Blog Posts

You have surely heard the concept “What cannot be measured cannot be improved.” Or the famous words once said by American John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half…” If you ask what these have to do with our topic, the truth that what you do has no meaning when you cannot measure it leads you step by step to the Google Analytics tool. Because without measuring the data at hand, developing an appropriate strategy for your business would not be a useful and realistic approach.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a service connected to Google that is used to measure your site’s traffic in detail. Google offers this service for free. According to the detailed data you can obtain from Google Analytics, you can plan your business strategies, starting with your SEO strategy.

Why is Google Analytics Important?

If you think that your website is a symbol of your presence in the digital world, all movements on your site are critically important for you. Any digital investment will directly or indirectly affect your website traffic. Google Analytics also provides you with a holistic perspective for all campaigns you run online. Did you know that Google Analytics can generate up to 85 different reports to help you analyze all possible data related to your website traffic?

Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you monitor your digital marketing effectiveness. It also tracks many data about your site continuously, allowing you to quickly and easily learn key data. For example, while it gives you the opportunity to observe the time spent on pages on your site, bounce rates, and traffic in real time, it also indirectly provides the opportunity to take action accordingly. That is why more than 50 million websites worldwide use Google Analytics.

How Do I Open a Google Analytics Account?

To open a Google Analytics account, you need to go to “https://analytics.google.com/” and register with your Google account. In this section, you first need to give a name to your Analytics account and then give a name to your site. If you have more than one site, the second step is important so they do not get mixed up. You can open a single Google Analytics account and observe the traffic and movements of all your sites from the same account. Do not forget to select your country’s time zone because when you want to pull a report, Google Analytics will present the report according to the time zone you entered.

Finally, by following the instructions to add the Tracking code given to you by Analytics to your website, you can start collecting data in your Analytics property. Google Analytics only monitors pages that contain the Google Analytics tracking code, which is a small Javascript snippet that needs to be added manually to each page of your site, with a plugin, or using a tool. If you want to upload the code to your pages manually, copy the code segment and paste it below your content, immediately before the body tag of each page you want to track. Or there are other tools that can do this automatically; you can benefit from them.

You have created your Analytics account and added the code to your site, now let us look at what data about your site you can obtain through Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is built on 4 main core components.

Data collection: In Google Analytics, data is collected with the help of javascript code snippets. This line of code transfers to your Analytics account which URL users visit and which browser or device they use.

Data processing: Collected data is sent to Google’s servers and categorized to make it meaningful.

Configuration: After the data is processed, it is saved to the database. Data saved to the database can no longer be changed.

Reporting: The component where the collected data is presented in reports to Google Analytics users.

Custom Reporting

Custom reports in Analytics provide faster access to the information you need and fewer data reports to examine. Simply, they leave you with the bare bones reports you need. You select the information and metrics you want to see, arranged the way you want to see them.

Google Analytics groups the main services in its account under 8 headings. These are: Customization, Real-Time, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, Conversions, Discover, and Admin. Each heading allows you to measure the site at a different metric and is quite comprehensive. Let us examine together the most important data headings you will acquire with Analytics and how to access them.

Visitors

The number of people visiting your website is very important for you. Understanding this and dividing it by time is quite easy with Google Analytics. For example, if you want to know the number of visitors in the last 30 days or the annual visitor count, you can easily do this with a report you will pull by marking the date range.

When you click on the ‘Audience’ section on the left, a window will open where you can see the visitors of the site. This range generally gives a 1-week range but you can play with the dates in the upper right corner. You can learn your total visitor count daily, monthly, or annually with this table by selecting the date range you want.

Real-Time

In the real-time section, you can instantly examine the number of visitors on your site with the ‘overview’ option you will select. With this tool where you can see how many people are on your site and which pages people are predominantly browsing, you can track your site in real time and when there is something wrong on the site, for example when the number of visitors on the site suddenly drops to 0, you can notice the problem and intervene urgently.

The General Overview (Graphic Table Analysis) - Locations - Traffic Sources - Content - Events headings under the real-time heading provide instant insight about the source, geographic locations, or from where incoming traffic is directed.

Acquisition - Page Views

The options under the Acquisition tool allow you to see the total views of your pages, and obtain important information such as views of visitors coming through Google ads. The ‘overview’ sub-heading under this heading allows you to learn the number of visits made to your entire site and to customize this by selecting the date range you want from the date range section in the upper right. Filtering while pulling reports from Analytics can prevent you from seeing spam traffic coming to your site and ensure that the data provided is realistic. By clicking to add a filter from the Filters section, you can also exclude the IP address and ensure a realistic reporting is presented.

Google Analytics and E-Commerce

After activating e-commerce operations, Google Analytics will generate very detailed reports for each transaction. You can monitor your e-commerce activities with Google Analytics. By using Google Analytics on your e-commerce website, you can gain valuable information about your transactions, return on investment, and customers.

SSL certificates working with the root certificate belonging to Sectigo, which is a certificate authority organization in SSL, have stopped working as of May 30, 2020 due to the expiration of the root certificate’s validity, despite their own periods continuing.

This problem is a problem that only concerns SSL certificates older than one year, and many large websites across the country and around the world have experienced SSL problems due to the root certificate not being updated in time.

First, we will write what you need to do to identify if you are experiencing such a problem, and then share the root certificates required to fix the problem with you;

Method 1:

https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html

Enter your full URL starting with https to the certificate checker offered for free by SSL Shopper,

Common name: COMODO RSA Certification Authority

Organization: COMODO CA Limited

Location: Salford, Greater Manchester, GB

Valid from May 30, 2000 to May 30, 2020

Serial Number: 2766ee56eb49f38eabd770a2fc84de22

Signature Algorithm: sha384WithRSAEncryption

Issuer: AddTrust External CA Root

If you see the RSA certification authority key with a validation date of May 30, 2020 as we specified in the Chain sections, you need to update your root certificate.

Method 2:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

SSL Labs is another certificate checker developed by Qualys that provides much more in-depth analysis on SSL. Enter your full URL starting with https in the Hostname field; since tests will be conducted over more than one TLS protocol, the page may take time to load,

Under the Additional Certificates (if supplied) heading, if you see the RSA certification authority key with “Valid until” date marked in red and showing May 30, 2020, you need to update your root certificate.

Solution:

To change the expired root certificate, follow the link below;

https://support.sectigo.com/Com_KnowledgeDetailPage?Id=kA01N000000rfBO

If you are using EV ssl and need to create a bundle CRT (Certificate file), the certificates in the file in order should be as follows;

Domain certificate key,

Sectigo RSA Extended Validation Secure Server CA

Sectigo RSA EV Bundle

If you are using Wildcard SSL and need to create a bundle CRT (Certificate file), the certificates in the file in order should be as follows;

Domain certificate key,

Sectigo RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA

Sectigo RSA DV Bundle

If you are only using SSL related to a single domain name and need to create a bundle CRT (Certificate file), the certificates in the file in order should be as follows;

Domain certificate key,

Sectigo RSA DV Bundle

Sincerely.

We have decided to increase our web hosting and reseller hosting package features, which have had the same features for many years, due to technological developments experienced over the years, the rapid increase in internet bandwidth over time, the increase in the number of users accessing the internet, the need of software for more CPU, Memory and other resources, and most importantly based on user feedback and requests.

We planned to start implementing this decision in January 2021, but we were forced to continuously postpone our investments due to the inability to supply SSD and NVMe-based disks because of the global chip crisis. At the point we have reached, we decided to start package changes with as many SSD disks as we could supply and to notify you, our valued customers, of this good news in advance.

No additional fee will be requested from any of our customers for the renewed packages, and all operations will be completed FREE OF CHARGE by the technical team starting from September 1, 2021 until year end.

The new values regarding CPU and Memory usage in the package features have been determined based on the resource requirements of the most used software frameworks and ready-made scripts, the examination of randomly selected one hundred accounts from our existing customers, and the positive changes in website loading speed against changed resource limits.

We are presenting the changes regarding our new packages below for your information.

Old Web Hosting Package Features

New Web Hosting Package Features

Old Reseller Hosting Package Features

New Reseller Hosting Package Features

While our technical team is moving your websites to our new servers in the background for package changes, we aim to complete all operations within a three-month period. Due to the not yet very large number of procured SSD disks, the targeted period may extend somewhat. Accounts whose migration is completed will automatically have new package features on September 1, 2021. Since server procurement for reseller accounts has not yet been completed, operations will start close to the end of the period.

Again we remind you; all these changes are provided FREE OF CHARGE to all our users without any hidden, secret conditions or prerequisites, with no price increases. New orders will automatically open with new package features as of September 1, 2021.

Happy Days
Netinternet

As Netinternet, we are closely monitoring the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on data center operations. New regulations effective from August 23, 2021 have been introduced for data center visits to ensure service continuity for our customers and to enable our business partners and employees to work safely.

Covid-19 protocols effective from August 23, 2021 are listed below;

• As always, all visits to be made must be notified to our team in advance along with the visiting person and HES code information.

• Work inside the data center will not be permitted except for problems that are critical for users and have a negative impact on workflow. All physical operations will be performed free of charge by the Netinternet team as always.

• Compliance with policies determined by Pamukkale University and Pamukkale Teknokent AS, where our data center is located, and policies updated from time to time within the framework of rules determined by Denizli Provincial General Hygiene Board, is expected at entrances/exits. Since these policies are constantly updated, the rules to be followed during the visit will be sent separately to our visitor.

• All equipment to be delivered to or taken from the data center will be delivered and received at the cargo entrance area. The installation of equipment in or removal from cabinets will be performed free of charge by our technical team.

• Regardless of whether vaccinated or not, our visitors in the data center are expected to maintain 1.5 meters of social distance and wear masks. Eating and drinking needs are expected to be met outside the office. Netinternet provides hand sanitizer, masks and other needs free of charge.

• Only one person is allowed to work in a corridor inside the data center. This number is two for visitors working in the same team or workplace. There is a maximum of 2 person limit for visitors who want to use the customer workspace outside the data center.

• Full vaccination requirement or PCR test within the last 48 hours will not be required from our visitors unless requested by the Ministry of Health Coronavirus Science Board, T.R. Ministry of Interior, Local Government, and Pamukkale University and Pamukkale Teknokent AS.

Our company has returned to remote working mode as of August 23, 2021 for the health of our employees due to increasing case numbers. During this process, only our technical support personnel will be present in our data center, and all face-to-face meetings planned will be held online.

We wish you healthy, happy days.

Sincerely.

Due to the risk created by the increasing number of cases in recent days, within the scope of the measures taken to protect our employees from the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak that our country as well as the whole world is fighting against, starting from September 25, 2020, no visitors other than our technical personnel will be accepted to work inside the data center white area.

Additionally, for all other visits to our facility, entry will be permitted after a “HES Code” query. The HES (Hayat Eve Sığar - Life Fits Home) Code is a code that allows you to safely share whether you carry any risk in terms of Covid-19 disease. Before visiting the Data Center, the HES code will be requested from you, and if there is no obstacle to the visit as a result of the query made, visit approval will be given. Visitors who have not submitted their HES code in advance and whose query has not been made will not be accepted into the data center.

How Can You Obtain a HES Code?

1. Download the “Hayat Eve Sığar” application on smartphones and enter the “HES Code Operations” section. Click the “Create HES Code” button. Select the code usage period and create the code.

2. To receive a HES code by SMS, write HES with spaces between them respectively; T.R. ID Number, Last 4 Digits of T.R. ID Serial Number, and Sharing Period (number of days) and send an SMS to the number 2023 to create the code.

3. A HES Code can also be created through the E-Government website.

How Will Physical Operations and Physical Installation Work Be Done?

Remote Hands support is provided free of charge on a fair request basis as is known. Smart Hands will also be provided free of charge for as long as this restriction period continues. In physical operation requests, priority will be given to critical business requests and operations that will affect business continuity, which will be done immediately, while all other operations will continue to be done free of charge within working hours according to business workload.

We would like to state again, for those who are concerned about the new measures and restrictions, that there are no COVID-19 cases within our company and that all these restrictions have been taken due to increasing risks for the health of our employees.

We wish you healthy days.

Sincerely.

Dear Friends,

As we enter a new year twice as exciting for us, we made an infographic summarizing the year 2019 we left behind in numbers, as we do every year. You can access the numerical summary of 2019, in which we achieved a growth rate of 36.02%, from below;

Click to view the infographic describing the year 2019.

Our company, which continues to grow as every year, has you, our valued customers, whom we consider as our friends, as one of the biggest contributors to its determined and stable growth! With the strength we draw from you, our company, which is starting a very different new year, is aiming to put the Istanbul location into service in the first quarter of 2020.

Yes, we could not ignore the intense insistence of our customers! Instead of expanding our Denizli data center, which has reached more than 90% occupancy, we are starting to serve from Istanbul as a second location. As every year, in addition to the Istanbul location, many projects that will add value to your business are coming to life in 2020! Web hosting control panel, smart cabinet system version 2, DirectIP.io project, and smart load balancing system are just a few of them. We will be presenting a new product/service and project every quarter throughout the year!

We wish the new year to bring happiness, health and abundant prosperity to all of us.

May 2020 be your year!

On Behalf of the Entire Netinternet Team
With our love.

Working from home or remotely was a concept that was applied in professions such as social media expertise, software or graphic design until recently, but was still approached with caution. Many companies preferred employees to be physically present in the office rather than working from home. However, especially the change storm that began with the coronavirus process suddenly brought this topic to the agenda, and companies said “eureka” and decided that remote work is actually not as bad as they thought. Naturally, many people experienced working from home or remotely during the stay-at-home process, and it was seen that this would continue in many sectors going forward. We also wanted to list useful, productivity-boosting applications for people working from home or remotely in this article.

Zoom

Apart but together. Even without being in an office environment, teams can come together online. One of the most effective services that can be used for this is Zoom. While Zoom was a teleconference application known in some sectors, it suddenly became a service used by people from every sector. Although it is used for various purposes from remote education to video calls, it can be used as a tool for teams to come together and hold meetings for the remote working method. Especially thanks to the screen sharing feature, work being done can be shared with other team members and discussed. The fact that it will speed up many tasks and that jobs that cannot be explained over the phone can be shown makes Zoom a productivity-boosting service.

Trello

Is the desk covered with note papers and everything everywhere? Can the note taken for a job being blown away by the wind from the window cause great losses? For such negative situations, online services are just right for you. Trello is tailor-made for this job. With this online productivity application, where you can take notes under various headings, assign tasks, give deadlines, add files, and establish a working methodology, you can maintain order in all individual and team work including remote work. You can maintain your working order with Trello, which is offered for free use for teams with a certain number of members.

Google Drive

It is not always possible to access files on the office computer from another location. A PSD file, an image, an Excel table may be needed while working remotely but things will be disrupted if there is no access. Using cloud storage services is a good solution for this. Google Drive, which is accessible to everyone and offers large-scale storage even in its free version, is one of the important tools of remote work. Since the uploaded important files will be saved to the storage space belonging to the email account, access by third parties is also quite difficult. With Google Drive, where you can access office files from home or home files from the office or other workspaces, productivity will increase and job delays due to data deficiency will be prevented.

Slack

Messaging applications cause many problems in remote working for teams or individuals. In some messaging applications, written messages may not be found, while in others they may not even be shown in search results. This causes the task assigned to the person to be lost or forgotten. The Slack application, developed taking this into account, eliminates the problems of messaging while working. With Slack, task headings can be created, discussions can be held under these headings, files can be uploaded, and these files can be accessed at any time. Thus, given tasks can be completed without disruption.

Asana

Whether remote working or not, people who want to bring employees together in an online environment, distribute tasks, and check that tasks are completed must definitely use an online task tracking program. Asana is one of them. Asana, where you can register as a team or individually, create various headings, assign tasks, load different tasks to employees, distribute each sub-heading to different people, write comments on these headings, upload files, and specify deadlines, will distribute the workload, determine people’s tasks, and make work easier to track. Asana is an application that can be used free of charge up to a certain number of users. It is one of the keys to high-efficiency work for people working from home or remotely or managing these people.

Canva

In today’s world where internet and computer technologies have developed, it has become possible to make designs without owning a high-performance computer and to do this with an internet tab or phone application. Canva is a graphic design tool that people working remotely can use. Thanks to Canva, where quick and effective designs can be made in situations where Photoshop and similar applications may not work on every computer or there may be no computer in the environment, graphic work can be done quickly.

Google Calendar

What work to do on which day, who to meet with, who to email, which job to finish on which day, if the answers to all these questions are on note papers, work efficiency will be quite low. Because some planned work can be overlooked due to stacked papers. Google Calendar prevents this. With Google Calendar, where events can be added to days, hours, and future dates, which can be tracked on a single page, and which can be accessed with a Gmail account, it is possible to organize work, set meetings, and receive advance notifications.

Time can be better controlled with this application that eliminates many problems of remote work. While remote work is on the rise today, it will be discussed more in the coming years and different services will be offered for it. But it should not be forgotten that all these services are tools for a person to work more efficiently. Using them and working efficiently is also in the person’s hands. Not losing motivation and concentration is also a situation that ends with the person. We wish high-motivation, high-concentration remote work.

There are many ways to achieve better rankings in search engines, and the SEO (search engine optimization) work you do on the organic side can bring a longer-lasting and less costly organic growth in the long run.

To shed light on those who want to succeed on this path, Google designed a very simple tool known to all of us as Google Search Console to understand how your site looks, what problems might affect your traffic, and how to improve the site for better rankings and results.

Google Search Console had been on the market for a while and was actually previously known as Google Webmaster Tools and Google Webmaster Central. In 2015, Google renamed this tool as Google Search Console, so although they seem like different terms, they are actually all different names for the same thing.

How Can GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) Help Monitor Your Website Performance?

• Verifies that Google can access content on your website.
• GWT, also known as Google Search Console, makes it possible to submit new pages and posts for Google to crawl and remove content you do not want search engine users to discover.
• Helps you serve and evaluate content that provides a more visual experience to users. Guides you on this.
• Allows you to discover and fix malware or spam issues that cannot be easily found by other means.

How Does Google Webmaster Tools Help You Understand How Your Website Appears in Google Searches?

• Provides details about which popular queries bring users to which pages on your website, giving light to SEO strategies.
• Shows which queries bring the most traffic.
• You can also evaluate through GWT how your mobile website performs for users searching on tablets and phones. With the suggestions it offers you, you can also achieve these improvements.

How to Set Up Google Webmaster Tools?

First, sign into your Google account. If it is a business website, make sure you are using your business account, not your personal account.

Go to Google Web Administrator Tools. Click “Add a property.” Select “Website” from the dropdown menu and enter your site’s URL. Make sure you use the exact URL that appears in the browser bar and continue.

Choose a way to verify that you own the website (HTML file upload, domain provider, HTML tag, Google Analytics tracking code, or GTM container snippet).

If your site supports both http:// and https://, add both as separate sites. You also need to add every domain your site has. (www versions, etc.)

Google starts monitoring data for your property the moment you add it to GSC, even before verifying that you own the site.

Verifying Your Site in GSC

Since GSC gives you access to confidential information about the performance of a site or application, you first need to verify that you own that site or application.

Verification gives a specific user control over a specific property. At least one verification is required for each GSC property.

However, there is something to keep in mind: verifying your property does not directly affect your PageRank or performance in Google searches. Of course, the more information you have, the easier it will be to rank higher - but adding your website to Google Search Console does not automatically raise your ranking.

We can list GSC verification methods as follows;

• HTML file upload: Upload a verification HTML file to a specific location on your website.
• Domain provider: Sign in to your domain registrar site (such as GoDaddy, eNom, or networkolutions.com) and verify your site directly from GSC or add a DNS TXT or CNAME record.
• HTML tag: Add a meta tag to the HEAD section of the HTML code of a specific page.
• Google Analytics tracking code: Copy the GA tracking code you use on your site. (You need “edit” permission in GA for this option.)
• Google Tag Manager container snippet code: Copy the GTM container snippet code associated with your site.
• Sites hosted by Google, including Blogger and Google Sites pages, are automatically verified.

If you want to start more strategic SEO work for your website on Google, you need to pay attention to the updates and recommendations Google shares. One of the simplest ways to do this is through the free Google Webmaster (Google Search Console) tools. Within a few minutes, you can start understanding your website from Google’s perspective, obtain different data about your site, and contribute to your site’s traffic with more effective work.

Although the most attention-grabbing content in today’s technology world is videos, podcasts that have developed as an alternative to radio have also become quite widespread in recent times. We wanted to talk in detail about the world of podcasts, which more and more people are listening to and more and more programs are being made for. In this article, we will try to answer questions such as what is a podcast, how long it has been in our lives, and how it is made.

What is a Podcast?

Podcasts are generally audio blogs. You can also think of podcasts as an alternative to live radio programs.

Podcasts continue in series that follow one another, and sometimes you may need to subscribe or download the podcasts to listen to these series. Podcasts, which became popular with the popularity of Apple’s iPod portable media player and iTunes music application in the early 2000s, are spreading even faster since they have taken their place in music listening applications like Spotify.

Research shows that podcasts are more commonly listened to by people in the 25-54 age range. It can be said that this age group generally has an active professional life. Podcast culture mostly appeals to people who live fast-paced lives and cannot find time to read or watch something, but want to listen to something about topics they are curious about or interested in. Times such as commuting to work, working on an automated task, or time set aside for relaxation are quite suitable for listening to podcasts.

Advantages of Podcasts

As interest in podcasts has increased in recent years, it is possible to come across podcasts in many languages including Turkish on many different topics. For example, you can listen to podcast programs on general culture, history, and similar topics, as well as programs organized entirely around comedy or conversation. There are even podcast channels that tell stories and podcast channels built around a specific sectoral conversation. This diversity inevitably causes many people to come to the podcast world where everyone can find something for themselves. The basic driving force creating this diversity is the needs that people feel for this type of content.

While it is not entirely accurate to say that podcasts are substitutes for radio programs, it is possible to say that they continue to serve the function that radio programs served. While radio programs can be listened to on certain days and hours, the fact that podcasts can be listened to at any time is one of the biggest advantages in today’s busy world. While it is possible to pause a podcast program as many times as you want and continue from where you left off, it is also possible to listen from the beginning multiple times. The freedom and comfort created by this situation is one of the biggest advantages of podcasts, especially when compared to radio programs.

Being able to listen to podcasts with any device connected to the internet is also among the advantages of podcasts. In fact, with certain programs, it is possible to listen to a podcast program that you previously downloaded over the internet in an offline environment where you have no online access.

One of the biggest advantages of podcasts is also the ease of updating and changing data. Since broadcasts are not made over a frequency like radio, podcast programs can be on any topic and at any frequency. Topics can also vary according to the preferences of listeners.

How to Make a Podcast?

Before starting to make a podcast, the name and concept of the program must of course be determined. In addition to finding an interesting concept, having guests from time to time to keep the program lively can keep the flow smooth. If you plan your concept accordingly, you can also find the opportunity to flex or change it from time to time.

One of the most important things to pay attention to before starting to make a podcast program is of course having appropriate equipment. Sound quality is very important for podcasts because whatever you offer will consist of sounds. In this system built on people listening to you, there is no room for visuals or other senses, so presenting sound quality at the highest possible level is important. For this reason, it is especially important to choose the equipment with the highest sound quality if you are working on a podcast for a project on behalf of a company or brand.

We said everything consists of sound, but investing very high amounts in a newly undertaken job individually may not be very wise. Because a certain amount of time is needed for the job to be tried and understood whether it will work or not. For this reason, if you do not want to take too much risk at the initial stage, you do not need to make a professional start, meaning you can enter this job with less than 1000 TL.

The most important thing that should be among these listed equipment is of course the microphone. Since it is very important for your voice to reach listeners clearly and loudly, the higher the quality of the microphone, the more opportunities there will be for your recording to be of high quality. Podcast broadcasters can choose two types of microphones. One is USB connectors, the other is analog XLR connectors. Those knowledgeable about sound and music prefer analog XLR microphones.

A POP Filter is also an optional tool that people who want to make podcasts can use. That is, you can make podcast recordings without having this. This filter prevents explosions in the microphone during your conversations and also extends the life of your microphone.

Headphones can also be used optionally but can be used to increase quality. Headphones allow you to be aware of how your voice sounds and whether everything is normal during podcast recording.

Podcast Promotion Process

After preparing the podcast episode, uploading it to any broadcast platform is as simple as a file upload. What is important is the process you go through to create it and the process you go through to promote it to be listened to.

Make sure to upload your podcast to important platforms in index form. Try to have at least 5 episodes because being able to offer more to someone who wants to listen to one of your episodes and subscribe right then can provide a great advantage.

You can increase your chances of success by organizing a launch. If you are lucky enough, you can be featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section on iTunes or another important platform. However, if you do not want to leave things too much to chance, you can start by joining small communities and sharing your podcast, sending it to friends, and with small-scale PR efforts like these.