Do it right the first time - Changing things later isn’t hard, but it’s not instant.

Replacing a file after publishing it is easy, but not instant or fool proof

Get EVERYTHING correct in your site and feed before you submit to iTunes, stitcher and other directories. Changing things later isn’t hard, but it’s not instant.

Take the time to make sure things are correct before publishing. Create a checklist. Download mine here (***Mine is complicated, yours doesn’t need to be.)

POSTS! Not pages!

Do not Post WAV files!

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Podcast Help Desk - My Sample Workflow Checklist (with explanations)

1.Create an outline for the episode (beginning shownotes) -

- I use Google Docs (Drive) for this. I make a document with the episode number and through the week make notes of subjects I want to talk about. Some people use evernote for this.

- Once you have the outline “done” figure out the title for the episode

- Create featured image artwork for the episode (you can skip this depending on your wordpress theme)

2. Record - I start with the intro and just record this segment. then I go through each item I want to talk about in my outline and record that segment. Saving all the files (as .wav) in a folder I create for this. If you just do “live to the harddrive” then record your whole episode.

3. Edit - You can do a lot of editing or just a little

Run segments though Audacity “Truncate silence filter” (removes log pauses while I think when recording)

Assemble the segments (if you do it this way) in Adobe Audition (Audacity will work) at this point I also apply some compression in Audition or audacity.

Add bumpers, intro and outro

Render to .wav

4. Post Process

Run .wav file through auphonic. (I use the desktop version but the online version will work if you don’t mind waiting for the upload/download)

Spot listen to the file to make sure it came out the way you wanted it. (!! important !!)

5. Render to MP3 ( I do this in audition) You can do this in iTunes desktop program as well. I use 128kbps Stereo but you could do it compressed more if you want to save file size. Don’t go above 128kpbs

6. Tag mp3 file

I do this using Powerpress and Blubrry Hosting online so at this point I just skip 6

You can do this in iTunes Desktop by importing your mp3 into iTunes (I use a playlist called EDIT) so I can find the file. Right click and select info. In there you can fill out the tabs and add artwork.

7. Upload and Post Shownotes

Make sure you make any links you referenced in your show “live” in your shownotes

upload featured image

publish (set date ahead if you are scheduling your post)

8. After it’s published, download and listen to episode Make sure you are subscribed to your own podcast in at least 1 podcast app. (I use Apple’s Podcasts app on iphone) I also test the player on my page at this point. I listen on my computer speakers, my headphones in the studio, on earbuds from my iphone and in the car using bluetooth on the stereo (over the next day or so) just to make sure it sounds good in all those places. .

9. Verify it made it to all your distribution channels (24 hours after publish)

check iTunes listing

check stitcher

check blubrry.com listing

check Tech Podcast Network listing

Check Roku TPN channel

10. start next week’s “Shownotes”

For a 30-60 minute episode, from the time I record the first segment to publishing (or scheduling the post) takes about 2 hours but I’ve been doing it a while. You should figure about 4x recording time for the whole process.

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