The promise most low-cost podcast media hosting providers make with you is for “unmetered” bandwidth. It doesn't matter how big your show gets, they say. They’ve got the bandwidth taken care of, and your monthly bill won’t increase. 

Well... what if I told you that wasn't always true? 

What I’m about to say should not cause the vast majority of podcasters to take drastic action. For the overwhelming majority of podcasts, you’ll always keep paying whatever you're paying right now for podcast hosting. 

If you’re successful at growing your podcast into a commercially viable enterprise, to the point you’re getting tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of downloads on your episodes, your podcast hosting company will be forced to make a business decision, because you’re costing them thousands of dollars each month. They’d like that back, and even to turn a profit so they can stay in business.

Look at the contract you probably didn’t read that spells out the terms of service with your hosting company. Chances are, you’ll find a clause that states something along the lines of, “If your show gets too big, we're going to reach out to you and find ways to help us recoup our real costs.” 

If you really do have designs on growing your show (and a plan to do so) to the point where it's commercially viable, then you need to prepare for this eventuality. Because it will come up. You need to be eyes wide open that someone will have to pay the bandwidth cost eventually. 

Because TANSTAAFL. 

Do you have a friend in podcasting who needs to know about this? Do me a favor and send them this particular episode. Word of mouth works really well to grow a podcast. There are almost 900,000 podcasts available, but I’m nowhere near having 900,000 people listening to my program, so I’m not facing the reality I just laid out. So don’t worry: You can send me as many listeners as you like! 

And if you have questions for me on this topic or anything related to making podcasting better, reach out to me at [email protected]. 

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday and your Friday tomorrow, as I don’t produce this show on Friday. Instead, I'll be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

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