Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about Libsyn Podcast Hosting, something that you're gonna need to get your podcast on all the major directories like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, all that good jazz. I got all that in this video for you right here. What's crackin'? Zachary Babcock here with Thunderdog Empowerment. Now in this video, we're gonna talk about why hosting is important for your podcast and not just hosting on your website because that's a big no-no. And then we're also gonna talk about Libsyn, which is my hosting preferred choice. And we're also gonna talk about other options and what you can expect. So let's dive straight into this. All right, the reason why you need a hosting provider like Libsyn or other services that are out there is because if you try to host this on your own website, like through Bluehost or whatever you're using to host your website, you're gonna eat up all of your bandwidth, especially over time as you upload more and more podcast episodes, and your website's gonna become completely, basically broken or it's moving so slow and that's not what you wanna do. Google will actually penalize you for having a website that slow and it'll be ridiculous. So it's a big no-no. That's why these hosting service solutions out there exist in the first place, first and foremost. So there are a bunch of different hosting service provider solutions out there on the marketplace. I'm only gonna share with you the reason why I chose Libsyn, because that's all I can talk about is my own experience. So when I first got started back in 2018, I did my due diligence, and which is definitely something that I'd recommend you do as well, and not just watch this video, but go out and look for yourself and see other examples. But I looked at every single hosting service provider that I can get my eyes on, and I looked into all the different features and what the benefits that they had to offer for each one. And it was literally what I narrowed it down to, it was a toss-up between Libsyn and Buzzsprout. Those were the two that I was considering at the time. And I couldn't make up my mind because both of them had features that were slightly different that I liked about both. And how I ended up making my decision was like, well, what are all the other top podcasters that I look up to, what are they using? And people at the time that I still do look up to, Joe Rogan, Andy Fursilla, Pat Flynn, I looked at what they were using for their hosting service provider, and they were all using Libsyn at the time. And that's the reason why I decided to make that decision and move with Libsyn. So what I would recommend for you to do is to not just watch this video right here and make your decision, you need to make your own educated decision. So go out and look at all the different hosting service providers, look at their pricing plans, look at the features that they offer, the benefits that they offer, because ultimately, your decision's gonna come down to what fits you, your preferences, your needs the most. So go take the time to do due diligence and figure out which is the best hosting service provider for you. All right, so let's jump on the computer and I'm gonna give you a quick, really brief tutorial on some key features on Libsyn that I like that you'll be able to experience as well once you get Libsyn. All right, here we are inside of Libsyn. Now what you're seeing is my current numbers for Underdog Empowerment, my podcast. But what you can expect, this front-facing stats snapshot is just gonna show you your total downloads for each one of the following four months, and then it shows you your all-time, obviously. It also shows you how much of your storage usage that you've used so far this month. So quickly, if you go to Settings, you can always come in here and edit your show settings. Like let's say you start your podcast, but then you end up wanting to change the name of your podcast. You could change it right here. You could change the show description, which is what shows a description of your show, what it's about, what new people will see and read before they actually check out your show. You could change the website that it's linked to that people can click directly from Apple. You could change your category that you're in. You'll also be able to change, you'll have a bunch of different customized features that you could change at any given time, your podcast artwork, and it's all underneath Show Settings. So that's underneath the Settings tab. Underneath Destinations is where you'll be able to go, and in here, you're gonna be able to submit to different podcast directories, like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, whatnot. But you're basically gonna be grabbing your Libsyn Classic feed, and you're gonna be submitting it to these podcast directories. Now, if you need a complete tutorial on how to get your podcast submitted to these directories from Libsyn, then make sure you check out the complete playlist. I'll leave that card in the corner of your screen, which you should be seeing right now. All right, now back to the dashboard. So, now you got all that basic setup. Now, what I like about this, too, is you can check out your stats. So if you hit View All Stats here, you can go in, and what you're seeing now is stats going back about three months. So I can run that back all the way to the beginning here, which was April of 2018. We can run that, and as you can see, you can see how the podcast grew over time, and this is a snapshot of the daily. I can also look at it from a weekly perspective. I can also see it from a monthly perspective. Pretty cool. Also shows me all my episodes, my all-time leaders, and whatnot. So that's what I love about it, and you can go in here and you can easily just check what's going on, where it's at, and it's all compiled for you all in one place for you to check upon. All right, one of the main things that keeps people from actually starting a podcast, from putting it out there, is that they're afraid of all the time commitment that it's gonna take to produce a podcast, because let's face it, man, there's a lot that goes into producing a podcast. You gotta record it, then you gotta edit it, then you gotta add your Apple Tags, then you gotta upload it to Libsyn, to your hosting provider so it goes out everywhere, then you gotta create the show notes and put them on your WordPress website, then you gotta, depending on how far you wanna take the post-production, make the social media sharing image, make audiograms, make guest packages, all that stuff that goes into producing a podcast. Let's not sugarcoat it here. There's a lot that goes into that. So for you, if you're the busy entrepreneur, you got a lot of things going on, you got a lot of responsibilities, things that you must attend to in your business, and you also wanna have a personal life to spend with your family and do cool things that you like doing, right? But you know the power of having a podcast, of having a highly engaged audience with your brand, but you just don't have that time commitment to do all the post-production work. We can take over that entire responsibility for you so you can still reap all the massive benefits of having your own podcast. Go check out the link in the description below to see if it's a good fit for you and everything that you got going on. Yo, I got a really dope video that's gonna show you exactly how to launch a podcast, a complete A to Z guide, everything you need to know to having your podcast up and running on all the major platforms. But first and foremost, make sure you hit subscribe, tap the bell notifications if you want the best resource for all the tips, tricks, and step-by-step strategies on how to level up with a podcast, all the in-depth marketing stuff that's really gonna push the needle forward. Yeah, hit subscribe and I'm gonna see you on the next video. This video right here is gonna show you every single thing that you need to know as far as not having a clue about podcasting and having it up and running. Go check that out, I'm gonna see you guys on the next video.