As you may or may not know, I am a big advocate for self-hosting your podcast RSS feed. I’ve self-hosted all of my individual podcast project’s RSS feeds since I started podcasting nearly 10 years ago. I’ve also put many hours into this method, even though there were solutions that would have been less time consuming. Today I’m here to explain why self-hosting your RSS Feeds is not always the right answer.
Before we continue, what do I mean by “self-hosting” my RSS feed?
Let’s back up for a moment. An RSS feed is essentially the technical-guts of your podcast. The RSS feed is “the code” (for a lack of better term) that tells podcast apps, services, directories, etc, where they can find your podcast. These services essentially “read the code” (again for a lack of better term) in your RSS feed for the information needed to get your podcast (such as descriptions, file location, etc). As such, the RSS feed is arguably the most crucial technical component to your podcast.