The one thing I know for sure is that mobile media is the way it's going to be, and if we're going to grow and prosper as a show, we need to get on that shit sooner rather than later.
Here's the thing: You're already there.
There are a couple things to address here. You seem to be asking about paying for hosting (which I understand is a bit of a problem right now, with a large backlog of large media files and a lot of downloads, including downloads of archived shows). You want to make sure that your podcast is accessible through mobile applications and browsers. You want to know if advertising is an acceptable way to make up for increased hosting costs. And of course you want some numbers to make sure you're making the right decisions.
I think your immediate problem is hosting.
Saving the Game uses
iPage.com for web and podcast hosting. I'm paying $7.50/month for unlimited upload and download bandwidth, unlimited hosting, unlimited email, site backups, domain privacy, and daily security scanning (because dealing with hacks and vulnerabilities is annoying.) $97/year (which includes domain name renewal) is my
entire annual outlay for the podcast. The iPage link above actually goes to my referral link -- I've already got next year's hosting paid for, because someone signed up for their own web hosting using my referral code and I got a check for $105.00 for it. I think their plans start at $3.00/month or something like that -- hosting's dirt cheap these days, which is why I feel like LibSyn is such a scam.
Libsyn is designed for people with no experience or interest in setting up all the infrastructure around a podcast -- a blog and RSS feed, media players, etc. You already have all that, and that means you're paying LibSyn for a lot of extra services you don't need. Before you go with something like LibSyn, give iPage a look. iPage is designed for business-grade hosting, and their support and sales staff are
really good. Heck, my sales guy listens to Saving the Game himself! And they're a LOT cheaper than LibSyn. Moving web hosts isn't actually that bad a procedure, especially when they're willing to help. (Heck,
I'm willing to help. This is what I do for a living, and as a hobby, and you've got my email address.) There are a few steps involved with WordPress (because I have no idea what version you're running), but it's not difficult.
Regarding media players: Your RSS feed goes all the way to the start of your podcast (I checked.) Any decent mobile podcatcher, like Podkicker or whatever iPods and iPhones use, handles that just fine - that's one reason people can get to your backlog so easily. There's no need to develop your own app, or pay for one. Most podcatchers keep a database of podcasts, too, so listeners don't even have to enter a RSS feed's URL manually. I didn't do anything on that front, and Podkicker had
Saving the Game in its database very quickly. (I think they scraped it from Stitcher, iTunes, BluBrry, or RPGPodcasts.com). There's no reason to try and reproduce all the work other software developers have done to make your podcast easily accessible. Happy Jacks RPG Podcast already is. Heck, limiting yourself to LibSyn is a
bad idea if it puts Happy Jacks in a "walled garden" environment.
Your job is to produce media and make that media accessible to other pieces of software. Your job is
not developing that software, nor is it your job to worry about its implementation. Good news: You've done your job! You have an awesome show, and you have an RSS feed. Leave the tool development to the people who make tools.
One thing you and I both need to do is add a mobile theme to your WordPress site and make sure you properly detect mobile browsers and serve that mobile theme. I can't see your numbers, of course, but STG gets 28% of its traffic from mobile browsers, 24% from normal browsers, 23% from desktop podcatcher, and 17% from mobile podcatchers. (Strangely, we also have someone who listens on a TV device, like a Roku or something.) Making it easier for those mobile web users is a good improvement to make.
Now as far as ads go: I have no problem with advertisements in a podcast. However -- and I know it's more work for you, but this is crucial -- those ads need to be directly relatable to the podcast, fresh instead of canned, and preferably a sort of 'sponsorship' thing.
Writing Excuses is pretty much sponsored by Audible.com, for example. They don't play canned ads. Rather, they take a break in the middle of their show to promote a particular audiobook on Audible, then get back to their content. You guys are big enough that you just might be able to do something similar -- especially if people want to advertise Kickstarter projects and the like. This serves everyone's purpose: The ad actually becomes content of interest to the listeners, rather than an interruption, you get paid for advertising without losing listeners, and the advertising is effective for the advertiser. But
advertising must be content, just like the rest of your show, or it serves no purpose and will turn listeners off.
Also -- seriously, advertise some Angry Folk albums, would you?
Regarding podcast numbers: Have you looked at your BluBrry account's "media statistics" section? They do a great breakdown of the platforms people download from. It's very helpful.
I think I've hit the highlights here. If I've misunderstood what you're asking for, Stu, let me know -- I want you to get this right up front rather than having to spend money to get stuck, and then spend more money to fix the problem.