There Are No Shortcuts - It Takes a Good Show

David Fori asked a question on Quora.

I am thinking about launching a podcast, I don’t want any paid sponsors I want to use it to boost it in the rankings. I have a company and I want potential customers to find and listen to the podcast.

Here was Dave's response:

I want to be an Olympic gold medalist, does anyone know where I can buy a Gold Medal?

Even if I could buy a medal, it doesn’t make me an athlete.

There are no shortcuts.
There is no golden ticket.
There are no magic beans.

Quit wasting time looking for these things, and get going on making good content. Quit OBSESSING over stats, and start OBSESSING over VALUE in your content. Start obsessing over your audience.

The Podcast Lore (which is now going to be TV show) stated this, “I didn’t build an audience. That’s the secret nobody wants to hear. There is no trick in the book you can use to grow your audience other than making a really good show.”

S4E1 Lore 101 — Podcasting 101

If you are getting into podcasting to make a quick buck, let me point you to the door. Monetizing your podcast means you monetize your audience. Step one is build and audience and that takes time, effort, talent, and luck. The first question isn’t how do I make money, the first question should be “How Do I Get Good?” How do I hold an audience? How do I get them to come back?

If you were to raise your rankings (and for the record rankings in iTunes don’t mean jack see www.newandnoteworthy.info ) promoting a show that isn’t good will only let the world know quicker that you need to go back to the drawing board. There have been tons of movies that have HUGE MARKETING BUDGETS with the happy meal toys ready to go, except everyone who came out of the theater told their friends not to go. So getting the word out about a “not ready for prime time” show is a waste of your money.

I’ve got worksheets and tutorials to help you polish your podcast at the School of Podcasting