$2,500 To Be A Guest…
I received an email over the weekend from a podcast that said:
“Our podcast currently gets over 100 million views a month and is ranked within the top 25 in the business category. It is currently the fastest-growing podcast in the world having only started in January.
The host, Mr. Podcast Host also has over 10 million followers across his social media channels. He’d love to work with you and get more celebrity talent on the show.”
Initially I wasn’t sure if they were trying to hire me to manage their guests or to pitch my clients to them, so I replied inquiring as to what exactly they were looking for from me. The response I received was that guest spots are $2,500 and he’d love for me to find guests for him. Yes, if I was charging that kind of money to be on a single show, I’d need some help finding guests as well!
Discovering The Truth Behind The Podcast Numbers
This got me wondering who this host is and what the truth behind the show actually is…so I did some stalking. Afterall, $2,500 isn’t chump change to be interviewed one single time. Yes, the numbers are accurate in regards to how many followers he has. But, the downloads are a different story. YouTube shows just over 200K downloads while Podchaser states his show is getting less than 1K downloads per month. I also looked up the chart rankings. They have reached the top 25 in Saint Kitts and Nepal, but not in the US where the guests he interviews are from.
Getting What You Paid For
Another piece in all of this is the word “celebrities”. The show description states the guests are celebrities, entrepreneurs and industry experts. I can see ONE celebrity (aka a famous person) that has been on this show and I would say it’s safe to assume that this individual did NOT pay $2,500 to be interviewed because he doesn’t have to be. The other 17 guests that have been interviewed all come from a variety of backgrounds and it seems the one thing they have in common is money. One guest is the son of a well-known casino owner in Las Vegas but the hotel name is spelled wrong in the show notes…for $2,500 you can’t make mistakes and you better not make mistakes!
Paying To Be A Podcast Guest - Advertising
This now begs the question…should you be paying to be interviewed on podcasts?
The short answer…NO!
In the land of public relations, there is earned media and paid media. Earned media is exactly what its name implies…it is earned and not paid for. Paid media is essentially a form of advertising. One of the key differences between the two is that when you pay for media, you maintain a certain amount of control over what will be published, just as you do in advertising. With the assumption that the previous guests of this show have paid to be interviewed, one would think that their names would at least be spelled correctly. My guests don’t pay to be interviewed by me and I assure you that their names are all spelled correctly!
There are costs associated with producing a podcast, but they are nowhere near the cost of $2,500 per episode! I can assure you of that! I’ve seen hosts request a “donation” that is nominal but I always advise clients against paying for an actual interview. Hosting a podcast has a cost of business associated with it. If you can associate it with your business, then it has the potential for being a tax write-off. If you’re charging guests to be on your show, then that should be calculated as income. I’m not a tax expert but these are things to keep in mind, especially when someone is requesting a “donation” to be on their show.
The host of the show that I’m talking about appears to have paid a lot of money for his followers and reviews. A show with over 900 reviews on Apple Podcasts should be getting more than 1K downloads per month. Someone with 1M followers on Instagram should also be getting visible likes…not ones that can only be seen by the account owner. The engagement should also reflect genuine people and not a fire emoji or tagging another account. This is all evidence of PAID followers and PAID engagement. Your $2,500 is going towards growing the fake social media following of this host!
I went into even greater detail on my podcast, My Simplified Life about why shouldn’t pay for podcast interviews.
Paying A Podcast Book Agency
So why is it ok to pay someone like me to pitch you on podcasts to be interviewed but not a podcast host to be interviewed? Paying a podcast booking agency, such as The MLG Collective® is different because we are doing not only all of the leg work associated with pitching to podcasts, but we are personalizing every pitch, working with you on your speaking topics, creating your media kit, ensuring you know how to repurpose your interviews into greater marketing content, promoting your interviews and more. We become a part of your overall team!
If you have dollars to spend and want to control what the narrative is, then advertising is for you and paying for podcast interviews might work as well. A word of caution though is to ensure that if you’re paying for a podcast interview, the host is not only transparent about their followers, but that you get what you paid for.
My advice…don’t pay for a podcast interview.
