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How to Start a WordPress Podcast Website: The Step by Step Tutorial

Victoria Green
  1. Intro
  2. What is Podcasting
  3. The Things You Need to Establish Your WordPress Podcast
  4. The Step by Step Tutorial for WP Podcast
  5. How to Set Up a Podcast RSS Feed with WordPress
  6. What every Podcast Website Should Follow
  7. The Best Podcast WordPress Themes
  8. Choose a WordPress Podcast Plugin
  9. Wrapping It Up

Intro

Podcasting has become an extremely popular media industry. It can help to increase your site traffic giving additional resource where new visitors can find your content. This is also a valid opportunity to upgrade your current presence on the Web providing your project with a new way of promotion.

However, if you want to gather a big loyal audience for your podcast, you need to create a modern and powerful dedicated website.

If you’re ready to get started with podcasts or plan it, this article will take you on the right track and tell how to podcast with WordPress, step by step.

What is Podcasting

Podcasting is a way of distributing audio files via the Internet. A podcast is an audio file that can be downloaded from the Internet, often in MP3 format. Once a podcast is downloaded, it can be listened to on a computer, or be transferred to a portable device. Website visitors can also subscribe to podcasts.

To launch your own podcast to work, you need an audio file and an RSS feed. They form the main base to which users will be able to subscribe not to miss new episodes and download them anytime they want. Go on reading to uncover every detail of starting a WordPress podcast website!

The Things You Need to Establish Your WordPress Podcast

Let’s create a podcast of the highest quality! For this, you have to include some things to let it not only look but be professionally made.

First of all, it’s a website where people can find out everything about your project and episodes, of course. Choose the right tool building it and it will look stylish and catchy. Your podcast website will also perform flawlessly up to different situations, on different browsers and multiple screen resolutions. All this doesn’t sound unreal today. And you’re free to find any software for your future podcast website. Still, we highly recommend you to work with WordPress. WordPress is ideal for podcasting. We guarantee this backed by years of experience.

WordPress podcast website won’t make you regret. It’s not only because WordPress is CMS number one, free and open source. Not because it’s useless to compete with its fan base. The main reason is, we expect you to appreciate, WordPress is fully user-friendly! Moreover, WordPress CMS itself goes with the built-in RSS feed for blogs! That’s why so many podcasters choose it.

Having a WordPress podcast website, you’ll easily connect it with any podcasting app. For example, SoundCloud. It’s trusted by lots of users and a perfect WordPress podcast player.

So, make a WordPress podcast website not touching a line of code. Customize it easily and quickly. And will tell you how to Embed Podcast on WordPress step by step!

As for the second thing, is special equipment to record your podcast episodes. Today, there is a huge assortment on the market.

Here, there are just some examples:

Mobile Podcast Kit

Budget Podcasting

The Step by Step Tutorial for WP Podcast

Step #1. Website Setup

If you already run your blog on WordPress - great! Still, to start using WordPress for podcast is absolutely real. Let’s begin right now!

Upload Your Podcast to WordPress! #StepByStep #WordPressPodcast #Tutorial

Visit the self-hosted WordPress.org to download WP CMS gratis. There you’ll find, as well, everything you may need, like podcast WordPress plugins. As for these tools, a lot of plugins need payment. Plus, don’t forget about your domain name and hosting (likewise, not free).

Or, instead of making the whole process long (while picking out a plugin and learning to work with it), you can step on an easier road. The best way to concentrate on podcasting itself (topics, equipment, stream hours, promotion, etc) and provide it with a robust website is to get a podcast WordPress theme. Buy one that is already supplied with hosting, powerful navigation, and polished design. Paying once a reasonable price, you’ll save on the aforementioned stuff. And a bit later, you’ll be able to adjust your episodes to it (or vice versa). How to upload a podcast to WordPress in a few clicks, we’ll tell below.

Step #2. Decide Where to Host Your Podcast

In this tutorial, that’s supposed to show you one of the quickest and not expensive ways of rocking podcasts on WordPress, we’ve chosen SoundCloud as a reliable media hosting service.

Why SoundCloud?

  1. It’s already a network with its own traffic and multiple other things that make your podcast available for a huge audience of SoundCloud. So, even if your dedicated website is not awesome yet, you can benefit from this platform
  2. It’s handy for 100%. Just give links to any of your podcasts and share anywhere you prefer. Yes, to connect to iTunes is also not a problem!


Step #3. Launch Your WordPress Podcast with SoundCloud

Not sure what soft to pick out? Try Audacity. It’s a free multi-track audio editor and recorder.

It’s up to you how to arrange it. After, upload your podcast to SoundCloud and hurry up to promote it. In your blog posts, you can also add a SoundCloud player.

When you have more than one audio, get the podcast beta. For this, fill in SoundCloud Podcast Application Form. Then, place a mark next to the box “I have a SoundCloud profile, and I have uploaded at least one full episode”.

WordPress has a cool feature called oEmbed, which supports automatic insertion. Just place a link in the editor on a separate line. Currently, WordPress oEmbed library supports popular services such as Youtube, Twitter, Vimeo, etc. However, SoundCloud is not yet supported by WordPress. But you shouldn’t worry about it, because the only thing you need to do is to use the wp_oembed_add_provider () function.

We will show how to add SoundCloud oEmbed support in WordPress.

So, insert the code wp_oembed_add_provider () into your WP theme file functions.php. Pay attention to the example:

 // Add SoundCloud oEmbed
 function add_oembed_soundcloud(){
 wp_oembed_add_provider ( ‘http://soundcloud.com/*’, ‘http://soundcloud.com/oembed’ ) ;
 }
 add_action ( ‘init’ , ‘add_oembed_soundcloud’ ) ;

That's all! Simply paste your SoundCloud URL into a separate line and let the auto-insert magic of oEmbed do the rest.

A lot of people prefer iTune. If you’re from this company, that is good. Using this service you let your podcast reach a really unlimited number of different people. The more of them see your work, the more can like and follow it. Remember, every ten of the target audience is extremely important.

So, submit your podcast RSS feed URL to the iTunes store. If you don’t have iTunes installed, download and install it. Paste your RSS feed URL where “Podcast Feed URL” says. Keep following the subsequent onscreen prompts.

How to Set Up a Podcast RSS Feed with WordPress

RSS feed is unreplaceable for media networks. It’s a file in XML format. There usually a textual component of publications is kept (without design, navigation, or any other additional information). The format has gained great popularity due to frequent use in blogs.

RSS enables people with the opportunity to subscribe to websites publications (fully or partially). With the help of RSS, publications can be downloaded to a user's device. Thus, they will never miss new publications and even read their descriptions without visiting the main page. Distribution of information is not limited to text files. Audio and video files can be also sent.

Much to the surprise, the question on how to set up a podcast RSS feed on WordPress is very common. And YES, it’s already included to the powerful WP CMS! That’s why everyone can complete the aforementioned task not losing a minute. Don’t bother about coding! Just drag the RSS widget and drop anywhere you like using WordPress.

What every Podcast Website Should Follow

While choosing a WordPress podcast theme and customizing your website, get assured everything meets the listed requirements.

That’s also may be very helpful in analyzing your current website to boost its potential. The right WP theme is perfect for effective upgrading using innovative tools.

Your website is SEO-Friendly (Searchable and Findable)

It is also Mobile-Friendly (Optimized for Mobile)

A Brief Description of Your Show is included

Your Episodes are well-placed

Don't forget about Easy Subscription Options

Host Information

Also, there are a few not difficult tips to promote your podcast website:

  1. Remember to add some Tweetable or shareable links for social media. So, your followers will be able to spread your content
  2. Always give links to your page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others

As you may have already mentioned on your own, creating podcast websites is a very interesting but, unfortunately, rather complicated process. It requires to overcome several steps just to get a podcast resource that works correctly. And what about visual characteristics and UI elements of its website? That’s another part of the work.

Fortunately, things become much more inviting using well-known and trusted WordPress products. So, let us share some of the best WordPress podcast themes with you!

The Best Podcast WordPress Themes

All these items are user-friendly and won’t take lots of your time on installing and customization. Using them you’ll quickly make a ground for popularising your episodes. Plus, you already know how to upload podcast to WordPress. Find the best WordPress theme for podcast!

Monstroid2 - Multipurpose Modular Elementor WordPress Theme


Demo | Download | Hosting

And in the right corner of the ring, there is a real heavyweight - Monstroid2! This is a truly multipurpose WordPress theme powered with Elementor Page Builder. Get it for your personal blog and embed your podcasts!

Monstroid2 is clean and light-structured. It’s already packed with 500+ ready-to-use pages and will serve you, as well, in your other projects. For them, there are also 300+ diverse skins that are regularly updated. For example, to make a classic WordPress podcast is advised to stop on “Home Blog” skin.

Don’t worry about any difficulties! This WordPress theme is provided with detailed documentation and professional support. Ask any question, 24/7!

More Features:

Relarum - Women Blog Multipurpose Classic Elementor WordPress Theme


Demo | Download | Hosting

Relarum WordPress Theme is recommended for blogging use. With it, you’ll easily create an elegant modern WordPress podcast.

The theme is designed to suit varied topics, like Fashion, Beauty, Outfits ect. More than that, there are already included dedicated pre-designed pages. Just add your own content and party begin!

Relarum will perform smoothly on any screen and browser. It’s also SEO-friendly. Hurry to choose it!

More Features:

Baltazar - A Masculine Blog WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

No matter, to what a topic your WordPress podcast may be dedicated. Baltazar is worthy of your attention! This theme is clean and multifunctional in the same style. It looks stylish and provided with multiple necessary UI elements. Still, this all won’t distract your website visitors from the things you want to highlight.

Choose Baltazar and launch your podcast website already today! Working with this handy theme, you won’t need extra help or expensive extensions. It’s richly packed with everything and more.

Main Features:

EcoDetox - Healthy Food Blog Elementor WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Body positive is quite popular today. So, if you want your podcast website on this topic to get a huge audience, be assured it meets the all modern requirements. And it’s both, attractive and comfortable in using.

EcoDetow WP Blog Theme is the solution for you! Carefully built with Elementor, it can be always enlarged and refreshed in a few simple clicks. For this, you don’t need knowledge of coding. Just drag the desired element and drop it anywhere you prefer. Don’t wait, check it!

More Features:

Advertex - Travel Personal Blog WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Are you keen on traveling? Then tell about your adventures on your own WordPress podcast website made with Advertex! This theme is targeted on blogging. Using it you get more time for podcasting as worry less about the dedicated website. As Advertex is already optimized for different browsers and screen resolutions and even powered with SEO. Check more on your own!

Main Features:

Vinews - Modern Media Portal WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Stream your podcasts from your own media portal! It’s absolutely possible with Vinews. This cool WordPress theme boasts of stylish inviting design, powerful features, and easy customization. Once have chosen it, you’ll never regret!

Main Features:

YouMovie - Videography Elementor WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

YouMovie is specially made for video bloggers. In this theme, you’ll find every necessary element to represent your content. It also goes with new-fangled ready-made pages.

No need to search for web developers and designers, be a professional by yourself. Create any project and we’ll always help you, 24/7!

Main Features:

Investory - Corporate Blog Elementor WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Are you going to talk on serious themes? Maybe investments and trading or something else? Then you really need this item! Investory provides its owner with a possibility to build websites confidently. Websites of the best quality! Discover this WP theme. You must like its eye-catching pages that are ready for use. Only 7 blog layouts are for your service! Any questions? Not a problem! Contact us at any time you prefer.

Main Features:

Techguide - Tech Blog Elementor WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Is it you who can’t stop talking about computers, innovations, inventions, maybe web design? Is something missed here? Congrats! You’re a geek! Then express it in your podcasts! Share your knowledge, professional jokes, and anything you like!

Techguide WordPress Theme is just developed and designed for this. Be sure, nobody will leave your page powered with this stylish theme!

Main Features:

AliceBurton - Personal Blog Elementor WordPress Theme

Demo | Download | Hosting

Meet this Personal Blog WordPress theme! It suits any kind of blogging and supplied with dedicated elements and widgets. Plus, you’ll get pre-designed pages for multiple purposes. Give it a try!

Main Features:

Choose a WordPress Podcast Plugin

PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry

For the podcasters that use plugins, Blubrry PowerPress is considered number one. First of all, it’s absolutely free and has handy control of buttons. Secondly, with it, you can do anything, including creating files of the appropriate iTunes format and more.
Main Features:

Seriously Simple Podcasting

Seriously Simple Podcasting makes the translation of WordPress podcasts easy and quick. It automatically creates a stream in the required format. If you run multiple podcasts, this plugin will provide you with the right number of sources.
Main Features:

Smart Podcast Player

Smart Podcast Player is a premium plugin by Pat Flynn. It enables users to embed podcasts with a nice player and unlimited options. Also, there are such important player notifications, as the “Skip” button and the choice of playing speed.
Main Features:

Podlove Podcast Publisher

Podlove is a free podcast plugin that maintains several channels in different formats at the same time. It’s very useful and provides a connection to the most podcast services.

The plugin is powered with HTML5 player. It’s fully compliant with all modern gadgets. Moreover, base analytics and statistics are also included.

Simple Podcast Press

Simple Podcast Press is another one premium plugin for synchronization podcasts on WordPress. Use can use it separately or in a bunch with other plugins and add-ons.

To start the work, indicate your podcast source, and Simple Podcast Press will do the rest automatically. It will create the necessary pages on your site for each episode the player and description.

Libsyn Publisher Hub

Free Libsyn Publisher Hub is also worthy of attention. It may be familiar to you due to its famous progenitor Libsyn Publishing. With it, anyone can add podcasts to WordPress not spending hours and hours.

Wrapping It Up

The podcast audience is growing rapidly. Today, in the podcasting mode, the world-known broadcast media, like ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, NPR, MTV, Discovery Channel, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and others work daily.

And there is no surprise because:

So, if you want to gain considerable popularity among a certain circle of Internet users, be actively engaged in the creation and distribution of your podcasts. Good Luck!

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