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Podcast Network

There comes a time in the life of every podcaster when she has to admit that one podcast is not enough. A separate channel would be nice, right? There are multiple ways to achieve podcast networks using Podlove Publisher, serving different requirements.

If you are looking for totally separate podcast channels with their own sites, read Option 1: WordPress Network. If all you episodes are related but you would like to offer separate feeds, Option 2: Shows Module might be for you. If shows seem too heavyweight, read Option 3: Category based Feeds.

Option 1: WordPress Network​

Advantages

  • manage multiple podcasts in a WordPress Network
  • custom themes, domains etc. for each podcast

How To

  1. Follow the instructions on WordPress: Create A Network to turn your WordPress setup into a network.
  2. Network Activate the Podlove Publisher at /wp-admin/network/plugins.php if you want to host a podcast on every site in the network. Otherwise, activate the Podlove Publisher separately for each site.

Optional: Assign custom domains to network sites using the Domain Mapping Plugin.

Further Reading

Option 2: Shows Module​

Use shows to offer feeds to subtopics of your podcast. If your shows are unrelated, a WordPress Network is better suited than the shows module.

Advantages

  • keep all episodes in a single master-feed
  • offer separate feeds per show with the option to override feed meta: title, slug, subtitle, summary, image and language

How To

  1. Activate the Shows Publisher module. Go to Publisher -> Modules and find the Metadata section.
  2. Create one or multiple shows at Publisher -> Shows.
  3. Announce show feeds on your website. You can find them at Publisher -> Shows.

WordPress Templates

Internally shows are WordPress taxonomies. That means you also get show archives for your website under /show/<show-slug>. When creating themes, the following template hierarchy applies:

taxonomy-shows-<show-slug>.php
taxonomy-shows.php
taxonomy.php
archive.php
index.php

Option 3: Category based Feeds​

Advantages

  • does not require a WordPress Network
  • separate feeds by category but keep one big feed containing everything

How To

  1. Activate the Categories Publisher module. Go to Publisher -> Modules and find the Metadata section.
  2. Assign categories to your episodes using the episode forms.
  3. Announce the category feeds on your website. For example: You have the feed example.com/feed/mp3 and created the categories "weather" and "plants". Then the feeds example.com/category/weather/feed/mp3 and example.com/category/plants/feed/mp3 are available now.

Good to know: There are also feeds for arbitrary search terms. example.com/search/fnord/feed/mp3 is a dynamic feed for episodes mentioning "Fnord".

Further Reading