[display_podcast]

Show Notes:

This podcast can also be viewed on YouTube over here!

FOs: Hitchhiking to Africa, A Century! (Celtic Heart Knot)

WIP: Loopy Camp Lolly Socks

Acquisitions: Yarn vs Zombies World Traveller Club, Skein Club

Blog Post about Podcasting Options over here!

My podcast was never pretty enough to join the beautiful people Blip. They sent me a nice email when I applied suggesting I apply again when I had some more episodes under my belt and had time to ‘polish it’ a bit more. I think I waited until I had a dozen or so episodes and decided there was only so much polishing one could do and it didn’t matter to me if Blip or anyone really liked and/or watched me as I podcast for me!

When I started podcasting I did not apply to Blip straight away as it was around the time Blip changed its T&Cs. I knew I wanted to be accessible through iTunes so did some research.

My blog has always been a WordPress blog and I discovered the podPress plugin. After doing some googling, I discovered that this would work, but I would need somewhere to store the episodes each week. I chose Amazon S3.

In the beginning this worked well. Each month would cost me around $20, not for storage, but for the downloads of the episodes- the data transfer from Amazon, through iTunes to Downcast or whatever program you use to watch your podcasts.

Several people told me they had issues with watching the podcast on the blog, so I diversified and started uploading episodes to YouTube as well. I suppose with viewership growing and more and more people watching back episodes, the Amazon bill has also increased each month and now I have to look for something different.

With Blip doing its ‘you’re not good enough for us, bugger off’ routine at the moment, I thought it might be helpful if I put in one place what I have found from my research into other options and the pros and cons of each option…

1) podPress with Amazon s3 (or other external storage)

This has worked well until now, however from originally costing around $20/month, it has grown to around $40/month. If you have a small podcast (size wise) with a low viewer base, this may be a good option. Storage is free, you just pay for the transfers. This would be a great option for most audio podcasts.

podPress does generate an RSS feed for linkage to iTunes, but it takes some fiddling to get it to work. Well it did for me, but I am a blonde Mac user…

2) Podbean

At first glance, this looks like a great solution- they are offering a free hosting site! You do, however need to look at the fine print! You start off with 2.5GB of storage space and each month get 500mb extra.

Now let’s break this down! I have several unviewed podcasts in my Download queue at the moment. They range in size from 180mb for 24 minutes to 522mb for 25 minutes. Most 45 to 60 minute podcasts range from 240 to 550mb. It all depends on your compression. If you know you can compress your video and restrict yourselves to around 20 minutes a week, you may be able to get by with 500mb a month. One of the things to consider of course is how much quality you lose in compressing your video.

If you know you will need more than this, the ‘business pricing’ starts at $58.29/month o_O!

3) Hipcast

Looking back to your podcast sizes above, if you know you will upload less than 1GB/month, Hipcast would appear to be a good solution. For 1GB storage growth per month you will pay $19.95. If you need more however, it jumps to $49.95/month.

Something else to consider with each of these options is what to do with old podcasts. If you are happy to upload them one by one to YouTube and direct people there if they decide they want to go back and watch each episode you will not need to worry about starting storage space, but if you decide you want all your episodes in one place, how much storage will you need to begin with? It’s a case of doing the math.

4) Libsyn

I’m not sure where app developers get their names from, but still Libsyn seems to offer similar plans to those above, with the addition of being able to monetise your podcasts, ie play adds for your viewers and generate money for yourself. If this sounds like a good thing to you (and hey, I’m not gonna judge!) then perhaps check out their pricing.

5) Videopress and added WordPress storage (space upgrade)

If you are finding your viewership growing (yay!) you may find this is the most economical solution in the long run.

You will need to have a blog hosted on WordPress. Videopress costs around $60/year and additional storage starts at $20. If you produce 50 episodes a year and each episode is around 250mb, you will need roughly 12.5gb/year. A 25gb space upgrade costs $50.

If you are serious about continuing your podcast, or have an established podcast this looks like being the best bang for your buck and is the way I am planning on going with A Down Under Yarn.

6) YouTube

This is an option if you are not interested in linking to iTunes. YouTube does not allow the relevant data to be sent to iTunes to allow an RSS feed to work. The general consensus around the water cooler  plurk the other day was lots of people watch podcasts on YouTube when they remember to, even if they get sent emails, facebook messages and carrier pigeons reminding them a new episode is up. Of course YouTube (at the moment!) is free…

It is sad that there is little opportunity for existing podcasters to continue to podcast for free and sad for our knitting community that podcasts have become an expensive proposition. I am very sad that several people I watch regularly are commenting that they will no longer podcast if they can’t do it for free.

I lie in bed at night and toss around all sorts of ideas. Hosting video is not cheap and I have read countless articles recently saying video is the new big thing in business and you must have video on your site! We are knitters and we like sharing with other people and keeping records for ourselves. I’d love to see some sort of co-op where podcasters could join and viewers could donate and the funds be shared evenly (but I long for a utopian world!) or a dedicated service developed for knitting podcasts!

I have not explored every option here, I know, just some main ones. If you want to talk through options that might suit you, send me an email  or PM me on Ravelry, Plurk or Twitter. I don’t charge, although donations of tea, chocolate, yarn or fibre… (only joking!)

Hope this helps somewhat!

[display_podcast]

Show Notes:

This podcast can also be viewed on YouTube over here!

There are a series of photos and a video at the end! Sorry about the length- I seem to waffle a bit!

WIP: Hitchhiking to Africa, Cursed Stripes in Purple and Green

Acquisitions: African Expressions Harmony, Vinnis Colours Serina, Vinnis Colours Bambi, Embellish-Knit i-cord machine, Yarn vs Zombies Grip Corriedale Top, Into the Whirled May Club colourway, Biscotte & Cie Felix.

[display_podcast]

Show Notes:

This podcast can also be viewed on YouTube over here!

This episode is more condensed than usual because of the bandwidth limits in South Africa. Apologies if the quality is not good for you. Next week’s show will include photos and videos from our trip.

FO: Vodka under the Elm Tree, Calorimetry for the Tropics

WIP: Hitchhiking to Africa, Cursed Stripes in Purple and Green

[display_podcast]

Show Notes:

This podcast can also be viewed on YouTube over here!

This episode is more condensed than usual because of the bandwidth limits in South Africa. Apologies if the quality is not good for you.

FO: Villianous Graffiti

WIP: Vodka under the Elm Tree, Hitchhiking to Africa

Big News: Thanks to all who shared my excitement last week at the imminent launch of Solar Flair Fibres!  Watch this space for more, or like our Facebook page, or join our Ravelry Group!