Okay, so as if I wasn’t already overwhelmed by
everything that goes into starting a podcast, now you’re telling me that I need an RSS Feed?
What in los santos cielos is an RSS FEED? Why do I need one? Where do I get one?
Don’t worry amigo! I’ve got you covered.
Hola and welcome to the Pod Sound School. I’m Veronica,
your go-to marketing and content strategist, and in this video,
once and for all, I’m going to demystify this thing called an RSS Feed.
I’m going to quickly tell you what they are,
why you need one AND at the end of this short video I’m going to show you how
easy it is to create your own RSS feed in only a couple of minutes using RSS.com
If you’re new to podcasting, welcome to our channel, you are in the right place,
our channel is packed with all the videos you need to create and maintain an amazing podcast,
so if you’re ready to become a master at podcasting, make sure to subscribe.
What is an RSS Feed?
RSS is what makes podcasting possible and so unique.
The acronym stands for two different things, depending on who you ask. Some people will
say RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, others will say Really Simple Syndication.
Both hint pretty well at what RSS really is. RSS is a summary of your website
that can be shared or syndicated.
This is what an RSS Feed actually looks like:
But only the nerds look at it this way.
“Hey!” “She’s right.”
But this code, this feed, contains all of the important information
about your podcast website so that it can be shared to all of the podcast players.
It includes your podcast name,
show description, and links to all of your episodes and their descriptions.
All of the podcast players, APPLE, Spotify, Google,
Stitcher, Pandora, Amazon Music, Samsung, the list goes on and on.
They all read your RSS FEED.
Meaning, that you don’t upload your audio files and descriptions and information
directly to Apple and Spotify, but instead, you only have to share your RSS feed with them.
You share your RSS feed or link with them once. And then anytime you make any updates
or add new episodes to your RSS feed, the podcast players will automatically update and
users and listeners on those platforms will be notified of your new episodes.
Pretty cool right!?
How do I get an RSS Feed?
Actually getting an RSS Feed is crazy easy and it only takes a couple of minutes to setup. And
this is because there are hosting sites and services that do all of the work for you.
A favorite of ours is RSS.com.
With RSS.com, not only will you get an RSS feed that you can share with the podcast players,
but you’ll also get your own website for your podcast,
and you’ll get analytics that show how many people are listening to your show.
To show you how easy it is and why RSS.com is our favorite.
Let’s set up a mock podcast together right now. And I'll also set a stop-watch timer,
so you can see how long it actually takes me.
But before we press start on the timer.
To setup a podcast and get an RSS feed these are the things you’ll need.
Podcast Title Podcast Description
Podcast Category Podcast Coverart
(we recommend using Canva) and we have a great video showing you exactly how to do it
you can find by clicking on the i button thingy right here.
You’ll also need:
1 Episode (we recommend making a short trailer for your first episode) we also have this helpful
video showing you exactly what to include in your podcast trailer. Check those two
videos out after you finish this video and have everything you need to launch an amazing show.
So for this demonstration. I recorded a short trailer and created a fun mock podcast. I
have gathered all of these things on the list and I’m ready to setup my podcast.
Let’s start the timer.
And click GET STARTED FOR FREE
Now we just need to enter our email address and
create a password to setup an account with RSS.com.
You can get started with this step for free with no credit card information needed.
Once I’ve chosen a password, I will click, GET STARTED FOR FREE
Now I will need to check my email INBOX to validate my account with RSS.com
with a six digit code that they have sent me.
Here’s my six digit code, I’ll go ahead and type it in and now I can click NEW PODCAST
First I’ll enter my podcast title, PODMACITA.
Now I ALREADY have my description written in a Google Doc, so I can
simply copy it from that document and paste it into this field here.
Let’s make a couple corrections and make sure the description looks good.
And now I can choose my public website and RSS FEED ADDRESS so here I’ll type in PODMACITA.
And before clicking next, let’s upload my podcast cover art.
I can drag the file from the folder into this box and click ADD COVER ART
And now let’s press NEXT
Next I can add my AUTHOR details, So I’ll type in my name, my email address
and the copyright notice, for this I’ll use Pod Sound School.
Once we’re done, let’s click on NEXT.
And now we just have to choose a category, you can choose up to three categories and
a main category. I will just choose HOW TO from EDUCATION and now let’s click LET’S GO.
Look at that, our podcast is all setup.
Now let’s click NEW EPISODE and add our first episode.
So for the title, I’ll type TRAILER
For the description I have that ready in that same Google DOC to copy and paste
We can add a Season number if we want, and for THE TYPE OF EPISODE, I’ll choose Trailer.
Make a correction to the description and make sure everything looks right.
And now let’s upload an audio file. From that same folder I have my trailer ready,
so I’ll drag the file into this box and we can press play to preview it.
Sounds great, let’s click PUBLISH NOW
Amazing! We just uploaded our first episode!
Here is our podcast dashboard. we can click VIEW ON PUBLIC SITE, let’s stop the timer!
Wow, in only 2 minutes and 25 seconds I officially have a podcast.
Now back to our dashboard again we can click
these three dots to SHARE our podcast trailer with the world.
Along the top, you’ll notice we can view our analytics.
And next to that we can click on DISTRIBUTION,
and from here we can start the Automatic Distribution process by clicking this one button.
We just have to accept the terms for Amazon and Spotify and select CONTINUE
And in a few minutes, after the processing time, our podcast will automatically be
available on spotify, amazon music, and samsung podcasts. If we scroll down,
you’ll see THIS is actually our RSS LINK or FEED and we can now
Copy this link and share it ONCE with all the other platforms, like APPLE and GOOGLE.
Once, we’ve shared it with those platforms, our podcast will also be available there, and now
everytime we upload a new episode to RSS.com, it will automatically update in all of the players.
And look, now that it’s been a few minutes, our podcast is now active on
these platforms. Let’s check Spotify and search for Podmacita. There it is. O M G, I’m famosa.
I told you that was fast. And RSS.com makes getting setup with a podcast easy and fun.
I’ll leave a link for RSS.com below or you can just go to RSS.com
and you too can have a podcast setup and ready to share with the world in minutes.
And for my spanish speaking amigos,
RSS.com, is also fully supported in Espanol. Not just translated. So.
What did you think of this video?
What other questions do you have? Let me know in the comments below.
And do me a favor and give this video a thumbs up
and share this with someone else you know who is thinking about starting a podcast.
Also make sure to share your brand new show with us once you set it up with RSS.com and
until the next video, happy casting amigo!