(Blog post updated 27th April, 2025)
Things have changed quite a bit since I last published this particular blog post.
I'm going to tell you more about my progress and where I am today with my podcast.
Starting a Podcast
I started a podcast recently on Substack, and it has been a whole new learning experience, one of which I'd like to share.
I like to keep things simple so I did my research on suitable microphones for beginners and came across the Fifine USB Microphone, which is easy to set up quickly. I also downloaded some software for recording and editing my voice, called Audacity. Which I'm still learning about.
The Podcasting Part
You've probably discovered a lot of the same kind of articles telling you how to set up and connect your Substack podcast to various platforms.
But there may be things you haven't thought of or read, so let's take a look.
Useful Information You Need to Know About Substack Podcast Settings
Once you start setting up your podcast you'll quickly discover your settings when you start.
Scrolling down the page you'll find your episodes, top countries and top players.
Scroll back up and click on settings button, and you'll find:
- Podcast Title
- Podcast Description
- Podcast Byline
- Your Public RSS feed
About Your Public RSS Feed
This is really important in being able to distribute your podcast to each platform. It should look like this:
Example:
https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1234567.rss
What You Need to Know About Podcasting Platforms
You're given six platforms you can distribute your podcast to, these are:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- YouTube Music
- YouTube Podcasts
- Pocket Casts
- Overcasts
Spotify
I found Spotify the easiest to connect to straight away, and had absolutely no problems in getting my podcast URL, which made it pretty simple for marketing on social media.
Apple Podcasts
I found Apple to be a difficult platform to connect to because someone was using the same email address as me when I tried opening an Apple account, which I quickly gave up on. I may try back at a later date though.
YoutTube Music and YouTube Podcasts
I'm presuming because both of these podcasts are based on YouTube a faceless podcast won't go down very well, so I skipped both of these.
Pocket Casts and Overcasts Podcasts
When I created my podcasts originally I stupidly left out all of the really important information like, descriptions, meta data, episode and series numbers in the settings of each podcast page.
So when I came to connect to Pocket Casts and Overcasts they turned me away. I quickly went back into my settings on each podcast and updated to include all of the relevant information required on each podcast.
I contacted help on Substack and am still waiting to discover if I'm doing anything else wrong. but haven't given up on these platforms.
Extras
Amazon Music for Podcasters
Amazon Music for Podcasters was the first place I went to, but quickly discovered that it doesn't accept podcasts with a pay wall like mine. So if you're looking to branch out to as many platforms as possible and make money you need to think about whether or not you want to include a pay wall.
Where is My Podcast Today?
As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog post, things have moved on quite a bit since I started on Substack.
I came to the conclusion to create a podcast only Substack blog, removing all of my written posts, because it looked too complicated.
My podcast is still called Voice Files and can be found on Substack here.
I do have a paywall on certain, but not all podcast episodes, which enables me to spread my podcast further afield and gain more listeners.
You can find Voice Files podcast on:
And of course Substack
The less episodes you have with a paywall the more you can show on other platforms.
Anyway I hope this is useful information for anyone out there wanting to try their hand at setting up their podcast.
For me, it's a place to learn and grow a new skill, and provide information all at the same time.
I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.
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