For as DIY-friendly as podcasting is, it's still a complex web of creation, distribution, and promotion. So it's no wonder many are looking for shortcuts through the complexity. Only...do they work?‍Today's episode is brought to you by the Advancing Podcasting community at advancingpodcasting.xyz. Because why would I do anything normal? It's a special community just for listeners and readers of Podcast Pontifications and it's populated by like-minded working podcasters just like you who also want to make podcasting better. You're already listening to the show. So why not extend the conversation and your influence on the future of podcasting? Join us today at advancingpodcasting.xyz. ‍Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra. ‍Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of taking shortcuts on your podcasting journey. And that's not completely true because, like you, I don't like wasting time for sure. And there are a lot of things in podcasting that you can spin your wheels and waste your time on. So yes, we also have ways to avoid pitfalls along that complex journey that we have in podcasting, and these are pitfalls that trip up many other podcasters. ‍There are certainly ways to be much more efficient in the things you do during your podcasting process, and there are a lot of old and outdated methods and thinkings and myths out there that just haven't been true in a long time, if they were ever true. But actual, real shortcuts in podcasting? I'm a tad bit skeptical of that. ‍So today, I want to talk about three "gotchas," if you will, things to watch out for before you glom on to something someone is calling a shortcut in podcasting. The first one of those is you still have to know what it is you're doing, or at least why you are doing it. You can't use a shortcut to completely bypass a key piece of podcasting. Think, for a minute, about RSS feeds, which I talk about a fair amount here on the program, that technically weird looking batch of text that many podcasters look at and go, "Ahhhhh!" ‍Because of that, the majority of podcasters leave the RSS feed  - rightly so, by the way - to our hosting providers. That's one of the jobs we pay our monthly fee to a podcast hosting company so that they generate an RSS feed for us. We don't really want to hand code our own, right? ‍So now, assuming that your reputable podcast hosting company is doing what they're supposed to be doing, you don't even know how to read an RSS feed, probably. Many people don't, and that's okay. But you should know what the feed does, and, generally speaking, what is in the feed. Because if you don't even know - "I know, there's an RSS feed." A lot of podcasters are in there not knowing what's going on with anything to do with the podcast RSS feeds. So again, you can't bypass it completely. You have to know at least what the thing is, what the process is looking like. ‍Second thing: there's the idea that something is better than nothing. Well, are you sure that's true? Because if you're going to take this shortcut, and it promises you something that is better than nothing, how do you know that better than nothing is actually true? An example, automatic posting, or the integration to post automatically to various social media channels when your podcast is published. That's a common thing. Sometimes the hosting providers do that. Sometimes we do that through Buffer, or  other sorts of tools like Zapier. That sounds like it's better than nothing. ‍But we all know that it is much, much better to craft a custom post for each destination, each thing going to its own place. Things shared on Twitter don't look great when they're shown on Instagram and vice versa. You know it's best to create something by hand for each one of those platforms, but do you have the time? I don't know. ‍By the way, there's a great thread that Arielle Nissenblatt from EarBuds Podcast Collective wrote on the process she goes through on posting content. The channels, that's the right way to do things. "But man, that's really hards, so let's just auto-post," you say. Okay, but are you sure that auto-posting is working? Is it doing anything for you other than letting you check a box? Because that's not working. Is there a way, also, for you to do something in-between auto-posting the same thing to seven different destinations and the fully custom version? There probably is, I would say. ‍The third thing to consider: if it seems too good to be true, guess what? It probably is. The internet is full of people selling things with questionable, if not downright fraudulent, results. And this shouldn't be shocking to you. Just like that $10 sonic mosquito repellent doesn't actually work to keep the bugs away when it's on your patio, the secret to unlocking podcast riches that you paid $10 for probably isn't going to be the windfall that you had hoped. ‍I know you want this to be true. I know you want that to be a wise investment that you made. You're still tempted to do that. And you know what, for ten bucks? Honestly, there very well might be some tricks and tips you could pick up from something like that, some sort of value you might get. Or you just may have spent ten bucks to learn a very important lesson in life. ‍Now, I'm going to admit that I'm willing to be wrong about some shortcuts. I know I painted a very wide brush here. I'm also willing to learn, so if there are shortcuts, truly shortcuts, that you have learned or you have paid for that other working podcasters might benefit from, please share them with me. Email evo@simpler.media, or drop them in the Advancing Podcasting community, which you can find at advancingpodcasting.xyz. ‍Now, a quick update on my quest to find a new podcast listening app, which I mentioned on Thursday's show of last week, that search over the weekend didn't go very well. No, not well at all. However, what it did spur me to do instead was to write a manifesto of sorts that I'm going to be sharing very soon. Maybe today? I tried to do it over the weekend, but I instead decided to weekend, which is a good thing to do. That's going to detail out what I think these podcast apps are missing in my very, very humble opinion, and put that forth to the world. So we'll see what happens. ‍Speaking of podcast listening apps, I see that some of you are using the new Value4Value-enabled listening apps to send me boosts! Now it's time for the boost-the boost-the boost- Boostagram Corner. Boostagram Corner. I don't know a thing about crypto. ‍Boostagrams! Dave Jones from the Podcast Index used Podfriend to boost me a couple thousand SATs with the following message: ‍"Podcast apps are like a box of chocolates. You can’t eat just one. Wait, that’s Lays potato chips. Well, it’s the thing Forrest Gump said." ‍Haha. Funny Dave, thank you very much for that. And also Mr. James Cridland from Podnews. He used Fountain to send a couple thousand SATs with a simple greetings message. So greetings back to you, Sir James! Thanks both of you for your support. ‍If you get value from Podcast Pontifications, and your podcast listening app lets you send boosts, then boost away! And if not, but you still wish to return some value to me, please visit BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra and sign up for a recurring virtual coffee donation. ‍That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications. ‍Cheers!‍Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He's on a mission to make podcasting better. Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes section of your podcast listening app. A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected transcript, both created by Allie Press. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. Find out more at Simpler.Media.