Welcome to Libsyn! If you are looking to migrate to Libsyn from a 3rd party podcast host and are hoping to maintain or build a publishing workflow on a WordPress site, you have come to the right tutorial.
This tutorial assumes the following:
- You currently have a Wordpress site
- You currently have a podcast hosted somewhere other than Libsyn
- Your podcast is not hosted on your Wordpress site
Let's get started!
Preparing to Migrate
To get started, you will first need to create a Libsyn show. To do so, go to our signup page.
Enter your details (name, email, billing, etc) and select a show slug.
[box type="help" size="large" style="rounded" border="full"] The show slug is a unique identifier in the Libsyn system for your show. Our support staff can use your slug to locate your show. The slug is also used to generate the URLs for your show. It should be alphanumeric, 3 or more characters, and always start with a letter.[/box]
Next, select a subscription level and enter a promo code if you have one.
Read the terms of service, agree to the terms and hit signup at the bottom.
Next, install the Libsyn Publisher Hub. Step by step instructions for installing and configuring the plugin can be found here.
Importing Content
With your Libsyn account setup and your Libsyn Publisher Hub plugin installed, the next step is to import the content. This process will grab all the stuff (media, images, titles, descriptions, feed configurations, all that stuff) into your Libsyn show. Don't worry, we will verify the data has transferred properly before finalizing the migration.
From your Wordpress Dashboard, select Libsyn Publisher Hub --> Import Feed.
Enter the RSS feed you wish to import.
Notice the Episode Link column. The links found there are the permalinks for each post. Clicking on them will show you the post on the front end of your site.
When you are ready, scroll to the bottom and hit Import Local Feed.
The import will begin to run. The page will refresh several times, and will continue to refresh until the process is complete. This will take several minutes, the larger the feed and the more the media, the longer it will take to complete. Be patient, and allow time for the process to finish.
Notice the Feed Import Status. This will say Processing while the process is ongoing. If the import completes successfully, it will say Successful (as you can see below). If it does not, it will say Failed. In those few cases, reach out to our support team (support@libsyn.com) for assistance.
The Episode Link column will also change, showing the link as unavailable initially, then pending download, and then available. This is the act of the episode being generated in Libsyn, and the media file uploading into your Libsyn space and and attaching to the episode.
At this point, nothing has changed on your Wordpress site. All your content from your RSS feed has been imported into Libsyn, so let's go check our work.
Checking Our Work
The plugin will give you a list of all the episodes it pulled, and you can click on 'available' to test the media served from Libsyn. If you wish, you can also double check the show inside Libsyn to make sure all looks well. The places to check inside the Libsyn Dashboard include:
- Under Settings --> Show Settings
- Under Destinations --> Libsyn Classic Feed
- Under Content --> Previously Published
Spot check that you have a show title, description artwork, feed settings, and all your episodes have 'play' buttons rather than a 'T' next to the title of the episodes. These are all signs that your feed imported correctly (beyond the Successful message received by the plugin).
Changing Over the RSS Feed
The next step is to redirect your 3rd party RSS feed over to your Libsyn feed. This updates Apple Podcasts/Apple Podcasts, most other apps and your subscribers to pull from your Libsyn feed going forward.
Contact your 3rd party RSS feed host and have a 301 redirect added pointing your old RSS feed to your new Libsyn feed. Generally, your Libsyn feed will look like this:
https://.libsyn.com/rss
Next, a New Feed URL tag needs to be entered into your Libsyn RSS feed. To do so, follow these steps:
- Log into your Dashboard
- Select Destinations
- Select Libsyn Classic Feed
- Scroll towards the bottom and select Advanced Options
- Enter the Apple Podcasts redirect tag in the Extra RSS Tags text box:
<itunes:new-feed-url>https://myfeedurl.com/rss.xml</itunes:new-feed-url>
Replace “https://www.myfeedurl.com/rss.xml” with whatever the URL of the feed you will be using (Libsyn) is.
Important Note: If the feed URL you enter in your redirect is a secure URL (https://), MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE the new feed URL tag you enter is also a secure URL (https://).
These redirects, the 301 redirect and the new feed URL tag need to remain in place for a minimum of 4 weeks per Apple Podcasts/Apple Podcasts specifications (it doesn't hurt to leave them in longer). This ensures all your subscribers have a chance to update when their app of choice next refreshes your show in their listing.
Adding the Posts to Wordpress
The last piece to this process is add these episodes as WordPress posts with the Libsyn player. The Libsyn Publisher Hub makes this easy, with a one click button that will add the posts for you.
Go back under Libsyn Publisher Hub --> Import Feed. Scroll to the bottom of the page and find and hit the Add Libsyn Player to Wordpress Posts button.
A dialog box asking you to confirm this is what you want will appear.
Hit Add Libsyn Player. Give the system a moment to run this process. Depending on how many episodes you have, this process may take a moment or so to complete. The page will refresh and load properly once the process is done.
At this point, your episodes are in Libsyn, your feed will properly update in Apple Podcasts and for your subscribers, and your posts have been created in your Wordpress site with the HTML5 player attached to each post.
Final Notes
Regarding Storage in Libsyn
The import process run through the plugin will automatically adjust the storage used inside Libsyn, so the import will not affect your ability to publish new content going forward.
Getting Additional Help
Have questions? Contact our support staff at support@libsyn.com.