Help · Getting started

Getting started: from a new account to your first episode

Last updated 14 October 2026

Podmaniac takes a podcast from an empty account to Apple Podcasts in an afternoon. This is the order of things.

1. Create your account

Go to host.podmaniac.com/signup (or click Create an account on the sign in page). Enter your name and surname, your email address and a password of at least 10 characters (a short sentence works well), typed twice. Click the link in the confirmation email.

You stay signed in while you work. After two hours without activity you are signed out, and sign in again to carry on.

2. Choose a plan

The first screen after confirming is the plan step. Basic and Smart start with a 14 day free trial: a card is taken, nothing is charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel before then. Pro and Studio start paid. See Plans and allowances for what each one includes.

3. Create your podcast

The New show screen opens by itself once your plan is active. Give the show a title, a short description, your name as the author, and choose its feed address, the short name at the end of feeds.podmaniac.com/…xml. Choose it with care: it is permanent, because podcast apps subscribe to it. If you already have a podcast somewhere else, read Moving your podcast to Podmaniac instead.

4. Set up the show

Open Show settings. Upload the cover art (square, 1400 to 3000 pixels, as Apple requires), pick the Apple category and language, and switch on Publish a public page for this show if you want the free website and player. Click Save in the bar at the top.

5. Publish your first episode

1. Click New episode and give it a title.
2. Write the show notes, and add episode artwork if it differs from the show cover.
3. Under Audio / Video, upload the file: MP3 is best for audio; M4A and AAC also work. Video episodes (MP4, M4V, MOV) are part of Pro and Studio.
4. Add chapter markers if you like: play the episode, stop at a point, name it, add it.
5. Click Publish now, or Schedule to pick a date and time in your own time zone.

The feed updates the moment you publish. Until you publish, the episode is a draft that only you can see. Published by mistake? Open the episode and click Unpublish: it leaves the feed, the apps and your public page and becomes a draft again. While the schedule box is open, Publish now is greyed out so the two cannot be mixed up.

6. Get into the podcast apps

Click Distribution. It lists each app with the exact steps and the feed address to paste. Apple Podcasts is the one to do first, since most other apps read from Apple's directory. Details in Submitting your podcast to Apple Podcasts and other apps.

7. Watch it grow

Stats shows downloads per day, per episode, by country and by app, counted the way the industry does (How we count downloads).