The Dark Side of Podcasting

Podcasting is a great way to reach people and deliver your message. But what happens when it gets your web site shut down?

No, I’m not talking about copyright issues, spam or any of the things you might think of. I’m talking about the problem of "bandwidth". I’ll bet you never even thought of that!

Here’s the problem: Podcast files can be very large. Some of them are over 75MB in size. Every time a file is downloaded you’re using bandwidth. And your web host puts a limit on how much bandwidth you can use per month.

A great many web hosts will simply shut down your site when you reach your limit for the month. Often they don’t even let you know that it’s happened. When that does, though, your web site and your podcast are BOTH "off the air".

Let’s look at how and why this happens. Suppose you have a 10MB podcast file you want to share with the world. And let’s suppose you have a few people listening. But how many? If your host gives you 10GB per month, up to 1000 people can download the show. So far, so good.

Now suppose you get your podcast listed in iTunes. Suddenly up to 40,000,000 people are aware of your podcast. Many of them will want to hear it. That’s great, right?

Well, it is and it isn’t. If too many people start listening to your podcast, you’ll end up using all of your bandwidth. There’s nothing left for delivering web pages. So your site goes down. Or - you get hit with a huge bill for those extra gigabytes(GB) of bandwidth.

OOPS! You’ve just become a victim of your own success. It has happened already. One podcaster got his show listed in iTunes and went from 100 listeners to 6,000 listeners in a few days. His podcast used 100GB of bandwidth in 3 days!

Guess who had to pay for it? Yep, HE did. Now this guy is very serious about his show, and he pays the 100s of dollars a month to make it available. Not everyone can do that...

So what’s the answer? That depends. How serious you are about having people listen to your show? Can you make any money with it? Will you make enough to at least cover your cost? And can you keep your web site "live" for taking orders, etc.?

There are sites that will host and deliver your podcast for a fee. The quality of service and the pricing varies. But at the very least, your web site won’t be shut down just because your podcast has become too successful.

Choose a podcasting service site that has a package you can afford. Be sure that they actually deliver what they promise. Be prepared to pay more for better service. And be sure you can get help if you need it. Ask for actual customer’s comments!

For ease of use, a short learning curve and fanatical customer service, I highly recommend:

http://www.podblaze.com

Podcasting is a fairly new medium. It’s been around for about a year. The growth rate is phenomenal and it’s here to stay. The only question, really, is... When will you start podcasting?

Steve Humphrey is an author, programmer & Certified Guerilla Marketer. He has been online for 15 years and enjoys teaching people how to make powerful programs and web sites with PHP. http://www.LearnToUsePHPinTwoHours.com