How ethical are your podcast promotion, profit, promises, and pride? This is a free-flowing episode where I share my genuine thoughts on these issues, after being an “innocent accomplice” to unethical Twitter-bombing.

4 areas of podcasting ethics

Promotion

This is the big one. How ethically are you promoting your own podcast?

Twitter bombing is getting a lot of attention lately. This is when someone uses one or multiple Twitter accounts to blast the same message every few minutes to hundreds of times per hour. This artificially inflates podcast download stats because most of the “downloads” are from bots who humans who don't actually listen.

Check out these great articles and podcast episodes about Twitter bombing.

Profit

Are you promoting things only because you'll profit from them? Do you disclose when you're using affiliate links?

Promises

When you make a promise, keep it!

This can be difficult when other people have unreasonable expectations on you or how you do things. You don't have to stress over these if you didn't promise them.

Pride

Don't make yourself out to be bigger than you actually are. Dave Jackson has some accurate thoughts on this.

Thank you for the podcast reviews!

  • podcasthero said, “The Audacity to Podcast has to be the most detail oriented shows about podcasting. …” Read the full review.
  • Alex Mansour from Brazil said, “The best podcast ever!!!”

Your reviews encourage me and they help other people find the podcast. If you appreciate the podcasting information I share, please write your own review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or Stitcher!

Use My Podcast Reviews to get your own podcast reviews automatically checked daily and learn how to grow your audience with reviews!

Need personalized podcasting help?

I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

  • Comment on the shownotes
  • Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
  • Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)

Connect with me

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

About the Author
As an award-winning podcaster, Daniel J. Lewis gives you the guts and teaches you the tools to launch and improve your own podcasts for sharing your passions and finding success. Daniel creates resources for podcasters, such as the SEO for Podcasters and Zoom H6 for Podcasters courses, the Social Subscribe & Follow Icons plugin for WordPress, the My Podcast Reviews global-review aggregator, and the Podcasters' Society membership for podcasters. As a recognized authority and influencer in the podcasting industry, Daniel speaks on podcasting and hosts his own podcast about how to podcast. Daniel's other podcasts, a clean-comedy podcast, and the #1 unofficial podcast for ABC's hit drama Once Upon a Time, have also been nominated for multiple awards. Daniel and his son live near Cincinnati.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Eric S.
9 years ago

Thanks for addressing this, Daniel.

I came across this last week when I clicked on a link for a podcast episode on Twitter that seemed interesting and my browser immediately started downloading a file.

As a podcaster trying to grow my audience, I knew that this would register as a download in their stats. It left a really bad taste in my mouth. So much so that I didn’t even bother listening to the file downloaded.

Kim S
Kim S
9 years ago

I loved the episode. I quit posting direct download links to my episodes, because I can see the ones I did have drastically higher download numbers. I now feel like my stats are tainted by those episodes. I now only post links to my show notes pages that have an audio player.
Another ethical area (at least in my mind) is with the audio in podcast. I am in a saturated category (Disney) and it seems like every other podcast uses audio that I am not certain they have permission to use. I caved my last episode and inserted some park audio and now I am guilt ridden. I think I am debating pulling it out.
I am having a hard time wanting to be like the other podcasts, but know that I should be myself.

Kim S
Kim S
9 years ago

I will go back and re-listen. I think I consumed that episode when I was binge listening a couple of months ago. Thanks for pointing me back that way again.

Steve Wilkinson • cgWerks

I haven’t had a chance to listen to your episode yet, but have heard the subject discussed (re: Twitter-bombing). I think it would certainly be unethical to use those stats, then, to attract sponsors, advertising, or even just to promote your podcast as having those numbers. That said, I wonder how many of the people doing it even have a clue that their new found ‘success’ isn’t real?

And, I’ve noticed that rather recently (the last month or two) a bunch of big news sites have started embedding auto-play video on all their stories. I wonder if they are trying to do something similar (just not involving Twitter)? Either way, it’s SUPER annoying, as would it be for the direct link podcast. I’ve stopped visiting sites like CNN because of it.

Regarding affiliates, I certainly disclose it… though I’ve been considering the best way (footnote? link to a page explaining my policy? etc.). And, I only use affiliates for products I actually use and like and recommend. I might consider one for a product in my industry that I know is great, even though I use a competitor, but I haven’t done that yet. I’m not sure beyond that is unethical necessarily, but I do run into a lot of sites promoting things I’m pretty sure the site owner doesn’t use and are things I’d certainly not recommend. I typically guess they are just doing it for the money.

Robert
Robert
9 years ago

This was a very interesting episode concerning podcast ethics, especially Twitter-bombing from a statistics and potential sponsorship perspective. Some could make the argument they never intend to approach sponsorships with their statistics, however this doesn’t alleviate the ethical issue towards potential listeners (customers). These direct download links do not allow potential customers the opportunity to listen or download later when on wifi, costing customers their mobile data allowances or potentially overage charges.

janetkennedy
janetkennedy
9 years ago

Thanks for addressing Twitter Bombing. I feel it is an unethical practice – especially when it triggers a direct download. The problem is the attention podcasting is getting in national media and podcasting feels like the next “get rich quick” scheme. The long term problem is the “smoke and mirrors” nature of the numbers will irritate or anger potential sponsors. We need a lot more advertisers in podcasting and if they get taken in by false numbers and no ROI we all lose!

On an interesting side note – I have tried to listen to this episode since the day it was released but get the “this episode is unavailable” message on my iPhone. I am listening via the desktop. Strange?

10
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
50%
5/5

Enter your name and email address below to learn “7 Ways to Get More Podcast Reviews” FREE!

Almost there!

50%

See what Apple Podcasts and other popular podcast apps search with the Podcast SEO Cheat Sheet!

This form collects information we will use to send you podcasting-related updates with tips, offers, and news. We will not share or sell your personal information. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Almost there!

50%

Before you go! Don’t miss this FREE checklist, “20 things you should do before recording every podcast episode”!

This form collects information we will use to send you podcasting-related updates with tips, offers, and news. We will not share or sell your personal information. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Almost there!