Podcasting is a new media format for audio content. A Podcast is an audio file (usually an mp3 or m4a file) that you can download to your computer or mp3 player and listen to at your leisure. You can download individual "episodes" or subscribe to a Podcast using RSS, in which case new shows will automatically be downloaded to your computer when they are released. The term podcast comes from the combination of the words "iPod" and "broadcast". You can read more about Podcasting in this Wikipedia article.
Look through our top podcasts lists or browse our directory here. Some other podcast directories are Podfeed and PodcastPickle, or iTunes Podcast directory. You can browse through them in search of new/interesting podcasts.
When you "subscribe" to a podcast, you tell a piece of software that you use to periodically check to see if new episodes of that podcast have been released. If they have, your software will download them and allow you to synch them to your mp3 player. "Subscribing" to a podcast is almost always free.
You don't need any software to listen to podcasts. You can stream them directly form our site using our handy flash player. If you prefer to download or subscribe to podcasts, you can use software from iTunes, Juice, or PodNova to listen to your podcasts.
Anyone can make a Podcast or become a Podcaster. Most of our Podcasters are individuals who are passionate about a particular area, whether that's politics, music, sports, business, or even TV.
Becoming a Podcaster is easy. You'll need a microphone, a computer, and some basic audio editing software. We recommend Audacity's software for recording and editing your podcast (Mac users can use Garage Band instead). Once you have recorded your Podcast, you'll need somewhere to host your podcast. That's where PodHoster can help.
In order for people to be able to download your podcast, you need a public computer to store your files and provide bandwidth. This is what PodHoster can provide. We'll also handle configuring an RSS feed for you, which will allow listeners to easily subscribe to your podcast.
Click the signup link Sign Up and follow our simple signup process. You'll need to choose a username which should be related to your show, and fill in some information about your podcast. Choose one of our plans and you'll be up and running in minutes.
Our plans are based on the amount of storage that you use on our system. Think about how many shows you plan to do and how frequently you'll release new shows. We recommend you keep storage for about two months worth of shows. See the How Much Storage Will My Shows Use? Question for more info. Here are our plans:
PodHoster Trial Account - $0.00/month 50MB of Storage. Trial accounts are free and may be used for 30 days. After 30 days they are upgraded to PodHoster Intro accounts.
PodHoster Intro - $4.95/month 250MB of storage. This package is recommended for users starting out with Podcasting.
PodHoster Basic - $9.95/month 500MB of storage. This package recommended for users who do 2-3 20 minute shows per week or a single hour show per week.
PodHoster Advanced - $19.95/month 1000MB of storage. This package is recommended for users who do a daily 20 minute show or multiple 1 hour shows per week.
PodHoster Pro - $29.95/month 2000MB of storage. This package is recommended for users who do more that 2 hour length shows per week.
PodHoster Premier - $39.95/month 3000MB of storage.
PodHoster Expert - $49.95/month 4000MB of storage.
The amount of storage that your shows will need is dependent on the duration of your shows and the encoding rate that you will use. We've created the tables below to help you figure out how much storage you'll probably need.
This table shows how many MegaBytes (MB) your show will need for a given encoding rate and duration.
Show Running Time (minutes)
Encoding Rates
5
10
20
30
60
96 kbps - standard talk
3.4 mb
6.9 mb
13.7 mb
20.6 mb
41.2 mb
112 kbps - standard music
4.0 mb
8.0 mb
16.0 mb
24.0 mb
48.1 mb
128 kbps - high quality music
4.6 mb
9.2 mb
18.3 mb
27.5 mb
54.9 mb
This table shows how many MBs you will need if you record a 128kbps show for various durations and various numbers of shows per week.
Every user gets at least 250MB of storage on our servers (Free Trial users get 50MB), RSS feeds, daily updated statistics on your podcasts, and a fully functional blog from which to promote your podcast.
When we create your account, we allocate a URL specifically to you. That URL will be in the format #username#.podhoster.com where #username# is your actual username. Creating DNS entries can take as long as 24 hours to appear depending on your ISP and the timing of updates to your local DNS server. If you can't see your site after 24 hours, please contact our support team
After signing up, (or any login) you will be taken to your Control Panel. If you're just starting out you will need to do three things to publish your first podcast. First, you'll need to create a show under the Shows tab. The Show should be the name that your whole podcast will be known as. Second, you'll need to create a Post under the Posts tab. Posts can be either episodes which contain media files or episodes without media files. We refer to episodes without media files as blog posts. Third, you'll want to name your blog/website under the Blog Settings Page. Once you've done these three things, you'll be podcasting.
In order for your iTunes listeners to see all your episode information, it needs to be put into the format that iTunes requires. For most podcasters, iTunes users make up about 70% of their audience.
Normally podcasts that are more than 60 days old are archived, meaning only that they are moved off your main PodHoster Web site page and into a monthly page. Some users would rather all their podcasts stay on one page (particularly users who have a finite number of episodes). To turn off archiving, login to your account, select the "shows" tab, scroll to the bottom, and select "Off" next to the heading Podcast Archive.
Large files (over 100MB) can cause your browser to give up before the entire file is uploaded. To avoid this, you can upload your files to us via FTP. You will need an FTP client, we recommend Filezilla for the PC or Cyberduck for the Mac. Once your FTP client is setup, you'll need to know that our FTP server is ftp.podhoster.com, and that you can connect with you standard PodHoster username and password. This will allow you to ftp to your personal file area. Media files can be placed in the root of your area. Images must be put in the images folder.
There are lots of ways to promote your podcast. Start by telling all your friends about it. Then start using our tools. You can use the "Add to My Yahoo", "Add to my iTunes", buttons to promote your Podcast on your own site. You can use those buttons on other web sites as well. Submit your podcast to iTunes, Podfeed.net, and Podcast Pickle. Put links to your PodHoster blog page on your other sites.
RSS stands for Realy Simple Syndication. It is a standard way for people to subscribe to your content. Subscribers will automatically be notified when you post a new episode and can setup their own software to automatically download them. Your PodHoster service comes with an RSS feed configured for you. All your users will need is to subscribe to your Show through your PodHoster web site or any Podcast directory in which you are listed. You can read more about RSS in this Wikipedia Article.
Flash can only play audio encoded at specific sampling rates. Here is a list of encoding rates will sound fine: 44.1 kHz, 33.075 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 11.025 kHz.
Go to the Control Panel and select the Shows tab. Choose the Show you wish to modify from the drop down list. Then scroll down to the Advanced Settings section. Check the box next to the words Auto-Ping and click Save Show Information. When this setting is checked, we will automatically updated various ping services when you publish a new episode. Checking this box will essentially notify your subscribers more quickly that you have a new episode.
Yes! For any account you can create multiple Podcast RSS feeds to carry your show in different formats or to carry completely different shows. Go to the Control Panel, then select the Shows tab. The default setting under Shows should be add a new show. Enter the information for your new show and save it. Your new show will now have its own RSS feed. Some users utlize this feature to podcast the same episodes in different formats (e.g. mp3 and m4a) with each format having its own RSS feed. Others simply want two distinct shows on different topics.
Yes. This feature is availble by going to the Control Panel and clicking the Blog Settings tab. At the bottom of that page you will see instructions for setting up your domain. In order for us to implement this feature, you will need to fill out a support request here. We will contact you once the proper entries are made to our server to allow your domain to function.
Yes. To access this feature go to the Control Panel and select Shows. Select the Show that you wish to modify from the drop down list and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see a check box and text entry field where you can add an alternate URL to use for your RSS feed. While this feature is activated, all your RSS links will resolve to the alternate URL that you enter.
You can add actual HTML or CSS style sheets to the Blog Description or Show Description text boxes of your PodHoster web page. In this way, you can modify your PodHoster web page just like you would a MySpace page, including adding backgrounds, changing color schemes, and adding Rich HTML. Give it a try and see how creative you can get with it.
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