TPU EP:28 – Which is the Best Podcast Host for Your Podcast?

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[0:00:37] Hello and welcome to episode #28 of the Podcasting University. This is your host, Dilip . And in today's episode we are going to talk about a very important aspect of starting a podcast that is finding

[0:00:57] a good podcast host for your podcast. When I started my podcasting journey way back in 2015 if I remember it right.

[0:01:06] Podcasting wasn't something that was known in India. Now there weren't really any good as in I should say there wasn't really any podcast host in the Indian market and there were just a few names that I knew which were about SoundCloud, Libsyn and blubrry, all of which were in the international market.

[0:01:27] And the worst part about the fact that there weren't any podcasting platform in India was that whatever was available in the international market were all paid platforms and they used to charge you in dollars. Now for example, libsyn and Blubrry would charge you somewhere around $9 to $10.

[0:01:47] A month

[0:01:48] It turned out to be about 600 to ₹700 per month only for the hosting. So which meant that even before I had started a podcast and I knew what the podcasting world would be, I had to make a financial commitment and I wasn't really ready to make a financial commitment.

[0:02:08] Before I actually tested the waters

[0:02:10] so I went through a lot of difficulty understanding about podcasting hosts, finding a good podcasting host, and trying to put together a podcast for myself. Now while starting the podcast wasn't that difficult because there were a lot of tutorials that were available.

[0:02:30] On YouTube and I followed the a simple free Podcast, Start a podcast video tutorial from Pat Flynn so it wasn't difficult for me to kind of set things up together.

[0:02:43] But to find the right infrastructure was a big problem. What I finally had to do is that I decided that I will host the audio files on my own on an Amazon S3 server, a space that I was owning for some time. So I decided that I will host these audio files on Amazon.

[0:03:04] Now the bigger problem was generating the RSS feed, because if you had to host a podcast and submit it to different podcasting directories, you had to have an RSS feed.

[0:03:18] Now, how do you generate this RSS feed? That was where my quest went after that and after a lot of research.

[0:03:24] I found that there was a WordPress plugin called as Blueberry Podcasting plugin which I could install on my WordPress blog and which will help me generate the RSS feed that is required to be submitted to the podcasting directories.

[0:03:38] Once I figured that out, I came to the next problem which was distributing this podcast to the various platforms.

[0:03:46] Now there were a few platforms that I knew, like for example Apple Podcasts, which is called as iTunes then. Then there were Stitcher Radio, TuneIn Radio and a couple of other directories that I knew about.

[0:03:58] Distributing to these directories meant that I had to go and manually do it by creating an account, submitting the RSS feed, waiting for them to approve, and there were a host of other steps that were in.

[0:04:10] Once I did that, it took me almost about a month to distribute the podcast to all of these directories, and once I did, all of that came

[0:04:18] The next problem that was promoting it and for almost about the first three months there were absolute crickets on my podcast. There wasn't anybody who's listening to the show.

[0:04:29] And I had to spend a lot of time promoting the podcast to get the initial listeners to my show.

[0:04:37] All in all, the entire journey was a huge struggle. Now if I Fast forward it to six years from then in 2021, and the Indian podcasting market has changed has changed drastically, there are so many companies that have come into India. They are launching their podcasting.

[0:04:57] Networks they're launching their podcast hosts, so there are a lot of infrastructural activities that are going around podcasting and this has helped all other podcasters immensely.

[0:05:11] So coming back to the topic that we were talking about - how to find a good podcast host for your podcast, now understand that there are three primary problems when you start with podcasting.

[0:05:22] The first one is to get the RSS feed created and the related technicalities with the feed. The second one is distribution.

[0:05:31] to various platforms so that you get the initial eyeballs to your show and the third one is the promotions and the visibility. Now keeping these three criteria in mind, there are three hosting platforms that I recommend.

[0:05:47] Now these three hosting platforms are doing exceptionally well, and while there could be instances where somebody might not be satisfied with one of them and they'll be satisfied with the other, but these three platforms are worth checking out. The first one, Hubhopper, is where I host this show, which is The Podcasting University.

[0:06:07] And I recommend them because they have a lot of good features. They provide free hosting and an excellent studio to record and edit your podcast.

[0:06:16] So starting off with Hopper is pretty easy. It's very easy to use and the initial support in terms of distributing your podcast to some of these platforms and the initial kick to the promotions is all taken care of to some extent by Hubhopper, and that gives you the initial push that is.

[0:06:36] required from a promotional standpoint, the only one thing that I missed in Hubhopper is the ability to schedule my episodes in advance, because when I batch produce my episodes, it would have been easier if I could schedule these episodes on a specific day that I wanted it to be released.

[0:06:53] Now I also liked Hubhopper because they were the first ones that I actually happened to interact with, when this entire podcasting thing started gathering heat in India, and you know they were a startup and I liked their support structure and there were a lot of things that I liked

[0:07:13] about them, and just because they were a startup, I liked them that for that reason as well. So most of these reasons led me to kind of.

[0:07:22] engage in a conversation with them and launch this podcast as a Hubhopper original. Now there were a couple of other platforms also that we interacted with.

[0:07:31] Like for example, we interacted with audio boom 2, which is where we hosted the other podcasts that we run, which is the tastes of India podcast. So audio boom is no more operating from India so.

[0:07:43] Hubhopper is my first choice when it comes to hosting Platforms.

[0:07:47] The second one is anchor. Now anchor is another free platform that has a lot of good and handy features.

[0:07:55] It is a part of Spotify which gives you some additional benefits, like for example their analytics is much much better than a lot of the other hosts out there, and they provide you a lot in terms of the analytics.

[0:08:08] Including pretty accurate analytics for Spotify because with most of the other hosts you will find that the Spotify Analytics is a little choppy.

[0:08:18] Also, there is a scheduling option with anchor which will help you if you are batch producing your episode.

[0:08:23] And they have decent distribution and promotional opportunities. Now the best part about anchor is that they also offer you some sponsorship opportunities right when you start off with your podcast.

[0:08:36] Though I'm not saying that that will help you monetize your podcast immediately, but there is still that hope that.

[0:08:43] there is a channel that can support you in terms of providing the sponsorship opportunities.

[0:08:49] The third one is castbox. Now Castbox is again a free option. They have decent analytics, though it's not the best, but it lacks all of the bells and whistles that you will find in a lot many other hosting platforms like you know, editing, recording, processing, features and all of that, but there is.

[0:09:09] One good feature about Castbox, which is an offer that they give you to apply to be featured on their platform.

[0:09:16] So which means your show will be featured on their platform. So that way you'll be able to get some promotion in terms of reaching out to a new audience.

[0:09:25] with your show.

[0:09:26] There is a fourth platform that I just wanted to talk about. That is why I did not include that in the three hosting platforms that I recommend.

[0:09:33] This is ManicPod. Manicpod isn't something that I've used, but I've heard a lot of good things about them.

[0:09:40] though I don't have a first hand knowledge about how they work, but things that I've heard about them is pretty good.

[0:09:46] So if you are interested in looking for an alternative to Hubhopper, Anchor and Castbox.

[0:09:52] Then I would recommend you check out Manicpod as well. There are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind when you're selecting a host and this is pretty important because it actually impacts the entire podcasting journey.

[0:10:05] So what are these things? Number one - Ensure that you are checking for the content rights because you don't want your content.

[0:10:12] To be under somebody elses ownership. So you need to ensure that you're checking who the rights ownership is with when you're submitting a podcast to a specific host. Ensure that you're reading the fine print on the rights to edit content descriptions, placing ads, etc.

[0:10:31] Yes, there are a lot of podcast hosts who edit the descriptions. They edit the content and they also place ads on your show without actually talking to you or taking consent from you.

[0:10:42] The third thing is you need to check if there are any hidden charges with the host. Then you might want to evaluate which podcasting host

[0:10:51] gives you the most benefit.

[0:10:53] And another important aspect is to check if your host has an option of redirecting your feed in case you move over to a different host, because if they don't provide you that option, then there is a high possibility that you will lose a lot of visitors when you move over an established podcast.

[0:11:14] from one host to another.

[0:11:16] And finally, the ease of use because you need to have the ability to add all of the links to the directories that you will have to manually submit to.

[0:11:24] Like for example Apple Podcasts and there are a couple of other directories where you might want to manually submit your podcast to. So you need to have that ability to adding all of those links to your show to your dashboard so that.

[0:11:36] Your player displays all of those directories as well, so keep in mind these things that I just spoke about because these are extremely critical in deciding who the right podcast host for you is.

[0:11:50] So I hope that answers a lot of your question on choosing the right podcast host for your podcast. That's all that I have for this episode.

[0:11:59] I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did do visit the podcasting university.com and let me know your thoughts about the show.

[0:12:09] and episode by commenting in there you will be able to find the show notes, the resources and a transcript of this episode at thepodcastinguniversity.com/28. That's all that I have for this week.

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[0:12:49] for podcasting in India, you should be able to find the links to this club on the show notes on the podcasting university.com.

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[0:13:20] You'll be able to find that at thepodcastinguniversity.com/free-guide. That's all that I have for you this week. I'll be back again in another two weeks with

[0:13:32] another interesting aspect of podcasting. Until then, keep listening to the podcasting university and don't forget to subscribe to the show.