Setting up Podtrac on Squarespace Podcasting
THE STEPS BELOW HAVE BEEN UPDATED PLEASE GO TO THIS NEW BLOG POST FOR THE NEWEST GUIDE https://www.lshompole.com/blog/2018/podtrachelpupdate
So I've been using Podtrac to measure the activity and downloads on my podcast "What You Need" for a a bout a year now. Looks like there's a ton of podcasters wondering how exactly do you add on the prefix onto your audio block so that activity can be tracked.
Well here is a quick guide with pictures to help you out. Please let me know if something does not work and I can try to help you through it.
1. The prefixes for podtrac measurement are
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
or
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
2. Upload your mp3 to an audio block in the blog post on SquareSpace as normal.
3. Click edit on the audio block then go to the "Design" tab of the audio block and make sure that "Show Download Link" is checked.
4. Once the file has uploaded, Click Apply and save the audio block, and then save the blog post as a draft (do not publish it yet). Now click on the post that you just updated on the left side list to view the draft post.
5. As you are looking at the draft post, right click on the "Download" link on the audio player. Select "Copy link address" from the pop-up menu.
6. Paste that link into Notepad and add Podtrac's redirect. Your link should look like the one below. Remove any extra parts after the ".mp3/"
Copy the new link.
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/static1.squarespace.com/static/57f149993f56fd6ffa27d4bd/t/f56d7207be585a8d74ea8165/1519219946983/example.mp3/original/example.mp3
7. Go back into editing the post. Open the audio box for editing. In the "Embed" tab of the audio block there are two tabs right below the field for Author/Artist. One tab is "Upload File" the other is "External File". Click the "External File" tab. Paste the new download URL (with the Podtrac redirect) into the field "Audio File URL". Save the audio block.
8. After saving the audio block, you can test that the redirect works by pressing play or by clicking the download link and seeing whether or not the link downloads the audio file.
9. After you publish the podcast episode, you can go to podtrac and rescan your feed to update the number of episodes and your newest episode should show up.
If you have any issues feel free to comment below and I can try to assist you. You may also navigate to the "about" page and you can email me on the form at the bottom of the page. Good Luck and post where your podcast is available for me to follow along on your journey!
