Getting started questions

[switters]

I started a podcast about a year ago, and it's in the iTunes store with 3 episodes.  Then I stopped doing it for several months.  I want to get back to it now, but I'm confused about several things.

1. I can't remember which feed I submitted to the iTunes store.  I think I originally submitted my Feedburner feed or main site feed.  But then I discovered Blubrry, which recommends using the "http://mydomain/feed/podcast" feed.  I can't remember whether I changed to that feed address in iTunes.  Is there a way to find out?  Or should I just use the "Set new iTunes Feed URL" to make sure it's updated?

2. How does Blubrry handle/update the XML file.  I noticed in the iTunes tab that it's pulling the XML file from my MobileMe server.  I'd like to move the XML file to Rackspace Cloud, which is where I'll be hosting the media files.  But I don't see any XML management options in Blubrry PowerPress? 

3. If I want to give people who don't use iTunes the feed URL to subscribe, should I use "http://mydomain/feed/podcast"?  I'm confused because "http://mydomain.com/podcast" also seems to be a feed URL.  I found this out because I wanted to create a page on my blog for the podcast episodes, and I thought I'd use "http://mydomain/podcast" as the permalink.  Now I'm afraid to do that, because when I type that URL into the browser it opens a feed.

And just to make sure I understand how posting a podcast episode works with Blubrry:

- I create the media file and upload to my server
- I create a new blog post and put the media file into the PowerPress URL field
- I place the [powerpress] tag in the post where I want the media player to appear
- I hit publish

Is that it?

[switters]

Okay, more information that might be helpful. 

I originally used a Mac program called Feeder to create the feed for my show.  I created it at http://mydomain.com/podcast.  I guess that's why entering that URL brings up a feed!  My guess is that's the Feed URL I submitted to iTunes, but I don't know for sure.  It's possible I changed it to the Blubrry feed (http://mydomain.com/feed/podcast) later.

Adding to my questions above, if I change the iTunes feed URL to http://mydomain.com/feed/podcast, how do I "unplublish" the feed at the http://mydomain.com/feed URL?  I want to use that as the category page URL for the podcast. 

It's probably clear by now that I'm very confused about how all of this works.

[angelo]

If you can reply with your iTunes one-click subscription URL, we can take the ID off of it and manually ping iTunes, which then tells us what feed it is pulling. You can also do this in PowerPress settings > iTunes tab, if you are in advanced mode there is an option to ping iTunes, that is if you put the iTunes one-click subscription URL in the field provided.

[switters]

Thanks.  Clearly I don't understand how all of this works.

I pinged iTunes and it came back with: http://web.me.com/myusername/podcast.xml

So that's where my XML file is hosted.  But that doesn't tell me whether I submitted "http://mydomain.com/podcast" or "http://mydomain.com/feed/podcast" to the iTunes store.  Does it?  And of course the reason I need to know that is if it was the former, I will not see any tracking info in Blubrry.  If is the latter, I will.  Right?  Or am I missing something?

[angelo]

iTunes is telling you they are looking at the content in http://web.me.com/myusername/podcast.xml. So the other Feeds you referenced are not being picked up by iTunes.

If http://web.me.com/myusername/podcast.xml is your podcast, then good you're done. Otherwise, you need to redirect it to the new feed you wish to use using a HTTP 301 Moved Permanently redirect. You will need to contact me.com for help redirecting your old feed to your new address. the 301 redirect is very important, a temporary redirect will not force iTunes to update.

You don't just want to submit a new feed to iTunes, that will add your show a 2nd time, and it will not carry over your current iTunes subscribers.

[switters]

I've determined that it's not possible to do a 301 redirect with MobileMe.

That means I have two choices: 1) create a new feed and add the <new itunes feed> tag to the old one, or 2) keep my feed at MobileMe.

I understand that in the first case, only iTunes subscribers will be updated.  That's bad.  But in the second case, I'm stuck with a server I have no control over and I have to keep paying $100/year for, even though I'm not using any of the other MobileMe services any longer.  Plus, I'm not at all sure how MobileMe would handle a lot of traffic.  I have 10,000 subscribers to my blog and about 5,000 social media fans.  I'm expecting significant traffic for the podcast. 

Do I have any other options - or is that pretty much it?

[angelo]

Only thought I have is to do all new posts on the new site and URL, and use the iTunes new-feed-url option to update iTunes. iTunes makes up a good 50-80% of an audience, so that's a start. Then cross post onto your mobile me account for the next year, and every episode you link to on there or blog post, pre-fix the audio/video with a message telling the user to go to your new site and re-subscribe as this subscription will no longer be available in the near future.

[switters]

That's a good idea.  Thanks. 

I can also do a blog post explaining the situation.  My guess is that a good chunk of the non iTunes subscribers are subscribers to my blog.