How to setup WordPress and PowerPress to let your one website host several podcasts. Learn about custom channels, category podcasting, and third-party providers.
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This topic was requested by Jonathan Downham from The Critical Care Practitioner Podcast.
Consider before you start another podcast
Starting another podcast can be fun, but also stressful. I previously shared 16 things you should consider before launching another podcast, which you should review before continuing. Here are the main points, for quick reference.
- Should your improve your current podcast(s) instead?
- Do your have time for another podcast?
- Will your other podcast(s) suffer?
- Does your new podcast fit, expand, or break your “brand”?
- Where will your new podcast live?
- Separate categories on one WordPress site
- Separate WordPress sites
- WordPress Multisite
- Crosspromote between your podcasts
- Don't feel like you have to make a network
- Focus on content for one podcast at a time
- Reuse tools and techniques that you already have
- Have separate email accounts for each podcast
- Leverage your whole community for big things
- Setup separate affiliate IDs
- Consider separate social-media accounts
- Get things right from the start with this launch
- Avoid crossover content, unless concise
- Use Blubrry's free or premium stats for separate tracking
Revisit episode 113 to learn more about these considerations.
But let's assume that you know another podcast would be good and you've chosen to host it on the same website as your current podcast.
To host multiple formats
Your regular show may be audio, but you decide to also release the video. This would mean multiple formats: audio and video. Or if you already publish video and you want to offer standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) versions, then you would have multiple formats.
Or you may be interested in offering supplementary content, like I do with The Audacity to Podcast's Podcasting Video Tips—where the content is usually different from my normal audio show.
If your content is available in different languages but you have a single WordPress post in one language (or you do something complicated for multiple language from a single post), then you would need separate media formats for each language.
Each of these separate formats would be best served with PowerPress's “custom podcast channels” feature. This allows a single post in WordPress to have multiple “Podcast Episode” entries with separate media and information for each.
How to setup PowerPress's custom podcast channels
- Go to PowerPress > Settings.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and checkmark “Custom Podcast Channels.”
- Click Save Changes.
- Now go to PowerPress > Podcast Channels. (If you don't see this in the menu yet, you may need to refresh your browser.)
- Your current podcast feed is the Default feed (usually /feed/podcast). You may click on it to adjust any settings specific to this feed.
- Add a new channel by entering the feed name and its slug. (The “slug” is what the URL will be. Instead of /feed/podcast, your channel could be /feed/video.)
- Customize this channel's settings just as you would for any other podcast feed, including title, cover art, iTunes information, and more.
- Click Save Changes.
- Create a new post or edit an existing one.
- You'll now have a second “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor. Anything you put in it will publish to only your new custom channel.
Remember that channel feeds will always be podcast-only. The feed will only include episodes that are attached through the channel's own “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor.
To host multiple shows
Instead of releasing the same or complementary content in multiple formats, you may want to release entirely different content as a separate show.
For example, you host a podcast about video gaming and want to start a new podcast about your favorite TV show. Generally, I recommend having separate websites for completely different content. But when the content is related (like a spinoff series), or you're building a single-domain network, then category podcasting is your solution.
Unlike custom podcast channels, PowerPress's category podcasting uses the same “Podcast Episode” widget in the post editor. To separate the feeds, you have to place an episode within a particular hierarchy via categories.
This is the only time you need to use PowerPress's category podcasting feature. If you just want a podcast-only RSS feed, PowerPress already provides that with /feed/podcast, which works by default without activating custom podcast channels.
How to setup PowerPress's category podcasting
- Create a new category for your existing show, if you don't already have one. Name it according to the show.
- Create a new category for your new show, if you don't already have one. Name it according to the show.
- Go to PowerPress > Settings.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and checkmark “Category Podcasting.”
- Click Save Changes.
- Now go to PowerPress > Category Podcasting. (If you don't see this in the menu yet, you may need to refresh your browser.)
- You most likely have no podcasting categories setup yet, so pick the category you want to enable in the left-side drop-down.
- Click “Add Podcast Settings to Category Feed.”
- Customize this category's settings just as you would for any other podcast feed, including title, cover art, iTunes information, and more.
- Click Save Changes.
- Create a new post or edit an existing one.
- You can create your post and attach the podcast episode like you normally do. Just select the right category (or categories, for crossposts) for this show.
You'll need to update your original show's feed URL to use the new category feed. This may mean placing a 301 redirect or pointing FeedBurner to the new source. You can get the separate category feed URLs from the Category Podcasting page. The new feed URLs will look like /category/name-of-the-podcast-category/feed. It may be even longer than that if the feed is deeper in the hierarchy.
If you forget to redirect your original feed, subscribers to your main podcast (such as /feed/podcast) will start receive all the episodes from all of your podcasts.
Like using custom podcast channels, creating your separate RSS feeds with WordPress and PowerPress allow you to have a single podcast media hosting account—whether through LibSyn, Blubrry, or anyone else.
If you're not using WordPress and PowerPress
The only other way I can confidently recommend creating your podcast feed is with LibSyn. A single LibSyn account can have multiple shows, but each show on LibSyn can only have a single RSS feed (called the “LibSyn Classic Feed”).
When you have multiple show feeds from LibSyn, you can link to these or even embed them anywhere on almost any kind of website.
How to setup LibSyn for multiple shows
- Create a LibSyn account if you don't already have one, and use promo code “noodle” to get your first month free.
- Add a new show on LibSyn by going to your account menu in the upper-right corner and clicking “Register new show.”
- Enter this new show's slug, billing information, and which hosting plan you want. (You have to pay for separate hosting when powering separate show feeds with LibSyn.)
- Switch between shows in your LibSyn account by going to the “Change Shows” tab and clicking “Select Show” on the show of your choice.
- Setup this show's RSS feed as you normally would through LibSyn, with its own title, cover art, iTunes information, and more.
- To create an episode for a particular show, switch to that show before creating your post.
Remember that each show on LibSyn will have its own FTP folder with dropbox, quickcast, assets, and public subfolders. So if you skip posting through the website and use the quickcast folder, make sure you you drill down into the right quickcast subfolder for your show.
Announcements
- The registration deadline for the next Podcast Master Class is coming to a close! Reserve your space to take your podcast from average to amazing!™
- My new, secret podcasting project (codenamed “RPM”) is launching in a couple weeks. I know you'll love it!
Need personalized podcasting help?
I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.
Ask your questions or share your feedback
- Comment on the shownotes
- Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
- Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)
Connect with me
- Subscribe to The Audacity to Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Android.
- Join the Facebook Page and watch live podcasting Q&A on Mondays at 2pm (ET)
- Subscribe on YouTube for video reviews, Q&A, and more
- Follow @theDanielJLewis
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.
Wonderful content, as this has been something I have wanted to do. My website has a podcast and a
blog. I want to have a separate podcast where we read the blog posts, for those who won’t have a chance to read them. So I have set up two categories (Podcast and Blog) My question is how do I transition to this. I already have my podcast feed in Itunes, and thus how will this work. Is the feed that is already in itunes going to get the episodes from both categories? Is there a way to continue to have just the podcast episodes going to the podcast only feed, or am I going to need to switch things around, which I do not want to do. Does my question make sense?
What feed URL is iTunes using? If it’s a FeedBurner feed, then what is FeedBurner’s source?
Is your audio version of the blog posts something you want to do on old posts, or new ones going forward? Since the content is exactly the same as the blog post, I recommend attaching the audio version to the blog posts instead of having separate posts.
Thank you for your response.
ITunes is using the podcast only feed that was originally set up in powerpress. So the way that it is working right now is that no matter what category I use both will go to the iTunes feed. Now I also set up a podcast feed in the category so I could submit that to iTunes thus having a feed for all of the content, a feed for the blog, and a feed for the regular podcast. However I really just want there to be a podcast feed and a blog feed, but I don’t want that to affect my stats, or to cause me to lose listeners.
As per the blog I would be doing both. I would like to put in audio as we go forward, but I would also like to stick the audio into the archived episodes as well.
So you’re using PowerPress’s /feed/podcast? If so, that does get every episode you attach.
In that case, you can either switch to separate channels and continue using the feed you currently have. The new channel could be /feed/blog-audio.
Or if you prefer categories, then you need to setup a 301 redirect for /feed/podcast to /category/CATEGORY-NAME/feed. This will switch everyone over flawlessly.
Is it possible to host 3 separate podcasts on 3 separate websites using a single Libsyn or Blubrry account or do both require buying a separate account for each Podcast channel? If that’s the case, would it be possible to use PowerPress on one web site but then create 3 channels to manage the 3 separate Podcasts using 1 hosting account otherwise the cost goes from $20 per month 400mb to $15 per 250mb or $45 per month. I would also lose my advanced statistics on libsn having to go to the $15 account for each show.
Technically, yes. You can do this with either service. But something to keep in mind is that it will combine your stats and make it hard to judge the audience for one particular show.
I host all of my media in a single LibSyn account, but I have separate free and premium Blubrry stats trackers for each show. The gives me the best of both worlds.
Remember to use promo code “noodle” on either service to try any plan free for a month.
Can you some day explain how to use ONE SINGLE BLUBRRY account that would host episodes for TWO or THREE SEPARATE WP websites?
If you look at the images, these are the same episodes, one in Spanish, one in Chinese, and one in English. Doable?
I have a website now. But, when starting a podcast, should I create a separate website just for the show’s name or should I attach the feed to my current website? My website url is my name, but the show will be called something else. thanks
I recommend that you do what’s most relevant to the brand of the podcast. For example, my personal blog, DanielJLewis.net, is about many topics—mainly focused on technology and entrepreneurship. But The Audacity to Podcast is all about podcasting. These two are very separate from each other, and thus work best with separate sites.
Michael Hyatt is his own brand, and his podcast’s content is extremely relevant to his blog’s content, so he has them both on the same site.
Thus, my recommendation is that you split out to two sites if the content of each platform isn’t relevant to the other. Keep them together if they truly are relevant.
Thank for the 411.
Still relevant. Thanks Daniel, for putting clarity on category vs channel podcasting!
Thanks! I actually now recommend using Custom Channels for separate podcasts instead of category podcasting. Categories are still useful for organizing the posts, but not for creating the feeds.
Cool, have you a link to how best to customise the feed? What I’m unsure of with custom channels is how the new show (on new channel) is seen as such by iTunes. I get it with regard to the category because I need to submit the new feed…. if you follow me.
It’s ok I figured it out. 🙂
What service provider would you recommend for being able to manage multiple shows and users. The host of each show will take care of uploading/managing their own podcast, but I need to be able to have access to stats and other important data for each show and also be able to add/remove users. I checked out LibsynPro, but it looks as if it will be over budget. I really just need the same features offered by the Libsyn Classic 250, but with the added ability to manage users. Any recommendations?
I believe you can do that with both Libsyn Pro and Blubrry’s pro hosting. Yes, it’s more expensive, but that’s because you’re asking for commercial level services.
See if either Pro solution will let you use my promo code “noodle” to save you some money.
Oh! I found another one for you. While it’s not my top recommendation for a podcast host, they are doing pretty good things. Look at Podbean. A premium account lets you host multiple shows and you can have multiple admins. Use promo code “noodle” for a free month with them, too.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
i solved my problem with your advice about Categories.
I see libsyn creates a website for your podcast…but if you are doing multiple shows, is it possible to mashup the podcasts into 1 site and 1 app?
RadioYo’s platform https://radioyo.fm, allows you to have multiple shows and separate RSS feeds for each. It’s done this way so you can easily track your stats.
is it possible to seperate the shows either with the channel or category lists above when using podbean?