Podcast Success Start with the Right Hosting Platform

Podcasting is an excellent way to build brand awareness and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. As of 2023, 42% of Americans over 12 have listened to a podcast within the last month, and it’s expected that 100 million people will listen to podcasts in 2024. But your success in tapping into this market depends on how easily listeners can stream your show.

That’s where podcast hosting comes in. A podcast host stores and broadcasts your show, and can make or break your podcast. Podcast hosting ensures your content doesn’t run into any glitches, like slowdowns or overloads. It makes sure that the large audio files you create work and are easily accessible to your audience. 

So, the platform you choose makes a big difference. There are a lot of choices, and if you’ve done any investigative work on your own, you’ve likely come across Anchor, Buzzsprout, and others. One that always ranks high for podcast hosting is Libsyn. It’s for good reason that I have used Libsyn for the past seven plus years of my own podcasting journey. This host stands out as a leader in reliability and longevity—it was one of the first. 

Here are some considerations to choosing the right podcast hosting platform for success: 

1. Speed, storage, and bandwidth

Remember dial-up internet? If you do, you’re laughing right now as the sound of dial up is playing like a bad song in the recesses of your memory. Buffering is the fastest way to lose listeners. If there is just one reason to pay for podcast hosting, it’s speed, storage, and bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred when someone streams or downloads your episodes. Podtopia can help you figure out just how much bandwidth you need. 

Storage refers to the space each episode takes up on the server. The more episodes you have the more storage you need. Most podcast hosts have different pricing tiers to accommodate different storage needs.  

1. Analytics 

And when it comes to your podcast, analytics are your secret weapon for growth. A good hosting platform provides detailed analytics to give you a window into your audience's behaviors and preferences. At a bare minimum, you’ll want listener demographics, episode performance over time, number of subscribers, listeners, and downloads, and bounce rates.  

These insights help you fine-tune your content strategy, attract sponsors, and unlock other monetization opportunities.

1. Integrations

Integration is the seamless transfer of your podcast with different marketing tools, such as your website, social media platforms, and your YouTube channel. 

Let’s face it, producing a podcast takes time and energy, so you want to repurpose your content in as many ways as possible. Repurposing your content increases your reach, improves engagement, and can attract new listeners. According to a recent report, 42% of marketers and business owners feel that updating and repurposing their content was a factor to their content marketing success. 

1. Monetization

Your podcast is a valuable asset that has the potential to grow your brand and generate revenue. But to unlock that potential, you need more than just a place to host your episodes. You need a platform that empowers you to monetize your show easily and effectively … when you’re ready.

Here are few features your platform should offer when it comes to monetization:

• Ad roll insertion is a post-production feature that lets you insert ads throughout your episode. A lot of podcast hosts offer some form of ad roll insertion. Libsyn has an automatic podcast ads feature that dynamically inserts ads where you want. The best part is that they’re not part of your podcast, so you can use them to monetize episodes you’ve already recorded.
• Paid membership is a subscription-based option for premium content. It’s a great way to earn some extra income from your very best episodes. These loyal listeners are also warm prospects to sell other offerings to, like courses, books, or coaching.
• Donation buttons are another monetization tool worth exploring. Donation buttons are perfect for newer podcasters who may not have a large enough listener base to attract advertisers or sponsors. 

1. Cost

You can find free podcast hosting platforms. You can also host your podcast on your personal or professional website. But I don’t recommend it. After seven years of running the YouTurn podcast, I definitely recommend paying for a podcast hosting subscription. Most hosts have tiered pricing based on how much storage and bandwidth you purchase (use). As an example, Libsyn has a basic package that includes 3 hours of new uploads per month with 162 MB of storage. Their advanced package lets you upload 10 hrs a month with 540 MB of storage. 

When I created the Pod Launch Academy, an online course to launch and grow your podcast, I knew identifying the best tools and platforms for the long term was key to a successful show. When it comes to a hosting platform, the best option is finding a host that can grow with you as your podcast gains traction and you produce more shows per month or you decide to add video podcasting. In my book, that’s Libsyn. As one of the pioneers in this industry, it’s evolved with the industry to deliver services podcasters want. That’s why I love them. 

If choosing a hosting platform is holding you back from starting a podcast, don’t let it. Choose one and join the thousands of brands making a killing with podcasting.