After you add your media in the New Episode section of the Add Episode form, it's time to enter your details to prepare your episode for publication. The information you enter includes details like the episode’s title, as well as show notes that will engage your listeners and get them excited about your new episode. Or, if you prefer, you can also import the information from the ID3 tags in your media file. See Publish an Episode.
It's important to enter the appropriate information to make sure podcast directories display and organize your episode correctly when you publish.
Note Want to speed up your publishing process? You can create episode defaults that automatically put information into the fields in the Episode Details form so you don't have to fill each field out every time you publish. For more information about episode defaults, see Speed up Your Publication Process with Defaults. |
The sections in this article correspond to the fields in the Episode Details and Optional Details sections of the New Episode form. To find a section quickly, click a link in the list below.
Episode Details
Optional Details
- Episode Type
- Season Number
- Episode Number
- Apple Podcasts Title
- Explicit
- Author
- Tags
- Category
- Permalink Points To
Note Not done entering your episode’s information but need to go? If you started writing, but you’re not ready to publish, you can save your work as a draft and come back to it later. For more information about how to do so, see Save Your Episode as a Draft to Publish It Later. |
Episode Details
Episode Title
Enter the title of the episode you’re uploading. Your title can include information like the episode number, such as “Episode 1: Welcome to My Awesome Show.”
The title you enter will appear as your episode title in the podcast directories where you publish, such as Audacy or Spotify. In addition, it will also appear as the blog post title in your Libsyn blog page or in places like WordPress or Blogger.
Note The title you enter automatically appears in the Apple Podcasts Title field further down the form. If you publish to Apple Podcasts, see the "Apple Podcasts Title" section below to make sure your title meets Apple's requirements. |
Description
The episode description, also known as show notes, is the place where you can get your listeners excited about your new episode and offer important details about it. The description appears in the podcast directories you publish to and also serves as the content for your blog post in your Libsyn blog page, or in WordPress or Blogger (if you’re using OnPublish). It’s also included in your RSS feed, so it will appear in places like Apple Podcasts.
If you have enabled the ability to publish episodes to Apple Podcasts directly from Libsyn, the Description is a required field. See Submit Your Show to Apple Podcasts.
You can refine your description by formatting your text (such as bolding words) and by including links and images. (See Including Images in Your Episode Description.) Note that some podcasting applications don’t always show the full range of formatting.
Notes
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Optional Details
Episode Type
Specify the kind of episode you’re uploading so that podcast directories can organize it correctly. For example, if you’re uploading a trailer of your show rather than a full episode, you can specify that detail here.
Click the Episode Type field and select the type from the list that appears. Here are your options:
- Full: A complete, traditional episode of your show.
- Trailer: A short promo of your show, usually between 30 and 60 seconds in length.
- Bonus: An episode that’s not consistent with the traditional length or content of your show. For example, a bonus episode might consist of a short follow-up to a previous episode.
Season Number
Enter the number for the season to which the episode you’re uploading belongs. If you don’t use seasons to organize episodes, you can leave this field blank.
Episode Number
The episode number you enter appears in the iOS Podcast App, and your episode appears in the correct order based on the episode number (and season number, if you’re using one).
Apple Podcasts Title
If you publish to Apple Podcasts, you can use the Apple Podcasts Title field to enter an episode title that will only be used for Apple Podcasts. If you entered a title in the Episode Title field above, it appears automatically in this field. However, read on to make sure this title meets Apple's requirements.
The reason there is a second title field for Apple Podcasts is that Apple has different requirements for titles than other podcast directories. In Apple Podcasts, the title of your episode should not contain information such as the name of your podcast. It should also not contain episode or season numbers. Apple Podcasts displays that information in other places, so the episode title should contain just the title and nothing more.
Here are a few examples:
- Correct: Welcome to My Awesome Show
- Incorrect: Episode 1: Welcome to My Awesome Show
- Incorrect: Episode 1 of Alistair’s Great Show: Welcome to My Awesome Show
The title you enter in the Apple Podcasts Title field appears only in Apple Podcasts. You can keep a different title in the Episode Title field if you want it to appear differently in other places. For example, if you want your title to appear as “Episode 1: Welcome to My Awesome Show” in most podcast directories, you can enter that title in the Episode Title field. Then, you can enter “Welcome to My Awesome Show” in the Apple Podcasts Title field to make sure your show appears correctly in Apple Podcasts.
If you don’t publish on Apple Podcasts, you can leave this field blank.
Explicit
Use the Explicit field to specify whether the episode you’re uploading is clean or explicit.
You entered Explicit or Clean for your show when you first configured your settings. However, you can use this field to replace that setting for this episode only. For example, if you have a clean show, but the episode you’re uploading is an outlier that happens to be explicit, you can use this field to label just this episode as explicit. Leave the field blank if you don’t need to update your rating for this episode.
Your episode’s (and show’s) rating is important for establishing parental controls. Also, keep in mind that some countries do not permit explicit content, so marking an episode explicit might result in your episode, and your whole show, becoming unavailable to listeners in those countries.
Note Not sure whether your episode is clean or explicit? Explicit can mean a show uses language that is inappropriate for young listeners (such as some famous “four-letter words”), but it can also mean that the subject matter is inappropriate even if the language is “clean.” If you’re not sure whether your subject matter qualifies as explicit, conduct the following thought experiment: “If I were a parent of young children, would I be comfortable with them listening to this episode?” |
Author
In the Author field, enter the names of this episode’s authors if they are different from the author names you entered when you configured your show.
Entering new information in this field is useful if you’re hosting a guest that you want to feature. For example, if you are hosting a famous guest in this episode, enter your name as well as your famous guest’s name in the Author field. Doing so helps listeners find your episode if they are searching for your guest author.
The names you enter in this field appear as the authors for this episode only. If you leave the field blank, the information you entered when you configured your show appears as the author.
Note Enter the names as you want them to appear when you publish. For example, if there are several authors, you can separate the names using either "and" or "&," depending on your style and preferences. |
Tags
Tags function like keywords to help people find your episode. For example, if your episode is about meditation, creating a “meditation” tag makes it more likely that your episode will appear to listeners who are searching for that keyword. Note that tags are most useful if your show is on YouTube because YouTube uses tags to help people find episodes. Most podcast directories, including Apple podcasts, don’t make use of tags.
You can enter a tag by creating a new one. In addition, Libsyn remembers tags you created previously, so you can also quickly find and reuse tags that you created for a previous episode.
To enter a tag:
- Click the Tags field to place the cursor in it.
- Select a tag you’ve used before or create a new one.
a. To create a new tag, type the name of the tag and then press Enter on your keyboard. b. To select a tag you've used before, type the first few letters of its name to find it quickly. and then click it in the list that appears beneath the field. - If necessary, repeat the steps to add more tags.
You can also remove any tags you entered by mistake.
a. | To remove a single tag, click the X to the right of the tag you want to remove. |
b. | To remove all tags at the same time, click the X on the right side of the Tags field. |
Category
You can create categories or select one you've already created to apply it to the episode. Categories are useful for organizing your episodes. For example, if you host a podcast about sports and some of your episodes are about the NFL, but others are about the NBA, you can create categories to distinguish between them.
The Libsyn Podcast page uses the categories you enter to organize your episodes so your listeners can sort them quickly. (See Set up Your Libsyn Podcast Page.)
Also, you can create a player that only lists the episodes in a certain category. (See Customize and Share the Libsyn Media Player for Your Podcast.) This feature is useful in case you want to embed the player in a webpage, but you only want it to play a certain category of your episodes. To expand on the example of the sports show above, if you're posting a player to an NFL site, you can use an "NFL" category to make sure only NFL episodes appear in the player.
Note that this field is different from the Category field when you set up your show. The show-level category is for specifying what your show is about so that podcast directories can organize it appropriately. This field at the episode level is for you to organize your own show on the Libsyn Podcast page or in a podcast player.
To create a category:
- Click the Category field to place your cursor in it.
- Type the name of the category you want to use.
- Press Enter on your keyboard.
To select a category you've already created, click the Category field and select the category you want in the list that appears.
Permalink Points To
This field provides a URL where your listeners will always be able to find the episode you are uploading. For example, your permalink might point to your Libsyn blog post, or to a different page where you will always keep the episode. It’s important that the URL you enter here never changes.
If you are not using the Libsyn blog post to house your episodes, you might use the Libsyn Podcast page or a custom URL, such as whatever blogging platform you prefer. To use the latter option, generate your blog post, get the URL, and enter it in the Permalink Points To field.