Warning about FREE Podcast Hosting solutions

[Pharma]

Just to let you guys know, I signed up for a FREE Podcast hosting offer I saw about 3 months (won't name the host, but they were pretty active in promoting themselves). Well I put up my shows over the course of about 5 weeks, and then the host decided that they couldn't afford to continue to offer the bandwidth for free and converted to a $20 per month deal, or they would kill my show and files.

I was totally PISSED. Anyway I decided to sign up with another hosting company (www.CyberEars.com) since they offered a free trial bundled with the mixer I bought from my local Guitar Center. Anyway they are fine, but the fact is that I now have a HUGE problem on my hands because the XML files that were created for my old show, point to my old host and I can't remember all of the podcast registries that I announced it to to change it.

The end result is that I have decided to abandon my show and start the whole thing all over again. All the good listener support I got was out the door, because I decided to do a FREE deal. Well nothing is really FREE.

I really suggest that you pick your hosting company very carefully. Once you start to list your podcast feeds with companies, its **** hard to change them. In the case of iTunes, I am getting nowhere with the removal of the old show, etc. So I really implore anyone who is looking for a hosting company to RUN away from the free ones because it won't last and either you'll get reamed in their charges or they'll just go out of business and leave you hanging.

A word of warning to you all.

Bill Strickland.

[X Pat Radio]

Some might call it crazy, but I use the free hosting Podshow provides. I don't have any issue with them. If you want to pay, try LibSyn.

[WyethDigital]

Pharma,

I would really discourage that plan!

Use Feedburner for your feed. That way they are the only place you have to go to if you change your host again.

Also, if you want to know who you need to alert to your change, look at you web logs and see where most of the folks are coming from and contact those services.

You can also use this code in your XML file at your old hosting company for redirecting iTunes users (give it about a week before you remove your feed from your old server). It goes right after the <channel> tag at the top of your rss.xml file:
<itunes:new-feed-url>http://YourNewFeedAddressHere.com</itunes:new-feed-url>

It forces iTunes to seek out the new feed, and more importantly, to remember that is the location to get it from now on.

Good luck, whatever you choose to do!

Eric

[outlaw16151]

they are free and havent had any trouble with them, been with them since january 2006

[WyethDigital]

they are free and havent had any trouble with them, been with them since january 2006
Might want to put that graphic in your signature line instead of using it as an avatar. Kind does a number on the page...

Eric

[Vlad-The-Impaled]

I use CyberEars.com (http://www.CyberEars.com) and it works perfect for me. I don't mind paying $5 a month for a **** good service.

Vlad

[johnp]

if you create music and you dont abuse it then its a great solution.
nothing about money is mentioned there.

http://podcrust.com

[Webzu]

I'm leery of any host offering "Unlimited Bandwidth". The practise of bandwidth throttling is a form of limiting bandwidth anyway. I like to know how much bandwidth I'm alloted per month and what are the prices and policies for exceeding it.

[Hittman]

Your problem wasn't that you were using a free host.

Your problem is you weren't controlling your domain name.

Always, always, always own your domain name, and keep control of it. DO NOT sign up for the "free" registration most hosts offer. Go to GoDaddy and spend the eight bucks a year to own it yourself and control it from there.

The very best host can turn to crap overnight. If they have control of your domain name they have control over your feed, your site, and everything else.

OTOH, when YOU control your own name, moving to a new host is simple and fairly easy. Find a new host, upload your site/files, go to GoDaddy and change the name servers, and wait about six hours. Everyone who tries to get to your site or access your feed is now doing it via a different host and none of them will be able to tell the difference. It's a minor bump in the road for you, but no trouble at all for your listeners.

[lyzz]

Yeah, that's true. Use a reliable domain-holder.
You can get a namecheap account of which I've found a lot of great reviews.
http://www.namepros.com/domain-company-reviews/83600-namecheap.html

Also, enter your true information on your domain registrant account cause it might actually be needed when claiming back your domain (if something turned wrong).

[Heatherzilla]

I'm useing swichpod at the moment. It's already taken over 10 mins just to upload a 7 meg file. It was just an 8 min demo to see if everything works. I'm fairly new to podcasting and trying to find a good host. Seeing as I'm a poor student I can't afford anything much but if anyone has any suggestions it would be great.:D . BTW I'm new here, I probably should go make an introduction. :)

[dpeach]

I'm useing swichpod at the moment. It's already taken over 10 mins just to upload a 7 meg file. It was just an 8 min demo to see if everything works. I'm fairly new to podcasting and trying to find a good host. Seeing as I'm a poor student I can't afford anything much but if anyone has any suggestions it would be great.:D . BTW I'm new here, I probably should go make an introduction. :)

Is this video or audio? If it is audio and just 8 minutes long and is 7 MB, you probably should change your bit rate down a little. An 8 minute file with pretty good quality should be around half that size. Unless you have a reason to need it that high of quality.

As far as the amount of time it takes to upload, that will depend on your upload speed of your Internet connection. My files are between 6 and 7 MB each week and they take somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to upload. I have a low end DSL connection.

[PODKIVE]

We suggest that you use a domain that you own. this way its totally up to you where you want to take it. its what we suggest to all of our customers.

Also if you have your own domain you can have another web hosting company host your sub-domain. All you need is access to your DNS records.

[WyethDigital]

As far as the amount of time it takes to upload, that will depend on your upload speed of your Internet connection.
Most of the time, you'd be right, especially if you're talking FTP, but in the case of some web-based upload clients, things can get pretty slow on the server side...

Eric

[X Pat Radio]

Most of the time, you'd be right, especially if you're talking FTP, but in the case of some web-based upload clients, things can get pretty slow on the server side...

Eric

Podshow seems pretty zippy compared to FTP. I start the upload then go do something else for 10 min, like make another cup of coffee, go to the bathroom etc.

[mobile]

I learnt that there's a site called myPodcast.com. Can earn $$ from your podcasts...

[WyethDigital]

Podshow seems pretty zippy compared to FTP. I start the upload then go do something else for 10 min, like make another cup of coffee, go to the bathroom etc.

All the same, Andy, when comparing uploads via a website client or direct FTP, direct FTP uploading usually beats the website clients hands-down. I'll take your word on PodShow, though, since I also use a service (www.didgu.com) that has a super fast site-based upload client. But those are the exceptions to the rule!

[X Pat Radio]

All the same, Andy, when comparing uploads via a website client or direct FTP, direct FTP uploading usually beats the website clients hands-down. I'll take your word on PodShow, though, since I also use a service (www.didgu.com (http://www.didgu.com)) that has a super fast site-based upload client. But those are the exceptions to the rule!

Maybe, but my upload bandwidth is maxed out when uploading to Podshow via the website. I'm sure it all depends on what they are using underneath the web interface.

[WyethDigital]

Maybe, but my upload bandwidth is maxed out when uploading to Podshow via the website. I'm sure it all depends on what they are using underneath the web interface.
Or how many people are using it. Places like YouTube can't help but be slow because of the volume they get.

Plus, I just prefer the simplicity of FTP.

Eric

[X Pat Radio]

Or how many people are using it. Places like YouTube can't help but be slow because of the volume they get.

Plus, I just prefer the simplicity of FTP.

Eric

Oh I'd prefer a secure FTP. Having never used Youtube, aren't they also transcoding the files? If they are doing it on the fly, that would slow it down.

[WyethDigital]

Oh I'd prefer a secure FTP. Having never used Youtube, aren't they also transcoding the files? If they are doing it on the fly, that would slow it down.

I don't think they transcode on the fly. I think it goes into a queue for that. I had one file take 12 hours from the time I uploaded it to the time it was transcoded. Most of the time it's 1 to 2 hours.

Eric

[re4med]

Covenant Radio uses SiteGround (http://www.siteground.com/) which gives us 900 GB of BW per month. No real chance of ever exceeding that limitation. We own the domain and have total control over it. WE paid 79 bucks for the entire year. Our disk space is very high as well. I think it should be considered as a viable option for podcasters who are concerned with control, BW and space issues.

Of course we use feedburner to control the feed, which makes life easy if we ever have to switch servers. Besides, it is simple to manage.

[X Pat Radio]

I don't think they transcode on the fly. I think it goes into a queue for that. I had one file take 12 hours from the time I uploaded it to the time it was transcoded. Most of the time it's 1 to 2 hours.

Eric

Sounds more like how long it takes to get posted after its uploaded than how long it takes to upload.

The slowest service I used was the service the internet archive did...wow was that ever slow. ah, back in the day.

[WyethDigital]

Sounds more like how long it takes to get posted after its uploaded than how long it takes to upload.

The slowest service I used was the service the internet archive did...wow was that ever slow. ah, back in the day.

YouTube is slow in two areas: Uploading and transcoding. Other sites that we occasionally upload to (that use a web client) are also slower than our secure FTP connection.

Eric

[WyethDigital]

Covenant Radio uses SiteGround (http://www.siteground.com/) which gives us 900 GB of BW per month. No real chance of ever exceeding that limitation. We own the domain and have total control over it. WE paid 79 bucks for the entire year. Our disk space is very high as well. I think it should be considered as a viable option for podcasters who are concerned with control, BW and space issues.

Of course we use feedburner to control the feed, which makes life easy if we ever have to switch servers. Besides, it is simple to manage.

That's actually less than a terabyte. You can do better at Dreamhost (1.6 terabytes/month).

Eric

[watupgroupie]

Hey everyone i'm very, very new to making podcasts but have been listening to them for awhile. I use podomatic and find there pretty good. You get 500 mb of storage for free and a friend of mine has been using it forever and they havn't changed the service on him. Well i do have a question though about podomatic when i tried to publish my xml feed heer so that everyone could vote for my podcast here on the alley i couldn't hash it or something like that so i couldn't actually prove it was mine or something along that line. Is there anyways of getting this to work with the way of posting the message on your blog because on podomatic you don't have one?

Edit:Nevermind i figered it out all i had to do was read the faq page.

[Pats Podcast]

Hi everyone:Just to let you guys know, I signed up for a FREE Podcast hosting offer I saw about 3 months (won't name the host, but they were pretty active in promoting themselves). Well I put up my shows over the course of about 5 weeks, and then the host decided that they couldn't afford to continue to offer the bandwidth for free and converted to a $20 per month deal, or they would kill my show and files.

I was totally PISSED. Anyway I decided to sign up with another hosting company (www.CyberEars.com (http://www.CyberEars.com)) since they offered a free trial bundled with the mixer I bought from my local Guitar Center. Anyway they are fine, but the fact is that I now have a HUGE problem on my hands because the XML files that were created for my old show, point to my old host and I can't remember all of the podcast registries that I announced it to to change it.[snip....]

This is is why I DO NOT recommend using your host as the front end of your podcast. Right now, I've got the radio edition of The Pat Cook Show on PodcastPeople (http://www.podcastpeople.com/), but I may be forced to go with another host for episodes bigger than the 100 MB limit (If I don't simply have my website host host them). As it was, the 45 minute show I did last week nearly took all of my space.

I may even have to switch anyway due to the monthly limit. I know what I agreed to when I signed up, but still, I can't possibly do a weekly show if I can't upload them all.

For the blog page itself, I'm using Blogger (http://www.blogger.com[/url).

Hopefully I can find another free host (Like Switchpod maybe?) that would be better suited for my needs (I can't afford pay services on my fixed income, so I go for free stuff whenever & wherever I can and just live with it).In the case of iTunes, I am getting nowhere with the removal of the old show, etc. So I really implore anyone who is looking for a hosting company to RUN away from the free ones because it won't last and either you'll get reamed in their charges or they'll just go out of business and leave you hanging.

A word of warning to you all.

Noted Bill. But as I said before, I can't afford pay services on my fixed income, so I'll just have to deal with it should the time come.

Trust me. I've been on the 'net and been 'round the block long enough to know these things (I was around and broadcasting during the Internet Radio music Royalty debacle back in '01).

Cheers :D

[Pats Podcast]

Hi everyone:Pharma,

I would really discourage that plan!

Use Feedburner for your feed. That way they are the only place you have to go to if you change your host again.You could also host the feed right on your own website as well.

Cheers :D

[Pats Podcast]

Hi everyone:Might want to put that graphic in your signature line instead of using it as an avatar. Kind does a number on the page...Yeah what Eric said. And create an smaller version for the avatar too while you're at it Outlaw.

This way, it doesn't do a number on the page and make your posts look so....odd.

Cheers :D

[Pats Podcast]

Hi everyone:Your problem wasn't that you were using a free host.

Your problem is you weren't controlling your domain name.

Always, always, always own your domain name, and keep control of it. DO NOT sign up for the "free" registration most hosts offer. Go to GoDaddy and spend the eight bucks a year to own it yourself and control it from there.Okay. That takes care of the domain name. But there's still the issue of web hosting, to which you say....OTOH, when YOU control your own name, moving to a new host is simple and fairly easy. Find a new host, upload your site/files, go to GoDaddy and change the name servers, and wait about six hours. Everyone who tries to get to your site or access your feed is now doing it via a different host and none of them will be able to tell the difference. It's a minor bump in the road for you, but no trouble at all for your listeners.For The Pat Cook Show (Both Audio & Video Versions), I currently have the following....

2 accounts from PodcastPeople (http://www.podcastpeople.com/) (One for the audio podcast, the other for the video podcast)

1 account from Yahoo! Geocities (They are the Creme De La Creme of the freebies out there IMO :D ) (I'm using one username with one main page in the main directory and sub-directories for each show)

1 message board with LIVE chat enabled for both shows, courtesy of ProBoards (http://www.proboards.com/)

1 account on Camstreams (http://www.camstreams.com/) for the TV show (Since I do broadcast the show LIVE as well as make the archive available via podcast)

1 account on StreamWebTown (http://www.streamwebtown.com/) for the radio show (Since I broadcast the show LIVE as well as make archive available via podcast).

2 accounts on Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) (One for each show)

Where would you suggest I point the GoDaddy domain name to if I were to get one?

Cheers :D

[umy888]

Yes, I used an almost free service, "Podshow Creator" and got raked through the coals when they sold out to Libsyn. Too bad, it was the best service, but the almost free hosting killed them in the end.




Just to let you guys know, I signed up for a FREE Podcast hosting offer I saw about 3 months (won't name the host, but they were pretty active in promoting themselves). Well I put up my shows over the course of about 5 weeks, and then the host decided that they couldn't afford to continue to offer the bandwidth for free and converted to a $20 per month deal, or they would kill my show and files.

I was totally PISSED. Anyway I decided to sign up with another hosting company (www.CyberEars.com) since they offered a free trial bundled with the mixer I bought from my local Guitar Center. Anyway they are fine, but the fact is that I now have a HUGE problem on my hands because the XML files that were created for my old show, point to my old host and I can't remember all of the podcast registries that I announced it to to change it.

The end result is that I have decided to abandon my show and start the whole thing all over again. All the good listener support I got was out the door, because I decided to do a FREE deal. Well nothing is really FREE.

I really suggest that you pick your hosting company very carefully. Once you start to list your podcast feeds with companies, its **** hard to change them. In the case of iTunes, I am getting nowhere with the removal of the old show, etc. So I really implore anyone who is looking for a hosting company to RUN away from the free ones because it won't last and either you'll get reamed in their charges or they'll just go out of business and leave you hanging.

A word of warning to you all.

Bill Strickland.

[peakydh]

Some might call it crazy, but I use the free hosting Podshow provides. I don't have any issue with them. If you want to pay, try LibSyn.

Good to hear, I'm going to look into it myself. Have you had to contact their support desk yet? If so, did you get a good response?

[premiumtabs]

interesting story. never rely your business on freebies. it will hurt someday!

[moderatorr]

My suggestion is about the Web Hosting Either In Linux or Windows Platform is that Reseller Program & reseller Hosting..I Purchased the Hosting reseller account at low cost in here http://www.goresellers.com/ they provided me a Domain name,Hosting reseller Business account to me at low cost,Now i am Hosting my Company Web sites i managing easily..also i provide hosting account to other people at low cost..

[hectorloshuk]

Ok its for free but how long and i have a chat room and i bought chat software from gchats but i need a personal server for it now cause gchats is not providing me better service right now. So how can u help me??

[kenspear]

Thanks for the advises on podcast hosting. I intend to build a podcasting website but figure it has to be super expensive hosting audio files on own server. My conclusion is to host my files on podcastpeople. :))

[farman007]

that is great information, i should be careful about these threats.

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