Creating a podcast requires a lot of energy and creativity to record and edit episodes, but there is no point in creating a podcast without distributing and marketing it. Marketing can easily be handled by social media marketing and boosting your Spotify channel using SpotifyStorm. As for hosting and distribution, most podcasters will tell you that creating a dedicated website for your podcast is just as important as a marketing strategy. Since you’re already paying for a website hosting service, why not host your podcast on it too? Below in this article, we will cover Podcast Hosting Vs Website Hosting.

There are several problems that can arise should you upload your podcast on your website and host it using the same service. This article aims to show the different issues that can arise.

Too Much Bandwidth

The main goal of a podcast is to be distributed widely, which requires a lot of people to listen to your podcast. Every single time your podcast is downloaded, the file size counts towards your bandwidth. If it is (hopefully) downloaded thousands of times a day, your website host will be spending a lot of money on your website alone.

There are two consequences to using up your bandwidth so fast. Either the web host will charge you a hefty bill for the extra downloads, or they won’t bother and outright ban you. 

Large Podcast Files

Podcasts can drag on for an hour or so, and so the files are usually larger than, say, music audio files. Downloading these large files can be slow from your web host because the host didn’t count on providing so much speed. This will probably be annoying to your listeners. Podcast hosting services are designed to handle a large number of downloads at a higher speed, so they will always be the better option in this regard.

Also, many web hosts give their users a limit to the amount of storage available to them. Deleting your old podcast episodes is not convenient for your listeners, and adding storage through your web host can be a very expensive option.

Sponsorships

You may already be thinking of ways to monetize your podcast. Although ads and affiliate marketing are viable options, the best way to earn money podcasting is through sponsorships. Sponsors will not be looking for your podcast on your website, but they will be looking through the databases of podcast hosting sites.

Finally, podcast hosting sites usually provide accurate analytics and other statistical information that is relevant to growing a podcast. This data is also relevant if you are trying to attract a specific sponsor. Using a web host will not give you access to such data because web hosts do not monitor it, to begin with.

Conclusion

It is very difficult and costly to host a podcast using a website hosting service. Because podcast hosting services provide all the requirements for distributing a podcast and marketing it successfully, they are the best choice for the job they were designed to do. Save your money and host on a dedicated podcast hosting service; your listeners will appreciate it.