Podcasting Free with web plans

[radioservers]

Hello,
Radioservers.com is a privately owned webhost and design firm that specializes in radio station and internet broadcast sites. In addition to designing some of the top websites in the business, we also offer extremely secure webhosting and podcasting.

Our top two hosting plans include podcasting software, training and hosting STANDARD. You pay nothing extra.

Our other plans can include podcasting support for just a few dollars more per month.

Our servers are certified secure with Secuity Matrix and are limited in how many sites are on each server.

We've seen way too many companies pop up who want to charge a huge fee for podcasting. We believe it should be a standard webhosting feature.

For details, visit http://www.radioservers.com

Thank you,
Larry Liston
Radioservers.com

[SFEley]

Our other plans can include podcasting support for just a few dollars more per month.
[...]
We've seen way too many companies pop up who want to charge a huge fee for podcasting. We believe it should be a standard webhosting feature.

Um.

[SFEley]

Oh, and having just taken a glance at their site, I feel a responsibility to point out that their prices are totally insane. They want $38 a month for 15 gigabytes of bandwidth.

Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?sfeley) (yes that's a referral link, don't click it if you don't want to) gives me 120 gigabytes of bandwidth and more standard features than these guys for less than $10 a month.

I don't "pay extra for podcasting" with them, either. I just put audio files in a directory and run a Wordpress blog. Nothing simpler.

[Patrick]

You'll find that 120GB won't even sustain your podcast for long.

I use my own host that I've used for awhile for hosting my site, but my media files are with libsyn and I couldn't be happier. I always get 220kbps (frequently even more) and there are no bandwidth limits.

Very cool system and service. Stats engine is amazing too.

[SFEley]

You'll find that 120GB won't even sustain your podcast for long.
You're right. Or at least, I hope you're right. >8-> However, I also believe in the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" dictum, and for today Dreamhost is adequate. I've moved 22GB in the first half of this month; maybe next month I'll have to move to Libsyn or some other unlimited solution, if things continue to scale at this rate, but right now I like having the control I do.

I use my own host that I've used for awhile for hosting my site, but my media files are with libsyn and I couldn't be happier. I always get 220kbps (frequently even more) and there are no bandwidth limits.
Yeah, I've been watching closely for some time now to see if anyone's been complaining about Libsyn's performance. So far complaints seem relatively scarce. When they announced their service in February I was skeptical -- I wasn't sure how their business model could sustain itself, and if they turned out to have unacceptable transfer speeds or folded in a couple of months I didn't want to have to switch back. As it happens, though, they appear to be doing just fine for themselves. So I'll probably be comfortable with them when I need to switch out. (Though I'll keep my Web site and all other materials at Dreamhost.)

Meanwhile, though, the initial point stands: this "Radioservers.com" site lists pricing and bandwidth that shouldn't be reasonable for anybody.

[Patrick]

Yeah I researched opinions and monitored podcasts on libsyn before switching - Keith & the Girl, Skepticality, others. They all move quick as lightning, the service is great, support is responsive and the new stats rock.

[jeffoest]

Excellent to hear all that about Libsyn. I'm ready to move whenever my bandwidth limit where I'm at is in jeapardy.

I'll share our experience with growth. Our first two months showed such high percentage growth that i though i would be running out of bandwidth very very quickly if I assumed that that same level of growth continued. It didn't. Currently it's still growing at healthy percentage but not like the first two months. From what I can tell, I find similar growth curves for most other podcasts as well. Fast at the start - Slower after a couple of months - this actually make sense I think for a lot of reasons.

So just be careful about projecting things out given the early growth rate - chances are you may not need that kind of bandwidth if you straight-line it. BUT, that said, be prepared!

[Patrick]

You can't beat $5 whether you need it or not. The new libsyn stats are worth that i think.

The stats are based off the media files, not the feed, and they show aggregators and what the most popular clients are. They also adjust your numbers down to avoid over-reporting for multiple hits from the same clients.

[jeffoest]

You can't beat $5 whether you need it or not. The new libsyn stats are worth that i think.

The stats are based off the media files, not the feed, and they show aggregators and what the most popular clients are. They also adjust your numbers down to avoid over-reporting for multiple hits from the same clients.

I agree - to be honest, if I had known now what I know now I just would have gone with libsyn for the mp3 hosting and the host I was already using for some other sites... but as is - I'm very happy with my host provider - they are surprisingly good and cheap and they let me host multiple domains which I do since I have some other sites.

[Patrick]

I'm with you Jeff.

My host is www.gearhost.com - I pay $24.95 a month but get to host multiple domains, SQL and MySQL databases, tons of email accounts, 30GB of transfer and 1000MB of storage. There are cheaper hosts but these guys are on a super fast network and it's good quality Windows hosting which can be hard to find.

I host about 5 sites there now including NLO. Unfortunately (and fortunately) I blew through my bandwidth with Episode 1. Libsyn is the perfect solution to just host my media. When you get ready to go over, don't hesitate.

[radioservers]

Our prices are set based on the security and limited amountof accounts per server. We have less than 10 accounts per server while many unlimited services have several hundred.

There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. Wholesale bandwidth costs more than what some hosting companies charge. They oversell based on the averages and hoping you will not go over, or they squeeze the pipe down where you can only get a few k through per second. Few unlimited hosts are Security-Matrix approved either. If you take credit card subscriptions for content, you must have this or face a half million dollar suit from Visa, etc for any breaches of customer info.

It's just a matter of preference. They are two different animals. If you are doing podcasting only I agree with your assessment. However if you are doing it say, commercially and need security and guaranteed pipelines, then we offer a fair deal.

I just threw the post up as a fan of podcasting, not as an attempt to compete with the pod-specific hosts out there.

Plenty of choices in the web world...

LL

[Patrick]

You know what we mean by unlimited bandwidth - no bandwidth restrictions.

Second of all, security and guaranteed pipelines are great, but you came on here advertising podcasting packages. Charging $40 a month for a podcasting package with only 15GB of bandwidth tells me two things:

A) You don't know what podcastest need. 15GB is bandwidth is laughable to a successful podcast.

B) You don't know who podcasters are. Podcasters don't have $40 per month to spend on hosting - much less hosting that isn't going to provide them with what they need.

Libsyn has you guys licked every which way with hosting services that are REALLY for podcasters. It sounds to me like you're a hosting company just trying to cash in on the podcasting craze.

[tdkyo]

Trust me. I had a couple of years of webhosting experience.

Unlimited Bandwidth = Fishy smell = Terrible server uptimes.

There is no such thing as unlimited space or bandwidth that is reliable in the webhosting world. Be very careful of resellers hosting companies that are trying to rip your money off from you! They might be hosted under an unreliable datacenter! That means your podcast will be on and offline intermittently! :!:

[Patrick]

I'll keep my eye on it.

[SFEley]

Trust me. I had a couple of years of webhosting experience.

Unlimited Bandwidth = Fishy smell = Terrible server uptimes.

That's what I thought too, but the fact is that a lot of major podcasts are now hosted with Libsyn, including many on my own subscription list, and I've rarely seen any problems at all. Nor have I heard of many, nor are their support forums full of complaints about speed or uptime issues. Mostly it's "I can't figure out how to FTP my file" or "Stats didn't update on time" sorts of questions.

If Libsyn was BS'ing about what it could offer their reputation should be in the gutter by now, and it isn't. That gives them some credibility. I can't figure out how they can get away with it either, but they appear to be. And I say this as someone who's not a customer of theirs right now.

[Patrick]

Exactly. My libsyn podcasts are the fastest downloaded podcasts and I've never had a problem. Support is great, too.

You throwing poo at libsyn is great, but what about the two issues I just confronted you about regarding your own "podcasting" packages?

$40 per month for 15GB - do you even know your customer?

[rfwjr]

I have had no problems with Libsyn and I agree I like the new stats feature. They also just added a new feature, heres the announcement they posted.


We put out a new feature today that I think will really help some people out. We call it FutureCast, but it actually works in both directions. It's really simple. On the post page, you will now see date/time pull downs right above the 'post' button. You can make the time your podcast gets released to be a past or future date. If it is a future date/time it will not show up on your blogpage or RSS feed until then!

Simple enough right?
We hope you like it.

[tdkyo]

I wish not to bash against any webhost company. I hope current host provide you with excellent service that you pay for.

I personally use archive servers for my podcast, because I don't want to drain all my bandwidth from my websites. :wink: