Podcast homepages weren’t something I gave any thought to until I launched my own standalone show. And honestly, even then I probably didn’t give enough thought to the subject. For that reason, many or most of my shows have Tumblr pages — which is, at best, a bit of a mixed blessing in 2020.
The biggest reason many podcasters give little consideration to the subject is the fact that most people are platform-dependent when it comes to listening. People who consume a lot of podcasts generally do so through a single platform/app, be it Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Castbox, etc. But when it comes to actually promoting your show on social media, you’re best served by sharing a link that’s platform agnostic.
I’ve been playing around with Podpage a bit today. The new offering was created by Brenden Mulligan, co-founder of app developer toolbox LaunchKit, which sold its tools to Google way back in 2016. The offering has been around for a while now, but Mulligan has offered some updates and recently listed it on ProductHunt.
I’m digging it so far. It’s basically plug-and-play to get up and running, though you can customize a fair bit beyond that. For reference, a simple page I made this morning for my podcast, RiYL:
Image Credits: Brian Heater
After a couple of hours, I’m pretty seriously considering dropping the long-standing Tumblr in favor of the service. My page is pretty simple so far, and honestly, that’s by design. Or, rather, partially by design and partially due to the fact that I haven’t been very good about updating episode art, which has kind of limited my options here (perhaps I’ll go through the 400+ episodes on some future rainy day).
You start by entering your podcast name, and the service goes to work, scraping the relevant information and building it into a page. From there, you can add a Patreon (or other method for monetization) and all related social media. One of the nice things about having a purpose-built service like this is how it pulls together all of the relevant information into a single spot. The sidebar features a breakdown of the different podcatchers where you can listen to the show, coupled with a signup form to get show updates.
On the bottom are a selection of reviews from different podcasting services. Up top is a link to the services where you can leave that feedback. There’s also a subscription link and contact form, which is a handy way of allowing people to email you without giving out personal information. Notes submitted to the form will be sent to your associated email.
The basic experience is free and there are currently two upgrade options. At $5 a month, you can host it on your own website and for $12, there are a bunch more customization options, along with a more fully featured website, including blog functionality and the ability to add transcripts.
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