Got a Show on the PodShow Network? Read this

[PodShowJoe]

Did we get your attention with that subject line? Great - cuz we have some very, very important information to share with you as it relates to your show.

As I am sure that you are aware by now, we have a talented team of engineers, development staff, along with a few really swell people in Talent Relations here at PodShow. The entire team has been working extra hard to bring you some significant changes to the PodShow site that will affect the way your shows are listed both on our site and beyond. These changes, while on the surface seem fairly minor, should be a significant improvement in making your show sites more visible than ever across the entire net. Whether your future audience is looking for great media content on the web, in an aggregator like iTunes, or directly at PodShow, these changes are designed to ensure that they are guided directly to your shows. These changes are detailed and explained below:

1 - We have updated our show categories
2 - We have increased the number of characters that are passed into your feed.

Show Categories
We have just made an important change to the way that you - as a producer - can select a category for your show. We have significantly expanded our category listings, and hopefully clarified a few things in the process. This includes a greater level of support for iTunes categories. This change also helps us get ready for additional exciting changes that will be coming in the very near future.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Please take a few minutes to log into your account and review your show's categories and make sure that your media is represented appropriately. For all those that are looking for extra credit, you should take this time to also review your show summary, subtitle, description, and of course, your legend. Make sure that each and every one of these fields are completely filled out. Don't forget to upload your promo (or replace that old one) while you are at it! One of the questions that we get virtually every day is 'How can I gain exposure and grow my audience?' One of the easiest ways is to make sure that all these fields are filled out completely and accurately. It helps our search engine find your show, and it helps listeners find you as well.

In case you can't remember where to adjust your show's info, never fear, we have you covered:

Master Control -> Show Control -> Show Info -> Edit Show Info -> Description Information


If you really want to know all the excruciating details, continue reading. Else, stop here and have a great weekend.

Here's a complete rundown of the changes:
Categories
- We now allow for a maximum of ten categories
- The first three categories selected are coded in your feed and mapped to the RSS element <itunes:categories>
(For those that I just lost on the statement above - the first three categories are important as those are the only three categories under which your show will be found in iTunes.)
- Ranking: The first category now holds more weight than the last. Therefore it is extremely important that you first select the category that best matches your show. The second category is the second most important and so on.
- Category Re-mapping: As we have aligned our categories to match the iTunes categories, we will no longer be supporting a few categories. We have mapped the older categories into the new ones per the attached document.

Increased characters in feeds
The PodShow system was limiting the amount of data information as it was passed into feeds, and we have reviewed this practice and increased the limit. While we did this for numerous reasons, some of the thresholds were significantly lower than they needed to be, and as a result, we have increased those limits as shown:

The following fields were increased in capacity and now supports up to 255 characters including whitespace
Show Name
Show Subtitle
Show Copyright

Episode Title
Episode Subtitle

The following were increased to 4000 characters, including whitespace:
Show Summary
Episode Summary

Show Keywords are now comma separated.


Old PodShow Categories -> New PodShow Category

Arts & Entertainment Architecture -> Arts Design
Arts & Entertainment Books -> Arts Literature
Arts & Entertainment Design -> Arts Design
Arts & Entertainment Entertainment -> TV & Film
Arts & Entertainment Games -> Games & Hobbies Other Games
Arts & Entertainment Performing Arts -> Arts Performing Arts
Arts & Entertainment Photography -> Arts Visual Arts
Arts & Entertainment Poetry -> Arts Performing Arts
Arts & Entertainment Science Fiction -> Arts Literature
Audio Blogs -> Arts Performing Arts
Business Careers -> Business Careers
Business Finance -> Business Investing
Business Investing -> Business Investing
Business Management -> Business Management & Marketing
Business Marketing -> Business Shopping
Comedy -> Comedy
Education K-12 -> Education K-12
Education Higher Education -> Education Higher Education
Food -> Arts Food
Health Diet & Nutrition -> Arts Food
Health Fitness -> Health Fitness & Nutrition
Health Relationships -> Health Self-Help
Health Self-Help -> Health Self-Help
Health Sexuality -> Health Sexuality
Movies & Television News -> News & Politics
Movies & Television Politics -> News & Politics
Movies & Television Public Radio -> News & Politics
Music -> Music
Religion & Spirituality Buddhism -> Religion & Spirituality Buddhism
Religion & Spirituality Christianity -> Religion & Spirituality Christianity
Religion & Spirituality Islam -> Religion & Spirituality Hinduism
Religion & Spirituality Judaism -> Religion & Spirituality Islam
Religion & Spirituality New Age -> Religion & Spirituality Judaism
Religion & Spirituality Philosophy -> Religion & Spirituality Other
Religion & Spirituality Spirituality -> Religion & Spirituality Spirituality
Science -> Science & Medicine Natural Sciences
Sports -> Sports & Recreation Professional
Talk Radio -> TV & Film
Technology Computers -> Technology Gadgets
Technology Developers -> Technology Tech News
Technology Gadgets -> Technology Gadgets
Technology Information Technology -> Technology Software How-To
Technology News -> Technology Tech News
Technology Operating Systems -> Technology Software How-To
Technology Podcasting -> Technology Podcasting
Technology Smart Phones -> Technology Gadgets
Technology Text/Speech -> Technology Software How-To
Travel -> Society & Culture Places & Travel

Questions? Comments? Reply to this thread please.
Have a great weekend.

[okvalle]

Thanks for all information, but there are one thing that puzzles me :confused:, and that's the Shows Legend.
Even if I fill out the Show description, it does not show up in the Legend of the show. It just say: There is no legend about this show. Can you tell me where to edit that? I have tried to find it, and I'm now giving up.

[Elisabetta]

my podcast stats are very weird. Itll say on the front apge that I have 300 downloads for exsample, but when I lookwhere everye pisode is listed, itll say 370 for the same episode. That makes no since. Also, I think these stats seem to lag. ne time I went from 400 downloads for one episode, to 500 and an apology from podshow for a bug. My second question is, do the podshow stats include itunes downlods, or if someone was listening on the "Pickle player" or some other type of podcast player?

[ScreamoonW]

dude how many termys did he have even though thay have a 2 armour save there could not ahve been that many thay cost 40pts a peice and what units did you use??

[verainput]

Ill be checking in to see what other Hall members may have for sale. I know Id rather support you guys than just buying stuff from the first vendor that pops up in a Google search.