Welcome to the streamlined podcaster, a podcast
that shows you how to put the right systems in
place so you can stop spinning your wheels, focus
on making great content and see your show grow.
Because there's nothing worse than putting a
ton of effort into your show to see very few
benefits and even fewer downloads. My name is
Joe Casabona and I know you're strapped for time.
So let's get into it. One of the biggest questions
I get from just my audience and podcast coaching
clients is where should they host their podcast.
And there are a lot of services out there. Full
disclosure, I am the evangelist for RSS .com
and so I make content for them. And generally
it's not really something I talk about on the
show, right? I don't want to bias or color anybody's
opinion. I do have a tools page over at streamlinedpodcaster
.com slash tools where I recommend several including
RSS .com. I try to make those recommendations
based on feature needs. So, you know, if RSS
.com just doesn't have a feature that the podcaster
needs, I'll recommend some other host. But today
I want to talk about something Really exciting
that rss .com has released now that we've released
to rss .com and that is the free local and niche
podcast plan free local and niche and so In the
past I have told you I've told people to not
use Spotify for creators Spotify for podcasters
anchor whatever name it was at any given time
and that's because I tell people that if there
is a totally free service Then you are the product
right With Facebook you don't pay for Facebook
Facebook makes money off of your data and gathering
information about you that they can then serve
to advertisers or sell to third parties. Spotify,
you know, this is unsubstantiated. I don't know
this for sure, but Spotify definitely operates
the same way in the advertising space. I don't
know if they sell people's data. I generally
assume that big companies that give stuff away
for free do. Spotify does sell ads and their
The name of their game is content and what they
don't have to do with free podcasts on their
platform is Pay those podcasters a royalty so
it's beneficial for Spotify for creators to have
free hosting because they get Content that is
essentially free to them that they can then sell
ads to and then just give you a cut of anyway
All of this is to say that up until recently,
like today basically, free plans for podcast
hosting have been insufficient. Spotify for creators
does not have the creator in mind and every other
free podcast hosting plan I've seen has fallen
short by putting limits on the number of hours
you can upload or the number of days a episode
stays on a free feed or the Size of the files
that you can upload But RSS calm and again, I
know I gave the disclosure in the beginning,
but I do I'm I get paid by RSS calm RSS calm
has launched their free local and niche plan
what makes this free plan different is that First
of all, it is not limited by anything like the
number of episodes or the amount of hours you
upload, it's strictly limited by features, which
is, I think, how most services should work. You
pay more money to get more stuff. And if you
are offering a free plan that is not billed as
a free trial, then it shouldn't be handicapped
by stuff like that. So the Local and niche plan,
the free local and niche plan has unlimited episodes,
unlimited audio. You get the embeddable podcast
player, a website, episode scheduling, promotional
tools, analytics for up to 90 days. That is,
that's one of the limits, right? I think that's
a perfectly reasonable limit. If data and analytics
are really important to you, then it is reasonably
something that you should pay for. And what you
get on the paid plans, right, are things like
the paid ads, right, programmatic ads inserted
dynamically, the ability to use Apple podcast
subscriptions, converting your audio to video
for YouTube videos, show collaborators and other
power ups. So that's what you get when you upgrade
to a paid plan. And then there's also the podcast
networks plan, which for less than 20 bucks a
month gives you unlimited podcasts, unlimited
team members. Analytics for up to 365 days. I
should say the all -in -one podcasting plan gives
you analytics up to 180 days so you can kind
of see a and it says I should say advanced analytics
So, you know advanced analytics, you know gives
you location time trends and things like that,
so You can see like what your downloads look
like over a certain amount of time But the advanced
analytics, again, I think is something worth
paying for. So. And then the other side of this,
right, which is like a service that's completely
free is probably using you, right? RSS .com has
a business model. Just like you can use Notion
for free and then pay for extra stuff. RSS .com's
paid plans give you more stuff. Spotify for creators
doesn't have a paid upgrade path. And they actively
get people who aren't hosting them with them
to move to them for free. So they're definitely
playing on, you don't want to pay for podcasting,
right? So I love that RSS .com has launched this
plan. It makes podcasting more truly accessible.
to as many people as possible. We're calling
it the free local and niche plan because, you
know, local journalists or small audience podcasters
who just want to get their message out there
shouldn't have to pay a bunch of money a year
for it. And so we've enabled that at RSS .com,
which I love. The other thing I'll say is I've
been seeing other services start to wade into
podcast hosting. So like Kit, formerly ConvertKit,
put out a survey asking about, you know, where
do you host your podcast and would you use hosting
if we offered it? I will be very disappointed
if Kit decides to start hosting podcasts. I am
big on a do one thing well mentality, and there
are a lot of things that Kit can improve before
they wade into the very difficult business of
hosting podcasts. It's not just about throwing
audio up there and having an RSS feed. It's about
being reliable and offering a number of services.
Otherwise, if that was the case, I would just
put all my podcasts episodes on on AWS, right?
If I just need a place to host MP3 files, right?
And so, like, I fear that podcast hosting would
be an incredible distraction for kit .com. And
I'm, this isn't hyperbole. If they start to do
that, then I'm going to look elsewhere for an
email service provider that's truly focused on
email. But I've also noticed that Riverside rolled
out podcast hosting. I love Riverside. I think
that they are the best remote recording tool.
It makes a little bit more sense for them to
possibly try their hand at podcast hosting, but
my early experience is poor. They are missing
some core features like the ability to replace
audio and video for scheduled posts. There's
No website. It's kind of hard to find the RSS
feed. They're really it's not really podcast
hosting. They're billing it as a way to publish
to three places. Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcasts.
And that's great because publishing to those
three places is hard. But, you know, I'm not
seeing. I haven't seen anything that makes me
think. Riverside is worth recommending. Even
if there are workflow gains by not having to
publish in three separate places. And I have
a lot of opinions about podcast hosting. The
reason I work for RSS .com in the first place,
right, or I do work for RSS .com in the first
place, is because I think they offer a really
great product. With a lot of great features and
and they care about the podcasters experience
And so All of this is to say that if you haven't
launched your podcast yet because it's been Cost
prohibitive or you're worried about the long
-term investment I would encourage you to Check
out the free local and niche podcast plan It
gives you so much more than any other free plan
out there. And it gives you a clear upgrade path
when you are ready to start paying for podcast
hosting, which I strongly think you should do,
right? If you are building a business or making
your podcast part of your business. You know,
I talked about this in the hobbies episode. Invest
in your hobby, but Also, if you are making your
podcast a business or part of your business,
invest in that as well. The free local niche
plan allows you to invest those funds elsewhere,
like in a VA or maybe in an editor. But this
makes it easier to get started. And I think that
when you're ready, you can do the upgrade path
and You'll be in a much better position because
you won't have to change hosts or migrate anywhere
or feel like you got spurned or screwed by Spotify
for creators because they've changed the way
they measure things or they did things in the
interests of themselves and advertisers. You
know, the podcast hosting companies that charge
for hosting, their customers Their business relies
on their customers. Advertisers are not their
customers. Their board is not their customers.
We are their customers. And that's a good thing.
So anyway, check out, it's over, you know, I'll
have a link in the show notes. This show is hosted
by RSS .com. So, you know, you can head over
to josee .pro slash RSS. That's my affiliate
link. Or not. Just go to rss .com slash pricing.
If you want to see the free and local plan, check
it out. I'm really, you know, I, nobody asked
me to do this episode. I just think it's in the
grand scheme of how I approach podcasting and
podcast workflows and things like that. And what
people ask me about hosting is a consideration
that everyone needs to make. And this offers
a really great opportunity for people to launch
their podcast with a little bit less stress.
So it lowers the risk of starting a podcast,
which is a great thing. All right. Well, that's
it for this episode. Let me know what you think
over at streamlinedfeedback .com. Thanks so much
for listening. Are you going to try the free
and free local and niche plan? Let me know that
too. I really appreciate you. And until next
time, I hope you find some space in your week.