Can you house your show on your website or do you need a podcast host?
The quick answer to “Do you need a podcast host?” is YES!
Unless you know how to whittle your own RSS feed (which most of us don’t), you’re going to need a podcast host to make sure every episode of your show gets from your computer into people’s ears.
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What is a podcast host?
A podcast host is the middleman between you and your listeners.
It’s the place where you’ll store all your podcast episodes and when you upload your first MP3 it’ll generate an ‘RSS feed.’
You can find this in the back end of your podcast host and it’s the thing you submit to podcast directories so they know your show exists and can display your episodes in people’s podcast app.
Your host is also the place you’ll see all of your show analytics.
Podcast stats don’t paint a perfect picture but they do give you important information that will help you make decisions about your content.
How does your podcast get into the podcast apps?
There are three things you need for a podcast to make its way to your audience…
- An MP3 file – this is the format you’ll save each episode in so you can upload it to…
- A podcast host – the website where you upload audio of all your episodes as well as your show description, artwork and any other information that’s displayed in podcast apps
- RSS Feed – this is what you submit to podcast apps (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify) so each new episode of your podcast is delivered straight to your subscriber’s / follower’s app as soon as it’s released
What podcast apps should you submit your show to?
Ideally, you want to be in all of them but at a minimum, you want to make sure your podcast is in the major apps and can be listened to on iPhone and Android phones.
That means it should be in these ones…
Then as many others as you can be bothered submitting to (you’ll find a very comprehensive list of podcast apps here, thanks to the good people at Podnews).
There are some apps that pull podcasts from directories like Apple Podcasts so your show might appear in some places you didn’t submit to but it’s always good to check it’s in as many apps as possible.
A note on free podcast hosts
When you’re starting out and you don’t want to spend a lot of money I understand why a free podcast host might sound appealing.
While your choice of host is ultimately up to you, one of the things I’d say about free podcast hosts is to make sure you read the Ts & Cs thoroughly because if you’re not paying with cash you want to make sure you’re not paying with something else i.e. your intellectual property.
There have been problems with free podcast hosts in the past refusing to let users move old episodes of their show to another host or making changes to show notes without their approval.
Wherever you house your podcast you need to have complete control over the content because it’s your IP and no one should be able to mess with that.
So make sure you know what you’re getting into before you start uploading your audio.
Got a burning podcasting question you’d like answered? Send me an email.
Want to start your own podcast but need a little help? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
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