iTunes

iTunes

Making iTunes links

Note that everyone should be using the "mt" parameter as well, which helps the OS to launch the right store in the right app. Best bet? Use iTunes Link Maker (https:\/\/linkmaker.itunes.apple.com\/), and then append "&ls=1".

Common questions

How long will iTunes take to approve my podcast?

This is hugely variable — it can be 2 hours to 14 days, depending on whether you catch Apple/iTunes at a good time or not.

As a workaround, you can prepare a short “Welcome” episode and submit that. You can always delete it before your official launch.

Which day of the week should I release my podcast?

It doesn't matter. Just be consistent.

That being said: Tuesdays.

• For decades, Tuesday was the day that new music came out.

• Mondays and Fridays, people are often distracted either preparing for (respectively) their work-week or the weekend.

New & Noteworthy

New & Noteworthy (N&N) on the iTunes front page and Comedy page are 100% hand-curated by Apple. There’s no way to “game” the front page or Comedy N&N lists.

The N&N on all the other pages are algorithmically generated (when they work). But even in these other, automatically-created pages Apple can manually insert in a show in N&N if they like.

Per what's hot on these sub pages - it is more of a lottery based on how many new subscribers and rating and reviews Those all factored into it. The Top 200 lists are all about new subscribers in the last 7 days and have nothing to do with Rating and Reviews.

Myths

Reviews/Ratings/Downloads improve iTunes rankings

Many podcasting experts will tell you that reviews, ratings, and downloads can improve your iTunes rankings.

As a result, podcasters who don’t know any better spend hours trying to “game” iTunes by trading fake reviews and ratings with other podcasters.

That is a tragedy, because those “experts” are wrong.

Thanks primarily to Rob Walch of Libsyn, we know from

, so there's really no reason to waste time trying to game iTunes this way. My 2¢: Spend that time on marketing!

Subscriptions! Specifically, the ones that Apple can measure via the Podcasts and iTunes apps. iTunes' Top 200 lists are based on number of New Subscribers in the last week, with a weighted average for the last 24, 48 and 72 hours. Downloads, ratings and reviews have ZERO effect on your Top 200 ranking. Note that this is all by country, so a show in the Top 200 in one country may be nowhere to be seen in another. Downloads only count towards the Top Episodes list, and a little for the What's Hot list.

New & Noteworthy myths