[Wicher]

RSS is great for informing readers of new content. Sadly only a few actually use it, except (unknowingly, for a large part of the population) for... Podcasts.

So, thinking out loud: you could offer people to subscribe to your website by publishing a RSS feed with dummy audio, using a link in the the episode description to get people to hop through to your website. And then you offer the appropriate "subscribe in iTunes / Spotify / generic podcasting app" buttons on your website page.

And then suddenly the masses can sign up to your updates! And they can easily unsubscribe! And you don't have to deal with email, and can use static file hosting! There'd even be a discovery inroad as presumably the Apples and Spotifies of this world will push it through the personalized recommendations pipe just as they would for any other podcast.

It's a bit subversive but it would work wouldn't it?

[rad-b]

Good idea, and unfortunately one of those that would work only while it’s not popular. If it turns out to be good enough to become popular, here comes the enforcement.

[Wicher]

It'd be hard to detect from structure. Episode descriptions can and do legitimately have links. And if/when it comes to deep inspection, instead of a dummy audio file one could use a TTS-ed audio version of the post, there's some legitimacy there. You can even flip it around and claim that the blogpost is the "audio transcription" "for those who want it".

But yeah let's not underestimate the power we're giving these platforms. If down the road it doesn't match the monetization strategy? Platform giveth, platform taketh.