I’m using Substack to host the audio podcast of my AISW interviews. The integrations with external podcast platform are good to have. I’m frustrated by 3 things:
1. inconsistencies in how images (sizes) and episode notes (with hyperlinks) are handled
2. painful/impractical to merge my own human-edited transcript in place of the auto-generated one
3. Substack now forcing a separate RSS file for each newsletter section, instead of one RSS for the whole newsletter. (I realize some might see separate RSS as a feature, but not having a choice is a bug to me.)
Hi Karen, The image size issue is frustrating. It's supposed to be a smart crop but it's not that smart. I haven't tried adding my own transcript in place of the autogenerated one. Regarding the RSS/sections issue, I only use sections as a way of customizing the design of my home page. At this juncture, everything I post is free and it goes out to my entire list. If I were to add multiple podcasts (assuming that is possible) to my publication, I would need separate RSS feeds for them. Not sure I've been too helpful. What I am confident about, as I mentioned in the article, is that Substack presents an opportunity for podcasters. and has advantages other platforms don't have. It's not the best at email, at podcast hosting, at bunch of other areas, but the combination of email and podcast is a winner for me.
All of my posts in all sections are free as well. You can definitely have multiple podcasts in your publication - one per section, if you wish. Audio posts in a section will go to *its* RSS. Until Substack fixes it so I can choose to again use one main podcast and RSS for all sections, I have to put all of my audio posts in the main newsletter, not their sections.
It’s worth noting that Substack’s integrations with the external podcasts can help extend one’s reach as a podcaster. Having to manually fix up images and episode notes for YouTube etc is a bit of a pain, but the automated distribution of Substack audio posts to a wider audience is still useful.
I’m using Substack to host the audio podcast of my AISW interviews. The integrations with external podcast platform are good to have. I’m frustrated by 3 things:
1. inconsistencies in how images (sizes) and episode notes (with hyperlinks) are handled
2. painful/impractical to merge my own human-edited transcript in place of the auto-generated one
3. Substack now forcing a separate RSS file for each newsletter section, instead of one RSS for the whole newsletter. (I realize some might see separate RSS as a feature, but not having a choice is a bug to me.)
I’d welcome any tips on any of these.
Hi Karen, The image size issue is frustrating. It's supposed to be a smart crop but it's not that smart. I haven't tried adding my own transcript in place of the autogenerated one. Regarding the RSS/sections issue, I only use sections as a way of customizing the design of my home page. At this juncture, everything I post is free and it goes out to my entire list. If I were to add multiple podcasts (assuming that is possible) to my publication, I would need separate RSS feeds for them. Not sure I've been too helpful. What I am confident about, as I mentioned in the article, is that Substack presents an opportunity for podcasters. and has advantages other platforms don't have. It's not the best at email, at podcast hosting, at bunch of other areas, but the combination of email and podcast is a winner for me.
All of my posts in all sections are free as well. You can definitely have multiple podcasts in your publication - one per section, if you wish. Audio posts in a section will go to *its* RSS. Until Substack fixes it so I can choose to again use one main podcast and RSS for all sections, I have to put all of my audio posts in the main newsletter, not their sections.
It’s worth noting that Substack’s integrations with the external podcasts can help extend one’s reach as a podcaster. Having to manually fix up images and episode notes for YouTube etc is a bit of a pain, but the automated distribution of Substack audio posts to a wider audience is still useful.