How The Top Podcasts Are Ranked on the World Podcast Network's Leaderboard

The rules for top podcasts have been updated as of Friday, May 10, 2024.

Podcasters: Please read the new guidelines now as the top podcasts are selected.

Is your podcast in the top 10?
Learn How To Rise In The Leaderboard and Get MORE Exposure For Your Podcast!

This article explains the guidelines and tasks that podcasters can perform to rise in the leaderboard and gain more exposure throughout the World Podcast Network's site and upcoming mobile app.

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How Your Podcast Is Ranked on the Daily Leaderboard As Of Friday, May 10, 2024

Why Move Up In The Leaderboard? Benefits to All Podcasters

The leaderboard (also known as Top Podcasts) helps you get more listeners, subscribers, and exposure for your podcast on the World Podcast Network. The more of the below tasks that the podcaster engages, the higher your podcast rises and more people see your podcast, listen to its episodes, and visit your Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc page. If you're looking to interview guests from our guest exchange, your podcast will also receive more exposure from them as well increasing your chances of finding guests for your show.

See the following sections below on strategies to move up on the leaderboard. The more of these daily tasks completed by the podcaster, the higher your ranking will rise.

Episodes On Your Favorite Podcast Can Be Voted Up!

We have made it easy for podcast audiences to vote up any podcast they want. If there is a podcast you really like and want to share it with others, then simply visit the podcast’s dedicated page, scroll down to the desired episode title and click the VOTE link underneath it. What will happen from that point is we will register your vote and bring you to the top of the podcast page where you can vote on more episodes. This is a great way to show your love for the podcast you support.

Verified Guest Interviews By Podcasters

Interviews of guests on our guest exchange have a HUGE weight in the leaderboard. Implemented on Thursday, January 18th, we now raise your podcast up in the leaderboard rankings when you interview guests on our guest exchange and those interviews are verified by the Guest Relations Team. To interview a guest, log into the "My Podcast" portal and click on Invite a Guest. On that same screen, there will be instructions on how to submit your podcast guest interview. Podcasters who interview guests on our guest exchange move up quickly as a top podcast. As a podcaster, please interview a guest and send us the link to your episode. The episode must be published in order to get the credit and once verified by the podcaster relations team, your podcast will move up as a top podcast. Guest interviews after 7 days will drop off the rankings and will not count. We also look for guest interviews that are relevent to your podcast, so podcasts and guests that are not a good fit like similar genre will not count.

Logins to the "My Podcast" Portal

As of April 2024, the daily leaderboard now ranks podcasts by login activity to the My Podcast Portal at https://worldpodcast.network/my-podcast/dashboard/. The more days you log in, the higher your podcast will appear on the daily leaderboard. Logins to the portal are weighed differently than votes, but both play an important part of leaderboard rankings.

Podcast News Submissions

Now, podcast news submissions help rank podcasters on the leaderboard. The more podcast news items that are submitted by podcasters and approved by the Podcaster Relations Team, the higher your podcast will rise on the leaderboard. To submit news, visit the Podcast News section of our podcast network. Please note: You must be logged into the My Podcast portal to submit news for your podcast.

Host-Read Ads

Host-read ads are scripts about the World Podcast Network and advertising partners that you can read on your episodes. Simply recite the 30-second host-read ad and submit it on the "My Podcast" portal. If your ad is approved by our Podcaster Relations Team, your podcast will rise in the Leaderboard rankings.

Play podsafe music from the Podsafe Music Directory on the World Podcast Network

You can play music on your podcast. Podsafe music is free from all legal consequences. The artist and copyright holder of the music has requested for their music to be played by podcasters. By playing podsafe music on your show, you are showing your love and support for the songwriters. Podsafe music can be the choice of the podcaster and with over 250 podsafe singles to choose from, there is something for every podcaster’s taste. From rock to hip hop to country to EDM, there is something for every podcaster.

Professional-Level Podcasts

Although all podcasts can rise on the daily leaderboard, podcasts on the Professional level will also have a boost as well. To check it your podcast is on the professional level, simply log into your My Podcast portal account and view your level at the top header. If your podcast is on the free level, you can become a Professional-level podcast on our upgrade page.

Where The Leaderboard Displays on the World Podcast Network
How Votes Are Validated and the Podcast Episode Voting Rules

Not all votes are validated, meaning whether or not they count toward the overall vote of the episode. This is to keep voters and bots from spamming the system. All votes are counted from a specific person once per day per episode, so in other words, if a person voted up an episode twice in one day, it will only count once. People are welcome to vote for as many different episodes as they want on a single day. Then, they can return in 24 hours to vote for the same episodes. The vote validation takes into account a multiple of factors including the date, time, location, IP address, network issues, and other measures to assure that all votes are valid. Votes can also be removed if our system detects that they are coming from bots, just as other platforms track bots and remove past engagement activity. Also, each person is allowed to vote 3 times per day. That means that you are allowed to vote for up to 3 episodes of your favorite podcast or 1 episode each from three different podcasts. Again, we do this to control vote spam and cheating. You are welcome to come back the next day and vote for 3 more episodes. Any votes over 3 in a particular day will be discarded. Also, once the daily maximum of votes is reached, we redirect voters back to the World Podcast Network’s home page.

So, What Happens With These Votes, Anyway?

2022 marks a new era for all of the podcasters on the World Podcast Network. We want to give podcasters a chance to come up higher in rankings. Our new leaderboard on our home page is the best way to do that! Every single week in 2022 will start a new leaderboard of podcast episodes that have the most valid votes. Podcasters, this is a great way to interact with your audience and get them to help you find NEW audience members. When we say “a week”, we mean the previous 24 hours which rollover to the next day. In other words, we do not count by calendar weeks. We count by the last 24 hours . For example, if today is February 22, we will show votes from February 21 to February 22. The next day, we will show votes from February 22 to February 23 and so on. This gives podcaster a fair chance to come up on top every single day!

How Much Does This Cost?

Absolutely nothing to voters and podcasters. Voting is free for audience members. Receiving votes is free for all podcasts, both free and upgraded. Everyone has an opportunity to receive votes.

For Podcasters

We want a way to thank you for joining our podcast network. Getting your audience members to vote for your episodes is a great way to push any specific episode you want. Do you have a new episode? Tell your audience to not only listen, but to vote on it. When your episodes with more votes rise higher in the leaderboard rankings, you will be able to reach new audience members, because the leaderboard will display on our home page and other pages of the podcast network.

More About The Leaderboard Rankings

The leaderboard will be a weekly list of the most voted episodes with a link back to your dedicated podcast page. This is a great opportunity to get more people to find your podcast on our network. The weekly leaderboards will reset every week and are available now. The monthly boards will reset on the first of the month and are coming in mid 2022. This gives every podcaster an opportunity to rise in the rankings equally with a clean slate, unlike other websites which run the All-Time rankings without any reset making it harder for new podcasters to rise in the rankings.

Your Podcast Page Will Display Your Most Voted Episode

Just as we highlight episodes for our Professional-level podcasters, we will also display the most voted episode starting in 2022. This may be a way to get more people to listen to a specific episode just by pushing more votes. The highlighted episode section will be replaced with your most recent episode, so in 2022, as we were highlighting episodes for our Professional-level podcasters, they will now have the option to let our podcast network visitors know of your most RECENT episode.

Can Podcasters Vote For themselves?

Yes, why not? As a podcaster, we also consider you an audience member of your own show. The same validation rules apply to podcasters as they do with other voters.

Are All Episodes Eligible To Receive Votes?

No, only the podcast episodes that that were published within the the past 5 days of the podcast being added to the network are eligible. For example, if your podcast was added on October 1st, 2021, all podcast episodes published after September 25, 2021 would be eligible. From there, all your episodes will be eligible after that date.

Leaderboard FAQs

  • Once voters reach the daily maximum voting limit, we redirect them to the World Podcast Network’s home page. We do this to prevent cheating and gaming the system.

  • Log into the "My Podcast" portal and view the number on the top left sidebar. Also, when you first log in or click the Dashboard link, we show you a banner that displays your podcast rank number.

  • Voting is anonymous and tracked by location. Some podcasters will receive email notifications when they receive a vote.

  • We have several suggestions:
    1. Interview more guests on our guest exchange and report your new episode once it is published to the World Podcast Network contact page.
    2. Tell your audience members to vote you up, any episode of yours will do.
    3. Submit more podcast news items on your episodes, guests, accomplishments or anything about your podcast.
    4. Log into the "My Podcast" portal at least once per day.
    5. Remind your audience that they are allowed to vote for your podcast 3 times per day.

  • Once your podcast is listed on the World Podcast Network, we automatically enroll your podcast in the leaderboard and voting engine. If you are not listed, click the link to add your podcast or visit https://worldpodcast.network/sign-up-your-podcast-for-free-in-new-york-city.

  • With over 1,100 podcasts on the World Podcast Network, the leaderboard is competitive. Keep completing the tasks to rise higher and your podcast will move up in the leaderboard in no time. You will rise in the rankings. Also, in order to appear on the leaderboard, podcasts must receive at least 2 votes in the rolling 24-hour period. You can tell your audience members to vote for your podcast once per day, up to 3 times per day. So, for instance, if you have 10,000 people in your audience, you can receive up the 30,000 votes in one single day and all those votes remain there for an entire day!

  • We could always show more podcasts and may increase this number in the near future. For now, showing only the top 10 is the way most leaderboards work. We are thinking of showing a separate leaderboard page with the top 25 or 50 podcasts on the leaderboard rankings.

  • At this moment, we only show the number of votes on the podcast page, but not for individual episodes. By not showing the number for individual episodes, it removes a lot of issues including favoritism, cheating, bots, and other issues that can crop up. For now, keep getting votes and check the rankings. Podcasters can still see the number of total votes for all episodes at the top of their podcast page.

    • More FAQs are coming!

    A Note About The New Sponsored Podcasts Section

    On December 1st, 2021. we released a new section for sponsored podcasts where podcasters, both free and premium, now have the ability to purchase a higher level on our home page and other sections. The reason for the Sponsored Podcasts section is simple. On the World Podcast Network home page, only the 12 most recent podcasts display and move down as new podcasts are added. If your podcast was added and drops off the home page, you still have your dedicated podcast page on our network, but your podcast would not display in our home page’s Newest Podcasts section. For that reason, the Sponsored Podcast section solves this issue. It is a monthly subscription service and is available on both Paypal and Fiverr.com.

    Voting Terms & Conditions
    1. In this agreement, the “Person” or “Persons” refers to votes, podcasts, podcasters or bots. "Podcasters" refers only to podcasters. Also “Authentic Vote” refers to a vote that was obtained from an actual person clicking the Vote link under each podcast episode and not through a bot program, URL, or related method of obtaining votes in a dishonest manager. The term "podcast network" refers only to the World Podcast Network and no other podcast networks.
    2. Persons understand that the leaderboard rules can be modified at any time and include any number of activities including but not limited to playing podsafe music, interviewing guests, logging into the My Podcast portal. The podcast network can add new tasks or remove existing tasks at any time.
    3. Podcasters who complete more tasks each day or week will rise higher on the leaderboard.
    4. Each task is weighed differently and the weights may change. For example, interviewing guests on our podcast network's guest exchange weighs more than getting votes although votes are just as important.
    5. Persons understand that this is a free service from the World Podcast Network and the rules and vote counts can be modified at any time by its sole discretion for any reason including vote spam, bots, cheating and any method of gaining votes other than an actual person pressing the vote links. The Vote link may also be removed in some cases at the sole discretion of the World Podcast Network.
    6. The Vote link may be modified at any time including changes in URL, security verification tools such as captcha. This includes removing the Vote link altogether if and when necessary.
    7. “Modifications” include adding new votes where necessary, removing votes or transferring votes from podcast to podcast. Modifications also include banning a podcast altogether from the leaderboard or removing the Vote link if dishonest methods are detected for obtaining votes.
    8. Persons are expected to follow the rules and respect all changes in rules including voting limits, redirecting after voting, number of podcasts listed, number of days ranking on podcasts on the leaderboard, and any information old and new.
    9. Podcasts that are not following the rules or gaining votes in a manner that break the rules can be banned from receiving votes at any time for any reason.
    10. Voters understand that the World Podcast Network keeps track of every vote including which podcast, IP address, date, time and any other information and may modify the vote in any way necessary including modifying, deleting, blocking them for any reason including violating the rules and regulations. Furthermore, podcasters understand that their podcast may move up and down the leaderboard rankings from the aforementioned reasons, but also that podcasts may also move up and down based on authentic votes received.
    In Conclusion

    This page may change often as we decide to publish more information, so check back often. The World Podcast Network is always looking for new ways to promote its podcast members and this is just one of the many ways in 2022 that we will accomplish it.

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