If you do all of these things in this order, you will be online and podcasting within a couple of days. This assumes you have recorded your first episode or already know how to record audio in mp3 format. More of that will be in the full book “No BS Guide to Podcasting”
<ol>
<li>Pick a topic you want to podcast about. Make it something you have a passion about. Not just something you think will be popular. Even if there are 100’s of shows out there about your niche, your perspective will be different than all of them. Don’t be afraid to jump in even a crowded niche.</li>
<li>Pick a name for your show. Keep in mind, you also want to be able to get a .com (yes, there are lots of other top level domains, but .com is still king)</li>
<li>Get your domain and web hosting (do not confuse WEB hosting with Media Hosting) I recommend Bluehost (free domain name included with hosting package) <a href=”http://www.bluehost.com/track/mgdell/”>http://www.bluehost.com/track/mgdell/</a> (affiliate link) or <a href=”http://Godaddy.com”>Godaddy.com</a> (no promo code). One other thing about web hosting. Get Linux and not Windows hosting and make sure WordPress is available to install on your plan.
Setup A WordPress blog on your domain. Both Bluehost and Godaddy have easy to use installation scripts in their hosting control panel.</li>
<li>Install PowerPress podcasting Plugin in wordpress. Do this by going to your wordpress dashboard and click on plugins. Search for Powerpress in the “add new” link.</li>
<li>Go to powerpress in your dashboard sidebar (towards the bottom of the sidebar) and click on Settings. Switch to Advanced mode. Fill in all the info about your show in the Feeds, iTunes and artwork tabs. You will need to create album art that is 2048 x 2048 in RGB mode and jpg (yes, png will work, but they get too big in filesize so stick with JPG) For $5 you can have someone design your album art at <a href=”http://Fiverr.com”>Fiverr.com</a> (no affiliate link). Upload that art in the Artwork Tab of powerpress and use it for all images needed. For more info on how to setup powerpress, go to http://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/</li>
<li>Get media hosting. You DO need this and it does cost a little money. Trying to serve your media from the same server as your website will cause nothing but problems with bandwidth and may get you kicked off your web host. (I warned you!) I recommend Blubrry.com hosting (<a href=”http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/”>http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/</a>) Use the promo code “helpdesk” (no quotes) for a free month at any level. Once you have this, go to the Services & Stats tab in your powerpress settings in your wordpress dashboard and put your blubrry.com login email and password in there.</li>
<li>Upload your first recording to your blubrry hosting account by starting a new post in wordpress. Put the title of your post in and fill out some text in the text area (this will be your shownotes), Then click the little folder icon next to Media URL in the Podcast Episode box of the post template page. This will launch the blubrry uploader. Click on “upload media” and wait for it to finish. Once it does, click “Close window”. Then hit “Verify” next to the media file name. It should come up green. Then publish your post. At this point, you have published your first episode. Now, lets get it listed on iTunes.</li>
<li>Go to the feeds tab in your wordpress dashboard, powerpress settings and where it says Podcast Feeds, look for your RSS feed. It should look something like “http://example.com/feed/podcast/” Copy that address.</li>
<li>Open up iTunes on your computer (doesn’t work on phones or tablets) and go to the itunes store. Look for podcasts. Once you are in podcasts, you will see a link that submit a podcast. click on that and paste your feed address into the space provided. Click on Submit. If you don’t get any errors, you should be on your way to be listed in itunes. It can take up to a week for iTunes to approve your listing. You will get an email from them when it’s approved. In the mean time, podcast! Make Great content.</li>
<li><span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>Once iTunes has approved you, your listing at iTunes will update with the newest episode every time you post (up to 3 days delay) but don’t worry, your new episode will go to your subscribers right away.</span></li>
</ol>
This document is just the basics. There are a lot of tweaks and tricks that will make your podcast work better and look better. The key is make good content and learn your craft. So many people will tell you it’s EASY. Well, it can be, but it’s a lot easier when you are educated. The full book, No BS Guide to Podcasting will help you get that education in podcasting. This checklist is the bare minimum you should do to get started correctly.