Bad Podcast Pitches

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This week's bad pitch comes from my Facebook DMs. It starts with "Hello. I am a Podcast Promoter. I have 7 years of experience in..."

Let's take a look at this and find the good, the bad, and the (ummm... really bad) without naming or shaming the sender.

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Episode Page:

https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/bad-podcast-pitches/hello-i-am-a-podcast-promoter-i-have-7-years-of-experience-in

[AI Generated Content]

In this episode of Bad Podcast Pitches, I unpack a spammy Facebook DM promising “thousands of real, active listeners,” SEO magic, and top chart placements. I walk through each claim—from mass email lists and “secret groups,” to VPN “targeted country” listeners and manufactured ratings—and explain why many of these tactics may be technically true yet fundamentally misleading. I outline what’s plausible (paid download farms, inflated numbers, questionable SEO) versus what’s risky (gaming charts, low-quality audiences, potential platform penalties) and why these services almost never deliver the specific audience your show actually needs.

I also share practical indicators to help you spot similar scams, including outdated platform references (iTunes Store), reliance on SoundCloud stats, vague guarantees, and promises of unique subscribers and rankings. I invite your thoughts and bad pitch examples for future breakdowns and tease another questionable pitch I’ll analyze next time.

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Chapters:

(00:00) Opening and Today's Bad Pitch Teaser

(00:09) Show intro: What Bad Podcast Pitchers is about

(00:48) The spammy Facebook DM pitch

(01:06) Reading the full pitch claims

(02:00) True but misleading

(02:53) Are they really your target audience?

(03:35) Secret groups and the fuzzy role of SEO in podcasts

(04:25) Real and active listeners vs. target listeners

(05:01) Promised results: downloads, subscribers, and why it's hollow

(06:07) Unique subscribers, targeted countries, and VPN doubts

(06:24) Gaming charts: rankings, reviews, and platform risks

(07:15) Platform red flags: iTunes Store and SoundCloud

(08:06) Value-for-value, feedback, and how to support

(09:17) Closing and what's next

[00:00:00] Bryan Entzminger:

Hello. I am a podcast   promoter. I have seven years of experience.   That's how today's bad podcast pitch starts. We'll get into that in just a second. This is Bad Podcast Pitchers. I'm Bryan Entzminger.   This is a show where we take a look at some of the bad podcast pitches that I receive as a podcast host and producer,   probably similar to some that you've received. We look through some of the things that are good about them, some of the things that are bad, some of the things that are scammy. This is not a name and shame show, so we're not gonna put names out there or anything like that. But just trying to understand   from a couple of lenses   what's being done that's maybe not as good as it could have been, And then also, what can we learn from that to help us recognize   some of the scammers that are out there because there are some scammers out there.  

This bad podcast pitch comes from my Facebook messages, my DMs, if you will. And interestingly enough, Facebook was smart enough to flag this one as spam, so I appreciate that. It seems like their algo is getting a little bit better, but we're still gonna go through this particular pitch. So it starts out with,   hello.   I'm a podcast promoter.   I have seven years of experience in podcast promotion,   so you can trust my services.   How do I market your show?   I have the emails of thousands of podcast lovers.   I send them your recent episodes to listen to and download.   I have some secret groups and lots of members around the world using SEO to promote your podcast.  

All listeners and audiences are real and active. What kind of results can you expect?   You will get thousands of active subscribers and listens, lots of downloads for your target audience,   unique unique subscribers,   targeted country listeners, and top spots by improving your rankings,   written reviews, and ratings.   I offer twenty four seven customer support.   What platforms are available?   ITunes Store, Spotify, SoundCloud, and many others.   That's the whole pitch.   If you've been with this show for a little bit of time, you'll probably recognize some of the things that I'm gonna point out. But for those of you that are here for the first time, I'm gonna go through this and point out some things that are right, some things that are not, and some things that are maybe just a little bit questionable. And I wanna say right off at the outset,   for the most part,   I think that most of the information that's being put into this pitch   is true   but misleading.  

And what I mean by that is I don't think that there are a ton of outright lies. I think there's maybe one or two that are   bordering on lies, and I can't say for sure one way or the other. But there's some of this that is, I think, very true and some of it that's maybe not quite so much. And I wanna focus specifically on things that are like, I'm not gonna focus on seven years of experience.   How would I know? This person may have seven years of experience.   No idea.   The the first thing about how they market your show, I have thousand the emails of thousands of podcast listeners.   I send them your recent episodes to listen and download.  

I a 100% believe that.   What I don't believe is that those thousands of listeners that they have are my target audience.   I believe that they because of the research that I've done and some of the articles that I've seen and some of that kind of stuff, I believe that they do have the emails of thousands of people.   I   I visualize this protect perhaps incorrectly   as   sort of a human army of people that are getting paid a little bit of money   to download episodes and to listen them listen to them, potentially listen. I don't know if they have the volume turned on or not. I don't even know if they speak English.   The next claim, I have some secret groups and lots of members around the world using SEO to promote your podcast.  

Absolutely believe that there are some secret groups. I question a little bit the SEO part to promote your podcast.   For the most part,   except in a couple of places, podcast SEO is not a super strong   thing because most of the SEO for a podcast would come from a search engine like Google or Bing or something like that.   And a lot of podcasts really don't have good descriptions or episode notes. You can look at my show as an example for not how to do that or how not to do that. So SEO is not gonna be a really strong player, perhaps a little bit in the podcast apps, but that's really about content SEO, not about somebody else doing SEO for you.   The claim that all listeners are and audiences are real and active.  

Again, I have no reason to not believe this.   I know that there are some people, groups that use bots.   This person, perhaps, is not. That, however, does not mean that the people that they're getting you are the people that you want. They may be people in a different country using a VPN.   They may be people that do or do not speak the language that your show is in. They   also, I suppose, could be your target audience, but I really strongly question that.   Under the results section, I think there are some of these that are probably very true. So thousands of subscribers and listens and lots of downloads.   I I absolutely I absolutely believe that this promoter will give you that. What I don't believe is that they're going to give you downloads from your target audience   unless your target audience is people that get paid a little bit of money to listen to podcasts that they don't care about.  

If you're trying to grow a podcast or an audience about a specific a specific topic or community or issue   or   to promote your business or whatever that reason is,   I do not believe that this person's list of thousands of people all over the world is going to give you lots and lots of downloads and active subscribers   and listeners   from your target audience.   I just do not believe that. I do not believe that's possible.   And from some of the research that I've found, it doesn't appear that that's the case.   I also question the claim for unique subscribers.   I might go for unique devices or unique logins, but I do question it a little bit that every subscriber is going to be a truly unique individual.  

I just that that's a little bit tough for me.   Targeted country listeners,   this one I'm kinda fifty fifty on. They might be targeted listeners using a VPN to appear to be in one another   a different country, the country that you want, perhaps.   They could also be people in in that country. I don't I don't really know, but I do question that. And then top spots by improving your rankings, written reviews, and ratings. This has been demonstrated over and over and over to be gaming the system or trying to trick the the the algorithms or trying to trick the charts or whatever. And the problem with this is while it may work,   in the end, it doesn't. You either lose all of that good momentum   and you stop paying your promoter, assuming that they don't then try to down rank you to get you back to get back at you.  

But if the if the   like, for Apple Podcasts, if Apple Podcasts discovers that you're gaming the system, you're just out.   You lose that audience, period.   Thankfully, if most of it or all of it is just these people that are getting paid to listen, maybe that's not a big deal. But if you currently have an audience, you don't wanna lose who you have.   The the last thing that gives me a little bit of pause is the platforms. ITunes Store, I've talked about this in the past. The iTunes Store is really not relevant for podcasting anymore because there is a podcast app for Apple.   Also, SoundCloud.  

The   I just don't even bother, in my view. Don't bother with SoundCloud for podcasting.   The the analytics have been demonstrated year and year and year and year and year over year to be   trickable with bots or whatever. They're just not valid. And most of your listeners are going to be listening in a proper podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or   Spotify   or   YouTube, I guess.   Or, you know, the one that I like is Podcast Guru. That's one of the new podcast apps. I really like that one. Pocketcast is super popular. Those are the places you want people listening, not the SoundCloud website. You just don't want that.   Now for this, I I've shared a little bit of my thoughts. I'd love to know some of your thoughts as well.  

Or if you have some feedback for me, you can send that to [email protected].   I do wanna say that this is a value for value show. So what I ask is that if you've received value from the show, you return a little bit of that value, and that can be time, talent, or treasure. This is not a super new concept, but it's something you may not have heard of. So if you receive value, I just ask you that you give a little bit of something back. And what I'm really looking for now, if you need a suggestion,   I would love to have the bad pitches that you receive sent to me. You can send those to [email protected].  

[email protected].   If you if you like the show and you have a friend that you think would be find it valuable or would like to laugh at me while I'm trying to do a live show like this, send it to them. And if you do wanna support the show financially, you can just do that using a modern podcast app, which you can find at podcastapps.com,   or visit badpodcastpitches.com   and find some ways that you can provide a little bit of support there. All of this, of course, is optional. If you don't find any value from the show, I don't ask anything from you. If you do, I just ask that you'll return a little bit of that value from me.   Next time well, actually, I'm not quite sure which one I'm gonna talk about next time because I've got one that just showed up today that I haven't taken a look at. But I do hope to have another pitch for you in another week or so. Until then, take care, and I'll see you next time.