• redacted_user_nameOPM
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    1 year ago

    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.