Learn your REAL podcast global ranking - NOT your listen score!
Forget Listen Notes - this is how you learn your true ranking
It's one of the most perplexing and annoying parts of podcasting—understanding your podcast's global ranking.
Let's face it, it's a complicated mess.
You log into your host's dashboard, see some numbers, but what do they truly mean?
How do they stack up against others?
More importantly, how can you use this data to improve and maybe even monetize your show?
In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain and showing you how to decipher your podcast's performance against the global landscape.
Let's get one thing straight: a lot of the so-called ranking tools and sites out there are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Once you've heard this episode, you'll get why IAB downloads are just a piece of the puzzle and how individual hosting companies have their own methods that can distort your view.
(Here's a useful link that explains what IAB downloads actually are!
You'll learn that the so-called 'top 1%' status many flaunt might not be as genuine as it seems.
My team at Podknows Podcasting have created a global podcast ranking calculator that provides a more accurate measurement based on a realistic baseline.
Here it is:
Stick your download numbers in and see where you land.
Think of it as a way to gauge where you are and where you want to go.
Timestamped summary
00:00 Podcast data comparison: download numbers, specific dashboards, rankings.
04:21 Global podcast ranking data challenges and limited transparency.
07:59 Maintain realistic expectations for podcast download rankings.
10:35 Focus on your podcast, check global rankings for personal insight only.
Next steps
Want to get more of a handle on your podcast strategy so you can enjoy more new ideal listeners who are actually going to enjoy what you're putting out?
Contact me!
https://www.podmastery.co/contact/
Mentioned in this episode:
Show Notes Simplified
Are you sick of having to write out your episode descriptions (show notes) from scratch every time? Want to set up a templated approach that will save you hours every week? This tool is for you! (Note - this is an affiliate offer, but I don't recommend tools I'm not using myself, and I use this one DAILY)
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Want to cut hours out of your production workflow? Whether you're a podcaster, YouTuber or even a professional content creator, this tool will get you back your life! (Note - although this is an affiliate, I don't recommend any tools I don't use myself. And I use this DAILY)
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
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One of the most frustrating aspects of being a podcaster is
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understanding the wider picture around your own podcasts
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performance. There are sources of data, if you know
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where to find them, that can give you an overall picture,
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but it's still not that accurate. In this episode of the
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podmaster, I'm going to talk you through exactly how you can find out
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what your global podcast ranking is,
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what to ignore, and what to bear in mind.
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Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, it can be
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really frustrating as a podcaster to get the real facts
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around your podcast data. Most podcast
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hosting companies offer you a dashboard with some
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analytics data in it. Usually it's called stats.
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You'll look at it and it will give you the data on
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actions taken on your RSS feed. Just the other
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day, the newsletter pod news linked to
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an article written by somebody that really well explained
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what IAB downloads are. So I'm going to link to that in the episode
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description for you to take a look. But IAB download numbers
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are only part of the story.
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Of course, in previous episodes I've mentioned how important it
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is to get into your Apple Podcasts connect
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dashboard so you can see Apple podcasts specific
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data, your Spotify for podcasters dashboard
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so you can see data relevant to Spotify itself.
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But what about when it comes to comparing your podcast
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data with other podcasts? There's not
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really that much available to tell you how well your podcast is
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doing. Let's face it, every other aspect of life
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gives you a ranking, a percentage score based
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on your performance. Be that in school, with your
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exams, you'll get 92%, which will give you an
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a in your working life. You might have regular
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KPI's that you need to keep to even elections are
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run based on percentage performances. You
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need a certain percentage of the electorate to vote for a
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candidate in order for them to get first past the post and
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be selected. So why is it so difficult to
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pin this down in podcasting?
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So why is it so difficult to pin this down in podcasting? Here's
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the reason. Siloed data now there is a measurement
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body called the IAB. I mentioned it before, IAB
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certified downloads. This is the interactive
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advertising bureau, or as some refer to it, the Internet
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Advertising Bureau, saying as that's the space with the most impact that it
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has, but it still only gives you the core
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central data. The IAB do not release
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the stats to tell you your global podcast
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ranking. So it's weird then that there's a website that a lot of people
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refer to when they're talking about their global podcast ranking
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listen notes. If you've never visited this website before,
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don't start now. Don't bother. It's wildly
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inaccurate, but what listennotes does is it offers you a
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listen score. This is a plucked out of the ether
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figure where they make a guess as to how many people are
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listening to your podcast episodes based on
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coincidental data like your social media followers, the number
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of podcast episodes you've released, how popular those episodes seem to
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be, it doesn't really give you a very good picture. It's
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a guess. And unfortunately, some people use
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this for less than scrupulous reasons. There are certain podcast
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managers and podcast consultants who claim
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an entitlement to you giving them your hard earned cash
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based on the fact that they once had a top 1%
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podcast. They didn't. They're using the listen note
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score, but shamelessly. They stick this on their
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website for some kind of faux credibility so that you'll feel
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comfortable passing with your cash.
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Now this global ranking data is not easy to come by,
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which is why it's taken my team and I a long time to figure
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this out. I've had to work with data scientists to plug the
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various sources together, make various
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calculations that are based on balance and fairness
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and parity in terms of the data measurement.
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Some sources are based on seven day measurement, other sources are based on 30
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day measurement. So therefore, calculations need to be made in order to
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balance those to make them a fair comparison. Now, various
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podcast hosting companies have their own data, which
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they use to rank their customers podcasts in a
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chart that doesn't get released to the public. Why?
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Who knows? Maybe they value their customers privacy, or maybe
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they don't exactly want the public knowing how their
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podcasts rank. In general, if they've got lots of podcasts
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with only one to 10% scores, it doesn't reflect well
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on them as a hosting company. To date, there are only a couple
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of podcasting companies that offer their
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data publicly. One of those is Buzzsprout,
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the other Libsin. Now this is where the complication
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lies. Both of those are using IAB
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certified stats, but they're using them in different
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ways. Buzzsprout insists their
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stats are the only true IAB
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certified stats. They claim Libsyns are not as
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accurate, but Libsyn has been around a lot longer.
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That said, Spotify for podcasters has definitely
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become the number one podcast hosting platform.
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Why? Because it's free. Who wouldn't host their podcast on
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Spotify if they don't really care about results which is,
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to be fair, what probably 50% to 80% of podcasters
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do. They go, ah, I'll have a dabble, I'll stick a podcast out there
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and then that's it. What listen notes does is
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include and factor those podcasts into
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its data. So when you're getting your global
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ranking, as listennotes calls it, you're being compared to
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podcasts that maybe only ever released a trailer or one
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episode. Maybe they didn't even bother because at one
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point you could actually get your podcast accepted by Apple
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automatically through what Spotify for podcasters
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was previously known as Anchor. So that
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data is extremely skewed when they claim there are 4 million
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podcasts in the podcast index.
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Yep, that's true. That's how many feeds there are in
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total. But they're not active podcasts. The true
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number of currently active podcasts is
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sub 500,000. And when you break it down into
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categories, that number is even far lower. It's a
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complicated calculation to make, which is why it's taken me
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absolutely weeks to get on this.
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We can now proudly publish a
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calculator in which you can stick your podcast
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download numbers into it, and get a
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genuinely accurate, to the best of our ability
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reading on your global podcast ranking. I will
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tell you this. Now, this is the baseline figure. If your
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podcast is getting fewer than 90 downloads per
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episode within 30 days on average, you are not in a
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global top 50%. That's just a fact. I'm going to manage
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your expectations now. So if you're getting 50 downloads per
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episode within a month, you're not currently able to call
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yourself a top 50% podcaster. And of course,
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the numbers increase incrementally as you increase your percentage
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rankings. Now, the elite
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podcaster that can call themselves a top 1%
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podcaster, it's not hundreds, it's
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obviously thousands. I'm not going to share the number here because I don't want
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anyone to feel massively disappointed when they're listening to this and
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feel disheartened and want to give up. The number is intended as a
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guide to you and you alone on your podcast.
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I'm not really looking to tell you what number the top
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1% podcasters are getting in their downloads every
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month, because that's their business. They are
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entitled to celebrate if indeed they are hitting that mark. But
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you need to understand that none of this really even
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matters. It matters to you to know how your podcast is
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performing. That can help you with everything from driving your
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show forward, developing it, improving the content,
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and seeking out monetization be it through advertising or
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sponsorship. What it's not useful for is thinking to
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yourself, oh, my podcast only gets x amount of
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downloads, whereas the top 1% podcasts are getting those
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amount of downloads. Ah, it's not fair. The whole
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system's rigged against me. No, because here's another part
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of the picture that you may not have factored in. Those
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podcasts that are top 1%
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podcasts according to global rankings may
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not be there fully, organically or ethically.
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We all know that there are podcasts that cheat the system. They
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artificially inflate their download numbers in order to get attention
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via either the charts, if that's their strategy, or to
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advertisers if they're looking to hit minimums so that they can
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make revenue from their podcast. Comparing yourself to
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any other podcast is an innings to nothing.
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It's a game you won't win. The only
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thing you should be comparing your podcast ranking against
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is your future goals. And that's it.
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So I say it again, this is meant as a guide for you
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to understand how your podcast is
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performing in the bigger picture. It is not intended
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as a stick to beat yourself with and feel
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that you're imperfect. Your podcast is
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the only thing that matters to you. Nobody else's
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podcast. Go check out the global podcast rankings
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calculator now. I'll stick a link in the episode description, but
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you can find it directly at Podmastery co
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ranking. That's Podmastery co
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ranking. Thanks for listening and I'll speak to you again soon.
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The Podmaster is a podnost podcasting production. Find
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out more about us at Podnows dot co dot Uk. That's
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podknows dot co dot UK.