Checklist for Running a Podcast on Website

5 min readAug 23, 2017

5 Things you need to set up your podcast for success.

This month, our very own Stop Riding the Pine podcast proudly welcomes her third season. We have lots of new and exciting episodes that we hope will help you in your business and online marketing endeavors.

But we don’t want to enjoy all the success ourselves. We want to share the good things with you, too. For that reason, here’s a checklist you can use for running a podcast on website.

Are you considering starting your own show?

In a previous post, we shared the different types of websites you can build on WordPress. Just like millions of individuals around the world we, at Slapshot Studio, also enjoy the features that the CMS provides.

With WordPress, you can build a personal blog, a company website, a podcast website, an e-commerce store, and more.

For podcasting in particular, you can have your own unique concept or theme for your show. What do you want to talk about in your show? Here are a few podcasts that can serve as your inspiration:

Stop Riding the Pine (business and online marketing)
Inipi Radio (discussions towards peace and unity)
Private Label Movement (Amazon selling)
The Stoked Lifestyle (fearless leadership among the youth)
Music City Real Estate (music and real estate in Nashville)
The Edyne Plancy Show (women empowerment)
Veteran On the Move (military veterans in transition)

But before you actually start building your own podcast website, it’s important that you know your brand and that you understand who your target listeners are.

“Companies rarely fail simply because they don’t understand the market, but many struggle because they don’t understand and leverage what is great about themselves.” — Paul Leinwand

When you are ready to begin, here are five things you need to set up your podcast on a website for success…

1. Audio Player

WordPress has podcast plugins that you can easily install to set up an audio player on your website. Among these plugins are:

Blubrry PowerPress
Simple Podcast Press by Hani Mourra
Libsyn Podcasting Plugin

The features may vary for each plugin. You can review them in the WordPress plugin repository to see which works best for you.

For the SRTP show, we use Blubrry PowerPress which provides tools for subscription and SEO as well as supports different podcast apps and clients.

2. Show Notes

To help your listeners determine what each of your episodes is about, you can pair your audio player with show notes. It can serve as a guide for them as they listen to your podcast.

In your show notes, you can include:

A brief description
Supporting images
Insightful sayings from the episode
Links to resources mentioned in the episode
Contact information

You can also include time stamps to present the episode highlights.

Apart from being a guide for listeners, show notes can also help boost your rank in the search engines. You can optimize the quality of your show notes by:

Incorporating keywords in episode titles, permalinks, meta description, and paragraphs
Using headers to organize your written content
Inserting alt text on images
Observing quality in your content

Consider what your listeners will be interested on and what they can use in application. And, encourage them to provide ratings and reviews to help you improve your show in the long run.

3. Email Subscription

How will your listeners know when you’ve released a new episode? You can keep them updated using email subscription.

Here’s an example from us:

Simply provide a form where they can fill in their name and active email address. There are a number of email marketing tools available. Among them are:

Active Campaign
Get Response
Mail Chimp

When they subscribe, they will receive your automated notifications on a regular basis or whenever you release a new episode.

4. Social Media Buttons

Growing your podcast community is essential to your success. What attracted you to start a podcast in the first place? Without listeners, you could easily lose your focus or be disappointed by the results.

But podcasting isn’t just about receiving all the love and feedback. It requires diligence and passion in giving back to people. And social media can be the perfect medium for you to extend your message and expand your reach.

Just like the audio player, WordPress also has social media plugins that you can use for your podcast website. Among the popular plugins are:

MashShare
Social Media Share Buttons
Kiwi Social Share

These plugins will appear as buttons on your website, and thereby guide listeners to your account in a specific social media platform. Your listeners simply need to click on them to find you in their favorite platform.

5. About Page

Last but certainly not the least in our checklist for running a podcast on website, you should set up an About page for your listeners to know your story.

You can tell them about:

Your mission and vision for starting the podcast
How you came up with the show
Your identity as the host
Exciting things they can look forward to
Your contact information

You can include images to support any information you have available. Let your listeners know who you are. The About page can be a way to attract more listeners to your show.

We hope you learned something new from this checklist for running a podcast on website.

The podcasting industry thrives with innovative tools and classic opportunities. How do you plan to use them? Perhaps it’s time to pick them up and leverage them for the success of your podcast.