Why Can’t Podcasts Work Like Autoresponders?

by | Sep 13, 2006 | Uncategorized | 4 comments

I’m finding quite a number of holes in the podcasting process from a business perspective. For example, I’d prefer that when someone subscribes to my podcast feed, they start from Episode 001. Right now, anyone that subscribes to my feed gets the newest episode, then has to go back on their own to get previous episodes.

The way that autoresponders work is the way I’d like to see podcast feeds work. I set up 10 autoresponders and when someone signs up for that autoresponder, they get the first one, not the newest email I added.

If a podcast feed worked like an autoresponder, I could then create a series of audio messages for a course or for a specific information product. Then, when the person purchases the info product or signs up for the course, they would subscribe to the feed and get the very first one.

This would be beneficial to those who provide training. Perhaps a corporate trainer would like to send out pre-homework, so she records 7 audio messages, creates a feed and distributes that to her students. The students subscribe and they get the very first one, not the 8th one that the corporate trainer may have added a couple of hours ago.

If anyone can create this workaround, you’ll become a star in the podcasting world.

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4 Comments

  1. Leesa Barnes

    Well, if it can already be done, I’ll just get Ignat to do it for me. However, at the end of the day, I’d like to use a more automated process to do this. I’m not interested in opening up an XML file to edit it myself.

  2. donna papacosta

    You CAN do this, Leesa. It just takes some editing of the XML file.

  3. Ignat

    You can just reorder items in your RSS feed. And ideally provide two feeds, one for first time visitors, and one for those who listen regularly.

  4. Merrill Louise

    Check in with http://www.podiobooks.com. They distribute chapters of books. They have to start with chapter 1. I don’t know how they do it though.