Can I Use My Website to Host My Podcast Files?

Today, I wanna answer a question that I get asked quite a bit, whether I am out talking at seminars, or just people commenting on my YouTube, and that is, “Should I, or can I host to my podcast audio files on the back-end of my website?”

If you decide to jump into the podcasting space and already have a website, you may decide that you want to go ahead use your web-space to host your podcast audio. This is a very common thing that a lot of new podcasters think about. They say, “Oh, you know, I already got all the space on my hosting service like GoDaddy, or Bluehost. I’m just gonna go ahead and upload everything under there.”

Now, that seems like a good idea in theory, but later on down the line, it’s going to create a lot more of headaches than it is going to make your life easier down the line.

LIMITED SPACE ON YOUR WEBHOST 

If you're using your website to upload your podcast files, just know that the files that you’re uploading are very large if you're looking for high quality podcasts.  They will also be large depending onthe length of your podcast. If you keep doing this, you're going to eventually run out of space  you’re going to have to figure out how to get more space or delete some files.

That’s going to create one major headache.

UPLOADING TO YOUR WEBHOST CAN CAUSE YOUR SITE TO CRASH

If you do start uploading your podcast into your webhost, and let’s say your podcast starts getting more downloads and more attraction, your website is going to end up crashing. The more traffic you push to your website to have people download your podcast will push your website to its limits in terms of how many people can be on it at one time.  You may also run into the problem that too many requests will make the site crash.

If it does crash, then you're going to have to go through the whole process of putting everything back up online. 

USING DROPBOX OR GOOGLE DRIVE FOR HOSTING

Now, you might say, “Can I use Google Drive to host my podcast? Can I use Dropbox?”

This was something that was brought up a few years ago when podcasters started saying, “You can use Dropbox and Google Drive for podcast hosting!"  These days both services look down upon this method.  In fact, if both services notice you're using their space for your podcast, they will ban your link to iTunes, and to wherever you’re sending your RSS feed out.

GET DEDICATED HOSTING BECAUSE IT'S TYPICALLY UNLIMITED ARCHIVE STORAGE

The hosting that you’re using on your website should only be used for the images and the texts for your blog. That’s pretty much about it. Everything else can be uploaded into a YouTube video, and of course, you’re going to need podcast hosting.

If you've ben on the fence about podcast hosting, you need to seriously start considering hosting.  

Think about a couple of things when it comes down to your hosting:

• SEO Optimization
• Workflow and how your podcast descriptions will show up in iTunes
• The ability to create bonus content or seasonal content

If you plan on doing all of this for yourself just to get your podcast to an RSS feed, it’s going to take forever for you to code all of that into iTunes and into your website. Do you really want to do that?  

That’s why you need to have some dedicated hosting like Libsyn, or Blubrry. Those services know how to utilize, and take advantage of the code that is acceptable inside of iTunes, and they can make sure that everything shows up in iTunes professionally.

Some other things that you’re going to be looking at when you get some type of dedicated hosting like Libsyn, or Blubrry, is the titling of the podcast.

As I mentioned above, these services, especially Libsyn, give you you fields where you can put the title of your podcast; fields where you can put the description to your podcast; they also give you areas where you can optimize for iTunes.

But, they also give you areas for the author of the podcast, your name.  I know it seems so simple, but if you're hosting on something like Google Drive or wherever, you can't do this.  Quite honestly, I don't think it's even possible to publish a podcast to iTunes unless you're with a dedicated host that has a dedicated RSS feed.   

If you're someone who does a seasonal podcast, Libsyn gives you the ability to separate your podcast out by seasons.

There are many other great benefits to utilizing hosting like Libsyn or Blubrry. Blubrry is equally as good. 

Podcasting is going to cost you a little bit of money, but it's so worth it.

Don’t go down the path of thinking that you can do it for free, because you’re going to fall into the place where you’re going to end up getting new equipment or have to upgrade into hosting.  

Save yourself the headache and invest in podcast hosting. It makes your life so much easier.