The team behind PodMatch, the website that matches guests and hosts for interviews, and Podcast SOP, a project management software for podcast hosts, is now taking on podcast reviews. Alex and Alecia Sanfilippo have debuted PodLottery, a lottery-style drawing that gives podcast hosts a way to win integrity-based Apple reviews for their podcasts.
"Most podcasters have few, or even no, Apple reviews on their podcast because it's tough to convince people to take the time to help, but it's beyond important,” Alex Sanfilippo said. “The reason Apple reviews matter so much is the perceived value from guests, sponsors, and listeners. The number of Apple reviews is oftentimes metric an outsider can use to gauge the success of a podcast.”
PodLottery requires a host to create an account and then leave reviews on prior winners’ podcasts to earn tickets. Those tickets are then used for a nightly lottery-style drawing. When the user’s podcast is selected in the drawing, they will win a similar shower of reviews from other podcasters. New winners are chosen daily.
PodLottery just concluded a beta test with 240 podcasters. Hundreds of reviews were won during the beta, including one "jackpot" winner. Tanner Campbell, the host of the Practical Stoicism podcast, received 63 reviews for his podcast. And during the beta launch, a total of 833 reviews were won by PodLottery members.
“Reviews help with fueling the host's motivation to continue producing episodes. A 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts is the most motivating and encouraging gift a host can receive from their listeners. The more reviews a show receives, the more likely it is to continue. We created PodLottery to solve this problem,” Sanfilippo said. "Ultimately, we decided to create this solution because we've found that podcasters who regularly receive Apple reviews on their podcast continue podcasting longer than those who do not receive any reviews.”
PodLottery is currently only available on iPhone via mobile web browser -- it's not an app -- but the team is actively working on expansion to other operating systems.
In a LinkedIn post, Alex Sanfilippo said he has demonstrated PodLottery to Apple Podcast. “They liked it so much that they helped us with the listen/review verification process,” he says. Their goal is to have six thousand active podcasters join PodLottery.