As some of you may know, I had to take down my MP3s for several days last month to avoid exceeding my 100GB download allotment from my ISP (Bluehost.com). Today, two people independently recommended that I provide the means for folks to make small donations to purchase more bandwidth (to avoid this happening again). I have already recorded a new podcast episode series (New Order Ann) but am scared to post because I’m already set to exceed my allotment for February as well.
If you feel so inclined, I have set up a Paypal donation button on the Mormon Stories blog. I promise to be 100% transparent in the donations I receive (unless anonymity is requested) and in how I spend the money. I promise I’m not in this to make any money, but it would be nice to recover some of the expense, and to not have to pull episodes off for the new folks who come on board.
And if you’re not so inclined to donate, no worries! Thanks for your support.
John Dehlin
Why don’t you ask other people to sponsor hosting of the MP3s and then you just link to them? I get 250Gig/month and only consume about 10% of that for ldsgospeldoctrine.net. I’d be willing to put something up for you once in awhile, and I bet others would as well. Shoot me an e-mail if you want me to host it.
John, I would recommend libsyn.com. They offer unlimited bandwidth, and only charge for the storage you use, and they give really good stats on podcasts. They are geared towards podcast content. I think I pay $10 a month, and have had no problems.
John,
When I download through iTunes, does that come from your server?
No advise, just money. Thanks for the podcasts, I’ve really enjoyed them. I hope this helps.
Tom
John, what compression rate are you using?
But I can sympathize. I put up a few esoteric philosophy lectures at my blog. I got a call from my ISP and a bill for over $300. That sort of scared me off of podcasting.
Clay, yeah, all podcasts come from the server of the podcaster. Many of the big ones, such as Twit, have servers supplied by Yahoo which is trying to ride the podcasting wave. Some, like I believe the NPR servers, come from pledges and donations. Others are just business expenses calculated as part of the advertising. Others yet are businesses (such as the video sales on iTMS)
I guess I was assuming one uploaded them to some iTunes repository, but it seems obvious now. I had “subscribed” to both the MS and the EMS podcasts on my work and home computers through iTunes and it automatically downloads the latest episode if you haven’t already. So I listened to them and then it keeps trying to DL when I open iTunes on either computer. Didn’t realize it was doing damage.
I’ll just unsubscribe and keep an eye out for announcements here.
Hey All! I got a few donations today…I’ll post the details soon, but it’s a great start.
Clay–no worries…we should be fine. Download as you need to. Part of the beauty of podcasting is the flexibility it affords you.
Thanks to all for the interest and help.
John
Have you considered BitTorrent? I would gladly leave torrents open for several weeks. I am sure that others would as well.
Can you point a Podcast RSS feed to BitTorrent?
Just curious.
Not really. I wouldn’t advise bit torrent. It’s good for some things. But it definitely has its limits. But if the bandwidth is increase you can try it. But I suspect you’ll lose a lot of visitors simply because the hassle and difficulty of using bit torrent.
Donation sent. Fantastic resource.
That one week with the screencast/presentation was worth more to me than i can say.
I will gladly donate again soon.
I wasn’t suggesting using BT exclusively, just making it an option. Some people would prefer to use it.
That makes sense.
I’d gladly use BT if it would help.
1and1.com - can’t go wrong with them hosting the site… 1and1.com
300GB bandwidth for $3 a month
500GB bandwidth for $5 a month
you’re paying too much for bluehost.
I actually think that a bittorrent network would be really exciting. It would encourage others to create their own podcasts and I think would be a great way to further unify the ‘nacle community. While it may be a little complex to get things started, a good home page with the most simple instructions available should be able to help most anybody would was interested.
Bittorrent networks are great.. a tracker page could be setup that indexes all “cacle community” torrents…
You can call it:
the Tracker’nacle
heheheheh
If a few regulars would agree to subscribe to the torrents and leave them up for some amount of time you could have a great situation going. I would be more than willing to leave a bunch of torrents up pretty much 24/7.
“the Tracker’nacle”
That’s good.
Hey! I’ve included an update on the Mormon Stories fundraising effort here.
A sincere, warm thanks to all who have supported.
John