For podcast hosts
Podcast hosts use Patreon for premium episodes + Discord for community + a Wix page for show notes - juggling three tools with low conversion.
Reign + BuddyNext + MemberPress hosts premium episodes, show notes and the listener community on one membership site. BuddyNext installs free; MemberPress does the paywall.
The listener feed, episode discussion threads and audio or video hosting, free to install. You buy the Reign theme; BuddyNext, Jetonomy and MediaVerse are ours and install free.
Premium episode tier replaces Patreon + Stripe commission.
Episode-specific discussion threads in Jetonomy, free to install.
Search-indexed show notes for SEO + ad revenue.
You launch with an episode archive, a members area for supporters, and a discussion space per episode or topic. Episodes are posts with the player embedded and show notes attached, supporters get a tier that unlocks bonus material, and the community is where listeners talk to each other rather than only to you. Episode pages become the searchable archive a podcast host otherwise never owns.
A listener finds an episode through search, listens, and reads the notes. Becoming a member happens when there is something only members get: early episodes, bonus material, or the discussion itself. Once inside, the ones who post are the ones who renew. Over months the episode archive becomes the thing bringing in new listeners, because transcripts and notes rank where audio cannot.
Supporter memberships at $5 to $20 a month are the common model, with bonus episodes and ad-free feeds as the unlock. Sponsorship remains the larger line for most shows, and having your own site with real traffic improves what you can charge. Some hosts sell courses or live events to the same list, which is where the membership base pays off.
Not publishing transcripts. Audio is invisible to search, so a podcast without transcripts has no way of being discovered by anyone not already listening. Even rough automatic transcripts on episode pages bring in traffic that no amount of promotion matches.
Yes - WordPress media library + Seriously Simple Podcasting for RSS distribution. Or use Castos / Buzzsprout hosting + just link.
No - run both. Patreon for casual listeners, Reign for premium tier. Same audience, different conversion funnels.
You can, but use a proper podcast host and embed the player. Audio hosting has bandwidth and RSS requirements that a general web host handles badly. The site is the archive, the community and the membership; the podcast host does distribution.
A membership plugin generates a tokenised RSS feed per member, which their podcast app accepts like any other. Test it in two or three apps before launching the tier, because feed handling varies and a bonus feed that does not load is an immediate refund request.
They are the single biggest SEO win available to a podcast. Audio is invisible to search; a transcript on the episode page is not. Even lightly cleaned automatic transcripts bring in traffic no amount of promotion would.
No, and that is largely the point. A membership plugin handles tiers and payments on your own site, with the private feed generated per member, and you keep the subscriber emails and the percentage.
Slowly, with something that only exists on your site: bonus episodes, an archive, the community. Mention it in the show rather than only in the notes, and accept that a small share converts.
BuddyNext, Jetonomy and MediaVerse cost nothing to install, and each has its own Pro plan for later. Running the third-party stack instead? The BuddyPress Community Bundle kit is the packaged route. Or have the Wbcom team install either one for $699 flat.
I only have positive experience with wbcom. My journey started a lot of years back with the free buddyx theme. during my learning of wordpress and futher websites ideas I found a match with their Reign job mate theme. Always there to help, always open to explore ideas, always kind replyes even if I…
Swift and expert coding by Kerit to apply a personalised display adjustment on the Reign Theme for a media plugin that was not fully supported at the moment.
I purchased Reign theme from Wbcom Designs, the support team was very helpful and I got the perfect website what I was looking for. Good work Wbcom Designs
WBComDesigns is amazing. The WP plugins and themes are of top notch quality with lots of features and updated very frequently. Supports are very responsive and helpful. I use Reign with TutorLMS, and the experience is surprisingly smooth. The recently launched BuddyNext Pro and MediaShield Pro are…
Love this company. Loved the REIGN product. They were there the entire time helping me set things up; and when things went wrong? They were quick to take action and help find a solution.
I am using the REIGN theme and several plugins from Wbcom Designs on my website. The theme is beautifully designed, and the plugins are user-friendly. Everything works smoothly, and the features are perfect for building professional websites and communities. What impressed me most is their…
Camila Scot of Wbcom was helpful. I got a super prompt help with my BuddyX Theme. Although I am a free version user, I got irst attention. I am satisfied. I will eventually buy the lifetime version once we fully deploy it and we are sure it meets our need.
I've used several of their plugins. Occasionally support was needed but they were quite prompt in their support and solved the issue.
A plugin made a conflict and they fixed it immediately, great plugins anf great support.
They provided me great advice on how to achieve the best display and function for my blog.
