customized podcast feed
by Mike Cohen
on
Apr 6, 2006 at 5:11:17 pm
We will be selling podcasts with a 1 year access. Users will be sent a password for the podcast.
Would this mean we would need a customized rss feed for each customer? Is there any way to generate those on the fly?
It is no problem having a time-limited website to log into for file downloads, but being able to subscribe to a podcast the normal way is optimal.
Re: customized podcast feed by Ron Lindeboom on Apr 6, 2006 at 7:43:18 pm
Hi Mike,
This type of podcast actually flies far outside the norm for podcasts.
I am sure that you could write a custom script that would allow for unique access to your podcasts but if your real intent is to make it a pay service, then I would recommend using a company like the following:
Audible is geared towards this and has the ability to not only serve up your files but give you trafficking stats, reports, etc., as well as helping you market your services to a client base who are already Audible members are therefore used to paying for their media.
Re: customized podcast feed by Mike Cohen on Apr 6, 2006 at 11:42:36 pm
we figured out how to address this - I should have mentioned these are video podcasts.
We will have one podcast feed per product, which you only get access to once you pay for the product, via e-mail. The podcast feed will have a password.
Customers who buy a DVD, for example, will also get access to a website where they can view streaming Windows Media, download individual ipod video files, or subscribe to the podcast for that product which may include multiple video files.
Re: customized podcast feed by David Rowan on Apr 7, 2006 at 4:00:53 am
You could set it up so that once you pay (or buy the product or jump through whatever hoop you have) then you get access to a button on a web page, and the button will automatically set up the RSS subscription in, say, iTunes.
iTunes has set things up so you never have to look at some ugly old URL for the RSS feed, so most people wouldn't even think to look for it. So you don't have to worry about unauthorized access. Unless you target audience is hackers.
So the idea is you don't pay for the download, you pay to get access to the RSS feed. This way you don't have to have a seperate feed for each user, just a seperate feed for each class of user.
Not only that, but if you had an item that you wanted all the users to see(like a promo) you could just put that item in each of your RSS feeds.
If you wanted to keep making people pay, or if someone did give out the RSS location, you could just keep changing the name of the XML file, and making clients pay for the new info each time.
Just some ideas. I'm just trying to get more people to watch my video podcast so I can sell advertising in it. So restricting access to just a special few is the opposite of my goal.
Re: customized podcast feed by Mike Cohen on Apr 7, 2006 at 10:00:36 pm
That's exactly what we figure.
100 people surveyed - close to 0 or maybe 1 or 2 people will even know what an RSS feed is, and I doubt that many average ipod users understand how itunes works.
As you said, the 2% of our customers who know how this stuff works can share the feed to their heart's content. But so far the honor system has worked with our physician client base - they tend to be pretty honest and usually don't have free time to try to hack things.
The hoops you jump through to get access to the subscribe to podcast button is all worked out and straighforward.
We have had much success selling subscriptions to online video streaming for medical education, so we anticipate the same success with the video podcasts. Plus, if you buy a DVD, you also get the podcast and the WMV for the same price, so it is a good deal.
Re: customized podcast feed by Jonathan Miller on Apr 19, 2006 at 9:33:29 pm
OK, so I've been working on this for a little while now.
I produce a podcast (all the video, some of the audio and all of the RSS) for a client.
He feels he has enough listeners to start offering a "Premium" RSS feed for paying customers.
We will continue to release material for free, through the standard RSS feed, but need a way to push premium for-pay content to an (initially) smaller audience.
None of the premium RSS content is live yet, but the free podcast can be found at www.birddogsforever.com
So, we have a shopping cart on the website that will process credit card payments. Once the charge is authorized, the customer gets an automated email letting them know that their "Private RSS Feed address" will be emailed to them within 24 hours.
That's the end of the automated process, and the rest is all manual (hence the 24-hour disclaimer).
So, we then get an email with the customer's contact information showing that they've paid for the premium feed. The next step is to head on over to FeedBurner. Currently on the Bird Dogs Forever (BDF) website there's a bdf.xml (the free feed) and a bdfpremium.xml (the paid feed.) iTunes lists the free feed and does NOT list the paid feed. The paid feed is linked to FeedBurner.
I'm using FeedBurner to protect the paid feed. The idea came to me when I was thinking about how to provide paid customers access to the premium feed, NOT have it password-protected but still allow me to "turn it off" for an INDIVIDUAL paid subscriber (say if, after a year they don't renew their paid subscription).
What FeedBurner allows, is to create a bunch of "children" feeds from an original "parent" feed. So, I put the bdfpremium.xml file on the podcast website, then create a new feed in FeedBurner that points to that premiumbdf.xml file. Whenever new items are added to the "parent" feed, the "child" feed at FeedBurner will update (within 30 minutes or immediately with a ping.)
Following me?
OK, so I'll keep that 1st child FeedBurner feed for myself and name it something like "BDF Premium Jon Miller" (this is only visible to the owner of the FeedBurner account). When I get notice that I have a paid subscriber, then I create another child that points to the SAME bdfpremium.xml file, and FeedBurner will append the address of that feed with a random 4 letters. This is cool. So, you give that feed the name of the paid subscriber like, "BDF Premium Joe Smith" but then send Joe an email with the address of the feed that FeedBurner created earlier (the address with have those 4 letters on the end of it.)
If the subscriber is using iTunes, then you just give them directions on how to subscribe to that RSS feed by going to "Advanced" in iTunes and typing that new address into the "Subscribe to Podcast" field. Or, you could work out a 1-click URL for the Mac and a seperate one for the PC.
Boom, they've got their premium content.
And, if there's ever a problem with their "account" then you just delete their individual "child" feed and it won't affect the other premium subscribers. Also, FeedBurner will give you stats to show if any of the "child" feeds are being distributed to more than a few people so you can see if that certain "child" feed is being shared by too many friends or family of the original subscriber!
I have to say, so far it seems pretty bulletproof, the simple drawback being that it's not automated. We don't know what the limit is for how many feeds you can publish through FeedBurner, but if you have a ton, then you should be able to work out a compensation deal with feedBurner.
I think that's it. This is much harder to explain than to do! I can have a new "child" feed emailed to the paid subscriber within a couple of minutes of getting an email from the shopping cart.
Let me know if anyone has any questions.
Jon (email is in my profile)
(I also produce Beyond the Movement, the Pilates Podcast www.thepilatespodcast.com and
The Rest of Everest Video Podcast at www.therestofeverest.com)
Re: customized podcast feed by Mike Cohen on May 5, 2006 at 5:23:21 pm
That is an interesting approach. It does not of course make it impossible for people to share the feed with their friends, and you have to manually check up on people.
I wonder how Apple does paid podcast, such as for tv shows sold through the itunes store.
DRM perhaps?
Re: customized podcast feed by Jonathan Miller on May 7, 2006 at 4:47:39 pm
Yes, you're right that it isn't a foolproof method. However, is anything 100% secure from sharing? If people really want to steal it by passing it around, they will. Most, however, will stay above the board.
The cool thing is that you can literally see if more than one person is using a particular feed. That rocks.
Also, keep in mind the price of this method.
At www.birddogsforever.com, we're up and running with my method and it's working like a charm.
I have no idea what it would entail to try and implement Apples DRM. You can password protect a feed, but that would take so much admin to keep things in order. And people can always share their password with others...
Re: customized podcast feed by StaceC on May 15, 2006 at 4:52:24 pm
You asked:
"I wonder how Apple does paid podcast, such as for tv shows sold through the itunes store."
I've actually met with Apple on this one - the short answer is that they don't do paid podcasts - podcasts are free and iTunes is only providing a directory/podcatcher for that material, where as paid downloads are through the iTunes store, which has an enitrely different infrastructure. Tv shows sold through the itunes store are actually paid downloads.
