200 Podcast Answer Man – What To Do When Your RSS Feed Is Held Hostage!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Celebrating 200 Episodes!
I’m very excited to celebrate my 200th episode of Podcast Answer Man. In this episode, I share that the goals that I had hoped to accomplish with this podcast had been realized years before I had anticipated. I did spend the first six minutes of the episode talking about what is possible when you find specialized area to focus on. Podcasting is one of my greatest passions and I’m looking forward to producing the next few hundred episodes for you, Lord willing.

What To Do When Your RSS Feed Is Held Hostage!
Lain and Clint both called in with similar questions this week. They had both decided dip their toes in the waters of podcasting to see if it was something they might be interested in. They each chose a different third party service that offers attractive all in one solutions. These services are appealing to many people because of their ease of use and low cost of entry.

I’m not opposed to using third party services, like the ones that Lain and Clint mentioned. However, what happens if you decide that you want to get more serious with your podcasting efforts and you have already built a significant audience that is subscribed to the RSS feed owned and managed by this third party service?

The good news is that iTunes has made it so that a single line of code can be added to an existing rss feed that would cause everyone who is subscribed to your existing feed to be automatically forwarded to a brand new rss feed that you specify. This redirect code that is inserted into the old rss feed would also cause the iTunes directory to also update its listing for your show so that any new subscribers who find your show, in iTunes, will automatically be subscribed to the new, updated rss feed as well.

The bad news is that while it is 100% possible for all of these third party services to add this single line of code in the feed that they manage for your show, there are very few instances where such requests have been granted. I personally know that both services mentioned in Lain and Clint’s audio feedback have approved such requests in some instances. However, I am also quite aware that both services have rejected such requests more often than they are approved.

My suggestion is that if you are going to use a third party service, such as these, that you do not allow them to submit your podcast to iTunes for you. Instead, take the rss feed they provide you and send it through Feedburner.com. Then you can send that Feedburner.com feed to iTunes. The benefit here is that you can easily change the “original feed’ that Feedburner get it’s data from at any time. Your subscribers and the podcasting directories will simply continue to receive the information that Feedburner provides. All you need to do is change one simple setting in Feedburner to tell it where to get the new information from.

If it’s too late and your feed is held hostage by this third party provider, I offer some advice, inside this episode as to how you might be able to maintain a majority of your podcast subscribers on your new rss feed. I did forget to mention in the episode that if you do end up adding a new rss feed to iTunes for your show, you can and you show go to the old listing, insdie iTunes, and click the “Report A Concern” button and choose “Remove Podcast” from the drop down list. Explain to them that this is your podcast feed and that you have moved to a new hosting provider and that this feed needs to be removed. Such requests are accepted about 95% of the time and can take up to two or three weeks to be processed. If your old listing is not removed after three weeks, try the “report a problem” procedure again until it’s finally removed.
Clint – Podbean Advice on how to move things over VM021

Why I Have Unsubscribed From All Podcasts In iTunes
In this episode, I finally share why I have unsubscribed from all podcasts in iTunes. The reason is because I have found a new podcasting application that allows me to subscribe to and manage my podcasts, exactly the way that I want to, directly on my iPhone. I hope you enjoy my interview with Russel from Shifty Jelly, creators of the Pocket Casts iOS Application.

LIMITED TIME OFFER:
I also mentioned that my Podcasting A to Z Group Study is going very well and that after three weeks, we are just about to see the launch of a lot of new podcasts. I’m having so much fun teaching this class that I have decided to do this again in May. In fact, I’ve already filled 2 of the 20 spots for this class. I’m offering a special deal, anyone who signs up for this class prior to April 1st will be able to get in at the same cost that my existing students paid which is $800.00. After April 1st, I will begin the promotion of the May course and the cost will be $999.00. So signing up prior to April first would save you $199.00. If you are interested, please do email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org or call me at 859-757-1399.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast: