I recently had a chance to ask Jake Fisher a few questions about the world of podcast hosting and his own podcast hosting solution, Switchpod. This new service, launched two weeks ago, is promising to be one of the leaders in the podcast hosting solution territory. Jake has a lot of good ideas and seems to have the right mindset going into this adventure.
There are a lot of podcast hosting solutions out there already, but I have a feeling that Jake is going to do a good job at separating himself from the rest of the pack.
Mitch: How did you get started as far as wanting to go into the whole podcast hosting side of the Web hosting business?
Jake: I have always thought podcasting was a great idea, and a great way to deliver free content to people. The general web hosting industry is so cluttered right now, there is so many companies to compete with that its hard to stand out. Thats why I thought hosting podcasts would be a great thing to get into.
Another reason is I tried getting into the podcasting scene a few times, I got a few shows going and had some success, but decided that producing the shows wasn’t for me. I noticed from my experience that their was a high learning cure to starting a podcast. The thing I had most trouble with was the podcast feed. I decided I needed to start a service that not only provided free hosting for podcasters, but helped them create the RSS feed.
Mitch: What do you think you can offer that some of the other podcast hosting companies have not been able to?
Jake: Well the biggest thing that I am working on is help for the new guy, the person that wants to get into podcasting but doesn’t know how. I also know that not everyone can afford the hosting costs when they are starting out. There is a growing trend of college age and younger that are trying to get into podcasting.
Well the fact is most people that are younger don’t have the funds to start up a podcast. Thats what we are trying to help people out with.
Mitch: Do you see yourself staying free or adding more paid services down the road?
Jake: Right now our free service is driven by ads, thats not the type of service for everyone. There are people who want a quality podcast host but don’t want the ads. So yes we are planing on adding a paid service in the near future.
Mitch: With an account, do you get an RSS feed built in or is that left up to the client?
Jake: That is the beauty of our service, you don’t have to know anything about the RSS feed to star a podcast. All you have to do is create your mp3 file and upload it, through our easy to use web interface. We then generate the feed for you, and we host it for you.
All you have to do is give your listeners the location of the feed.
Mitch: From head to toe, What exactly do you offer for a new podcast Web hosting client?
Jake: We offer free podcast hosting, and an easy to use RSS feed generator. We are trying to make it as easy as we can for you to create your podcast.
Mitch: Right now you are invites only, when do you think you might expand that?
Jake: We are hoping to have a full release in the next few weeks here. With that release we will be adding our paid ad-free service. If you are interested in helping beta test you can email us for an invite at support@switchpod.com.
Mitch Do you listen to any podcasts right now, and if so which ones?
Jake: I love to listen to podcasts. I have many favorites. Some include TWIT the new podcast from the all the old people from the good ol days of TechTV, I like The Wizards of Technology, and of course the Web Hosting Show.
Mitch: If you could sell yourself to the podcasting community, what would you want to say right now?
Jake: Every one has a talent in podcasting, you just have to find a topic you love to talk about. We will help you with the rest.
After talking with Jake for a while, and trying to get his feelings on where he’d like his podcasting journey to go, I have no problems at all recommending folks to go check out Switchpod. I have a feeling that in a few months that this service won’t just be “yet another” podcast hosting solution. It will be something more.
