Podbean.com has rolled out an unlimited plan for podcasters. They offer unlimited band width and storage for $8 a month for audio and $18 a month for video.

This may be in response to Soundcloud ($15 a month for unlimited audio).  Companies like Libsyn.com and Blubrry.com have had unlimited storage and bandwidth from day one.

This does not mean all media hosting is created equal. There are things to consider like support, stats (accurate stats I might add) and up time. I’ve invited Podbean to come on my show (about podcasting) and I couldn’t get a response. After hounding them, I finally got them to fill me in that they are in Canada. Other than that, the podcast space has very little on this company. If you go to their about us page there is no phone, address, etc. The only way to contact them is through email.

You can read about my attempts here. 

The one thing I like about Libsyn.com and Blubrry.com is they have a very strong presence in the podcasting community.

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This post by David Jackson

As of today (5/19/2014) you’ll be eligible to qualify for revenue share if your show or network has a minimum of 5,000 active listeners on Stitcher in a calendar month

To qualify, a partner must have 5,000 or more active listeners a month on Stitcher.

Active listeners are defined as listener who play more than 30 seconds of a piece of audio and have listened in the current calendar month. You can find your current active listeners number in the Stitcher Partner Portal.

So this is not active listeners per show (unless you only have one show). It is 5000 active listeners per partner.

Listens reset to zero on the first day of each calendar month.

Checks will not be sent until they are greater than $100. All accounts will be credited forward until a check can be paid greater than $100. Checks will be sent quarterly.

To opt in you have to agree to the updated agreement in the partner portal. To opt out you send an email.

The amount paid is dependent on Stitcher’s total revenues less operating expenses, then divided amongst qualifying partners.

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Dave Jackson runs the School of Podcasting where he helps people achieve pain free podasting

I love two players for podcasts. My first is the blubrry player (you can have a blubrry account for free), and for those who don’t want to sign up for blubrry there is the podtrac player. You just put in your RSS feed and you can have a player that is launched in a pop up (or not), plays a single episode (or multiple), and you can customize the colors and size of the player (it’s pretty cool).

When I went to login to the Podcast Review Show (a show I do where we help you get the best out of your podcast), I was surprised to be told my site may have malware (it doesn’t) because I had a podtrac player on my website (see graphic).

When I went to the advanced tab it gave me the following information:

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What is the current listing status for podtrac.com?

Site is listed as suspicious – visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 57 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2014-05-12, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.This site was hosted on 2 network(s) including AS14618 (AMAZON-AES), AS32244 (LIQUID-WEB-INC).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, podtrac.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

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So I’m not sure what happened (one time) over ninety days, but it sure gives off a giant red flag. I went to my website and did a scan using Sucuri.net (affiliate link) which states my site is clean. To the average website visitor, they may not know any better and just run from your site. With this in mind I would consider using the players from Blubrry.com, Libsyn.com

 

Dave Jackson has been teaching people how to podcast since 2005 at the School of Podcasting and can be follwed on twitter @learntopodcast

 

UPDATE:

The day after this article appeared we got the following response from Podtrac.

The Chrome browser blocked the podtrac.com domain, reporting it as malware, followed later by Firefox and Safari as they use the same malware list as Google. At the same time, Chrome’s diagnostic page said there were no reports of malware for this domain in the last 90 days. And for more more than eight years, we have not seen a browser return the domain as malware. We scanned our servers for malware and found none. We checked with our hosting companies, and similarly they did not have any reports of malware on their servers.  We requested a review from Google.  

 

Sometime between 1am and 7am Eastern today, Chrome and the other browsers corrected their listing of the podtrac.comdomain, so the podtrac.com services are working again in all browsers.  We regret the inconvenience.

At the last New Media Expo there were some booths that I didn’t think fit the event (although some might say a teeth whitening booth fits video podcasters). As I scour the Internet and forums looking for podcast related content, I’m always amazed at how people will go the extra, extra, extra mile to try and do podcasting for free. If only they put that kind of effort into their content.

I’m guilty.

When I went to the previous New Media Expos I didn’t buy anything. I was already hosting with Libsyn.com and Blubrry.com. One year I did come home and purchase Boss Jock Studio (an app that lets you create podcasts with your iOs device). But now I sit here and say, “Where are all the sponsors from last year?” Well if their trip to the conference netted them no new customers why would they come back?

For the most part we are frugal (myself included). This makes sense as not everyone is making money with their podcast (but that’s a whole other discussion). I’ve always said we pay with two types of currency. We either pay in time, or money.

How much is your time worth? Here is an example. Auphonic.com just released a desktop version of their software. This software will beat your horrible audio into shape (it does more than the Levelator software). It is super easy and that is why I love their service. The only complaint is when I use their free web based version it takes a fair amount of time to upload an hour long wav file. It takes a while to process an hour long wav file, and naturally it takes time to download it once its finished. Free takes more time. If it takes an hour a week (I’m guessing)  that is four hours a month (if you publish weekly) that you could save if you purchased the desktop version.

If I purchase their desktop option (available on both Mac and PC) it should eliminate the upload/download time. I don’t have this software (yet) but plan on purchasing it in the future. It’s $69. While I get software for my purchase, what I’m really getting is time. I get back (for example) four hours a month, or 48 hours a year. That boils down to $1.43 an hour. People in the forum spoke of $69 like it was $6900.

With more time, you can create better content. With better content you can attract a bigger audience. With a bigger audience you can attract a sponsor. However, we are missing the big picture and looking only as far as our wallets.

What is your time worth to you? What is your time worth to your family? Your kids? What would your sons and daughters think if they said, “Dad if you come spend an hour with us we will pay you $1.43,” and you said, “It’s too expensive.”

Remember Podnago.com? How about MyPodcast.com? These were both free podcast media services. How about Mevio.com or Blip.tv? Both of these media services kicked out their audio podcasters who were getting bandwidth for free. Free is not a good business model. The bad news is Podango had a great dynamic advertising insertion tool that went down with the ship. I begged to let me pay them for using their service. Now a great tool sits at the bottom of lake Podfade.

Now I realize for some of you, times are tough. Times can be very, very tough. If that is the case, why are you podcasting? If I had to worry about how I was paying my electric bill, I wouldn’t go out golfing (at $25+ an outing). Why would you spend money on another hobby like podcasting? Go buy a Dave Ramsey book and get your finances in order (or listen to Steve at moneyplansos.com). Don’t get blinded by illusions of grandeur and thoughts of becoming famous. Remember, we all start with zero listeners, and getting an audience big enough to monetize takes time. Do not get into podcast for the sole reason of making money.

If podcasters want better, innovative, life-changing technology to come into our space, we are going to have to open up our wallets and reward them for taking the time to invent it. On the other side of the coin, don’t go spending $2000 on equipment either (that’s equally as stupid). Please make educated decisions (and I can help with that).

We need to support those services that support us. We need to promote those services that promote us. We need to buy from sponsors that sponsor us. We need to vote with our wallets if we want money to come our way. We must reward developers when they find tools to save us time.

Dave Jackson has been podcasting since April 2005, and runs the School of Podcasting. He is the author of the book More  Podcast Money, and hosts the Ask the Podcast Coach live call in show. 

 

Hello,

I’m so pumped to be part of Podcaster News. One of my very first shows was hosted here (I’ve done over 21 shows with over 2000 episodes under my belt). I run the School of Podcasting which is the Internet’s first website dedicated to helping people launch successful podcasts. My podcast about podcasting (the School of Podcasting’s Morning Announcements) was the first “how to podcast” podcast. I’ve been podcasting since 2005. I’ve been called the “Consumer Reports of Podcasting.” I help people avoid the common pitfalls of podcasting (like spending too much on equipment, using bad media hosting, and trying to podcast for free).  You can read what other people say about me on my testimonials page.

My background is in teaching technology. I’ve been doing it a long time (at one time I created a class “Surfing the Internet” as people had no idea what it was). I love taking people who are afraid of the unknown, or confused by technology, and helping them overcome their fears, and anxieties. To see them launch a podcast when they told me weeks ago that “There is no way I’m technical enough to create a podcast,” almost brings tears to my eyes.

I have spoken at numerous events such as New Media Expo, Author Conventions, Podcamps, Meetup Groups, and webinars. I love to talk podcasting with anyone, anywhere, any time. Here are my current shows:

The School of Podcasting’s Morning Announcements (all things podcasting)

Ask the Podcast Coach (live call in show Saturday’s at 10:30 am est)

Podast Review Show (Constructive criticism and powerful praise)

More Podcast Money (my book on podcast monetization)

Weekly Web Tools (wordpress and other tools)

Logical Weight Loss (a no nonsense approach to weight loss)

Marketing Musician (get more fans, gigs, and sales)

Feeding My Faith (God made simple)

I am in constant pursuit of constant improvement in podcast journey. I love to hear about other’s success, and talk the tools of the trade, and the strategies of the successful.

 

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