A Podcast host is a directory designed to help you store and distribute your Podcast’s audio across streaming platforms, using a uniquely tailored RSS feed just for you. Podcast hosts also provide analytics (performance statistics) and other tools to make it easy for you to publish your Podcast and also ensure that your listeners have the best possible experience.

You probably thought that you could make a recording and simply upload it on your blog, no! You cannot just record time after time on your website, as your blog host will not want to handle such data. Moreover, it won’t have the reach you targeted in terms of increased customers. Remember that you need your Podcast to bring traffic to your website and not your website bringing listeners to your Podcast.

Unlike regular web content hosts, podcast hosts usually Offer a few services that are more than just the regular that aid the growth of the Podcast. Some of these services include large bandwidths, analytics, the recreation of content into transcripts or videos, and monetization.

Some of these hosting platforms include:

• Buzzsprout,
• Podbean,
• Captivate,
• And Blubrry.

These Podcast host service providers offer services ranging from free packages – which are usually not good enough because of the very limited amount of content you can record in a month. Worse still, your podcasts will get deleted after some time, which is ultimately bad for business.

Some do not offer free podcasting services but offer free limited trials for a couple of days or weeks to test the waters and see if they are good enough for you. Their paid options, however, are much better as they give you more leverage and room to record while ensuring that your Podcast never gets deleted and old episodes can always be referred to.

These prices range from as small as $10 to $15 per month on a basic plan, $25 to $40 on advanced plans, and even up to $99 per month on more advanced plans. As your audience grows, you can level up on your subscription to ensure the best services rendered to you, and in turn, your audience.

All the podcast services listed above offer Analytics and monetization support, but not all of them offer transcripts, which are important for search engine optimization (discussed in chapter four). But in all, you want to choose a host that answers most of your questions while being scalable for your budget.

The Perfect Edit

I talked about editing in your first episode, but it goes beyond the first episode; you have to properly know how to edit. Every Podcast you know that sounds so perfect and appealing has undergone some good work of edit, because humans record, not robots. There will be a lot of mistakes, which will, however, reduce as you progress.

However, as a beginner, you will pause a lot, repeat many sentences, delete many parts and repeat. The beauty of editing is that it will be perfectly fitted together that your listeners won’t be able to tell that you have cut out things and added other things. Background noise can also be reduced from editing. And it all stays between you and your computer!

However, to reduce the time spent on edits, you need to reduce your mistakes. This can be achieved by outlining every single episode. Just like you do when writing a book, you outline topics and subtopics and how you’ll move from the base topic, highlighting the purpose of the episode, what you want your listeners to take away, what do you want to make references to?

Previous books, podcasts, or even posts on your blog, interviews, the way you’ll direct your guest to answer possible questions from your subscribers, and the order in which they should be arranged. These finer details will make your Podcast a classy one. 

Releasing the first episode in your Podcast may seem like a whole lot of work, but it’s nothing compared to the fact that you have to release new episodes consistently weeks upon weeks with guests and staff.

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