PoducateMe: Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education
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Printable copies of the guide are available for purchase and immediate download at
have a problem that requires immediate attention. Before committing to a host, try
calling their support number a few times at different times of the day and week up to
get an idea of their responsiveness. A couple of kids can run a server out of their
basement and call themselves a hosting company, so do your research.
Personally, after signing on with and ultimately ditching several disappointing hosts
over the years, I’ve comfortably settled on the award-winning IX Web Hosting
low price, and I always receive helpful and timely responses from their support staff.
IX Web Hosting support is reachable 24/7 via a toll-free phone number, live Web chat
or email and they back a 1-hour response time guarantee. In fact, they’re hosting the
PoducateMe site, as well as a few others I’ve created.
Free Hosting
There are a number of hosting providers that offer free storage and bandwidth, but
their user agreements may include hidden fees or undesirable contingencies, such as
permission to insert an audio advertisement at the beginning of your episodes and
forfeiture of your copyright.
Personally, I don’t think free hosting business have yet been proven as viable. New
free hosting companies appear every day and may ultimately evolve into paid
services or shut down after awhile. This is exactly what I saw happen with the free
Internet service providers of the dotcom bubble era that attempted to rely on
advertising to keep them afloat. Your hosting provider is merely the overseer of a
cluster of servers connected to the Internet, and they must also pay to shuttle data
over the network, as well as the other myriad of expenses that come with running a
business.
seemingly excellent choice for free hosting. Lunarpages is a well-established and
award-winning provider that has been kind enough, in the spirit of “giving back,” to
offer K-12 public schools in the U.S. free hosting and support. Because their
business model does not rely on advertising or other unproven methods to carry the
company, they are an especially attractive choice. Visit
Libsyn.com (Liberated Syndication) is another option to consider. It’s not free (pricing
starts at $5 a month), but the service is inexpensive and does have many supporters
in the podcasting community.
Yet another option to consider when choosing a hosting provider is ClickCaster
a podcast and a podcast blog in minutes. ClickCaster provides several tiers of
service, including one that’s free. ClickCaster also offers educational/non-profit
institutions $3 off a Standard account, which costs $9.99 monthly. ($6.99 with
discount).
