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The Real Reason Nobody’s Clicking on Your Episode

Christian Podcasting with Tammy Maltese Munson

Release Date: 07/24/2026

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Christian Podcasting with Tammy Maltese Munson

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Here's a math problem I want you to sit with.

Add up everything one episode costs you. Not just the recording but the outlining, the editing that never takes as long as you planned, the show notes, the graphic, the scheduling, the posting about it. For most of us that lands somewhere between four and eight hours. For some of you it's a whole lot more.

Now add up what you spent on the title.

I already know the answer, because I've done the same thing. 90 seconds, in that little box, right before hitting publish.

That's the part that's been quietly costing you. Because your title is the only piece of that episode most people will ever encounter and for a stranger who's never heard of you, it's the entire audition.

So this week I'm handing you the whole thing: who your title is actually for, why the clever ones are working against you, what each platform is really looking at (Apple, Spotify, and YouTube all behave differently, and none of them behave how you'd assume), and what's happening now with ChatGPT and Perplexity that most podcasters haven't caught onto yet.

Plus a three-step framework you can run this afternoon.

XO,
Tammy

 

Listen In to Learn More

[00:01:30]  Your Title Is a Discovery Tool, Not a Creative Outlet

[00:03:15]  Clever Titles Are Quietly Killing Your Podcast

[00:04:30]  Write for the Sleepless Searcher, Not the Loyal Superfan

[00:05:11]  Clear Beats Cute: From Puns to Problem-Solving Titles

[00:06:40]  Make Your Podcast Useful, Not Mysterious

[00:09:59]  Apple SEO: Titles Do the Heavy Lifting

[00:11:10]  Spotify: Let Descriptions Carry the Extra Keywords

[00:12:20]  YouTube: Titles Search, Thumbnails Stop the Scroll

[00:13:40]  AI Tools Only See What They Can Read

[00:14:43]  Why AI Keeps Spitting Out Vague, Generic Titles

[00:16:05]  Stop Letting AI Lead Your Strategy

[00:17:20]  Feed AI Your Listener’s Actual Search Sentence

[00:19:26]  Search–Check–Fix: The 3-Step Title Framework

[00:20:40]  Five Renamed Episodes Can Revive Your Back Catalog

[00:22:00]  Choose Clear Over Clever to Choose Your Listener First

 

Key Takeaways

  • Your title isn’t for the woman who already subscribed. She’s listening anyway — your relationship earned that, not your title. Titles are for the stranger searching for something specific.

  • Clever worked in the blogging days when discovery was casual browsing. Now people search for exactly what they need, and nobody types a pun into a search bar.

  • APPLE does not use your episode description as a ranking signal. It ranks show title, episode titles, and author name. Front-load your keyword, and make sure your author field is your actual searchable name.

  • SPOTIFY does use descriptions for ranking. Titles carry the search terms; descriptions carry context and extra keywords. Lead your description with a real promise, not ‘in this episode we discuss.’

  • YOUTUBE is a browsing platform as much as a search one, so the thumbnail matters as much as the title. Four to five enormous words that stop a thumb. The title is for the woman searching; the thumbnail is for the woman scrolling.

  • AI TOOLS cannot cite what they cannot read. Apple auto-transcribes now and Spotify does for some shows — but those transcripts live inside the app. They aren’t crawlable pages on the open web, which is what ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity actually read. Publish your transcript on your own site.

  • Ask AI for titles cold and you get the average of every podcast title ever written: cute, vague, colon in the middle. It doesn’t know your listener or what she’d type at 11pm. You bring the strategy; it brings the volume. Never the other way around.

  • Citation by AI tools isn’t correlated with show size. A small show with clear titles and published transcripts can absolutely get named ahead of a big one that never bothered.

 

★  THE FRAMEWORK — SEARCH, CHECK, FIX

1. SEARCH. Write the exact sentence she’d type when she needs this, in her words. Not ‘podcast consistency strategies’ — she types ‘I can’t keep up with my podcast.’ Then build a title that answers it.

2. CHECK. Four questions: Could a stranger tell what it’s about with zero context? Does the important part come first? Is it roughly 40-60 characters? Would YOU type this into a search bar?

3. FIX. Rename your five best episodes. Not all of them — five. You can change titles anytime; it’s just metadata, nothing breaks.


If you do nothing else: rename five titles. One afternoon. Those episodes are already made. You’re just putting a findable sign on a door that’s been unmarked this whole time.

 

Episode Quotables

1.“Four to eight hours of work. Ninety seconds on the title. And the ninety seconds decides whether anybody ever hears the four to eight hours.”

2.“Nobody in the history of the internet has ever typed a pun into a search bar.”

3.“Your title is for the woman who’s searching. Your thumbnail is for the woman who’s scrolling. Two different women. Two different jobs.”

4.“Apple made you a transcript. That helps the woman already listening. It does almost nothing for the woman asking ChatGPT for a recommendation.”

5.“AI will happily hand you twenty titles. It has no idea which one is true.”

6.“Every time you choose clever over clear, you’re quietly choosing yourself over her.”

 

Scripture Referenced

  • Proverbs 25:11 — “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

 

★  WANT TO ASK TAMMY A QUESTION?

Sign up for a FREE discovery call in August.

https://wildfirecreativecompany.com/discoverycall 

 

Resources

  • 52 Tips — one podcast tip a week, free: https://wildfirecreativecompany.com/52tips

  • FREE discovery call (August): https://wildfirecreativecompany.com/discoverycall

  • Wildfire Creative Company: https://wildfirecreativecompany.com

 

Podcasts worth studying for titles and thumbnails:

  • The Mel Robbins Podcast: https://www.melrobbins.com/podcast

  • The Alli Worthington Show: https://alliworthington.com/podcast

 

Connect With Tammy

  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tammy_munson

  • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/christian-podcasting-secrets-with-tammy-munson/id1560889330

  • Website: https://wildfirecreativecompany.com