Because We Don’t Have Time For RSS Feed Problems
Three little letters can make or break your show.
RSS.
As in, “RSS feed.”
Problems with your RSS feed…suck.
Your listeners automatically get your shows via this text-based file that shouts, Computer, look here for new content. People like that “automatically” part - they expect the automatic update notification to happen regularly, and without glitches. Your material is loaded into their podcast or blog reading software, and without having to lift a finger, your feed subscribers get your newest content, to be played back at their own convenience.
You see the problem?
Other podcatchers seem redundant alongside the ubiquitous iTunes - until you have a problem with iTunes.
Maybe your feed actually works fine - you test it personally, and it reads the way it should - but your shows just don’t download from iTunes. Or, as has been happening to MedSqod lately, your shows download just fine from that marvelous 800-pound podcatcher, but your podcast page doesn’t update properly, looking like you dropped off da’ edge of da’ urt a couple of months ago.
Either way, you will lose listeners.
Plenty of other fish in the sea, besides you.
So if you work hard to craft good shows for your audience and your own sense of pride, how can you ensure that you don’t have to work any harder than that?
- Get and Use an email subscription list. As I remarked before, email technology is fairly bulletproof: everyone knows how to use it, and if
…email technology is fairly bulletproof: everyone knows how to use it, and if email goes down, it’s usually not because of an RSS feed problem.
email goes down, it’s usually not because of an RSS feed problem. Get an email sign-up, either as a plugin for WordPress, or as an outside service like FeedBlitz, AWeber, or FeedBurner, feature it prominently on your website, and strongly encourage your listeners to use it. This is the ideal, since it automatically sends email notifications to your listeners whenever you add or update a post/show. Any feed or podcatcher problems get sidestepped, as folks click on the link in their email that takes them to your website - or in some cases, get emailed the entire entry.
- Verbally encourage folks to visit your website. For that part of your audience that only listens to your podcasts, tell them to visit your website from within your shows. Have a tagline towards the beginning that announces your www address, like, “…visit us online at www.yourshow.com,” or, “…complete shownotes and more, online at www.yourshow.com.” It’s not an automated, ideal solution, but at least folks will know where to look if they don’t hear from you for a while. Doesn’t help if you put this call to action on your website, for those folks who only listen to you and don’t read you, yet.
- Consider using FeedBurner. Not only is it a rock-solid service for getting stats on your show (how many subscribers you have, how many times your shows are downloaded, etc.), but it also has an automated feed checking service, that can notify you - automatically - when there’s a problem with your feed. It’s just been acquired by Google, so you pretty much know it ain’t going anywhere. And it makes your feed page look like a nice clean website that any web browser can display. And that page has nice chicklets for automated click-to-subscribe in more than 20 podcatchers, including iTunes, My Yahoo, Add to Google, Odeo, and Podcast Ready. And that page includes an mp3 playing button to listen right there to the shows. And did I mention it’s free?
- Encourage the use of other podcatchers. Other podcatchers seem redundant alongside the ubiquitous iTunes - until you have a problem with iTunes. Some day, your problem WILL be with this 800-pound gorilla,
It’s a wonderful product and service, but have you ever tried to get tech support for it?
not with your feed. It’s a wonderful product and service, but have you ever tried to get tech support for it? Anything that you depend on for your show’s success must have nearly immediate I’m-on-it human responsiveness. Since the latter isn’t likely to change any time soon, it’s up to you to change the former: don’t rely on iTunes so exclusively. THAT’s why it’s a good thing there are “other” podcatchers around, like iPodder. Feature links or chicklets/buttons to them on your site, and be grateful.
- List your show in other directories besides iTunes. This goes hand in hand with #4, since most podcatchers are directories as well, and vice-versa. Plus, getting listed in other directories helps your search engine ranking, and of course, helps get your show in front of more eyes.
Diversification is the name of the game - it’s the basic answer to the problem of too many eggs in the Apple cart, so to speak.
3 comments
I have learned some of what you mentioned here the hard way. Recently I tried to move the Brain Science Podcast (a neuroscience podcast for general audiences) to Podango in the hopes of generating some advertising income. I was already using Feedburner, but somehow Podango managed to break my feed. I lost almost all of my iTunes subscribers and was us unable to get Podango to fix the problem until Rob Walch of Podcast 411 accused them of hijacking my feed.
They had put a new feed tag at the end of their feed that pointed at them. This meant that even when I tried to point Feedburner back to my original files, even the people at iTunes couldn’t get the re-direct to stick.
The moral of the story is that although Feedburner does give you some flexibility and protection, it is not foolproof. So be very, very, careful about ever having your feed redirected. If you do make sure you have something IN WRITING that guarantees that the site in question will redirect it back where it started if you want to leave!
Ginger –
That sounds like every podcaster’s nightmare. I belong to a podcasting group, and the more senior members have always asserted, in the most absolute terms possible, to never give over your feed to another hosting entity. Basically, to avoid scenarios like you describe.
I’m surprised about it happening with Podango, though — many well-known podcasters, like Jason Van Orden and Paul Colligan, have their own shows also co-hosted on Podango stations, as simply another distributing outlet. It would totally destroy their position in the Networking market to be even rumored to be hijacking someone’s feed, and they’d have no incentive to do so.
Feedburner is in a unique position: you can submit your feed to them, they can spit it back out with a feedburner-tag, but 1) you can have it redirected from within FB back to your feed, so that when someone clicks on one of the subscribe buttons within the FB feed page, the feed address being fed to Yahoo or whatever is actually your original feed, 2) WordPress has a plugin that does an automatic redirect to FB from your own feed, so you can still give out your orig feed, not FB’s, and it’ll get shunted to FB to do all the stats tracking, etc., and finally 3) while no guarantee, FB has been around for so long as has so many people of note on it, and has now been acquired by Google, that it’s stabiltiy and reliability are really not in question any more.
But, yah, feeds do have their vulnerabilities. That’s why I’m a growing fan of email subscriptions to one’s shows.
If you have an RSS feed for your medical podcast, and are looking for places to register it, please take the time to submit it to the MedWorm directory. I’m currently building up the directory to include medical podcasts - they are not so visible at the moment, since they are presented with the other types of RSS feeds, but they are soon to get their own identity. MedWorm now has thousands of new visitors each day looking for medical content, so taking the time to add your feed should be worthwhile. You do have to register (only take a few seconds) in order to submit your feed (to help prevent spam, since I check every feed manually myself before adding it) - but if this bothers you you can always delete your account after registering. Thanks!
Frankie (MedWorm Creator)
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