---
title: How to publish a better podcast using Tumblr, Textpattern, or anything else
date: 2011-07-01
topics: FeedBurner,iTunes,Textpattern,podcasting,Tumblr
---

This isn’t about
[equipment](http://hivelogic.com/articles/podcasting-equipment-software-guide-2011/)
or [recording technique](http://ftrain.com/LearningToSpeak.html), but just the
cranky details of *publishing* a podcast that I have found by trial and error.
This article assumes you have some basic computer/web/HTML know-how.

I publish a couple of podcasts: [Howell Creek Radio](http://jdueck.net/radio)
uses Textpattern, and [Anything
Good](http://anythingandeverythinggood.tumblr.com) uses Tumblr. So in some of
the steps I have given some examples that are specific to those CMSs, in order
to help you along; but the important thing is that these steps can be easily
adapted to any CMS such as Blogger, WordPress, etc.

## Create a separate tag or category for your podcast posts on your blog.

This is optional; I recommend it because it allows the website for your podcast
to be more flexible. For example, if you use Tumblr, you can create a `podcast`
tag, and then continue posting a mix of videos, photos, quotes, etc. alongside
your podcast episodes. This way your podcast subscribers will get a clean feed
containing only audio downloads, while your website readers will be able to see
all your other posts as well.

Even if your website is pretty much exclusively a vehicle for your podcast, you
may want to publish other kinds of things posts now and then for administrative
purposes, and this will give you the freedom to keep those posts separate.

## Make sure you have cover art where you need it

You need to create and use cover art in **two places**: first you create cover
art for your podcast as a whole, and then you also embed cover art in every
individual podcast recording. **If you use nothing else from this article,
please:** add cover art to your mp3 files. Without it, your episodes show up
with blank covers in iPods and most mp3 players! Your podcast episodes will look
dorky without it! It’s not enough to add cover art to your itunes feed, you need
to embed the cover art in every finished mp3 file. This is easy to do, yet many
beginners forget to do it.

**Set up your podcast feed with cover art:** Create a 600×600px cover art image
for your podcast and upload it to your site, or somewhere publicly accessible.
(In some places Apple says 300px is OK but their [technical
spec](http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/specs.html) says 600.) I
recommend using JPEG\<lt;, not PNG—the latter is allowed but will look blocky
when viewed at reduced sizes in iTunes.

1. Get a [FeedBurner](http://feedburner.com) account and set up your podcast
   feed:

   1. Tumblr: Set the “original feed” on FeedBurner to the RSS feed for the
      specific tag you created for your podcast. To get this feed, add
      `tagged/YOURTAG/rss` to your tumblr’s address. (Example:
      `http://mytumblr.tumblr.comn/tagged/podcast/rss`)
   2. Textpattern: Set the “original feed” on FeedBurner to Textpattern’s atom
      feed for that category (e.g.,
      `http://foopaux.com/atom/?category=podcast`).
   3. Blogger: Set the “original feed” on FeedBurner to
      `http://www.YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/PODCASTTAG` (per
      [these instructions from
      Google](http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97933)).

2. Under FeedBurner’s `Optimize` tab, add the `SmartCast` service to make your
   feed podcast-friendly. Set the cover art to the URL of your covert art image
   and add as much description, keywords and categories as you can muster.

**Embed cover art for individual episodes:** You’ll find that iTunes does *not*
automatically use your cover art for downloaded episodes when they are playing
in your iPod. The cover art you created in the steps above is only used in the
iTunes *store listing* for your podcast (if you get one). In order for your
cover art to actually display in people’s iPods when your episodes are playing,
you need to embed the cover art into each episode’s MP3 file. Luckily, this is
easy to do using only the iTunes (the simplest way I know how):

1. Prior to uploading, open add the episode’s MP3 to your iTunes library.
2. Right-click the episode in iTunes, click Get Info.
3. Go to the Artwork tab, manually add your cover art to the file, and click OK.
   (Tip: in Windows you can actually copy/paste the artwork JPG file from
   Explorer directly into this tab.)
4. The cover art is now embedded, you can now upload your MP3 file.

## Create a “subscribe” link on your website.

Lots of folks use iTunes, so it’s nice to provide an iTunes instant-subscribe
link for them and a standard RSS link for everyone else. To create an iTunes
link, just prefix the URL of your FeedBurner feed with `itpc://` instead of
`http://`. So, for example, you could place this prominently on your website:

> `Subscribe in <a href="itpc://feeds.feedburner.com/MyPodcast">iTunes</a> or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/MyPodcast">RSS</a>`

## Record and upload your podcast episodes

I use [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to record, then upload the
MP3 to my website using FTP. If you don’t have any hosted space, you can use a
free [Dropbox](http://dropbox.com) account and host your files in a public
folder. The bonus with this approach is that uploading is automatic.

## Format your podcast posts properly

A properly-formatted post ensures that your subscribers will get their episodes
automatically with no hiccups.

1. Don’t forget to set the post’s category (or tag) to the podcast category you
   created earlier.

2. Each podcast post should contain a manual, direct download link to the MP3
   file for that episode. This is non-optional, and it should be the first link
   in the post. This will allow FeedBurner to correctly detect and include your
   audio in the podcast feed. For the text of the link, I recommend something
   like “Download MP3 audio (14.76 mb, 19:32)” (**Update, Sep 13, 2011:** this
   link doesn’t have to be at the very front of your post, it just has to be the
   first *link* in the post. Also, when using Tumblr, to ensure cleaner
   descriptions see [this follow-up
   post](http://notely.blogspot.com/2011/09/cleaner-titles-for-podcast-posts-in.html).)

3. One nice thing to do if you will be syndicating onto another service, such as
   Facebook notes etc., is to create a special CSS class called `for-syndicate`
   and set it to `display: none`. Then add a little “helper” boilerplate on the
   bottom of each post, in a paragraph set to that class:

   > `<p class="for-syndicate">This is a podcast post: <a href="http://site.com/episode.mp3">click here</a> to download the MP3 audio, or visit <a href="http://site.com/podcast">site.com</a> to listen online and subscribe in iTunes.</p>`

   The `for-syndicate` class will render the paragraph invisible on your
   website, but it will be visible when imported into Facebook or when the feed
   is viewed in a newsreader, since these other sites do not import your CSS
   styles. (If you like, this quasi-hidden paragraph can also serve as the
   required MP3 link.)

## Letting people listen from your website

People will listen to your podcast in one of two ways: by subscribing in iTunes
or some similar program (which we’ve already covered) or by going to your web
page and listening on their computer. Although they can click to listen to the
MP3 file using the link you provided, it’s nice to embed some kind of player
that will stream the audio and let them listen right there.

There are lots of ways to do this:

1. In Textpattern, install the
   [jnm:audio](http://textpattern.org/plugins/603/jnm_audio) textpattern plugin
   and include a `<txp:jnm_audio>` tag in each podcast post.
2. In Tumblr, create your podcast post as an “audio post” and Tumblr will
   automatically embed an audio player. (Don’t forget to also include the
   download link in the text portion of the post though.)
3. Other platforms (WordPress, etc): Let me know how you do it in the comments!

These methods use Flash programs for the audio players, which don’t run on
iPhone or iPad browsers. I’ve been tinkering with ways to use HTML5 audio
players when the browser supports them, but HTML5 audio support is still flaky
for the time being. Check back again in a year or so and maybe I’ll have
something for you.

## Get listed in the iTunes Store

After you’ve gotten your production groove down and can demonstrate that your
episodes come out at least somewhat regularly, it’s worth trying to get your
podcast added into the iTunes store. Read Apple’s [FAQ for Podcast
Makers](http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/creatorfaq.html).

•comment[#:author "Steve Vorass" #:date "February 11, 2013" #:link "https://www.blogger.com/profile/11355795396029699047"]{
Very good info. I have a question though - how do you get tags to show up in a
Tumblr Feed - such as This here, etc…? thanks!
}