FAQ: Podcastics features

What does Podcastics have that my current host doesn't?

The best way to find out is to try Podcastics free of charge and without obligation for one month. We won't even ask you to use your credit card 💳, nor will we harass you if after a month you decide to go elsewhere (spoiler alert: probably won't happen).

What we can tell you right now is that you'll gradually discover that there are many features available to you, including :

• episode scheduling,
• episode notes with video and image insertion,
• file sharing,
• comments,
• reviews,
• ratings,
• private messaging,
• customization of your audio players and website,
• your magic links,
• QR codes,
• unlimited user permissions for teamwork,
• episode series for thematic grouping,
• automated descriptions to save time,
• automatic intros and outros to avoid editing steps,
• or easily manageable advertising campaigns...

In short, a complete toolbox 👨‍🔧 to better manage your podcast, and make it even more attractive.

What's more, you'll be able to consult your statistics, which provide you with a wealth of information, including the “heat map”, which will gradually fill up to give you the “life” of your podcast over the week. This heat map, like all our other features, is included in the Pro package at €8/month. There's no hidden cost, no extra charge, just the best on the market!

When you publish new episodes, you'll also find a tool for comparing their launch performance: a graph that compares the first week's listening figures after publication. It's a handy way of finding out which episodes got off to the best start. As you get to grips with Podcastics, you'll also discover time-saving tricks of the trade, such as episode duplication, which lets you publish an episode with all the information from a previous episode in just one click (without having to re-enter everything), or displaying your Twitter feed on your Podcastics website.

We're not going to give you an exhaustive list (it would take too long), but there are dozens of features just waiting for you! Of course, we're here to help you get started, and we'll be here every step of the way if you put your trust in us. If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask! You can contact us at any time from your support interface.

Is the website provided by Podcastics a simple web page or a full-fledged site with a whole host of features?

We can tell from your mischievous look that you already have an idea of the answer we're going to give you 😉. Nevertheless, thank you for allowing us to dispel a few preconceived ideas (which have their origins in the very basic sites supplied by competing hosting providers): no, the website supplied by Podcastics is not a simple web page but a real website.

Podcastics designed this website to be easy to access. Your episodes appear automatically as soon as they're published. Your Twitter feed is constantly updated as soon as you take the trouble to enter it. Links to your RSS feed, Facebook page, e-mail address or Spotify account are also prominently displayed. In a word, every important piece of information is recorded, making it a real crossroads for your listeners.

And when it comes to personalization, you've got it all under control: the colors, the display of the cover art, whether or not users can comment on your episodes and rate them, the creation of a top episodes list to highlight your most popular shows, whether or not the number of listens is displayed... This is your home, so don't expect us to impose a certain wallpaper or forbid you to knock down a partition 👷‍♂️! What's more, if you're a bit handy behind the keyboard, you can even fill in your personalized CSS and shape everything to your image.

Once your cocoon has been adapted to your taste and personality, it's time to exploit its everyday assets. This website takes the ingredients of the blog and gives you the opportunity to write real editorial articles. Sometimes it's a teaser for a new episode, sometimes it's an important announcement in the life of your podcast, and sometimes it's a series of snapshots 📸 revealing behind-the-scenes footage of your latest recording session.

This space is yours, and to help you make it your own, its text editor is packed with features such as automatic insertion of videos 🎥 YouTube or Vimeo, images 🌅, and social posts Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Speaking of which, inserting multimedia content is child's play: simply copy and paste the address of a YouTube page, an image, a Twitter post... and as if by magic 🪄, Podcastics automatically inserts your content with appropriate formatting.

The icing on the cake? Your Podcastics website lets you share files of your choice like PDFs, Word, Excel... files.

Want more? Take a look at our catalog of emojis! And the social functions? Not only can your listeners rate and comment on your episodes, they can also react to your articles. If you want to convince them to take the plunge, you can even add polls to your publications. And if they decide to subscribe to your podcast or one of its episodes, they'll receive notifications to make sure they don't miss out on any news or debates you've initiated.

Convinced?

Tell me more about Podcastics' social features.

How can you get closer to your listeners? It's a question you may be asking yourself, but one we've been asking ourselves right from the design phase of Podcastics. Just like our statistics module, our social features were a priority from the outset.

On Podcastics, your listeners have many ways of interacting with you. We're thinking in particular of rating or writing a review, but also of polls that you can use to animate your website. Your listeners can also react to your episodes via comments. And when they do, they have the same tools at their disposal as you: automatic integration of content (videos, tweets etc.), ability to add files, mentions of other members... Take our word for it: there's no equivalent for engaging in dialogue with your audience.

And of course, once you've done that, there's nothing to stop you continuing the discussion in private. In that case, simply use your messaging system 📧. And still with the same possibilities built into the text editor.

Do you think it's a lot? Afraid of getting lost 😨? Have no fear: Podcastics also provides you with a customizable notification system so you don't miss a thing of what's going on around your podcast, but without keeping your nose in front of your screen all the time. New episodes, reviews, ratings, comments, statistics, mentions... Choose the information you want to receive, and it's delivered to you in real time. Naturally, this system works both ways. Your listeners can also choose to subscribe to your podcast or one of its episodes, and in turn receive notifications to make sure they don't miss out on any news or debates you've initiated.

I see that there are five different audio players on Podcastics. Can you recommend one in particular?

Podcastics does indeed provide you with five different types of audio players on a white label basis, i.e. without the Podcastics name even appearing on them. After all, it's your podcast! You'll find an overview of these different players in the following article.

How do Podcastics magic links work?

Your podcast's 🧙‍♀️ magic links work as follows:

• If the listener is on an Apple environment (iPhone, iPad, Mac), then he is redirected to Apple Podcasts.
• If the listener is on Android, he is redirected to Google Podcasts.
• Otherwise, if the listener is on Windows, for example, he'll be redirected to your website. If you have defined a website address in your podcast settings, then this is the address used. Otherwise, your Podcastics website is used by default. This is why, if you define a website address in your podcast settings, you must specify an address specific to your podcast, and not a generic website.

Finally, note that in addition to your magic link, you can use your Podcastics QR Code, which also provides easy access to your podcast. It uses the same technique as your magic link, redirecting your visitors to the right destination according to the device they're using. And best of all, we personalize it based on your cover art. It's sexy!

Do the magic links only work with the podcast home page, or also with the episode pages?

New for 2024, Podcastics now retrieves links from every podcast episode. What does this mean? Quite simply, the magic links can now point to the episode page instead of the podcast homepage.

How does it work? In your interface, you first have a “Platforms” tab on the episode page. This confirms that your episode links are now available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In the “Share” tab, you can choose to share the podcast as a whole or a specific episode (via the magic link or the associated QR Code).

Let's put ourselves in the listener's shoes for a moment. On an episode's Podcastics website, if the visitor is on Apple, then he's invited to click on a big “Listen on Apple Podcasts” button. The same goes for Spotify, of course, if the visitor in question is on Android.

No smartlink on Podcastics?

Well, no, and that's by choice! In fact, we offer something even better. To understand, let's take a look at some history 🧑‍🏫

Originally, the smartlink was invented as an easy way to keep track of all the different links you could have, especially those on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. By allowing you to use just one link, it was very practical for communicating with friends and fans. As a result, podcast hosts have seized on this tool to list the various listening platforms on which a podcast is present. Sounds great, but in our opinion it's a bad idea for several reasons:

• This smartlink generally doesn't allow you to listen directly to an episode. You often have to make an extra click (or several...) to get to the podcast's web page or a listening platform. And yet, one-click listening is very important at a time when almost 20% of all listening is done on the web.
• This smartlink often presents no information about the episode: there's just a list of links, with no description of the episode. Podcasters don't realize this, because they know their episodes by heart, but for a listener, the smartlink represents a rather abrupt and unfriendly page. It doesn't allow you to get an idea of the episode's content before starting to play.
• The smartlink doesn't usually offer any additional action, such as contacting the podcaster or subscribing to the podcast.

For all these reasons, Podcastics has chosen not to create a smartlink, but instead to solve all these problems: on Podcastics, the web page of an episode is optimized so that it is its own smartlink. In fact, in its mobile version, it addresses all the issues mentioned above.

First of all, this web page meets the primary requirements of a smartlink, i.e. the listening platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) are displayed as icons, in a prominent position. Users can then choose to listen to the episode directly on the application of their choice. Then, they can listen directly to the episode, thanks to a highly visible play button. There's no need to switch pages, as playback starts immediately: problem no. 1 is solved.

This web page also presents all the information about the episode: its subtitle, description, publication date, podcast team and even comments left by listeners. All the information about the episode is right there in front of you: problem no. 2 solved.

Finally, this web page also offers the option of sending a message directly to the podcaster, and subscribing to the podcast: problem 3 solved.

The Podcastics episode web page is therefore a kind of “super smartlink”, which is more pleasant, more complete and less confusing for the listener. But to go even further, Podcastics also offers the magic link 🧙‍♂️: this is a special link that redirects the listener according to the device he or she is using:

• If he's on Apple, he'll be redirected to Apple Podcasts.
• If he's on Android, he'll be redirected to Google Podcasts.
• Otherwise, if he doesn't check either of these two boxes, he'll be redirected to the podcast website (the Podcastics site, or the podcaster's personal site).

The podcaster is of course free to use his magic link, or exclusively his Podcastics website. In both cases, we believe the listener experience is more user-friendly and complete than with a simple smart link.

How do I go about broadcasting my podcast live?

To broadcast your podcast live, you first need a web server that will allow you to stream your audio. We recommend a ShoutCast or IceCast server.

Podcastics offers don't include the provision of such a server, so you'll need your own, which you can rent from conventional web hosts (prices are modest, usually a few euros per month). There are several web hosts on the market offering such servers; we recommend the Swiss host Infomaniak, which offers attractive rates. For example, for 150 simultaneous listeners, and an excellent audio quality of 128 kbits / s, you'll get an annual rate of €110, or €9.17 / month.

Once you have your server, you'll also need streaming software from your computer, which will send your audio stream to the server. This software will take the sound output from your computer, encode it in real time and send it live to your streaming server. This can be done with specialized software, such as the excellent Audio Hijack on the Mac. On the PC, there are various alternatives.

How can I create video excerpts of my podcast episodes?

Podcastics doesn't (yet) offer video excerpt creation. We recommend Headliner, the most advanced platform for automatically generating a video from an audio file. You can easily personalize this video (modify colors, texts...), then share it on social networks. This platform offers five free videos per month, and beyond that a $7.99/month subscription. This is a very interesting tool, as it allows you to add subtitles to your videos, and also to create videos with specific sizes depending on the social network. This is the reference tool in the podcast world, and it's far more complete than what podcast hosts can currently offer you.

Is it possible to chapter my podcast episodes?

Podcastics has many features and updates in the pipeline, and chaptering is one of them. We don't have an immediate release date, but we're working hard to improve Podcastics based on feedback from our users.

I'd like to manage a podcast on behalf of a client. What features do you offer in this area?

Podcastics offers a wide range of options for managing podcasts and user accounts. In particular, there are two important functions:

• Firstly, when you own a podcast, Podcastics lets you declare another Podcastics member as the author of the podcast. This displays that member's name (not yours) as the author of the podcast on the Podcastics website, as well as on listening platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts...). This function is very useful when you want to manage a podcast in its entirety, but don't want your name to appear. To use this feature, all the third party needs is a Podcastics account. Registration is simple and 100% free.
• Then, for your podcast, you can assign permissions to other Podcastics members. There are three different permissions: Administrator, Manager and Analyst. In short, an administrator has full rights to a podcast; a manager can create and edit episodes; an analyst can only view podcast statistics. This feature allows you to give access to your podcast to a person of your choice. Once again, to use this feature, this person must have a Podcastics account (it's free!).

So how do you combine these functions in practice? For example, if you want to create and manage a podcast for a customer, how do you go about it? The answer depends on who takes out the Podcastics subscription and pays for it over the months:

• If you're going to pay for the Podcastics subscription yourself, then you'll need to be the one to subscribe to Podcastics. Then you'll create the podcast, and ask your customer to create a Podcastics account. You then declare this customer account as the author of the podcast (see feature #1 above). Finally, if you want your customer to have rights to the podcast, then you can give them permissions (see feature no. 2 above). Quite often, the customer is assigned the role of Analyst, so that he can consult his statistics - but this is of course optional.
• On the other hand, if your customer is going to pay for the Podcastics subscription directly, then the easiest thing to do is for him to create a Podcastics account and subscribe to the package of his choice. He'll then create his podcast, and assign you the role of administrator; this way, you'll have full rights to the podcast, and you'll be able to fully manage the podcast for your customer, including publishing episodes.

These options give you great flexibility 🤸‍♀️ and allow you to manage your podcasts as you see fit. What's more, in either case, we can change the billing frequency of the subscription. For example, we can change the renewal period to annual or semi-annual, which is often more convenient when invoicing a customer.

Finally, whatever option you choose (creating the podcast under your own account, or directly under the customer's account), don't worry: at any time, you can contact us to transfer the subscription from one Podcastics account to another.

How can I give my colleagues access to Podcastics tools and data?

Podcastics offers various collaborative functions for your podcast. For example, you can grant a third party rights to your podcast, based on three possible roles:

• An Administrator has the same rights as you, so can edit your podcast, create and edit episodes, manage the website, audio players... On the other hand, he can't manage your subscription, nor delete the podcast.
• A Manager can : - modify podcast info (without being able to manage permissions), - add, modify and delete episodes, - access statistics, - access RSS feeds (but without being able to manage links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.), - access audio players (but not their customization options), - access the website (but without being able to customize it), - add, modify and delete website posts. However, they cannot manage your monetization options.
• An Analyst only has access to your podcast statistics. Podcastics doesn't limit the number of people who can collaborate with you.

So you can declare as many Administrators, Managers and Analysts as you like for your podcast. To assign a role to a third party, the process is very simple:

• Ask this person to create an account on Podcastics. Registration on Podcastics is 100% free, requires no subscription and takes just a few seconds.
• Once they've created their account, they'll need to give you the username they've chosen.
• Simply add this username to your podcast permissions. Click on the button of your choice (Administrator, Manager or Analyst), then enter the first few letters of the person's username. A drop-down menu will appear, and all you have to do is click on the correct username. Don't forget to save your changes. In his Podcastics interface, this person will then see your podcast (by clicking on his name in the top right-hand corner of the screen). Depending on their authorization level, they will have access to certain sections of your podcast.

How do I change the podcast author's name so that my client's name appears on listening platforms?

To change the author name of your podcast, all your customer has to do is create a Podcastics account - it's 100% free, and only takes a few seconds. He can do so from the following registration page. Once they've done so, they'll need to give you the username they've chosen. For your part, you can go to your podcast settings and enter your customer's username in the “Choose a customer account” field. All that's left is to record your podcast

Your customer's name will appear immediately on your Podcastics site, and will then be automatically synchronized with the listening platforms (Apple, Spotify, etc.), which will take a few hours to update.

How do I add Chartable to my podcast?

Good news: it's easy. Simply go to your Podcastics statistics interface. In the top left-hand corner, click on the “Settings” button, then paste in your Chartable address. The Chartable prefix will then be automatically inserted into your RSS feed.

I'd like to use my own domain name for my Podcastics site.

It's not (yet) possible to use your own domain name on Podcastics. For the time being, your website is only accessible on the podcastics.com domain. However, this feature is well planned and should be available at a later date.

In the meantime, you can redirect your domain name to your Podcastics site. Visitors to your site will then be automatically redirected to your Podcastics address. And when this feature becomes available, you'll be able to use your own domain name instead of Podcastics'.

I've noticed that my Podcastics website has a whole bunch of enthusiastic reviews, but I can't find any on Apple Podcasts. Where do all these glowing reviews come from? Do you make them?

If your listeners can directly leave glowing reviews and comments 😍 on your podcast's website, Podcastics also automatically imports all reviews left on Apple Podcasts. So you can keep track of everything at a glance.

But that's not all! When you consult these reviews directly on Apple Podcasts, the platform only shows you the reviews left in the country where you're located. Well, Podcastics has pulled off a trick that's once again designed to make your life easier: we automatically import all reviews submitted by listeners located in other countries (France, USA, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and many more).

That's why there are so many more reviews on your Podcastics site, but we can confirm that they're perfectly real. We don't (yet) have an army of gnomes in charge of writing thousands of phantom reviews from our offices 👻

With Podcastics, how can I share the latest episode of my podcast on social networks?

To share an episode on social networks, please note that each platform has its own behavior:

• On Facebook, when you share a Podcastics link (whether it's your magic link, the link to your podcast or an episode), the jacket of your show is displayed along with its description.
• On Twitter, if you share your podcast link (from your Podcastics website), a player with Playlist will automatically appear. If you share the link to a particular episode (again from your Podcastics website), then an audio player specific to that episode will be displayed.
• For Instagram, the case is a little special: as this platform doesn't accept links, you have to manually share an image, such as your show's cover art.
• As for LinkedIn, it's usually the cover of your podcast that's shared (if you've shared the link to the home page of your Podcastics website, or the magic link to your podcast), or that of an episode (if you've shared the link to the episode page of your Podcastics website, or the magic link to a specific episode).