How to Distribute Your Podcast

The hard part is over. You had an idea and you did the dang thing and your podcast is real and exists. So… Now what? Before people can hear your latest masterpiece, there are a few key steps you need to take. Whether it's uploading to an RSS Feed, finding the right hosting site, or transcribing your podcast in a manner of seconds, let’s take a look at what you need to know about distributing your podcast. 

What is an RSS Feed?‍

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If you’re unfamiliar with this service, it basically acts as a middleman between your content (your podcast episodes) and the distributors like Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc. These big distributors will ask for your “RSS URL” when trying to upload so, yes you need it. The way it works is, you create an account where you enter all the podcasts information; Title, Description, Cover Art and a few tags to help categorize it all, then you’ll upload your audio file to the RSS feed. So then when you take this URL to the big distributors, all the information you uploaded to RSS will populate and it gives this information to the distributors so they can verify everything. It might take a little while for them to upload your podcast so be patient and expect to wait a little bit. 

Podcast Hosting Sites

There are a few directions you can go from here. First let’s talk about the RSS service that you’ll find when searching online. The obvious and best solution in my opinion is to use the actual RSS website. You can find it here. Oh, and it’s free by the way, not sure if I mentioned that. However, there are several other “hosting” sites that basically act as a home for your podcast. It created the RSS feed for you, allowing you to change anything, schedule ahead of time, WordPress integration, and most importantly, analytics. These sites and accounts are usually paid, but they really help manage it all allowing you to focus on the important part - creating your podcast. Here are some of the best options available right now:

• Captivate
• Transistor
• Castos
• Simplecast
• Buzzsprout

YouTube

I know that probably sounds weird, but why the heck not also upload your podcast to YouTube. Everybody is doing it! You don’t even have to have a video of yourself podcasting, you can just have a graphic, image, or stock BROLL playing as your podcast plays over it. It's just one more way to get your stuff out there on different platforms and I usually listen to podcasts on YouTube while I work, edit photos or sometimes when I’m doing color grades for an edit. Uploading is simple and it only generates more traffic for you and your brand.

Upload Faster!

Now that we have the how and where figured out, let’s talk about a way to ramp up the distribution by putting out more episodes, in a faster manner. An incredible way to speed up your post-recording workflow is that of podcast transcription. Basically, it's exactly what it sounds like, taking the audio files you’ve been given or recorded, and pulling them apart into a visual roadmap, allowing you to trim and quickly cut as you need, without having to painstakingly listen to the whole thing over and over again. To put it plainly, this helps you organize and more efficiently edit your work.

You might have a guest that requests certain sections be removed for various reasons, Simon Says’ transcription extension will show you exactly the word or sentence you need removed so you don’t spend unnecessary time and effort. Our video collaboration services also allow you to do this with your clients in a clear and concise manner too so there’s no confusing back-and-forth that prolongs you from being paid and onto the next project. The faster you can get the podcast edit done, the faster the major distributors can put it out into the world.