Somehow I overlooked this detail when I read over the iTunes specifications all those times. It seems you can ping iTunes to update your podcast everytime you post a new episode to your blog. I never knew this before, and quite honestly, I don’t think I have even heard anyone talk about this before, but I am glad to see it. Now, all I need to know is if anyone is using this method, what the success rate is, and how quickly it actually works (if it works at all). Anyway, here is what you are supposed to do:
In your blogging/podcasting client (I use WordPress) you can usually find an option someplace to “ping” another service to let them know you have updated your site. If your software/client/script lets you do this, all you have to do to tell iTunes to update is to add one of the following URLs to your pinging options. Of course you will need to update the url to include the XML link to your podcast or the feed id from iTunes, but they say this is all you should have to do:
Method One:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?feedURL=http://FEED-URLMethod Two:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast?id=ITUNES-FEED-ID