When you create a podcast, you normally want to share it with the world. But sometimes, you want exclusive content just for certain people you want to share it with. This could be to say thank you to newsletter subscribers, offer content just for your online course customers, or similar. With our Exclude From Feed option, you can do just that, either for individual episodes or complete shows!
Note: Exclude From Feed won't stop the episode(s) from appearing on your Captivate Site or Captivate Sync podcast player, as these pull directly from the Captivate API as opposed to your RSS feed.
How to Set Up Exclude From Feed for Your Content
Creating an episode that uses Exclude from Feed is super simple, and ensures that it won't be published on your public RSS feed, or any of the podcast apps that pull from that.
Log in to your Captivate dashboard
Create your episode as normal by clicking Publish Episode
Fill out your episode details
On the left of your screen, click the Advanced Options link
Select Exclude this episode from feed
Schedule or publish your episode
And that's it - easy! If you want to use Exclude From Feed on an existing episode, follow these simple steps.
Log in to your Captivate dashboard and click on Episodes in the left hand menu
Find the specific episode you want to update and click Edit
Select the Exclude From Feed option in the Advanced Options setting
Scroll to the bottom of your screen and click Update Episode.
Next time you click on your Episodes tab, you'll see a round icon next to the episode you've just created/edited, advising that it won't display in your public feed.
How to Use an Episode with Exclude From Feed
Now that you have your episode set up to be excluded from public RSS feeds and apps, it's time to share with your select audience. There are a couple of ways to do this.
Send a direct link to your audience
Once the episode has been published, you can choose to share it via a direct link to the episode by using the Episode Web Page URL.
Log in to your Captivate dashboard
Click on Episodes in the left hand menu
Click on the Share icon next to the episode you wish to share
Copy the Episode Web Page URL
You can then send this link to your selected audience, and they'll be able to view the Captivate page for that episode.
Note: anyone with this link can view your Captivate Page. Just a heads up if you want it to be really exclusive! 😀
Embed the episode on a private landing page
If you really want to make the episode exclusive for certain listeners, you can use our web player and embed it on a private landing page on your blog, or in your online course membership landing page.
Log in to your Captivate dashboard
Click on Episodes in the left hand menu
Click on the Share icon next to the episode you wish to share
Copy the Embed on your website HTML code
You can then use this code to embed the web player for that episode on a landing page, where only approved members, or someone with a password, can access the player.
The great thing with Exclude From Feed is you still get access to all the analytics around that episode. Plus, if you use the embed player, you get some really cool listener behaviour analytics too, including audience drop-off and minutes played!
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