I got the call, too, in 2013. I, like many of the others who responded here, had been a guest on radio shows, had a blog, and was very flattered when I got the call. It just so happened that I was with a friend when I got the call. I had never heard of VA but my friend had. It seemed like a legitimate company. I was looking for a way to share information with my community (the congenital heart defect community) and to sell the books I had written and self-published. The Producer who called me told me they would help me find a sponsor so I wouldn't have to pay those high fees again for the 2nd season. They even gave me 2 extra shows for free because I brought a friend in to do a show, too. They also promised him they would help him find sponsors. They didn't.

After 15 shows, I didn't have any sponsors lined up but my show was doing very well so they even did two weeks of Encore Presentations hoping they could find sponsors for my program. They didn't.

Now I had a decision to make. When I agreed to go with them, I looked at my publishing company's bank account. The amount they told me I'd have to pay upfront was all but $75 in the bank. I took that as a sign that I should do it. Yes, I would be mostly broke, but I would be helping my community and hopefully, I would sell books. After 15 weeks, I hadn't sold significantly more books than I had in the time prior to me doing the podcast; however, I had reached over 5000 people. I received communication from others that my podcast was helping them, but I wasn't willing to go into debt to continue.

Like someone else mentioned, I was the owner of my intellectual property. I moved my program to BlogTalkRadio and that's when I discovered just how much VA had done for me. They. had given me a studio, a Producer, a graphic artist, someone to help with marketing, a Sound Engineer, and I belonged to a community of podcasters. Before I started with VA, I was a guest on another VA show, and I was able to talk to 2 different people who had VA shows. I learned a LOT from them. When I had to do EVERYTHING myself, it showed me just how much VA had done for me.

Back in 2013, there weren't the kind of resources there are now to help you put a podcast together. The podcasting community wasn't as big and as united as it is now. There wasn't the free education (and continuing education) that there is today. I doubt I'd have started my own podcast with as much success as I did by starting with VA. They gave me support, an education, and the help I needed to create something that I'm still doing over 360 shows and 8 years later.

I left BTR for Spreaker after noticing the sound quality on BTR wasn't that great. Now I produce my show and put it out on 2 platforms -- Spreaker and Buzzsprout. I like both platforms for different reasons. Even though I have to pay for both platforms, the fees aren't that outrageous and when someone hijacked Buzzsprout and all of the shows were down for over 24 hours, my shows were available on Spreaker the entire time.

Most people have been very discouraging about VA on this post, and I will admit that the price is high; however, nobody else mentioned all of the things that VA does to help a budding podcaster. Having a Producer, a Sound Engineer, a Marketer, and a Graphic Artist to help you get started is huge. Can you bootstrap it and do it all yourself? You bet! In 2022 you have Fiverr and other ways to find help that won't break the bank. There are tons of helpful videos on YouTube and there are even podcasts about the process of podcasting. Not all of that was available when this post first appeared. I wonder if other VA hosts have been reluctant to come forward to write anything here because they're embarrassed to -- given the negative tone generated by the original post.

I have had over 100,000 downloads/hits over the last 8 years. That's not a lot of hits compared to big names like Joe Rogan, but in the congenital heart defect community, that's a lot of people I've been able to help. My only complaint about VA right now is that I was only with them for one season, but they still have my show on their site and they won't give me information on how many hits my shows still get; therefore, I don't know the real number of hits my show has had.

I will conclude this rather long post by saying that I'm happy to be a podcaster. I now host one show and am the Executive Producer of two others. We don't have sponsors or advertisers. I don't get paid for what I do. It's a labor of love. I'm not sure if I've sold a lot more books than I would have otherwise, but I love what I do and I know I'm helping others. When I die, I will know that I've made my little corner of the world a little bit less scary, I've delivered hundreds of messages of hope to people in their darkest hours, and I even helped to save a little boy's life in Africa. I don't know if that would have been the case without VA. Thank you, VoiceAmerica.