WordPress is powerful for running your podcast website and it can be the base for automating your podcasting workflow. Here are 13 WordPress plugins to help your podcast automation!
The premise of “automation” (versus automatic actions)
Many tools can do things automatically. But all of the following tools are focused on automation, that is, automatically doing many things for you and not only a single task.
You've probably heard the phrase, “time is money.” Although that seems more applicable and measurable in business, think of time as if it's money. When you spend it on one thing, it means you don't have as much to spend on another thing.
The purpose of automation is to save you time and money! Yes, many of these automation tools cost (although many are free or have free options), but they will all save you time so that you have more time for the more important things. These automations could even help you make more money!
Think about it like this. You could save some money by learning how to hand-code your own RSS feed, but that costs a bunch of time. Instead, you invest a little time into powerful tools (like WordPress, PowerPress, Libsyn, and many others) to save you time, frustration, and prevent you from having to learn stuff you don't want.
Automation may have a learning curve, but the ultimate result will make up for it!
WordPress plugins
I love WordPress for running websites, and there are plenty of ways to automate it for podcasting. Here are my favorites.
Revive Old Post
Like Social Jukebox and Edgar, Revive Old Post will automatically reshare your content from your archive. But this is entirely powered and manageable from your WordPress website! The pro version unlocks extra features, like custom share messages, sharing with images, and more.
Simple Podcast Press
I usually talk about Simple Podcast Press as a better podcast player for your WordPress website. It also has great automation built in!
If your podcast feed is generated by anything other than your own WordPress website, Simple Podcast Press can automatically import all your episodes to your own site and include your episode's player. This works on all past episodes and automatically for all future episodes!
Add Shortcodes Actions and Filters
I have previously recommended Shortcode Exec PHP and then Shortcodes Pro, but neither WordPress plugin is being developed anymore. Now, I recommend Add Shortcodes Actions and Filters.
The most powerful use of this is in creating your own shortcodes. For example, [show_notes_close]
. That shortcode can automatically insert your podcast's closing text into the WordPress post. That saves a lot of time and ensures consistency.
This becomes an investment in future automation. If you ever decide you want to change that closing text, you need only change it in the shortcode and it will be automatically changed everywhere you used that shortcode!
BackupBuddy, UpDraft, BackWPUp
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Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
My favorite short code tool is Shortcodes Ultimate
I’ve seen that, but it’s all about premade shortcodes for stuff like buttons, tabs, and such. It’s not for creating your own shortcodes.