https://inteltechniques.com/podcast.html
https://inteltechniques.com/podcast.html
STATUS: The SoundCloud podcast archive is offline. We are researching new hosts capable of servicing this audience.
Here is some good context:
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.