In the previous section, Web Hosts and Media Hosts, in the video I demonstrated uploading an audio file (MP3) to my media host, Blubrry. However, another step is needed before this information is included in my podcast RSS feed. What is that? I address podcast RSS feeds here. For now, it suffices to say that publishing a podcast episode is as simple as making a blog post in WordPress. If you’re already using WordPress – I mean if you’re a “basic user” like I am – you’re not going to have any trouble with this.
When you install the PowerPress plugin, it will create custom fields in the “Add New Post” dashboard in WordPress. The “Podcast Episode” fields will typically appear under the areas where you’ll enter the title and content of your blog post (i.e., your podcast show notes.) They’ll look like this.
The main thing you’ll need is the URL address of your media file, which ideally should have been uploaded to your media server. For example, here’s the URL of an MP3 file that I am storing in my Blubrrry account:
<http://media.blubrry.com/quoted/content.blubrry.com/quoted/Story_MaryAnn.mp3>
You populate the fields under “Add New Post”, click “Publish” and that’s it. You’ve just published a podcast episode. Here’s Mike Dell from Blubrry demonstrating how to do this:
The PowerPress plugin makes this so easy that you might forget about the engine that drives your podcast: a dedicated podcast RSS feed. It’s critical to your podcast. So let’s take a closer look at it.