August 24, 2026 • 8 mins
We break down three practical ways to create a private podcast with listener experience in mind. We also explain what “private” means when it comes to using an RSS feed, and how to pick the best option for you and your podcasting goals.
Resource Mentioned: Unlocking the Value of Premium Content
If you have questions about offering a private podcast, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com
Have a topic or question we should address on a future episode? Text us or email the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team at support@buzzsprout.com.
Keep podcasting!
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Episode Transcript
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Cara Pacetti (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at Buzz Sprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
Today's episode is actually afollow-up to last week's episode
where we talked all about whenit makes the most sense to offer
(00:22):
a private podcast.
So in this episode, I reallywant to walk through the how.
So, how are we going to createa private podcast and make it
accessible to the audience thatwe're targeting?
There are many different waysto approach this.
And really, the best optiondepends on what you want your
listeners to experience.
Today I'm going to share threedifferent ways of offering a
(00:44):
private podcast, how each ofthose options work, and what
type of audience would benefitmost.
The first and simplest optionhere is to actually create an
unlisted podcast.
So you would walk through thesteps of creating a podcast as
if you were going to submit itto the directories, but you
would just avoid that last stepof submitting that RSS feed to
(01:05):
the listening directories,keeping it somewhat private.
So a little caveat here is thatwhen you publish your episodes
on an RSS feed, RSS feeds are bynature public.
So even though you're notsubmitting them to the
directories, and while it'shighly unlikely, it's still
possible someone could discoveryour podcast, especially if a
listener shares the RSS feed URLwith someone else.
(01:28):
So because of that, we'llactually call this first option
for offering your podcast ahard-to-find podcast instead of
referring to it as completelyprivate.
So the way this works is thatyou would publish your episodes
and they would still go on yourRSS feed.
The cool thing about this iswhen you are hosted here on
BuzzSprout and you're on any ofour paid plans, your episodes
(01:51):
will be added to your podcastingwebsite.
And that website can be shareddirectly to your listeners.
You can also use our embedplayers to embed these episodes
to your own personal website ifyou have that.
Another pro tip if you'rehosted here on BuzzSprout is to
actually hide your BuzzSproutwebsite from search engines.
You can do that right frominside your BuzzSprout account
(02:13):
so that when anyone is searchingterms related to your podcast
in their search engines, yourwebsite won't appear as an
option.
So what type of audience wouldbenefit from this type of
hard-to-find podcast?
This is a great option when youwant something to be simple and
free for the listeners, but youdon't necessarily need it to be
(02:34):
super strict when it comes toaccess control.
If it is to be discovered bysomeone who's not in your direct
audience, it's not the end ofthe world.
But ideally, the only peoplelistening to these episodes are
those who you are sending thisdirect link to or who are
visiting your personal websitewhere you have embedded these
episodes.
Another fun option for offeringa private podcast is actually
(02:58):
to create a community or amembership around the podcast.
You can do this through amembership platform like Patreon
or Kajabi.
Both platforms can providelisteners with a private RSS
feed so they can listen to yourepisodes in their favorite
podcasting app instead of havingto log into a website every
time.
I want to walk through both ofthese because they are actually
(03:18):
created for different purposes.
So Patreon is what's consideredbest for your fans or your
audience.
Patreon is really built aroundthe idea of listeners supporting
a creator and getting theirfavorite exclusive content in
return.
In my last episode, we used anexample of creating a podcast
that's focused on reality TVshows, but then offering
(03:41):
exclusive episodes about certainseasons of really popular TV
shows.
This would be a greatopportunity to offer the private
version of your podcast as oneof the perks of joining a paid
membership.
And in addition to that, youcan offer other perks alongside
the podcast, like bonus content,behind the scenes material,
(04:01):
polls, chats, or other exclusiveposts.
Patreon makes the most sense ifyou're thinking, I have fans
who want more content from meand I want to give them not only
a private podcast, but I alsowant the experience to be super
interactive.
Now, Kajabi, on the other hand,is best for courses and
professional content.
(04:21):
So Kajabi takes a morebusiness-focused approach.
You can use Kajabi to offer aprivate podcast as a part of
your course, coaching program,membership, or another paid
offer.
Kajabi will provide yourlisteners with a private RSS
feed so they can use that feedto add it to their favorite
podcasting app.
But instead of the podcastbeing the main product, it's one
(04:45):
piece of a larger experience.
For example, if you are acoach, you could provide your
clients with a course with videolessons or worksheets within
the membership account that yourlisteners are creating with
Kajabi.
In addition to these resourcesthey are getting with their
membership, they also haveaccess to the private podcast
with additional coaching orlessons that they can listen to
(05:08):
on their favorite podcastingapp.
So Kajabi makes more sense ifyou're thinking, I'm creating a
professional course or program,and I also want to provide a
podcast to be a part of what I'moffering.
So the big takeaway betweenthese two membership platforms
is that Patreon is more fanfocused, while Kajabi is more
business and course focused.
(05:28):
But both are great forpodcasters because they make it
really easy for listeners toconsume the private podcast
you're creating by providing aprivate RSS feed for members to
listen to using their favoritepodcasting apps.
The last option here (05:41):
if you are not looking for a full
membership experience, but youalso want this content to be
locked behind a paywall so thatit is only available to those
paying members, I recommendusing a service like BuzzSprout
Subscriptions.
So if you're hosted here withus on BuzzSprout, you'll have
access to the subscriptionsfeature if you are on any of our
(06:05):
paid plans.
And when you enablesubscriptions, you'll have
multiple options for offeringyour premium content, including
premium episodes.
So you can choose just a coupleof episodes to remain private,
placed behind a paywall.
You can offer early access toyour subscribers.
You can offer back catalogaccess.
You can even put an entirepodcast behind a paywall.
(06:28):
So making it a subscriber-onlypodcast.
And you can also offer ad-freeepisodes.
This works in a similar way asKajabi and Patreon, where the
listeners will receive a privateRSS feed to use in their
favorite podcasting app.
But the beauty of this optionis that it's available right
inside of your BuzzSproutaccount.
So from uploading andpublishing your premium episodes
(06:50):
to accepting payments, it's allhandled right inside of your
podcast host account whereyou're already uploading your
public content.
So if you want to know a littlemore about how BuzzSprout
subscriptions work, we'veactually covered it in a recent
podcast and QA episode calledUnlocking the Value of Premium
Content.
I'll go ahead and link thatepisode in the show notes.
(07:11):
So just a quick recap whichoption would work best for you.
I want you to think about itthis way.
If you want your privatepodcast to be free and simple
and it doesn't have to be securebehind a lock and key, keep the
podcast outside of the publicdirectories and share the direct
link to your episodes or yourpodcasting website with your
listeners directly.
(07:32):
If you want to podcast and acommunity, use a platform like
Patreon or Kajabi and make thisprivate podcast part of the
overall membership experience.
And if you want to make surethat the content you're creating
remains private while alsousing this as an option for
monetization, check out BestRoute Subscriptions.
This will allow you to placecontent you feel adds value
(07:55):
behind a paywall for yourlisteners.
Just like everything inpodcasting, there really isn't
one right way to create aprivate podcast, but you
definitely have options.
The right option for your showwill depend on the reason you're
making it private in the firstplace.
If you have questions about howto start a private podcast, you
can reach out to us on thepodcaster success team by
(08:16):
emailing support atbuzzsprout.com.
Make sure to send in anyquestions you'd like answered on
a future episode by clickingthe send us fan mail link in the
show notes.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And as always, keep podcasting.
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at Buzz Sprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
Today's episode is actually afollow-up to last week's episode
where we talked all about whenit makes the most sense to offer
(00:22):
a private podcast.
So in this episode, I reallywant to walk through the how.
So, how are we going to createa private podcast and make it
accessible to the audience thatwe're targeting?
There are many different waysto approach this.
And really, the best optiondepends on what you want your
listeners to experience.
Today I'm going to share threedifferent ways of offering a
(00:44):
private podcast, how each ofthose options work, and what
type of audience would benefitmost.
The first and simplest optionhere is to actually create an
unlisted podcast.
So you would walk through thesteps of creating a podcast as
if you were going to submit itto the directories, but you
would just avoid that last stepof submitting that RSS feed to
(01:05):
the listening directories,keeping it somewhat private.
So a little caveat here is thatwhen you publish your episodes
on an RSS feed, RSS feeds are bynature public.
So even though you're notsubmitting them to the
directories, and while it'shighly unlikely, it's still
possible someone could discoveryour podcast, especially if a
listener shares the RSS feed URLwith someone else.
(01:28):
So because of that, we'llactually call this first option
for offering your podcast ahard-to-find podcast instead of
referring to it as completelyprivate.
So the way this works is thatyou would publish your episodes
and they would still go on yourRSS feed.
The cool thing about this iswhen you are hosted here on
BuzzSprout and you're on any ofour paid plans, your episodes
(01:51):
will be added to your podcastingwebsite.
And that website can be shareddirectly to your listeners.
You can also use our embedplayers to embed these episodes
to your own personal website ifyou have that.
Another pro tip if you'rehosted here on BuzzSprout is to
actually hide your BuzzSproutwebsite from search engines.
You can do that right frominside your BuzzSprout account
(02:13):
so that when anyone is searchingterms related to your podcast
in their search engines, yourwebsite won't appear as an
option.
So what type of audience wouldbenefit from this type of
hard-to-find podcast?
This is a great option when youwant something to be simple and
free for the listeners, but youdon't necessarily need it to be
(02:34):
super strict when it comes toaccess control.
If it is to be discovered bysomeone who's not in your direct
audience, it's not the end ofthe world.
But ideally, the only peoplelistening to these episodes are
those who you are sending thisdirect link to or who are
visiting your personal websitewhere you have embedded these
episodes.
Another fun option for offeringa private podcast is actually
(02:58):
to create a community or amembership around the podcast.
You can do this through amembership platform like Patreon
or Kajabi.
Both platforms can providelisteners with a private RSS
feed so they can listen to yourepisodes in their favorite
podcasting app instead of havingto log into a website every
time.
I want to walk through both ofthese because they are actually
(03:18):
created for different purposes.
So Patreon is what's consideredbest for your fans or your
audience.
Patreon is really built aroundthe idea of listeners supporting
a creator and getting theirfavorite exclusive content in
return.
In my last episode, we used anexample of creating a podcast
that's focused on reality TVshows, but then offering
(03:41):
exclusive episodes about certainseasons of really popular TV
shows.
This would be a greatopportunity to offer the private
version of your podcast as oneof the perks of joining a paid
membership.
And in addition to that, youcan offer other perks alongside
the podcast, like bonus content,behind the scenes material,
(04:01):
polls, chats, or other exclusiveposts.
Patreon makes the most sense ifyou're thinking, I have fans
who want more content from meand I want to give them not only
a private podcast, but I alsowant the experience to be super
interactive.
Now, Kajabi, on the other hand,is best for courses and
professional content.
(04:21):
So Kajabi takes a morebusiness-focused approach.
You can use Kajabi to offer aprivate podcast as a part of
your course, coaching program,membership, or another paid
offer.
Kajabi will provide yourlisteners with a private RSS
feed so they can use that feedto add it to their favorite
podcasting app.
But instead of the podcastbeing the main product, it's one
(04:45):
piece of a larger experience.
For example, if you are acoach, you could provide your
clients with a course with videolessons or worksheets within
the membership account that yourlisteners are creating with
Kajabi.
In addition to these resourcesthey are getting with their
membership, they also haveaccess to the private podcast
with additional coaching orlessons that they can listen to
(05:08):
on their favorite podcastingapp.
So Kajabi makes more sense ifyou're thinking, I'm creating a
professional course or program,and I also want to provide a
podcast to be a part of what I'moffering.
So the big takeaway betweenthese two membership platforms
is that Patreon is more fanfocused, while Kajabi is more
business and course focused.
(05:28):
But both are great forpodcasters because they make it
really easy for listeners toconsume the private podcast
you're creating by providing aprivate RSS feed for members to
listen to using their favoritepodcasting apps.
The last option here (05:41):
if you are not looking for a full
membership experience, but youalso want this content to be
locked behind a paywall so thatit is only available to those
paying members, I recommendusing a service like BuzzSprout
Subscriptions.
So if you're hosted here withus on BuzzSprout, you'll have
access to the subscriptionsfeature if you are on any of our
(06:05):
paid plans.
And when you enablesubscriptions, you'll have
multiple options for offeringyour premium content, including
premium episodes.
So you can choose just a coupleof episodes to remain private,
placed behind a paywall.
You can offer early access toyour subscribers.
You can offer back catalogaccess.
You can even put an entirepodcast behind a paywall.
(06:28):
So making it a subscriber-onlypodcast.
And you can also offer ad-freeepisodes.
This works in a similar way asKajabi and Patreon, where the
listeners will receive a privateRSS feed to use in their
favorite podcasting app.
But the beauty of this optionis that it's available right
inside of your BuzzSproutaccount.
So from uploading andpublishing your premium episodes
(06:50):
to accepting payments, it's allhandled right inside of your
podcast host account whereyou're already uploading your
public content.
So if you want to know a littlemore about how BuzzSprout
subscriptions work, we'veactually covered it in a recent
podcast and QA episode calledUnlocking the Value of Premium
Content.
I'll go ahead and link thatepisode in the show notes.
(07:11):
So just a quick recap whichoption would work best for you.
I want you to think about itthis way.
If you want your privatepodcast to be free and simple
and it doesn't have to be securebehind a lock and key, keep the
podcast outside of the publicdirectories and share the direct
link to your episodes or yourpodcasting website with your
listeners directly.
(07:32):
If you want to podcast and acommunity, use a platform like
Patreon or Kajabi and make thisprivate podcast part of the
overall membership experience.
And if you want to make surethat the content you're creating
remains private while alsousing this as an option for
monetization, check out BestRoute Subscriptions.
This will allow you to placecontent you feel adds value
(07:55):
behind a paywall for yourlisteners.
Just like everything inpodcasting, there really isn't
one right way to create aprivate podcast, but you
definitely have options.
The right option for your showwill depend on the reason you're
making it private in the firstplace.
If you have questions about howto start a private podcast, you
can reach out to us on thepodcaster success team by
(08:16):
emailing support atbuzzsprout.com.
Make sure to send in anyquestions you'd like answered on
a future episode by clickingthe send us fan mail link in the
show notes.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And as always, keep podcasting.
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