Publish a Podcast

Publishing a podcast is really easy but there are lots of details we need to get right. One word of caution… Don’t create a podcast episode by using the Duplicate function. This doesn’t work with out our podcast software.

Getting Ready

Before we start, here are some basic technical requirements:

MP3 File:

• Should be at 128kbps. This is set when saving as an mp3. Not sure what the kbps is for a file? Right click, select Properties>Details>Bit Rate
• Should have proper ID3 tags and album art. See this article if you aren’t sure.
• Clean up the file name. Remove any text like “-completed” or “-v3”. Just have the full name of the episode without any spaces.

Artwork

• The Episode Image (also known as album art, podcast cover image) must be at least 1400×1400 pixels. It must be square. Ideally we want to get the file size below 200kb.
• The Featured Image can be the same as your YouTube Thumbnail Image. Youtube recommends 1280x720px. Save a resized version of this image no larger than 1000px wide and no larger than 100kb. Use this for the Featured image on the website. Please always give your images good descriptive names, especially including the name of the podcast and episode.

Create a new episode

Give an episode title

The title should not include the name of the podcast (such as Dhamma Kids Podcast) just the episode name. If you are using episode numbers, you can start with that with no leading zeros (not 002).

Show Notes

You might want to check out this article or others about show notes.

Episode Description

Give a good description of the episode. This should be catchy and interesting. Most of all it should make the reader want to listen. Think about keywords that people may search for.

Also, be sure to link to suttas that are discussed in the episode. If possible, link to SuttaFriends.org.

If there are other related episodes, either in this podcast or others, be sure to link to them.

Time Stamps

If there are different segments in the episode it’s great to include a listing of them and the time stamps. Youtube and some podcast apps will turn these into links. For example:

Youtube and some podcast apps will automatically detect these as times and turn them into links to specific times in the track

Stock podcast series information

This will include subscribe buttons and contact information. It is critical that these are done in Reusable Blocks so that if they change you can update them all at once.

Metadata

All of these settings are in the right sidebar. You may need to click on the gear icon and be sure Podcast and not Block is selected.

Sections that should not be changed are not mentioned here.

Schedule publication

If you don’t change this setting, then as soon as you click Publish the podcast will go live. If you want the episode to be published automatically at a certain time, click on Immediately and choose a time in the future. Then the Publish button will change to Schedule.

Permalink

The URL/permalink will be automatically generated from the title you give the episode. But it’s always a good idea to double check it. Especially we want to make sure it doesn’t include any letters with diacritics (like āṭṁṇ)

Tags

Think of tags like entries in an index of a book. They are specific topics. However, tags should only be one or, at most, two words. They should also be general things that other episodes or other content may also include. So for example, “dana”, “precepts”, and “meditation” are all good tags. However “Giving things we like,” “When we break a precept,” or “The best meditation to overcome greed,” are not good tags.

One to three tags is plenty. If you are unsure, better to leave off tags. A great way to get tag ideas is to look at the tags on SuttaFriends.org’s tag page.

Series

This is straightforward, but if you forget, then your subscribers won’t know that an episode has been published.

Featured Image

This is the featured image you prepared above. It should be rectangular, probably the same image that you are using for the YouTube thumbnail. It should be no more than 1000px wide and no more than 100kb large. The file name should include the podcast name and episode name. If you don’t have a special image ready when you publish, there are some generic featured images already uploaded for each of the podcasts. Try to use one of those.

Do not re-upload an image that is already in the library.

This is the image that Facebook will use when the link to the episode is shared.

Excerpt

This should be something brief and catchy. One or two sentences. It will be displayed in different places on the website. For example, in the what’s new sections:

This is the text that Facebook will use when the link to the episode is shared.

Media File

This is the most important part:

Obviously this must be an audio mp3 file. Clicking on Upload File will take you to the regular Media Library interface. Do not upload the file multiple times. If you upload the wrong file, please delete it from the media library.

Episode Image

Generally this should be the generic image for the podcast. It must be at least 1400x1400px or iTunes will reject it. Unless you are starting a new podcast, there will already be an image for it in the library. Do not upload a new one each time.

Publish and check!

That’s it. All that’s left is to publish. Of course preview the episode by clicking on Preview > Preview in a new tab.

If you are scheduling your podcast to publish at a later time, it’s a good idea to make sure that it is appearing in the RSS feed (the page that podcast readers use to update your subscribers)

You can find the RSS feed by looking at the subscribe buttons. It will be an orange icon that looks a bit like a wifi logo:

Your RSS feed will be a link that looks like this:

https://www.serenecolombo.org/feed/podcast/monksmorning

This page will update instantly as soon as you publish if everything is working. However it may take your podcast app up to an hour to fetch the latest version. That’s why it’s good to check the RSS feed.

You can also check the archive page for your podcast. It will probably be the “All Episodes” button on your podcast’s home page.