July 22, 2024 • 10 mins
In this episode, Sober Steve the Podcast Guy shares three categories of common podcasting scams you will want to avoid on your way to becoming a podcasting badass!
For more personalized advice, visit www.sobersteve.com to schedule a FREE Launch Brainstorm or Podcast Tune-Up session.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey there, podcasting andbad-ass is it's your host.
So receive the podcast guy herewith another exciting episode of
podcasting bad-ass this week, weare going to be talking about
podcasting scams to look outfor.
I know from the moment that Iannounced to the world that I
was doing a podcast, I wasinstantly exposed to scams and
I've been able to avoid themajority of them along my five
(00:23):
years of podcasting, but I willgo over all of them with you,
just so that new potentialpodcasts.
That's out there, or those of uswho can be tending towards the
more naive can look out forthese scams and learn from our
mistakes.
So first I do want announce thatI am.
Accepting brainstorm and tune upapplicants so that you can come
(00:44):
on the show and receive freecoaching.
So we can talk about how to growyour existing podcast, or we
could talk about starting thepodcast of your dreams so you
can head on over to sobersteve.com.
To apply today for either yourbrainstorming session or your
free tune-up, both of which arefree.
You got a full half hour withme, and then the best 15 minutes
(01:04):
of general advice will be turnedinto an episode to also help
promote you and your brand andyour podcast, either the one
that's already out or the onethat's coming.
So it's a great opportunity foryou to get some free exposure
and free coachingover@sobersteve.com.
I chose today's topic because asa certified podcast growth
coach, I have.
(01:25):
Been podcasting for over fiveyears, I've been networking with
and connecting with otherpodcasts for so long.
I've heard so many differenthorror stories.
And so I'm hoping to pay myexperience forward and help save
some of you for making the samemistakes that me and my peers
have made.
So let's get into it.
The first one is the good oldfashioned phishing scam.
(01:48):
Yes, it happens to more thanjust a seniors being tasked to
go out and get gift cards fromWalmart.
Us podcasters get fished aswell.
these are when you get messagesfrom strangers offering
something that sounds too goodto be true, or they're trying to
scare you.
Either way.
They are here to help you wink,wink.
(02:09):
AKA not really.
And so with these phishingscams, you'll find users on
social media or receive emailsfrom people with unusual, almost
fake sounding names.
Reaching out to you to offer, tohelp a problem that you didn't
reach out to them about.
So this would be different thanlistening to someone show about
podcasting.
(02:29):
Going on their website andsigning up for their emails.
If I was to send you an email inresponse to that, that would be
something that you signed upfor.
But these are people whorandomly out of the blue will
just message you saying, Hey, doyou have a podcast of what is
the link I want to help you withX, Y, Z problem, whether it be
getting downloads or listenersor reviews or saying that
(02:49):
there's a problem with one ofyour, like a legal thing behind
the scenes that they can helpfix with you or.
Offering to increase yourdownloads or social media
followers or streams overnight.
If you just give them some moreinformation.
And you might also get thingssaying that your name, domain,
or something else associatedwith your podcast has broken the
(03:10):
laws.
And even though no actual legalorganization is attempted to
reach out to you.
This kind stranger is lookingout for you and can fix this
problem if you give them somemore information as well.
So the gist of this is thatbefore they even start asking
for money, they'll start askingfor information about your
podcasts, which honestly, ifthey found you, they should be
(03:34):
able to find, you know, ifsomeone's.
Messaging.
My podcasting page asking me atpodcasting.
Bad-ass where all my posts areabout my social media.
Hey, do you have a podcastquestion, mark?
That's a good sign of a fishbecause if they were a human who
was using their eyes, ears, andbrain, they would see.
Yes, this is my podcast.
(03:55):
This is my podcasting Instagram.
You know, things would make alittle bit more sense or add up
and the, it would be a littlemore personalized.
These are very fishy, random,like, just give us all your
information and then we'll takecare of your problem.
You don't want to listen tothem.
Another thing that people willcome and reach out to you and
offer you, or that you couldfind online when you're
(04:16):
researching ways to grow yourpodcast is there's often times
opportunities.
Companies groups, organizationsthat will offer to give you
reviews for your podcast ordownloads for your podcast.
In exchange for money so you canbuy your downloads and buy your
reviews.
(04:36):
Now that sounds great.
If you can, just for a very lowprice to get you started for
what sounds like again, too goodto be true results almost
because they are.
So when you're being told thatyou could, for a hundred
dollars, 200 download dollars,get five X, 10 X downloads
overnight magically.
You have to ask yourself.
(04:57):
Who these listeners are that aregoing to be listening to your
podcast.
Are they your ideal listener?
Are they your ideal customer?
Are they the people you'retrying to reach?
Are they going to listen to morethan one episode or is it one
robot in another country who islike clicking re-download
re-download re-download.
So you really have to thinkabout if you are magically
getting in these downloads overnight, where they're coming from
(05:19):
and who they're coming from.
And if they're actually thepeople that you want to be
reaching, because if not, itdoesn't matter the numbers
because you're trying to reachthe humans.
And similarly, if someone isoffering to leave you reviews
and you can, all of a suddenhave a couple of dozen or a
couple hundred reviewsovernight.
I know for a fact that after allthese years that apple podcasts,
(05:40):
Spotify.
Google all these major companieshave systems in place to prevent
that from actually happening.
And so not only do you risk.
Not getting the number ofreviews that you think that
you're paying for, but you alsorisk that these companies and
organizations will notice thatyou are.
Paying for hacked or fake.
Artificial reviews and thenyou'll get penalized for it.
(06:04):
And no one wants that either.
You can't pay to find theperfect ideal listeners and you
can't.
Pay to get reviews over night.
You need to ask your listenersand your friends and people who
you connect with over thepodcast to give you reviews and
you have to use organic growthas well as inorganic to be able
to help grow your podcast, toget more downloads you can't
(06:26):
just wave a magic wand.
Overnight, without doingsomething behind the scenes that
you're doing, like upgradingyour and changing your SEO.
No one else can do it for youlike that.
And finally fake awards andcelebrity guests.
If someone is saying for just acouple hundred dollars, you can
interview the celebrity of yourdreams.
You're dreaming, just.
(06:48):
People will say that you can payfor these guests with big names
to come on your show.
You pay the money.
They don't show up.
Are you really surprised at thatpoint?
Yes.
You need to connect with thecelebrity or their manager and
do your homework and yourresearch as well to make sure
that you are properly connectedwith them.
Similarly, There are so many.
Organizations out there thathave these amazing awards for
(07:10):
podcasts.
All you need to do is pay us acouple hundred or a couple
thousand dollars, and you've gotan award.
How exciting is that?
Well, when you think about it,if you're having to pay to win
the award, are you winning theaward or are you buying the
award?
And if you are buying an awardfrom an organization that's sole
purpose is to give up, made upawards to podcasters.
(07:31):
Why are you paying them to makeup an award for you when you
could just make up your ownaward for yourself at that
point, if you want it to stoopthat low.
Unless it's an Oscar, an Emmy orsomething that you are nominated
for by your peers, or you submitan application for, and you get
handpicked and there's no costassociated with it because your
content is so awesome.
(07:52):
You can't buy awards.
Those are scams.
They don't mean anything in thelong run.
So don't waste your money.
So with all these things youcan't do.
What can you do?
And how can you trust people outthere on the internet or out
there in the real world who areoffering to help you with your
podcasts?
Well, the two groups or twothings that you can look for
(08:12):
are.
Paid service providers,legitimate service providers.
So these are people from editorsand producers to virtual
assistants and social mediamanagers.
I prefer to be an all in onekind of guy, but I know friends
who have a full staff behindthem on their podcasts, where
it's a person for everything, aperson for their website, a
person for this, a person forthat.
And you can do that.
And especially the biggerpodcasts with the bigger studios
(08:35):
have full teams behind them.
And so having teams that yououtsource to be able to help you
in the areas that you don't feelgreat about podcasting.
As long as you are researchingthem and that they are an
organization with reviews andtestimonials and a history and a
track record of success andpolicies and procedures, and
you've known them.
You know, those are people thatyou can trust with your
(08:58):
business, where there'scontracts, where you know
exactly what it is that you'regetting the service for and for
the money and what the evenexchange is of services.
When it's clear up front, youknow what it is that you're
getting.
That's great.
And then you have coaches likeme where rather than paying
someone or someone's whereteams.
Hundreds or thousands of dollarsa month to keep things going if
(09:20):
you have the intelligence andcapability, thanks to technology
nowadays, to be able to do a lotof this yourself, why not?
Have someone who's spenthundreds or thousands of hours
podcasting over years and years.
Teach you shortcuts and show youwhat they know and how to get
where they are, but faster.
(09:40):
That's the exact purpose behindwhat it is that I do as a
podcasting coach.
Full-time.
I like my special approach ofbeing the all-in-one guy.
So you don't have 18 differentteams handling and touching your
show and your accounts andeverything like that.
So if you want more informationabout my coaching, you can head
on over to silver, steve.com,but that is it for the three
(10:01):
groups or categories of commonpodcasting scams to look out
for.
You want to avoid phishingscams.
Pay to play scams and fakeawards or celebrity guests avoid
those and trust in paid serviceproviders as well as coaches.
And you will be ready to podcastlike a bad-ass make sure you
(10:21):
follow us wherever you'relistening for new episodes every
Monday, and until then keep onpodcasting.
Hey there, podcasting andbad-ass is it's your host.
So receive the podcast guy herewith another exciting episode of
podcasting bad-ass this week, weare going to be talking about
podcasting scams to look outfor.
I know from the moment that Iannounced to the world that I
was doing a podcast, I wasinstantly exposed to scams and
I've been able to avoid themajority of them along my five
(00:23):
years of podcasting, but I willgo over all of them with you,
just so that new potentialpodcasts.
That's out there, or those of uswho can be tending towards the
more naive can look out forthese scams and learn from our
mistakes.
So first I do want announce thatI am.
Accepting brainstorm and tune upapplicants so that you can come
(00:44):
on the show and receive freecoaching.
So we can talk about how to growyour existing podcast, or we
could talk about starting thepodcast of your dreams so you
can head on over to sobersteve.com.
To apply today for either yourbrainstorming session or your
free tune-up, both of which arefree.
You got a full half hour withme, and then the best 15 minutes
(01:04):
of general advice will be turnedinto an episode to also help
promote you and your brand andyour podcast, either the one
that's already out or the onethat's coming.
So it's a great opportunity foryou to get some free exposure
and free coachingover@sobersteve.com.
I chose today's topic because asa certified podcast growth
coach, I have.
(01:25):
Been podcasting for over fiveyears, I've been networking with
and connecting with otherpodcasts for so long.
I've heard so many differenthorror stories.
And so I'm hoping to pay myexperience forward and help save
some of you for making the samemistakes that me and my peers
have made.
So let's get into it.
The first one is the good oldfashioned phishing scam.
(01:48):
Yes, it happens to more thanjust a seniors being tasked to
go out and get gift cards fromWalmart.
Us podcasters get fished aswell.
these are when you get messagesfrom strangers offering
something that sounds too goodto be true, or they're trying to
scare you.
Either way.
They are here to help you wink,wink.
(02:09):
AKA not really.
And so with these phishingscams, you'll find users on
social media or receive emailsfrom people with unusual, almost
fake sounding names.
Reaching out to you to offer, tohelp a problem that you didn't
reach out to them about.
So this would be different thanlistening to someone show about
podcasting.
(02:29):
Going on their website andsigning up for their emails.
If I was to send you an email inresponse to that, that would be
something that you signed upfor.
But these are people whorandomly out of the blue will
just message you saying, Hey, doyou have a podcast of what is
the link I want to help you withX, Y, Z problem, whether it be
getting downloads or listenersor reviews or saying that
(02:49):
there's a problem with one ofyour, like a legal thing behind
the scenes that they can helpfix with you or.
Offering to increase yourdownloads or social media
followers or streams overnight.
If you just give them some moreinformation.
And you might also get thingssaying that your name, domain,
or something else associatedwith your podcast has broken the
(03:10):
laws.
And even though no actual legalorganization is attempted to
reach out to you.
This kind stranger is lookingout for you and can fix this
problem if you give them somemore information as well.
So the gist of this is thatbefore they even start asking
for money, they'll start askingfor information about your
podcasts, which honestly, ifthey found you, they should be
(03:34):
able to find, you know, ifsomeone's.
Messaging.
My podcasting page asking me atpodcasting.
Bad-ass where all my posts areabout my social media.
Hey, do you have a podcastquestion, mark?
That's a good sign of a fishbecause if they were a human who
was using their eyes, ears, andbrain, they would see.
Yes, this is my podcast.
(03:55):
This is my podcasting Instagram.
You know, things would make alittle bit more sense or add up
and the, it would be a littlemore personalized.
These are very fishy, random,like, just give us all your
information and then we'll takecare of your problem.
You don't want to listen tothem.
Another thing that people willcome and reach out to you and
offer you, or that you couldfind online when you're
(04:16):
researching ways to grow yourpodcast is there's often times
opportunities.
Companies groups, organizationsthat will offer to give you
reviews for your podcast ordownloads for your podcast.
In exchange for money so you canbuy your downloads and buy your
reviews.
(04:36):
Now that sounds great.
If you can, just for a very lowprice to get you started for
what sounds like again, too goodto be true results almost
because they are.
So when you're being told thatyou could, for a hundred
dollars, 200 download dollars,get five X, 10 X downloads
overnight magically.
You have to ask yourself.
(04:57):
Who these listeners are that aregoing to be listening to your
podcast.
Are they your ideal listener?
Are they your ideal customer?
Are they the people you'retrying to reach?
Are they going to listen to morethan one episode or is it one
robot in another country who islike clicking re-download
re-download re-download.
So you really have to thinkabout if you are magically
getting in these downloads overnight, where they're coming from
(05:19):
and who they're coming from.
And if they're actually thepeople that you want to be
reaching, because if not, itdoesn't matter the numbers
because you're trying to reachthe humans.
And similarly, if someone isoffering to leave you reviews
and you can, all of a suddenhave a couple of dozen or a
couple hundred reviewsovernight.
I know for a fact that after allthese years that apple podcasts,
(05:40):
Spotify.
Google all these major companieshave systems in place to prevent
that from actually happening.
And so not only do you risk.
Not getting the number ofreviews that you think that
you're paying for, but you alsorisk that these companies and
organizations will notice thatyou are.
Paying for hacked or fake.
Artificial reviews and thenyou'll get penalized for it.
(06:04):
And no one wants that either.
You can't pay to find theperfect ideal listeners and you
can't.
Pay to get reviews over night.
You need to ask your listenersand your friends and people who
you connect with over thepodcast to give you reviews and
you have to use organic growthas well as inorganic to be able
to help grow your podcast, toget more downloads you can't
(06:26):
just wave a magic wand.
Overnight, without doingsomething behind the scenes that
you're doing, like upgradingyour and changing your SEO.
No one else can do it for youlike that.
And finally fake awards andcelebrity guests.
If someone is saying for just acouple hundred dollars, you can
interview the celebrity of yourdreams.
You're dreaming, just.
(06:48):
People will say that you can payfor these guests with big names
to come on your show.
You pay the money.
They don't show up.
Are you really surprised at thatpoint?
Yes.
You need to connect with thecelebrity or their manager and
do your homework and yourresearch as well to make sure
that you are properly connectedwith them.
Similarly, There are so many.
Organizations out there thathave these amazing awards for
(07:10):
podcasts.
All you need to do is pay us acouple hundred or a couple
thousand dollars, and you've gotan award.
How exciting is that?
Well, when you think about it,if you're having to pay to win
the award, are you winning theaward or are you buying the
award?
And if you are buying an awardfrom an organization that's sole
purpose is to give up, made upawards to podcasters.
(07:31):
Why are you paying them to makeup an award for you when you
could just make up your ownaward for yourself at that
point, if you want it to stoopthat low.
Unless it's an Oscar, an Emmy orsomething that you are nominated
for by your peers, or you submitan application for, and you get
handpicked and there's no costassociated with it because your
content is so awesome.
(07:52):
You can't buy awards.
Those are scams.
They don't mean anything in thelong run.
So don't waste your money.
So with all these things youcan't do.
What can you do?
And how can you trust people outthere on the internet or out
there in the real world who areoffering to help you with your
podcasts?
Well, the two groups or twothings that you can look for
(08:12):
are.
Paid service providers,legitimate service providers.
So these are people from editorsand producers to virtual
assistants and social mediamanagers.
I prefer to be an all in onekind of guy, but I know friends
who have a full staff behindthem on their podcasts, where
it's a person for everything, aperson for their website, a
person for this, a person forthat.
And you can do that.
And especially the biggerpodcasts with the bigger studios
(08:35):
have full teams behind them.
And so having teams that yououtsource to be able to help you
in the areas that you don't feelgreat about podcasting.
As long as you are researchingthem and that they are an
organization with reviews andtestimonials and a history and a
track record of success andpolicies and procedures, and
you've known them.
You know, those are people thatyou can trust with your
(08:58):
business, where there'scontracts, where you know
exactly what it is that you'regetting the service for and for
the money and what the evenexchange is of services.
When it's clear up front, youknow what it is that you're
getting.
That's great.
And then you have coaches likeme where rather than paying
someone or someone's whereteams.
Hundreds or thousands of dollarsa month to keep things going if
(09:20):
you have the intelligence andcapability, thanks to technology
nowadays, to be able to do a lotof this yourself, why not?
Have someone who's spenthundreds or thousands of hours
podcasting over years and years.
Teach you shortcuts and show youwhat they know and how to get
where they are, but faster.
(09:40):
That's the exact purpose behindwhat it is that I do as a
podcasting coach.
Full-time.
I like my special approach ofbeing the all-in-one guy.
So you don't have 18 differentteams handling and touching your
show and your accounts andeverything like that.
So if you want more informationabout my coaching, you can head
on over to silver, steve.com,but that is it for the three
(10:01):
groups or categories of commonpodcasting scams to look out
for.
You want to avoid phishingscams.
Pay to play scams and fakeawards or celebrity guests avoid
those and trust in paid serviceproviders as well as coaches.
And you will be ready to podcastlike a bad-ass make sure you
(10:21):
follow us wherever you'relistening for new episodes every
Monday, and until then keep onpodcasting.
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