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.