Publishing A Podcast on iTunes – The Only Guide You Need

One of the many ways that people can find out about your podcast is through iTunes. You can actually submit your podcast on iTunes for free and gain new listeners. Before submitting to iTunes, you need to make sure you have these things covered.

Double check all the information about your podcast

Go through the information of your podcast or whatever you’re using to host it and make sure that everything is how you want it .

Your artwork should be a square jpg or png formatted image at least 1400 x 1400 and at most 3000 x 3000 in size in RGB color space (1400 x 1400 jpg image recommended).

e.g.

You should also have a unique podcast program title. You can check iTunes to make sure your program title is unique.

e.g. The $100 MBA Show

BiggerPockets Podcast : Real Estate Investing and Wealth Building to Help You Get Bigger Pockets

Also, have to choose the right category selected for your podcast. Not only will this make your podcast more searchable, it also gives it a more professional look.

You can find the iTunes categories here.

Have at least 2 to 3 episodes ready

Before you submit your podcast to iTunes, you need to have at least two to three episodes ready. Listeners often times get impatient, especially when they become interested in a podcast, and will ask for more. You can end up getting negative reviews if you only have one episode available, so better have a couple episodes up and ready before submitting your podcast on iTunes.

Now that we have that aside, let’s go to how you can submit your podcast to iTunes.

You’ll need iTunes and an Apple ID

You need to have iTunes on your computer for you to submit your podcast. You can download iTunes here. You’ll also need your own account (Apple ID). Don’t worry, it’s free, just choose “None” on the billing information. If “None” isn’t available, go through the registration and use your credit card information. You can optionally remove the payment method after you sign.

If you have purchased any iTunes or App Store product, then you probably have an Apple ID already. If not, you can register here: appleid.apple.com/account

Submitting your podcast

Once you have your account set up, you can submit your podcast. Open iTunes, click on the iTunes Store and look for the podcast tab and click it. Click the “submit a podcast” on the table found on the right side.

A page will open with a box that will ask for your podcast feed URL. This is actually asking for your podcast’s RSS feed.

The RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content, and this is how iTunes will stay updated on your podcast. You can simply copy from your podcast host, this should be available on your podcast’s account information (or PowerPress plugin). Paste your RSS on the black space and click continue.

Extra tip: Validate And Test The Feed

Ok, let’s take a step back first and talk about validating and testing the feed to make sure that it is properly formatted.

You can use programs like FeedForAll or FeedValidator to check your RSS feeds to make sure there are no errors or problems. If you’re sure that your podcast is properly formatted, then you can skip this.

Run through your podcast info

Once you’ve summated your RSS, iTunes will prompt you to a page showing your podcast information. This is why it’s important that you double check the information saved on your podcast’s host or PowerPress since you can’t edit the information on iTunes.

If you found a mistake or something that you don’t like, you’ll have to change it on hosts settings. You might also need to choose a subcategory on iTunes. Simply click on the dropdown box and choose the correct subcategory for your podcast.

It should look like this:

When everything’s correct, click submit.

The Waiting game

After you’ve submitted your podcast, it’s not immediately going to be available on iTunes. It takes a couple of days for Apple to review your podcast for publication. Be patient and check your email for any notifications from Apple about the status of your podcast.

There is no exact time. It could take days, but it’s not going to take more than two weeks. Again, just be patient. Apple’s very customer friendly and they have a simple and easy common Q&A page about submitting podcasts here or you can contact us here at Podcast Engineers.

Promote

Once you received your email confirmation from Apple, then congratulations! You can start promoting your podcast. Not only will your podcast be searchable on iTunes, you can also use a direct link that will take interested listeners straight to your podcast page on iTunes. Be smart in promoting your podcast and really get out there to get listeners.

If you need any assistance on this process, don’t hesitate to contact us below.

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