Set up a podcast

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Podcasts have three stops on their journey to a user:

  1. Source: The location of the feed (I recommend our web site since then you get web presence and podcast in one, but other examples include podcast hosts like Libsyn)
  2. Analytics: We use FeedPress to clean up some settings and metadata that WordPress doesn’t always get quite right, like thumbnail/podcast image, and collect analytics data
    • Important: Make sure you set a custom URL here. If you use the default FeedPress URL (or the default URL from any other platform), you might have trouble moving away from that platform. Always control your domain!
  3. Distribution: While some places will pick up the feed automatically, you should ideally enter that feed into platforms where you want people to find the podcast (Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, etc.)

To set up a podcast, first log into FeedPress.

Source

You should have a source RSS feed for your podcast.

You could use a third party host like Libsyn and I believe the podcast itself can be hosted on FeedPress, but I strongly recommend just hosting the podcast and its feed from the web site. It is generally cheaper, we fully control it, and it’s one less subscription that could get forgotten/lapse since we maintain the site and its hosting regardless. Perhaps most significantly, you post the episode once, to the web site, and it also goes to the podcast feed so you’re not keeping episodes updated in two places.

To set up a podcast feed in WordPress, see the support article on setting up a feed: https://docs.ktoo.media/set-up-a-new-podcast/.

Analytics (FeedPress)

Choose “New feed” from the left hand menu.

Click the “Import Feed” button.

Enter your podcast information.

  • “Current feed URL” is the feed URL from the site that you set up (see the link in the “Source” section above)
  • “Alias” is the ending of the URL that refers to this podcast (don’t worry about this one too much – the real URL you use with feeds.ktoo.org can have a different ending).
  • Be sure to check the “This feed is a podcast” setting to get podcast options for the feed
  • Be sure to fill out the settings and fields under “Settings > Your feed” and “Settings > Your podcast”

Set up a custom URL

Always set up a custom URL!

If you use the default URL that starts with https://feedpress.me, FeedPress controls that feed URL. So anyone using that URL (users or platforms) would no longer be able to access the podcast if you started using another host.

To set up a custom URL, go to “My hostnames” in the left hand menu. Click “Edit the hostname” next to feeds.ktoo.org.

At the end of the list, you’ll see the form below:

  • In the text field at the left, enter the ending of the URL that will go after the domain (so if you enter “podcast-name”, your final URL will be https://feeds.ktoo.org/podcast-name)
  • Leave the dropdown as “Feed”
  • Choose the podcast you created that this URL is for from the last dropdown
  • Click the “Add record” button

Distribution

Take the final URL (make sure it’s the one with feeds.ktoo.org!) and submit it to the platforms where you want it distributed.

Make sure the account you use with these platforms is one other people at the station have access to. Don’t create a new account if there’s already an institutional one.

This list will change over time, but for example in 2025 common podcast distribution platforms to submit to are:

  • NPR
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Amazon Music
  • iHeartRadio
  • YouTube Music