Awards Q&A

How long have the awards been going on?

The Awards started in 2024 with great success. This is our 2nd year of doing these awards.

Why is this a People’s Choice style awards, rather than a judged awards?

There's a place for everything. Both judged and people's choice awards have pros and cons.

In general, judged competitions are less collaborative and more subjective by nature, than people's choice awards. How can one person judge another person’s art against other people’s art?

Instead, we would prefer to use the awards as a means of connecting, collaborating and celebrating together. We opted for a people’s choice model because it infuses more authentic connections and community building opportunities.

It’s an opportunity to work towards excellence while engaging with your audience, making new connections, and elevating women’s voices in the podcasting industry. We have lots of resources in place to help people use these awards for community building.

Is there a voting fee?

No. There is no fee to vote during the voting phase.

How do I nominate myself?

You can nominate yourself as a podcaster, broadcaster, producer or expert guest here: https://womenpodcasters.com/awards

Podcaster nominations can be for audio only or audio & video podcasts. For podcasters, choose the category that you feel your podcast would fall under. See examples under Awards Categories.

Broadcast nominations are for those who have a channel or show, but not an RSS feed.

Producers can be editors or anyone behind the scenes who helps produce your show or podcast.

Expert Guets can be those who have guested on a minimum of 5 podcasts or shows.

Are the awards just for people who have been podcasting for a long time?

No, it’s perfect for beginners and seasoned podcasters. That’s another reason why we decided on a people’s choice style of awards, because anyone with any size of audience can use the awards to meet other podcasters and connect with their audience. Podcasts need at least 5 episodes. Check the rules & regulations for full criteria for all award types.

I'm a nominee, where do I send people to vote? 

This is the voting link: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/awards-voting

Do not share the link to the actual form, because we switched out the form that the button links to, and we will continue switching it out each week for the voting phase. If you just share the above link, then people will always get to the right form. Only share the link between May 1 - 31st.

Can I vote for myself? 

Yes. If you participated in testing, all votes before May 1st were deleted, so feel free to go in and vote for yourself again. 

Do people have to sign in to vote? 

Signing in is required by any form or voting system to ensure security, verify identity, and prevent duplicate or fraudulent entries. Platforms like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey prompt users to log in for these reasons. It is standard practice for voting. Even if we used a different platform, people would need to create an account or login. 

Since all forms or voting platforms need some kind of sign in, we chose the most widely used one which is Google. There's no way around it. It's not something to be fixed, it's just a natural part of any voting process. 

I vote in other awards all the time and always have to be either logged into Google or whatever platform the people are using. 

Are people added to your email list when they vote?

No, not when they vote. They need to enter their email to vote to ensure security, verify identity, and prevent duplicate or fraudulent entries. When voting is complete and calculated all data will be deleted. 

However, if they choose to opt-in to one of our gifts after voting, that is their choice. Opting into any freebies will put a person on an email list. But voting in our awards does not put them on an email list of any kind. 

Will we get updated stats or numbers of votes along the way? 

No. This is not a giveaway or some other kind of digital promotion. This is a proper people's choice awards event. As with all awards, you will find out about the winners when they are announced on June 25th. 

Can you share who voted for me? 

No, we don't keep or share people's contact info for legal and other reasons. We only get people to enter their email address during voting so we can make sure someone doesn't vote twice. The voters do not get added to our email list.

Can I ask for my nominee numbers?

No. it's too many work hours and expensive to send every single nominee their numbers manually. Please do not send an email asking for numbers or updates on voting or numbers. Winners will be announced on June 25th.

To get the most out of the awards, we recommend setting up your own lead capture funnel with the link to the awards along with an incentive, such as a digital gift. That will give you somewhat of an idea of how many you have. It's not 100%, as some people may not follow through, but generally it provides an opportunity to engage with your audience. This is totally optional and not require, it's just a suggestion to use the awards as an opportunity to build your list and increase listenership.