A friend of mine asked on the Twitter for some tips on getting a podcast into iTunes and the steps involved. I’ve sent a bunch of emails on the topic to other folks looking to try it out so I figured I’d write an intensive list of how I do things. (note: I explained how I use my iPad and a mixer to record all of my podcasts here.)

Note: This may not work for you, or be the best method of podcasting in the grand scheme of things, but this is how I do things.

First, I have a Feedburner account and a secondary Tumblr account to send things to iTunes. The descriptions of these Tumblr Text posts will act as the descriptions of the podcasts episode that get sent to Feedburner, and in turn, iTunes.

Think: Dropbox>Tumblr>Feedburner>iTunes.

I use this Tumblr just for putting up the episodes with a link to where I host the podcast file itself. This Tumblr’s RSS is linked to my Feedburner account which then sends those episodes to iTunes. I’ve used Blogger in the past, so that also works. I have noticed that, for whatever reason, when using Tumblr to host these episodes, iTunes will only show the most recent 20. I’m not sure if that’s a Tumblr RSS thing or what, but that’s what happens. If you wanted to do things this way, create a Blogger or Tumblr that will just be used for your podcasts and then connect that URL to Feedburner so they can chat when you posts new shows.

Note: This may not work for you, or be the best method of podcasting in the grand scheme of things, but this is how I do things.

Tumblr/Feedburner
So, create a secondary Tumblr blog. Then burn a Feedburner feed that links to that Tumblr page URL. Like, mypodcastfeed.tumblr.com or some shit. Once Feedburner knows to look to this feed for episodes, you can adjust the Feedburner feed settings to add your show logo, bio, contact email, etc. (Remember, the title option inside of Tumblr>Customize will act as the title of the show that is sent to iTunes) Feedburner lets you track downloads and subscribers. It’s not the best way to track things, however, as I’ve seen numbers wildly fluctuate on any given day. You really need to use an analytical service on your site combined with Feedburner to get a somewhat accurate idea of how many folks are into what you’re doing.

To give you an idea how this works after I record an episode, I create a Text post on my feed Tumblr with the Title being the title of that episode. (Podcast #1 - The Podcastening) Then I write the bio in the text field. I then highlight all the text and create a hyperlink that is the URL of where my podcast file is stored. (Example) In my case, Dropbox. (We’ll get to that in a bit) Feedburner should see that you added a new post within the hour. Then, iTunes will pick that up at some point after that. There used to be a way to ping iTunes and let them know you have a new episode, but for whatever reason you can’t do that anymore. I don’t give the URL of the feed Tumblr because this is really meant for sending to Feedburner and then iTunes. Feedburner will give you a URL redirect for that .mp3 that I give our on my real blog. The reason for this is, when people click on the Feedburner redirect, it will just send them to the Dropbox URL. That way Feedburner tracks the hits and downloads for that file for you, using the redirect URL. (Example) A downside to this setup that I use, as opposed to paying a service like Libysn or maybe even Wordpress is that the iTunes Website link for your show will send folks to your Tumblr that’s setup just for the show feed. It would be wise to edit the description of that Tumblr telling people to go to the real site just in case people click on that link inside of iTunes.

Dropbox
I used to store my podcast episodes on Archive.org, mainly because it was free. However, every few months Archive would change the URLs of where my episodes were stored. That fucks up everything. It would mean that every link on my website to an .mp3 would come up with an error, and it would also mean that every episode in iTunes would become a bunk link. Remember, iTunes doesn’t store your podcasts; it just links to where you store them.

With a paid Dropbox account(100GB), Dropbox allows a healthy amount of bandwidth per day, per file. Meaning, I store podcast episodes in my public folder and I can swing several thousand downloads a day for each episode. Depending on how large the file is, I can run upwards of 5K downloads for a 30MB episode per day without Dropbox telling me to slow down. I have several show folders in my Public Dropbox folder. When I’m done recording, I move the file into the show folder, then create a Text post on my feed Tumblr. I then hyperlink all the text in that post and link it to the Public URL for that .mp3 or whatever. It should be obvious that if you ever shut down your Dropbox your podcasts in iTunes and elsewhere will cease to work.

Note: This may not work for you, or be the best method of podcasting in the grand scheme of things, but this is how I do things.

Once you have a Feedburner feed made that is linked to your feed Tumblr, you can send the Feedburner feed to iTunes and let them know you have a podcast for them. iTunes won’t accept the feed if you don’t have an episode already posted on your Tumblr, so it would be wise to set up some test audio to make sure things work beforehand.

Wrap-up
It’s probably confusing to 99% of the people reading this, but this is how I do things. It may seem like the dumbest set-up ever, but it’s like riding a bike for me at this point. I record everything on my iPad, and once done I upload the file to my Dropbox, create a post on Tumblr and wait for the services to shake hands. I don’t even touch my MacBook anymore. This is my most recent product of how I do things.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I should most likely respond. Maybe.

Update: It looks like in the Tumblr feed blog you can create a description of that episode, and then create a Listen Now that’s linked to your audiofile. It seems FeedBurner is smart enough to realize this, something I didn’t realize. Hat tip to TechBacon for showing me the way.

Update: I’m moved Paperkeg’s podcast off of Tumblr and Dropbox and into Libsyn.