play button displays, so you can still listen to the podcast on the site with those devices.

Jason of TV times Three

That’s the thing, if you select to use the HTML5 audio player, then the Embed link option isn’t available. Just wanted to point out that things still work in the other direction, for those that want to use the Embed option for audio in Powerpress by selecting the FlowPlayer. The Flash based FlowPlayer seems to be swapped out for an iPad/iPhone compatible play option on those devices.

Thanks for the Powerpress overview, as I had just installed it and started using it over the weekend before this podcast came out, so it was great timing.

Keeper Dan
Keeper Dan
12 years ago

 Excellent work, sir. I just went through the video and my own PowerPress settings, so now I have a much better idea of how they work and what they do. Thank you.

Might I request a similar video going through Feed Burner?  This video did make me wonder just how I should set up my Feed Burner to function hand-in-hand with the above PP settings. It looks like there is some overlap as you mentioned with turning off SmartCast in FB. Some of their other options could use some further explanation as to their usefulness to a podcast hobbyist.

I have to echo Jeremy’s comments. Some other shows tend to stray into topics apart from helping to get a podcast going. You’ve been great about staying focused.

Keeper Dan
Keeper Dan
12 years ago

 Ah, I must have forgotten that you went through that already. I’ll re-listen to it while at the PC so I can look at my settings again.
Thanks!

Melissa Shanhun
11 years ago

Hi Daniel

Thanks for this episode I really appreciated the point that you don’t have to fill in these setting & the feed burner podcast ones! I’m having issues finding how to set up the default media url though.
I just wanted to share I’ve launched my podcast! 🙂 Finally! I did a little series in December (not ongoing!) about Christmas scrapbooking… and here’s my ‘real’ one! http://www.digitalscrapbookinghq.com/SIP in case you want to check it out.
Thanks to you and Cliff Ravenscraft for your helpful podcasts!

Melissa Shanhun
11 years ago

Thanks Daniel! 

I sure am using Linkshare thanks to you! I’ve not gone to ITMS yet as I’m not sure how people would respond. So starting simple :)I can understand what my default URL would be, I’m just can’t for the life of me find where in Blubrry it should go! I can’t see for looking! (I’m using category podcasting)

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to my comments 🙂

NetCast Studio
11 years ago

By far the best Powerpress video I have ever seen.  Great production Daniel.

Zach Jenkins
11 years ago

I’ve had a question that I never been able to find a straight answer on that I was hoping you’d be able to answer. When using PowerPress and using their media stats, which feed do you submit to iTunes? Do you use the /feed/podcast uses or do you submit the redirect?

Aaron
Aaron
11 years ago

Hi Daniel,
I was wondering if you could do a short walkthrough of Blubrry Premium Stats. I just can’t seem to find a way to add both of my feeds to their standard stats, only one. 
This video was great, and I agree… It is BY FAR the best walkthrough of the Blubrry Plugin out to date. Thank you very much.
Also, I submitted my podcast feed after doing everything you said (correctly) to iTunes 2 days ago. It is Easter weekend so, anyway, how long might it take for me to get my confirmation email saying it is approved?

Andy
Andy
11 years ago

Hi, thanks for the information. I have a podcast feed setup on my site, but now I would like to create a blog feed as well. I would like to be able to submit the feed to feedburner, and allow people to subscribe to the feed. I am using bluberry powerpress plugin, feedburner, and also the feedburner plugin by Steve Smith. Thanks! Andy

jasonvandehey
jasonvandehey
11 years ago

I want to release both .mp3 and enhanced versions. Can I release both to separate iTunes shows but use 1 blog post? (was planning to use Powerpress + feedburner)

jasonvandehey
jasonvandehey
11 years ago

I want to release both .mp3 and enhanced versions. Can I release both to separate iTunes shows but use 1 blog post? (was planning to use Powerpress + feedburner)

Derek Ouellette
11 years ago

My podcast rss only works when my permalink is set to default. Like you I prefer “post name” permalink. But when I select any permalink except “default” it says the rss is invalid. Why is that and how can I fix?

trackback

[…] If the settings page throws you, as it did me, an excellent tutorial can be found here. […]

Steinar Knutsen
11 years ago

Great tutorial on PowerPress Daniel! After several years it is my favorite WordPress podcasting plugin for sure. I was using Podcasting by TSG, but it’s pretty much dead in the water.

You may also be interested in the Mobile Podcaster iPhone app which lets you record and publish directly to WordPress. I really cuts down production time and works great with PowerPress.

Steinar Knutsen
11 years ago

BossJock Studio is cool for sure. Mobile Podcaster for iPad is coming out as soon as Apple approves the new universal app version.
Thanks,
Steinar

philbeat
philbeat
11 years ago

Hi. Thanks for a great video example, I have 99% completed my podcast feed settings, but I cannot figure out for the life of me why PowerPress is not putting in a Channel/Podcast Description as a general description of the podcast itself… the tag for that in the feed is blank…. where is it supposed to get this info from … any ideas? Thank you for a great blog!

Melissa Shanhun
11 years ago

Ok so I’m still struggling with my cover art. I’ve got it set up in the Podcast Category itunes tab. And it shows up fine EVERYWHERE, except the Podcast app. So frustrating. I’ve even uploaded new image just in case, to force itunes to update with no luck. You can see the correct image here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/december-daily-inspiration/id483064807

David Spark
11 years ago

Thanks for producing this video. I followed along and setup PowerPress. 🙂

Huriata Bonilla
10 years ago

Hi, is it possible to assign a custom taxonomy to ‘Category Podcasting’? I’ve been looking for hours with no luck. Thank you.

Huriata Bonilla
10 years ago

Thanks for replying, i’m using Custom Post Types with Custom Taxonomies, PowerPress let just to add “default categories” to “Category Podcasting” and not “Custom Taxnomies”. I’m trying to create a special section (Podcast) in admin for my client with CPT and CT, but i don’t know how to achieve that. Thank you.

Dennis B.
Dennis B.
10 years ago

I set up my PPress and everything worked fine.. then my Podcast PAGE seemed to no longer show my rss feed and episode list. Now the dedicated podcast page is blank. Have you ever seen this or have an idea of why this would happen or a fix? I simply need my PPress plug in to show my episodes on a dedicated page.

Dennis B.
Dennis B.
10 years ago

Daniel. Thanks for that Part of it. I can now use that url to see my categories all listed since they are all in the same category. HOWEVER, my website doesnt display them because my page is http://www.mywebiste.com/podcast (since thats the name of the page i created for my podcast). How do i get the category feed to come up and show the podcast list when someone clicks on the podcast PAGE. As of now, it just goes to a blank page. It used to work, not sure what I did. Here’s the link if it helps any.

http://www.iphoneappexperiment.com

Dennis B.
Dennis B.
10 years ago
Reply to  Dennis B.

here’s more details. here is the actuall feed that shows the podcast

http://www.iphoneappexperiment.com/category/podcast/

and here’s the page I created to display the podcast (where nothing is showing)

http://www.iphoneappexperiment.com/podcast-2/

i need them to work together and not sure what I am doing wrong.
Thanks Daniel

Dennis B.
Dennis B.
10 years ago
Reply to  Dennis B.

Just FYI (for you or your peeps that have the same issue) apparently there was an issue with the naming on the page set up for the podcast. Somehow it became “podcast-2” instead of “podcast”. When trying to change it to only “podcast” i was unable until I disables the powerpress plug in, rename the page to “podcast”, saved and reactivated the plug in. Problem solved!!!

Adam
Adam
10 years ago

Thanks! Perfect video. Just what i’ve been searching for.

Anewpodcaster
Anewpodcaster
10 years ago

Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU! I have been trying to figure out how to set up a podcast for my small business for months. I was clueless. Keep up the great work!

Chuck Minear
Chuck Minear
10 years ago

Hi Daniel. Thanks again for a great tutorial. I really like how your audio player is right under the title of your post instead of at the end. I put my show notes as my post so the player can be WAY down the page. I don’t see any setting in PowerPress for setting the location of the player. Am I missing something? By the way I just bought your Social Subscribe and Follow Icons so as soon as I figure out how I want to use them I’ll let you know where to see them implemented.

john clare
john clare
10 years ago

Clear helpful video, thanks. But I have a couple of strange problems.
Podcast 1 is loaded and sent to Stitcher, Blackberry and Itunes. Itunes have not responded, but when I try to upload the second podcast they say I have already done so. The other two acknowledged upload and show the first podcast but also say I’ve already uploaded the file when I try to send the second podcast. They still seem to be seeing the first episode. However, when I check feed validator, the text is that of episode 2. In short my feed url validates in Powerpress.
Also, when I try to validate the Media URL at the foot of my Post, the response is “couldn’t connect to host”. However, when I drop the url into a new browser window the file shows and plays episode 2. I’m using Libsyn to host the sound file. What’s going wrong?

craig
craig
10 years ago

Hi I keep getting the video image appearing for my podcasts instaed of the podcast image . Any clues why? see at the bottom here http://www.bravatrak.com/what-are-the-common-issues-in-terms-of-leadership-capability/ It still works ok but looks weird cheers Craig

Chris Colotti
10 years ago

Great post. One question, how are you hiding the video player from the plugin? When I add the video and the YouTube Embed both video players show and it’s rather odd looking. I want the WordPress post to use the youtube embed as it is better quality, and still have the mobile video media in the feed only. Also can you publish podcasts that mix video and audio only to the same iTunes location? It’s hard to get people to subscribe to different channels and link to different channels on iTunes, but I suspect the answer is you must since the feeds are different.

Chris Colotti
10 years ago

Perfect. I think I did answer my own question on the itunes deal. Different FEED url=new iTunes listing. Really want to get the post looking correct like you have here on this page, so looking forward to the video! I have a VERY short video I want to post as the first video podcast. I already have the HD/SD versions uploaded to S3 and YouTube and I have the Audio only MP3 as well. Once we get the post looking right with just the one youTube Embed I’m good to go!

Chris Colotti
10 years ago

I enabled the settings to replace the player when an embed code is present but it’s not honoring that. I thought that was the answer. :/

trackback

[…] +Daniel J. Lewis provides this guide on How to use PowerPress. […]

Tom L.
10 years ago

You sir, are a boss. Your information is so incredibly helpful – thanks for putting this out there!

Alease
Alease
10 years ago

Great video! You explained Powerpress very well for someone who didn’t know much of anything about podcasting
. Thanks for sharing.

Drew Doggett
9 years ago

Outstanding tutorial, Daniel! This was my ONE stop for setting up Blubrry PowerPress. You rock! Really appreciate you. 🙂

realestateradio
realestateradio
9 years ago

Have a question, Is it possible to show the powerpress audio player with each post while in a category view

Omar
Omar
9 years ago

So I have a question. Do you actually have to go to Apple.com, create an id and submit your feed url there or will the Blubrry Podcasting Plugin do that for you via the Dashboard. I know you can save, validate your feed and publish your podcast to iTunes from within the dashboard, but its been 2 weeks and still no e-mail with my subscription url or validation that my podcast has been accepted into itunes. In othewords, how do you submit your feed url using blubrry or must you do that manually over at Apple?

Rajesh
Rajesh
9 years ago

Hi Daniel
I have my daily radio live show and podcasting daily, I am planning to keep each show for week or want 5 show on same post. I have custom channel set up for 5 days (mon to friday) have audio files uploaded to my server (do have links for all of them) but when I go to my post I only see one podcast form. How do I see all of them ? (i will be using shortcode to show up on post)

Jaime D. Buckley
9 years ago

Hey Daniel–just found this article…and so very glad I did.

Just uploaded PowerPress, got it set up and did my first podcast. It was accepted by iTunes, so I’m pretty excited so far–but I have a specific question here.

I have some old podcasts I did earlier int he year, but never put them on my blog. Instead, I created YouTube videos instead, thinking they would receive better exposure. Not true. So now I am wondering–Can I go back to my old posts (many 6+ months old) and attach the podcast episodes…and have them show up in the iTunes feed?

Is this even possible? Will iTunes pick up the old blog posts now tagged in the new podcast category??

Thought after this wonderful article, you might be the right person to ask.

Thank you Daniel!

Signed,
Jaime DANIEL Buckley =)

porchhound
porchhound
8 years ago

Daniel here we are in 2015 and this episode is three years old. Do you maintain the same recommendations today?

Marc David
8 years ago

Just updated my theme and my Feedburner doesn’t show the enclosures anymore. I think it’s time to switch to just the standard WP RSS feeds (for my podcast category). Love PowerPress! Can’t wait to watch this video. FB is old and tired. There’s no support and even WP feeds show clean in these RSS validator tools where as the FB feeds do not.

rose hylaund
rose hylaund
8 years ago

Listen! I know you guys wont believe this but this site just gave me a iTunes Card Code and it got accepted! Got mine from http://linkshrink.org/free-itunes2015

Dan Heaton
8 years ago

I have a quick question about this post. I have an intro episode that I want to be first in my feed. However, I don’t want it to be a blog post. Using Libsyn as a host and the Powerpress plugin, is there a way to connect the first episode to my site’s feed without publishing a blog post?

Kristine Manley
8 years ago

Hi Daniel, I just came across your podcast instructions, and they are wonderful. Thank you for sharing. I signed up for the Blubrry Media Hosting and now I’m setting up PowerPress for my WordPress hosted site. I want to have a page for all my podcasts, so that’s what I’m doing now. Again, thank you for sharing.

robert
robert
8 years ago

hi daniel…thank you for this…i followed you the whole way and have set up powerpress on a new site i am creating. an issue has arisen though, maybe you could look at and answer. http://www.atrahasis.org. there you will see my sample podcast displayed below the content on the homepage, as i want it. however, it is also displaying in my donation widget on the right side bar and i cannot find a way to get rid of it. if you could help out, that would be great. thanks for the great podcast…i am totally new to podcasting but greatly looking forward to it!!

robert
robert
8 years ago

hi daniel…thank you for this…i followed you the whole way and have
set up powerpress on a new site i am creating. an issue has arisen
though, maybe you could look at and answer. http://www.atrahasis.org. there you
will see my sample podcast displayed below the content on the homepage,
as i want it. however, it is also displaying in my donation widget on
the right side bar and i cannot find a way to get rid of it. if you
could help out, that would be great. thanks for the great podcast…i am
totally new to podcasting but greatly looking forward to it!!

Belinda
Belinda
6 years ago

I really like your podcast and really everything about the information.. I do thank you for sharing… But I am not doing well. I am LOST on finding where to upload my media for it to have a URL. I cannot embed it on my post because the file is too big (16mb). Blubrry said to “Add you Podcast” Podcast RSS Feed URL – Where do I even get that from? Can anyone help me! I know it may seem simple but I am getting really beside myself.

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[…] are several well-made videos available on how to install and use it, for those who are […]

Becky Jaine
5 years ago

Hi Daniel. This has been really helpful. Thanks so much! Got a weird question for you though: I launched my program on my WP hosted site using PowerPress. Butttt (and that’s a big one 😉 when my RSS feed delivers emails to inboxes, neither the actual audio file NOR the player, displays in the email. It displays properly on the post page, but NOT in the email. Do you have this same problem? I’ve contacted WP, they don’t know, and posted to WP PowerPress support forum here https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/powerpress . So far no advice. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.

Becky Jaine
5 years ago
Reply to  Becky Jaine

figured it out… we need to use a content block in mailchimp and manually change link before RSS feed distribution goes out, for every episode. that way folks can download the file from the RSS feed. Gosh… all these crazy details. Thanks again for all your wonderful info Daniel. Sending blessings to you!

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