How to add show notes separate from blog post

PowerPress has to use the blog-publishing functionality of WordPress in order to generate your podcast RSS feed. So, the best option for you would be to create two Posts: one that contains the podcast, and another that contains the detailed show notes. Then, link between them as needed.

Hmm. There isn’t a way to use the summary field or something else?

No. The iTunes Summary tag only displays in the iTunes desktop app. Every other podcasting app (including the iOS Apple Podcasts app) uses what’s in your main blog post.

Hello @tomnikkola,

I am following up on the thread to see if we may want to develop a new feature for separate show notes vs page content.

Can you give me your use case about the iTunes app? Are you referring to the Desktop iTunes app or the iOS podcast app for iPhones and iPods?

So you are aware, the iTunes summary appears in the Desktop iTunes app, where-as the content:encoded (your blog post content) appears in the iOS podcast app. If your only concern is the desktop app, then enabling this field and customizing the iTunes summary will solve your problem perfectly. We used to have a setting to optimize an iTunes summary from your blog post content, that may also meet your needs, this option is in the PowerPress settings > Apple tab.

Thanks,
Angelo

Thanks Angelo.

Since most people use their mobile for listening to podcasts, I’d like my show notes to be a different from my lengthy blog posts, so I can include a summary that would be more appropriate based on the space available, and include links that I’d reference while doing the audio article version of my blog posts.

If that doesn’t make sense, please ask for clarification. I appreciate the assistance and of course, the plugin!

Hello @tomnikkola,

That makes sense on the thinking. You should be aware however that the more show notes you have the better even for mobile. Unless you write 20+ page stories in your blog posts, you have nothing to worry about as far as show note length. The reason this is a good thing is for podcast SEO; Google now indexes podcast feeds for Google search and podcasts are starting to appear at the top of search results similar to how YouTube videos appear at the top. As for Apple, the content:encoded looks beautiful within the Podcasts iOS app by Apple.

To achieve what you want (I strongly do not recommend doing this):

* WordPress Settings > Reading page, make sure the option “For each article in a feed, show” is switched to “Summary”. This removes the content:encoded from your RSS feeds. Your blog post content will no longer go directly into the feeds.
* PowerPress Settings > Episodes tab, check the box ” iTunes Summary Field” then click ‘save’.

Now when you edit your blog posts, you can customize your iTunes summary. Keep in mind if you leave the iTunes summary blank, PowerPress will use your blog post but strip out HTML other than what is accepted by Apple podcasts. The iTunes summary for the most part is optimal only for the desktop, but in your case you most likely are not concerned with many paragraphs and bullet lists, your only concern keeping brief info in the page and limiting your links so the Summary should be sufficient.

The iOS podcast app is the main podcast app and garnishes 50% or more market share, the next most popular app is below 10% market share. iTunes desktop has fallen below 5% this past year, we predict the desktop app being phased out by Apple in the next 1-2 years.

Just a re-cap the feed values…

<content:encoded> – Blog post content
<itunes:summary> – PowerPress Episode box setting or if blank, a stripped down version of blog post content
<description> – a text only (no html or links) character limited version of the blog post content. Alternatively you can enable editing the “Excerpt”, this is a built-in WordPress option. The excerpt is used as the <description> tag if set. In recent years WordPress has buried the Excerpt option, most users are unaware of its existence.

iOS podcast app will display the <content:encoded> tag in the feed, if it is not present, the <itunes:summary> is used, and if that is not present, the <description> tag is displayed.

Desktop iTunes app is not aware of the <content:encoded> tag in feeds, thus it uses the <itunes:summary> first then falls back to the <description> if not set.

Thanks,
Angelo

Thanks for the thorough response. I want to follow your recommendation and leave the content in there, as I value the SEO benefit, but it looks like a mess. I was going to add a screenshot of the show notes from my most recent episode, but I can’t figure out how to do that here.

The entire post is smashed together with no breaks or space, of course no hyperlinks, etc.

I apologize for the amateur questions. I just know that when you look at the show notes for my episodes as they are now, they look horrible. Am I missing something in the settings? All the other podcasts I listen to look sharp and professional…

Hello @tomnikkola,

If you disabled the “Full” option in the display settings for the feed, that would explain why there is no breaks or spaces. The content:encoded is not present in your feed currently which makes me think you turned this off.

Assuming you now “want” formatted text to be syndicated, go to WordPress settings > Writing, make sure “Full text” is selected under “For each article in a feed, show”. This will include the <content:encoded> in your feeds, then your beaiutu8fl paragraphs, hyperlinks, etc.. will appear in the iOS podcast app.

Thanks,
Angelo