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So you submitted your RSS feed to the iTunes podcast directory but your latest episodes/album art are not updating. What is the solution - Ping iTunes!

There is often some lag time between when you post your content to your PodcastPeople.com show and when it actually appears in iTunes. To fix this problem you can manually "ping" iTunes and let them know your show has been updated.

First go to the iTunes Music Store and find your podcast.



Right-click your podcast's title or album art and copy the "iTunes Music Store URL".



You should have copied a string of text like:http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=220385199

The long number in last part of the URL is your unique podcast ID. In this case the number is 220385199, yours will be different.

Now that you have your ID, open up a web browser and type in:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=xxxxxxxxx

Change the "xxxxxxxxx" to your podcast's ID and hit enter.

You should get a message saying the ping was received.



In most cases, the music store will update and add your podcast within a few minutes but it could take longer. Just be mindful not to ping iTunes too frequently, as it may cause some problems.

The orange icon above is the universal symbol for a RSS Feed, you may have seen it on other websites. This icon lets you know that there is content, whether its text, audio, or video, to which you can “subscribe” to using a feed reader (which I’ll explain a little later).

A RSS feed, also known as “Really Simple Syndication”, is simply a file hosted on a server that communicates any updates you make to your website/podcast to your audience’s computer. Users can “subscribe” to a RSS feed using a program known as a feed reader. The feed reader will automatically check the RSS feed for updates and automatically download any new content. -That way your audience can stay up to date without the hassle of checking your website constantly.

You may be wondering where you can get a feed reader so I have included some examples that you can download:

• iTunes


• Juice


• Doppler


• FireANT

How to Subscribe:

Subscribing to a podcast is easy with our “1 click ” subscription buttons. From any page on your website, click “Subscribe” at the top of the page.



A drop-down box with open with four options, (Odeo, iTunes, XML, Zune)



I will be using iTunes in this example as it is the most popular podcast receiver. Simply click the iTunes button and your browser will automatically launch the application. (Note you must download and install iTunes)



You are now subscribed to the feed. iTunes will download the latest episode and check for new content everyday (you can increase the frequency that iTunes checks for updates from within the settings).

Thats all there is to it!