How to Create Your Own Podcast and Submit It to iTunes

These are instructions on how to create your own podcast and submit it to iTunes using Podcast Maker.

To follow these instructions you must be a MobileMe member or have your webspace to host the podcast on. Generally most ISPs provide some free webspace for their customers so please obtain your login information before continuing.


CREATE YOUR OWN PODCAST

Step One
Download and install the latest version of Podcast Maker by Lemonz Dream from here. You can download and use software for 30 days before needing to purchase it.

Step Two
Launch Podcast Maker from your Applications folder.

Step Three
The application will immediately open to a new podcast window. Fill in the title, author, description, and website for your podcast.

Next, double click the blank image to the right to assign an image to your podcast. Select the image of your choice from the dialog window that appears and click the Open button. This image will be displayed alongside the description of your feed in iTunes.

Don't forget to set the categories for your podcast by clicking the Set... button.

This will bring up a window showing the currently selected categories. Use the + and - buttons at the bottom left to add and remove categories.

When done click the Done button.

Step Four
If you want to provide more information about your podcast you can select the Detail tab input more specifics such as: subtitle, copyright, keywords, language, owner, email, filename, etc.

Step Five
To see what your feed would look like in iTunes click the Preview tab.

Step Six
Once you have entered all the details for your podcast click to select Save from the File menu.

Enter a name to save your podcast as and choose a location where you want to save it. Click the Save button to continue.

Step Seven
Now we need to add some episodes to our podcast. Lets start with an audio welcome message. Drag an mp3 to the bottom episode pane where it reads Drag & Drop in grey.

Notice the episode pane will slide up to the top and now you can enter details for the specific episode at the bottom. Input a date, name, and description for the episode. If you want you can double click the image on the right to select a different one; otherwise, it will default to the main podcast image.

You can also click the Detail tab to add more information such as a longer summary, author, keywords, category, link, and even a different server.

The Chapters tab can be used to add chapters to your longer episodes, creating an enhanced podcast. *Note: enhanced podcast chapters are viewable only in iTunes, QuickTime and iPods.

Step Eight
Now lets try adding a video episode. Simply drag the video file to the episode pane and begin entering the details as we just did.

Don't forget to save the changes.

Step Nine
You can easily return to the podcast view by clicking the Edit Podcast button at the top right.

Step Ten
Now we are ready to publish our podcast. Click the Publish button on the toolbar.

Step Eleven
If you already have a MobileMe account setup on your Mac, Podcast Maker will default to the server settings required to use the hosting space that comes with it.

If you would like to use an FTP or SFTP connection to your web server, select the option from the Server dropdown. Input the Display Name, Website, Server Address, Port, Username, Password, and Path for your host.

When ready click the Publish button.

Step Twelve
Podcast Maker will prepare your files and upload them to the host you specified. Once it has finished click the Copy Feed URL button to copy the location of your podcast feed to the clipboard, then click the Done button.

You can tell friends to visit your feed url directly to listen to your podcast. Below we'll show you how to submit it to iTunes. It might looks something like this: http://www.iClarified.com/podcast/podcast.xml


SUBMIT YOUR PODCAST TO ITUNES

Step One
Now that we have successfully published our newly created podcast. You can submit it to iTunes by click this link.

Press Command+V to paste the podcast url into the Podcast Feed URL field then click the Continue button.

iTunes will ask you to Sign In if you haven't already done so.

Step Two
iTunes will display a summary of the Podcast for you to confirm. If everything looks good then submit the feed.

Upon submission, your podcast is placed in a queue for review by the iTunes staff. Your podcast may be rejected for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

* Technical problems, usually the lack of episodes or the inability to download or play episodes. These problems can almost always be avoided by testing your feed using Subscribe to Podcast in the Advanced menu prior to submission.
* Requirement of a login or password to access the feed or any of the episodes.
* Strong prevalence of sexual content.
* Use of explicit language in the title or description of the podcast.
* Use of explicit language in the podcast when the tag is not set to "yes".
* Apparent misuse of copyrighted material or other violation of third party rights.
* Inclusion of offensive material, such as racist content or child pornography.
* Misrepresentational use of Apple copyright, including "iPod" and "iTunes."

Normally, podcasts that are added to iTunes will appear first in iTunes search, and later in iTunes browse. Appearing in the browse category that you specified can take up to five days. The image associated with your podcast may also require additional time to appear, because images are edge-cached by iTunes and must propagate across the caching servers.