Certain episode details are required in order to submit your episodes to directories. You can enter these details in the Episode Builder or on the Publish page.
Click on the arrows to get more information on each field:
Episode Title, Number & Season
Episode title is what your listeners will see when viewing your podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
If you podcast in seasons, make sure to fill out the season field along with the episode number.
Some directories, like Spotify, do not show the episode number or season on their platform. Therefore you can put your episode number inside the title, for example: ‘E234: The Art of Podcasting.’
Not sure if you should podcast in seasons or not? You can read more on whether podcasting in seasons is for you.
Episode Description (Show Notes)
Each episode you create should have a description, this is commonly referred to as episode show notes by other podcasters.
Podcast platforms will generally show the first 2-3 sentences of your description in the episode list so it's a good idea to summarise your episode at the start of your description.
You can add extra formatting to your description (links to other websites and (un)ordered lists) and this will show up on popular directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Any other formatting will be shown as normal text.
If you host with Alitu and have created your free podcast website, this extra formatting will show up on your website as well.
Other things you can include in your description are:
links to your social media sites
links to articles (if you'd like your listeners to do some further reading).
links to your merchandise or any books you've authored.
Episode Artwork
You can choose artwork for each episode if you host on Alitu (We're working on making episode-specific artwork available for all users.)
You can upload your own or use Adobe to design or edit your artwork
By default the episode artwork will be your show artwork
What is the optional summary for?
You can attach a short summary to your episodes, these are the 2-3 sentences summarising the contents of your episode.
This step is optional and currently, whatever you put in there, will only appear on Apple Podcasts in their episode list.
We recommend that you put the summary of your episode at the top of your episode description. This means that the summary of your podcast will be the first thing in your description and, as a result, will be displayed consistently, as a summary, on all directories like Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Adding links to your description
You can add links to your episode description by clicking the 🔗 button, like so:
Selecting an episode type
Alitu will ask you about the type of your episode. Most of the time, you will be fine with a default option, 'Full Episode.' This is what you would select for your standard podcast episode.
Bonus Episode: Any episode that is made up of extra content (things like behind-the-scenes information or interviews with the cast) can marked as a bonus episode
Trailer Episode: Are a great way to introduce your potential listener to your show or a new season. So if think of creating an episode like this, make sure to mark it as a Trailer episode.
Some distributors will mark your episode as "Bonus", "Trailer" if you select this in Alitu.
Host Name
You will want to enter the name under which you podcast, here. So if you podcast under your own name, enter something like: "Marlyn Willow." If use a made up name, enter something like: "Marlyn Studios." This will show up on podcast directories, under the name of your show, like so:
AI-Generated Title & Show notes
For those who use Alitu as their host, you will have access to AI-generated title and show notes.
This is accessible after you have pressed "publish" on your episode.
Alitu can create title and show note suggestions based on your audio.
Here's how it works:
Don't worry, you don't have to take any of the suggestions and you can easily revert to your own or edit the suggestions to your liking.
Make sure to save your changes when you’re done.
If you have any feedback on this article or further questions, please use the chat box bubble in the bottom right corner of your screen to reach out to us. Thank you!
👋 NOTE: You can edit your episode details at any point with Alitu, even after your episode is created or published. So if you’re not sure of all the details yet, feel free to leave this step till the end.