Well, I’m just going to cut to the chase — today, we officially launched the Bring Your Own Movie podcast!
I know it’s a cliché, but this was a true labor of love. From being brought on as a producer and putting together a full project plan to working with the team to record our first official episode, it’s been an interesting journey with a lot of learnings.
One big learning — just because you’ve recorded your podcast doesn’t mean you’re anywhere close to launching.
Here’s a little glimpse of what is takes to get your podcast from audio file to public launch, along with some of our stumbles and learnings along the way.
Choosing a media host
Much like you would choose a service such as WordPress or Squarespace to host a website, when it comes to having a podcast, it’s recommended that you select a media host where you’ll store all of your audio files. Why is that? Well, audio files are big, and if you upload through your regular website hosting service, you might slow down your entire site.
Also similar to website hosting, there are a lot of media hosting services, many of which are specifically geared toward podcasts. There are an overwhelming number of choices, in fact. I read countless articles comparing the options. I joined the Podcasters Support Group on Facebook and searched for past posts about the hosting services.
To find order in all of the chaos of possibilities, I had sit down and identify our top needs. For us, the biggest priority was having enough file storage at a reasonable price point, having a service that was reliable, and choosing a host that would make it easy to upload and submit to podcast directories.
We narrowed it down to Libsyn, Blubrry, Podbean or Buzzsprout. I read through the capabilities and pored over reviews, noting the top features and competitive edges for each service. Buzzsprout seems to have the most intuitive interface, while Podbean has unlimited storage. Blubrry has one of the easiest integrations with WordPress, and Libsyn is probably the most established and widely used service.
In the end, we went with Libsyn. Being one of, if not the most used media hosting service for podcasts, we knew it would be reliable, and it accommodated our file storage needs.
Developing the artwork
Yes, this is the fun, artistic and creative part of launching a podcast, but it’s also an absolutely vital step. First of all, you must include show artwork in order to submit your podcast to iTunes and other podcast directories. And there are strict specs you have to follow.
Secondly, this is a way to brand your podcast and help you stand out from the competition!
Show artwork must be square, and when submitting to iTunes, the file must be a minimum of 1400×1400. However, while the original file size is large, you also have to consider how it will look as a small thumbnail image.
One of the co-hosts, Sam, is an amazing artist. He and I worked closely together to develop the artwork. We knew we wanted to feature our abbreviation — BYOM — because it would be easy to read when sized down small. We also wanted to hint at the two main elements of our podcast — movies (of course) and alcohol (did I mention the hosts and guest are all drinking throughout the episode?).
It took a lot of iterations. We made sure to send it to people unfamiliar with the podcast to get their impressions. And in the end here’s the final artwork:
I love how we were able to hint at the drinking element of our podcast through the martini glass that serves as the “Y”. And we referred to the movie part of our podcast with the popcorn olive and the film reel “O”. I also like how much the orange pops against the blue.
Setting up our online presence
Very early on, we secured a Facebook page, Instagram profile and Twitter handle. We also purchased a number of website domains that will all redirect to our main site.
Once we had the artwork secured, it was time to get all these pages set up. For Facebook and Twitter, you want both a profile pic and and cover/header image. For Instagram, you need the profile image. For all three platforms, there are also areas to list a description of your podcast (with various word count restrictions, of course).
For the website, we decided to just start with the free website (or Podcast Page, as they call it) that Libsyn provides as part of our media hosting subscription. It’s a simple template with limited customization capabilities, but it serves our needs for now. We figure that eventually most people will just find our podcast in their podcast app or directory of choice and not necessarily come to our website. While the Podcast Page has a Libsyn-branded URL, we were able to set up redirects for the domains we purchased, so that we can use those shorter URLs on our promotional materials.
Uploading the episode and submitting to directories
This is one of the last steps to getting a podcast live. It’s also the part of the process that was difficult for a newbie like me to fully comprehend until I actually started digging into the system.
First, I had to go into my show settings in Libsyn and set up our profile. The most important things here are confirming the public-facing name of the podcast, including a show description (which will be used by directories like iTunes), uploading the show artwork, and connecting our related online properties like our website URL and social media profiles.
Then, I had to set up our RSS feed. This RSS feed URL is what you use to submit your podcast to most directories. During this step, I had to select our categories (TV & Film for our primary category, Comedy for our secondary category) and designate our rating (our podcast is Explicit).
Next, I needed to upload our episode. You need at least one episode uploaded in order to submit your podcast to the various directories. Here you bring in your audio file and enter your episode title and description.
After this last step, the episode was officially live and available for listening through our website. But that’s not how people typically listen to podcasts. They don’t go to each individual website of the podcasts they follow to listen to the episodes there. They download and listen to podcasts through their podcast app of choice. And these apps pull in from the various podcast directories (a good number of them pulling in from iTunes).
So the last important step is submitting your podcast (using your RSS feed URL) to the various directories. iTunes is the most important one, followed by Stitcher, Spotify and Google Play Music. There are specific instructions for each directory. Luckily, Libsyn has a lot of support materials and integrations to make this submission process easy.
However, this is where I underestimated the amount of time to allow. Once you submit, it can take a few days to be approved. And then once approved by a directory, you still need to be indexed. Essentially, being indexed is what allows your podcast to be discoverable via search.
If I launch another podcast in the future, this is where I will give myself a little more time. We just got approved by iTunes today, the day of our launch, but it still might take a couple of days for us to be indexed. That means, today it might be hard for people to find us by searching, so they will either need to listen to our episode through our website or add our RSS feed URL manually to their podcast app.
Promoting the podcast
Even though our first episode was technically available to listen to a few days ago, when I initially uploaded the file, today was our big promotional push day.
We drafted posts for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, along with a fun image. We also put together an email to share with friends or family who are not active on social media. We prepped the guest, Carla, who is featured on our first episode and let her know our launch plans so that she can share with her network.
In the next few weeks, we’ll do a lot more to promote.
The co-hosts, Sam and Tonya, will be hosting entertainment at an Oscars viewing party on behalf of our podcast. We will ask friends and other influencers to share with their networks. We’ll ask movie-themed groups to send to their email list. We’ll ask other podcasts about co-promotion, shouting each other out on our respective podcast episodes. And we’ll try to do a big push (maybe with some give-aways) to get iTunes reviews, which can help us get featured.
I’m sure we’ll try a lot of different things. This is the part where we’ll experiment, test, and learn.
So, how can you listen?
You can first try to search for “Bring Your Own Movie” in the podcast app you usually use. If we don’t pop up in your search results, you can head straight to our website to listen: byomcast.com.
You can also manually add our show to your podcast app of choice Just find the option to add a new podcast via URL and paste in our RSS feed: https://bringyourownmovie.libsyn.com/rss
I hope you enjoy!