Here is some good context:

EPISODE 157-Podcasting Lessons Learned

https://inteltechniques.com/blog/2020/02/14/the-privacy-security-osint-show-episode-157/

[23:18.20] Let’s talk about services,

[23:19.40] and this is where we can get into some anonymity things.

[23:21.92] There are a bunch of new companies

[23:23.76] that will allow you to host your podcast on their platform

[23:27.40] and then they will distribute your files for you.

[23:30.12] I have always used SoundCloud,

[23:32.16] but there are many others like Libson and Podbean,

[23:35.20] and there’s all kinds.

[23:36.24] Do your research and see what you like.

[23:38.80] Let’s first have a conversation about self-hosting.

[23:41.64] Yes, you could self-host your MP3 podcast files

[23:46.64] and you could create an RSS feed,

[23:51.04] self-hosted on your domain,

[23:52.56] which you could then send to Apple and Google

[23:54.64] and all the other players,

[23:55.72] and then they would add your feed to their platform.

[23:59.56] I don’t recommend this unless all of the following apply.

[24:04.64] One, you are comfortable manually creating RSS feeds

[24:08.40] for podcasts.

[24:09.40] If you know how to do that, okay,

[24:10.76] you’re already, you know what you’re doing anyway.

[24:13.84] Two, you have a dedicated server,

[24:15.88] a shared hosting account through Namecheap

[24:18.32] or GoDaddy or something like that,

[24:19.92] will work fine for your podcast

[24:22.16] until you get several hundred listeners

[24:24.24] and then you might run out of resources

[24:25.92] and now no one can get your podcast.

[24:27.64] Personally, I would never consider self-hosting my own podcast.

[24:32.00] Half of that is because I don’t want the responsibility

[24:34.84] of creating these RSS feeds.

[24:36.60] The other half is I would rather let a platform

[24:41.32] meant to host these files do the hosting for me.

[24:44.68] Again, I’m using SoundCloud,

[24:45.88] I think it’s about 130 bucks a year,

[24:47.84] but SoundCloud’s one of the very few

[24:51.56] that have a free tier.

[24:54.00] Most podcast hosts only have paid plans

[24:57.40] and you have to choose which level you want.

[24:59.24] With SoundCloud, your basic plan is free.

[25:02.00] It’s very limited.

[25:02.96] You get three hours total of upload time,

[25:06.28] very basic controls, but you could do it.

[25:10.12] What I like is if you are considering trying out a podcast

[25:14.56] but you’re not ready to commit,

[25:15.84] then SoundCloud would let you create it.

[25:18.32] You have up to three hours of shows

[25:20.52] you can upload with no cost, no commitment

[25:24.04] and you could use an alias name

[25:25.32] because there’s no payment involved.

[25:27.24] That’s one of the big benefits.

[25:28.68] From there, you would have to go to a pro-type plan.

[25:33.08] Again, I think it’s a little over a hundred bucks a year.

[25:34.76] It’s not crazy expensive,

[25:36.36] but it’s all those expenses, of course,

[25:38.28] add up when you’re trying to do these things.

[25:40.92] I’ve heard good things about Libson, L-I-B-S-Y-M.

[25:44.52] What I don’t like about their pricing plans is

[25:46.40] it’s based on total storage.

[25:49.24] So if I’m going to upload multiple hours a month,

[25:52.56] I might have to pay more than if I only upload an hour a month.

[25:56.20] That might actually be well for you,

[25:57.92] that all a cart type thing might be better.

[26:00.32] With Libson, you have to kind of decide

[26:02.52] how much am I going to upload, pick the appropriate plan.

[26:05.32] You can always upgrade if you need to,

[26:07.00] but that’s kind of a pain.

[26:08.68] My concerns about SoundCloud,

[26:11.48] I’ve had two outages where I couldn’t upload,

[26:13.84] I wouldn’t process, it was errors on their end.

[26:16.12] And at the time when that was happening,

[26:18.12] I was very frustrated and I was looking for other providers.

[26:20.80] In hindsight, it was only down for a few days each time.

[26:23.72] It’s not a huge deal.

[26:25.56] I guess it could be a huge deal if you have sponsors saying,

[26:27.80] “Hey, why is this show not out?”

[26:29.60] But for me, it didn’t really matter that much.

[26:32.20] My bigger concern with SoundCloud is they’ve been saying

[26:35.24] for years that they’re not making money

[26:37.04] and they’re laying off people.

[26:38.32] And that gives me concern, however,

[26:41.12] being that we haven’t seen it shut down

[26:43.56] or talk about shutting down,

[26:45.00] maybe they have their act together.

[26:46.96] I would do your research though,

[26:50.28] look into longevity, that’s very important,

[26:53.92] because if I set up the podcast and Apple accepts it

[26:58.00] and I have the RSS feed entered

[26:59.68] and everyone’s listening to it,

[27:01.32] but then SoundCloud shuts down tomorrow

[27:03.52] or whoever you’re using shuts down,

[27:05.48] you now have to create a new RSS feed

[27:08.08] and resubmit that it can be done.

[27:10.32] It’s just kind of a pain

[27:11.36] and you might lose some listeners that way.

[27:14.44] Not a huge deal, it can be fixed,

[27:16.64] but just things to consider.

[27:18.32] Overall, I’m happy now with SoundCloud

[27:22.92] and even with the large spikes of listeners I’ve seen,

[27:27.00] I’ve never noticed an outage or throttling of any sort.

[27:31.20] So I know they can take the load, if that makes sense.

[27:35.40] You can put show notes in your podcast feed

[27:39.56] through SoundCloud or wherever,

[27:41.20] but you should also have some type of website or blog.

[27:44.48] Personally, I would prefer something on your own domain,

[27:47.88] something you control,

[27:49.16] and I believe that you should replicate all your show notes

[27:51.32] on some type of web site,

[27:53.24] not just on the show notes portion of a sound file

[27:57.32] in an RSS feed.

[27:59.64] This could be a WordPress blog,

[28:01.84] it could be your own website.

[28:04.00] Sky’s the limit here,

[28:04.96] I just think you should have that separate area.

[28:06.76] I have the blog section on my website,

[28:08.80] Intel Techniques.com,

[28:09.88] all of my podcasts are posted there as well as everywhere else

[28:13.00] and all the show notes are there as well.

[28:15.24] That allows it to be indexed by Google and everyone else

[28:17.84] and it allows people to have a search function on your site.

Sadly no. All platforms seem to be wiped of all episodes too.

Yeah it can be annoying, but they have bills to pay as well. Maybe you can bum a copy off someone or somewhere when it pops up.

Here you go! https://pixeldrain.com/u/RVBGMk9r