A podcast hosting platform is a place to store your files (online) and keep the feed active that will tell your subscribers about the new episodes that become available. The first thing you will be required to have is a domain name where the site will be located. Many domain registrars are available that can help you to register a domain name, usually for a small fee. Once the domain is registered, it is unique only to your show. You then set your domain to point at your a course in miracles on the host you are using.
There are many different companies willing to help you host your podcast. Fees and services will vary, so you should shop around for the services you would like to have at a budget you can afford. When looking for a host, the most important thing is to make sure that a lot of bandwidth and storage space is available at reasonable prices. Since podcasting deals with large media files, a lot of disk space is used in storing the files.
As your podcast becomes more popular and more people are accessing and downloading the files, your bandwidth use will increase. If you are limited to a certain number of files in storage or a certain level of bandwidth or downloads, you could quickly run out of options and have to spend even more money.
Once you have your domain name reserved and your podcast host determined (and your account established), you need to continue with the set-up of your podcast. Your host will provide you with the DNS address of your podcast site. You need to be sure you set this correctly in order for the ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) across the world to know where your podcast site is located.
DNS addresses can be set by going to the domain registrar from which you purchased the domain name. They usually have tutorials in helping you to correctly set your DNS information. If you have trouble, you can reach out to the support personnel of that site. Use the DNS information provided by your hosting platform and enter it exactly as instructed into your domain host settings.
After you have the DNS settings correct, it could take a few days before the domain is updated across all of the ISP’s throughout the world. These updates are accomplished individually at various periodic times (some smaller ISP’s may update once per day and larger ones every 20 minutes). You have no control over how fast this happens. But almost every registrar will tell you to give it 24-48 hours to be completed.
Your podcast host will help you to distribute your podcast. The RSS feed link will help you to do this the most efficiently. As you send your RSS feed to different platforms (called “pod-chasers”), more and more people will begin to see your podcast and subscribe to receive the programming you upload to your podcast. The RSS feed allows your podcast provider to automatically let your subscribers know you have new programming available.
You also need to do your part in sharing information about your podcast. Posting information to your social media accounts will help you to spread the word about your new podcast. The more eyes that you can get looking at the existence of your podcast, the faster you will be able to grow.
If you choose your podcast hosting platform with these things in mind, it will allow you to focus on the recording of great programs and not have to worry about the details of how it will all work behind the scene.
