AP 0534: Which Podcast Host Is Best for Short-Run Podcasts?

AskPat 534 Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 534 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.

We have a great question today from Travis, but before we get to Travis' question, I do want to thank today's sponsor which is FreshBooks.com, an amazing company serving over 3 million other small businesses, including my own, helping us manage our business finances, keeping track of everything from income, expenses, and also invoicing too. I would highly recommend you check it out if you have any sort of financing going on in your business. If you have a business, of course you have finances going on. So check it out for 30 days for free. You will not regret it. Go to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “AskPat” in the how did you hear about us section. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “AskPat.”

Alright, here's today's question from Travis.

Travis: Hi Pat, my name is Travis and I'm a video producer at providfilms.com. My question is about launching multiple podcast courses. Free podcast series that might be 10 episodes in length. Pretty topical, lead magnets to my business and be done. Is SoundCloud a good route to go, because I can post up the episodes without having to pay indefinitely like Libsyn? Or are there other places to host episodes long term that have advertising in them? Appreciate your show and love hearing all of your answers and insight. Keep up the great work.

Pat Flynn: Hey Travis, thank you so much for the question. I really appreciate it. To clarify, and I know you're not here with me right now to clarify, but I'm going to go over some different scenarios and give you some answers depending on the scenarios in just a sec. So, I'm guessing that you are going to be creating some limited version or some sort of finite amount of content for a podcast that would be going up and it would just live as X number of episodes. You wouldn't continue to add more episodes of that over time. Which is fine, although I know a number of people who have done this for book launches and for other things and it works. Chris Ducker coined these “nano podcasts” which kind of have a short life in terms of the production, but can live for a long time on iTunes and Stitcher and other places. It is something to experiment with, and I think a lot of people could benefit from potentially creating a nanocast on top of the launch that they might be having. Bringing guests on and that sort of thing that are related to that thing that's coming out. So, it's a pretty cool idea.

In terms of hosting that, there's a number of different options that you have. You could obviously host it on your own site, and there is something to be said for doing that, because it's only a finite amount of shows. However, I would still recommend not to do that. Even though that's what a lot of people want to do, because it's free, there's storage on your site already, so you might as well just use that. But the thing is, these podcasts, you don't have necessarily control over how often they get listened to. Of course, we want them to get listened to a lot. If you do that, then it's going to slow down the rest of your site.

So, I would try to keep the media storage separate. You could go to SoundCloud, the free route. But, in order to get the benefits that you would to host a podcast, you would would need to go the paid route on SoundCloud. The podcasting options. Although, I am using SoundCloud to host AskPat, and that was kind of experimental during their beta phase. Can I recommend SoundCloud for podcasting right now? Honestly, I can't. I'm not exactly sure if it's a good long term solution, because there's been some talks about the company folding or being sold or other things. I don't know where that's at now, but podcasting is not their primary source of generating listeners or money to be honest. They're primarily a music company to give musicians and artists a platform to share content on and posting music on their website and that sort of thing. This podcasting thing, they came on as podcasting was starting to grow. They still have the premium podcast option, which allows you to get the RSS feed and all this other stuff that you would need to have a podcast.

But, if I was going to go for a podcast, I would go to Libsyn. Libsyn would be the host of choice. L-I-B-S-Y-N. The other one that you might want to check out is Podbean. P-O-D-B-E-A-N. B as in boy. So, P-O-D-B-E-A-N. I've used both. However, I haven't used both for audio. I use Libsyn for audio in addition to SoundCloud. I use Libsyn for the Smart Passive Income Podcast. I use Podbean for the video hosting capabilities, which is a very low flat monthly fee of $18 for unlimited video. So, you might want to check your options with those. I know the prices change over time, so I'm not going to reveal the prices right now.

But, those are some options for you. I feel like if you aren't willing to pay . . . If you have 10 episodes, for example, might just cost five bucks or 10 bucks a month to host those files and to have them be there to be in a reliable space, that will always be playing for you, that is separate from your website, that won't affect the bandwidth of your website in that way. Then, you might want to reconsider why you're doing it in the first place. You want to hopefully use that as a lead gen for something that will eventually make you money. If you have a business, that's what you want it for. Right? You need to be able to keep track of those things, have certain URLs within those shows, so you can keep track of how many people are coming to those URLs, so you know if this thing is actually working for you or not. If you're reluctant to spend $5 to $10 a month, then hopefully you would want to make it into something that can earn you much more than that. So, it would be worth doing it and having it be done in a reliable way.

In terms of multiple podcasts, yes, you can have multiple shows on a particular Libsyn account. You just have to set it up as new show. That can be done. I have two separate accounts for two completely different shows, FoodTruckr and the Smart Passive Income Podcast. That's simply because those are completely separate entities. I want them to stay completely separate for billing purposes and that sort of thing. The Libsyn solution is very economical and they have a great team over there. They do a great job of making sure that everything's up and running. Same with Podbean, in my experience. Although, I know Libsyn a lot better. I know some of the people who work for Libsyn. I don't know anybody at Podbean. If you do go with Libsyn to set up hosting, you might want to use the coupon code “SPI” during checkout. That will get you, I think, your first month for free. I'm not exactly sure. I also get a kick back on that too, so just being honest with you up front.

That's all I really have to say about that. I don't think you should go a free option if this is something that you're going to be providing. You want to pay for some reliable podcast media hosting, so that it's doing what it needs to do. Then, hopefully, you're providing content in a way that is allowing people to get into your funnel and then for you to generate an income because of that down the road, or else why would you do it in the first place? Not to say, that sounds wrong, “Oh, you're not going to make money from it. Why would you do it?” That doesn't necessarily mean you have to sell on it, but hopefully it's providing value or shaping your brand in a way that allows you to deeper relationship with your audience, which is what a podcast is great for. Which, will ultimately allow you to better serve your audience and be rewarded for that. That's what I meant. I don't mean, don't do anything just because it's not going to make money. That's not the right approach. Is this actually going to serve your audience? If it is, then it might be worth spending a few extra dollars just to have it be on a reliable platform like Libsyn or Podbean.

So, that's what I want to say with that. You could also check out SoundCloud too. They obviously, like I said, have that podcasting option too. Although, I don't quite know, I haven't heard from the people who I know there in a while, what's going on there. I'm actually, not worried, but I'm just ready for . . . If something were to happen, I'm ready to take those audio files which I have in my own system as backups elsewhere, if needed. So far, so good with SoundCloud.

Alright. So, yeah Travis, thanks for much. I appreciate the question. We're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question you would like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

I also want to thank today's sponsor, which is again FreshBooks.com, making it really easy for us to manage our business finances. They also have an award winning mobile app to help you keep track of your finances on the go. Like I said, they serve over 3 million small business owners and they can help serve you too. If you want to check it out for 30 days for free, get the best way to manage your business finances, head on over to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “Ask Pat.”

Alright, thanks so much. I appreciate you. Thanks again for an amazing week. This was launch week for my book Will It Fly? If you haven't picked it up yet, go to WillItFlyBook.com. Just insane. I'm incredibly thankful and I'm so blessed to have you all support that book. WillItFlyBook.com is where you can get it.

As always, I like to end with a quote. This quote is a short and sweet one today by Bill Burr. He says, “Podcasting is great. Total freedom.”

So true. Love it. Thanks guys. Take care and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.