Why You Need A Podcast Host For Your Media

I totally got you. You’ve got your business running and have decided to add podcasting to your plan to take over the world. You know how important it is to be ubiquitous, and heck this podcasting thing can only help you along your way.

And of course, you are so crazy smart that you recognize how powerful podcasting is.

The thing is, why in the world would you need to have a podcast host if you already have your own killer website and you have your own storage?

Basically for three very big and important reasons.

1. Having your site shut down for possible violation of their Terms of Service
2. Avoiding large fees from your provider.
3. Delivering your content efficiently and fast.

Media files are big!

I’m sure that you own some sort of smartphone, iOS device or computer. You think you have plenty of room/storage/memory right? But before you know it, all those gigabytes of storage slowly disappear forcing you to delete or move your movies, audio and pictures from one device to the next.

Your website host does give you storage as part of your plan, in fact a lot of website hosting sites offer “unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth.” But alas that doesn’t mean that storing your podcast files on you website host is by any means your best choice.

Most podcasts are either audio or video, and depending on the length of your podcast, your publishing frequency and how your media is encoded, you could very easily be looking at a substantial amount of files to have to take care of.

Your website host is prepared to host a lot of graphic type files, tons of text files, pictures, and a few audio and video clips. When you decide to podcast, you will be producing audio and/or video content regularly for a sustained period of time (or one would hope that’s what happens!).

Website hosts are not looking to be a large depository, in fact a key violation to HostGator’s TOS is using your account as offsite back-up aka uploading all your pictures, music and videos up to your site just because you can.

Host your podcast on your web-host and be prepared for unexpected #fail

Part of podcasting is that you deliver or serve up your media files via RSS feed. What this means is that when someone subscribes to your podcast, as they would subscribe to your blog, they would receive your podcast (your audio or video files) automatically to them into their media consumption device of choice, just like getting your latest blog post via any RSS reader ie. Google Reader.

Every time your audio/video file is delivered it has to be sent from your website host. In other words, every time someone downloads your podcast episode file data is being transferred from your web-host to them.

This data transferred is often referred to as bandwidth.

Podcasting has the potential to grow exponentially. There is a possibility that your media files could be downloaded thousands of times a day.

All that data transfer coming from your account would make your website host very unhappy, so unhappy perhaps that they might just shut down your account.

Nice.

All that data transfer can be very expensive

What if they don’t shut you down?

You might get hit with some pretty large bills, charging you for that data transfer.

I know when I went to visit my home country El Salvador right after I had just gotten my first old school smartphone, I had no idea about data transfer. I found out about it pretty darn fast when I soon received a $550+ bill.

Not cool.

Yes, there are some web-hosts that market unlimited bandwidth, but there are a ton that do not offer that option at all. Be prepared to have to fork out some serious cashola to continue podcasting.

Slow delivery of your media can kill your podcast

What if your web-host does stand by their unlimited bandwidth?

What you save in money, you will loose in subscribers.

More likely than not, you will have your data transfer throttled.

When a server using bandwidth throttling reaches the specified limit, it will offload new requests and not respond to them. Sometimes they may be added to a queue to be processed once the bandwidth use reaches an acceptable level, but at peak times the request rate can even exceed the capacities of such queues and requests have to be thrown away.- Wikipedia

It’s like this: have you ever been trying to stream and audio or video file on your computer and it was taking forever to load and you just simply gave up. It just wasn’t worth your time?

Having your data throttled is just like that. It’s as if anyone that subscribes to your podcast or decides to stream your content will have a heck of a time actually receiving your content, if they get it at all. Most folks would unsubscribe or give up trying to access your content.

Get it? You need a podcast host!

A podcast host aka a media company that specialized in hosting your podcast will help you avoid all kinds of unexpected issues that could potentially cost you tons of money and time. They are well equipped to provide you with the amount of storage that you need as well as to deliver your content in a fast and reliable way.

Bonus: some of the top podcast hosts out there provide killer analytics, so you can see how many downloads your are getting as well as from what parts of the world! Very cool.

Just do it right the first time.

Yes, there are some free podcasting solutions, but I say you can fork out a few extra dollars a month and invest in your world domination. Plans for most podcast hosts are very reasonable, and some plans are as low as you would pay for a fancy coffee drink.

So who’s the best podcast host?

Well, you’re just gonna have to come on back and visit as I’ll be breaking down the exact criteria that you need to make the best choice for you.

Please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments about any of this podcast host thing, or if you have something to add! Always happy to hear from you :)

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Image credit via CC <--- Deliveries by Tal Bright

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Publishing a Podcast Episode of Elsie's Yoga Kula: My Process

I often get questions regarding podcasting. I love it actually, as I love podcasting and truly enjoy helping folks get themselves going. I thought that I’d share my process with one of my podcast episodes. My podcast is primarily my live yoga classes recorded and posted, but within the past 6 months I’ve been posting a series within Elsie’s Yoga Class: Live and Unplugged Podcast called Elsie’s Yoga Kula (EYK). In this series I don’t ‘teach’ per say, but offer responses to feedback that I receive, share products and reviews of yogic things, and as of the latest, do interviews. 

This episode was unique, as are much of the EYK episodes, so the following process is not necessarily the norm, but it may give you a bit of insight of what it takes to commit to producing something like this. 

The Process:

Scheduled interview with James Wvinner way in advance, so I’d have time to prep for it, and made sure that I would have babysitting, as holding interviews with a 16 month old is not optimal. 

Prepped for the interview (1.5 hours)

• Googled subject
• Studied personal site/business site, 
• Studied FB pics and vids. 
• Searched for any other social media profiles.
• Researched prior interviews.
• Emailed subject list of possible questions, plus a request for feedback, making sure to honor his boundaries, plus to give him the ability to tell me specific things that he’d like to speak about. (I don’t do this with all my interviewees, I feel it out, depending on what is the intention of the interview)

Conducted interview (30 min)

• Used my Zoom H2 Recorder to record my audio.
• Had James call into my conference call line, and recorded our conversation there. 

*I did not do any Skype recording because I do not have the luxury of being in one place. Being a Mom I have to be ready to record anytime anywhere, whether there is an Internet connection or not. This is the set up that at this moment gives me the most freedom...although not the best audio...but it’s enough for the moment.

Wrote “script” for the rest of the episode (30 min)

• I’ve been currently using MacJournal to write my blog posts/shownotes/scripts. It works lovely for me, as I have everything organized in one place. 
• I also use Evernote for the feedback that I use in the show. Whenever I get an email, FB message, find an article I put it in Evernote tag it (example eyk #4) and when I’m writing my script, I just search for my tag, and voila!

Recorded the episode (20 min)

• Using my H2 Zoom Recorder. 
• In the bathroom in the middle of the night (quietest place and quietest time)
• Macbook on my lap with MacJournal on Full Screen (makes for a lovely ‘TelePrompTer’)

Edited episode (2 hrs)

• Imported all audio from the H2, plus downloaded MP3 from the conferencing site.
• Used Garageband to edit all audio, exported to iTunes. 

*Usually it doesn’t take me THIS long to edit an episode but the interview really did take me a while.

NOTE: Made sure that I got all editing done, as I knew that all the other stuff  (id3 tags, artwork, uploading, etc) I could do while taking care of my toddler. The editing was all done at night (dawn).

Polishing Audio (60 min) 

• I downloaded the audio to my iPod and listened to it while I washed dishes and fed my baby, to make sure the quality and levels were ok
• Re-encoded the audio as I wanted better quality
• Edited id3 tags and added artwork 

Publishing of Podcast and corresponding shownotes + publicity (2 hrs)

• Uploaded audio file to Libsyn
• Used Smultron to edit my final shownotes
• Finalized shownotes on Wordpress, plus added pictures and a gazillion links
• Published podcast episode in Libsyn
• Pinged iTunes
• Published corresponding blog post for episode
• Posted link to FB Fan Page/Personal Page
• Twittered

NOTE: Thanks to my daughter taking an unusually long 2 hr nap I was able to get all this done at once! If not, this process could have taken the entire day. 

Tallying the time, the whole process took me almost 6 hrs! How’s that for quick and easy? No wonder I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. My intentions are always there. My ideas are always flourishing, but motherhood is the sucker of all time and energy. 

So, fancy peeps, see any ways that I could streamline the process? or wanna know more or have any questions?

Look forward to hearing from you!

Extended Follow Friday for September 18, 2009: @victorcajiao #ff #followfriday

Victor, his wife Mary and I

A Typical and Worthy Expert

The story goes like this:

In 2006 I fell in love with podcasting due to the acquisition of an 5G iPod for Christmas '05. In a way, the iPod was the catalyst for the discovery of my inner tech geek, (as I had already found my yoga geek.) I gobbled as many podcasts as I could, plus nurtured dreams of podcasting. As I watered the seeds of my podcasting dreams I began to see that the soil that I was using was not optimal: it was a Gateway Laptop.

Like a good gardener, I searched for ways in which I could fertilize the soil in an organic way, for me it was by subscribing to beginner how-to PC podcasts. This is how I came to meet this weeks #followfriday subject, my dear friend and podcasting guru Victor Cajiao. Back in 2006 Victor was still producing The Typical PC Podcast, which I came to LOVE, as he taught me so many things about my PC that I had no idea about. I often wrote him emails with questions...um...a euphemism for problems, that I had with my PC. Three wonderful things happened in these first exchanges with him: he encouraged me to podcast, he instilled in me a love for Macs and I got the blessing to gain the friendship of a truly wonderful human being.

I heard of Twitter and got an account because of Victor, plus he was the first person I followed on Twitter.

Currently Victor has two wonderful podcasts: The Typical Mac User Podcast and the Typical Shutterbug Podcast. He also makes appearances in many other Mac podcasts such as The Mac Round Table Podcast and The MacCast. No matter in which podcast you hear his voice, you have the opportunity to learn from someone who truly cares about teaching and reaching his audience. He loves what he does and he does it well. He cares about his community and any exchange that you have with him is genuine and honest. I absolutely appreciate his honesty and his willingness to always tell it like it is. His guidance has been, either one on one or simply through my ears, invaluable. I have lost count how many times I have gone to Victor with some crazy tech problem (now mainly other devices NOT my Mac :) ) and he has immediately lend a helping hand.

Expert Typical know-how

In conclusion, Victor Cajiao is a must follow on Twitter (or any other platform, most importantly his podcasts) if you are a Mac lover, a photography lover or even simply a very new enthusiast of the Mac platform or photography, as his podcasts are great for the "typical" person looking to dive into their passions.His voice is down to earth and full of integrity.

Oh yea, sometimes no matter how much you fertilize the soil, it's just not going to give you the results that you want, so since November 2006 I have been a Mac Girl and love every minute of it! Thanks to Victor!

By the way if you're wondering about this extended #followfriday, refer to my post explaining all about it :)

What does the new iPod Nano announced at the 9/9/09 event mean for yoga professionals?

I know that when I did my first teacher training I could not write notes fast enough. I worked so hard at writing down pristine notes and did my best to sound out all those sanskrit words that I was hearing for the first time, hoping with all my being that I would be able to decipher what in the world I wrote when I got home later. I got a little better at it as I continued doing more trainings. I do believe there is a part of our brain that absolutely gets a work out when we write notes like this. I know that it helped me to seal some of the information within me as I did this.

I also know that my rabid note taking took away from some of the experiential aspects of being in the yoga trainings. I most definitely know that I missed some pretty yummy meditations, pranayama or simply some of the sweet bliss that comes from truly being 'present' in a pose, 'cause I was writing, writing, writing :)

I have to say that with some of the announcements from Apple refining their iPod line, it would have been a teeny bit easier to let go of the writing and just be. The new iPod Nano has to be the device that I've been longing for: a built in mic for recording sessions, a camera for recording demos, it's small and the price is really hard to beat! I think this little guy, as much as it's going to be great for yoga teacher trainees in their training, or at workshops, it's also going to be fantastic for seasoned teachers. The nano is a great simple little device that teachers can use to create simple and quick new media content, very efficiently. I venture to say it's a great device to invest in if you are deciding to start your own podcast. I'm going to have to get myself this little guy to see how it works out as a supplementary device to use for the production of my podcast :)

Is all this ease of use all good for yoga teachers?

That depends on your point of view. Social media, new media, social networking, picture and video sites, blogs, etc. are really changing the landscape of what it means to teach yoga in 2009. I don't believe as yogis we can deny this incredible progress, and we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we tried to stop it. Our students will be bringing recording devices to our classes, taking pictures of us and posting some of this media to social media sites, whether it be personal blogs, or very public sites like YouTube. We must remember how helpful having a recording of something was for us, or having a picture of that pose we'd never seen or watching a video of one of our master teachers do an adjustment, simply so we could refine ourselves. Yet, at the same time we must draw boundaries regarding this media and request that the integrity of the space and the integrity of the teachings remain intact. You have got to be clear of what your boundaries are in your own classroom. 

How do you feel about these things? I would love to hear your experiences regarding class recordings, privacy or any other issues that technology may bring up in your yoga. 

How about that iPod Nano? Nice :D