At least four times per week someone emails me asking why their podcast audience isn't growing. I always reply and ask for a little more info and usually refer them to the free Captivate Podcast Growth Labs because their reply typically frustrates me.

They're usually paying a "podcast coach" to help with their growth.

And that makes me think: if they're paying someone to help, why are they emailing me asking for my help, too?

I'm not a podcast coach. I used to coach people on the business of podcasting a few years ago, but I was never a podcast coach and there really is a difference.

I've been running businesses like Captivate since 2005. My main job here at Captivate is "product owner" wherein I develop ideas, vision and work with the design, engineering, experience and marketing teams on execution.

My experience over the last 16 years in business has given me experience in just that, business. Or more specifically, growing something from nothing.

That sounds a lot like what we're trying to achieve as podcasters, too, doesn't it? We're creating something, refining it and building an audience for it that continues to develop and grow until, at some point, we can make some money from it.

But, growing a podcast is hard. It's hard because podcasting is still a developing market and not every potential listener knows that they can listen to podcasts. It's not like email or SMS marketing, or even Netflix/YouTube and the on-demand video explosion where most of your target audience know that these mediums actually exist.

But, because podcasting IS a growing market, online coaches and people looking to make some money on the side are turning, still, to podcast coaching as a way to bolster their income.

A good coach is vital, too, in any walk of life. I'm a huge fan of passing on earned knowledge and making money from that. In fact, I think that podcast launch coaches can really help people navigate through the potential pitfalls of a podcast launch and that if you feel you need one, you should find a podcast launch coach to help.

If someone has launched a podcast recently with some success, then I believe that it's perfectly fine to sell that very same knowledge to someone who needs help.

What bothers me, though, is when coaches take your hard-earned money and give you nothing in return; when they're selling something that they think they know to people who believe them.

That is wrong.

As someone who works with thousands and thousands of podcasts every day via Captivate, I also get my fair share of coaches coming to me asking for the most basic information on podcasting - even when they're the ones selling podcast coaching.

That is wrong, too.

So, I decided to put together these three warning signs for you so that you can identify whether your podcast coach is taking your money and not giving you anything of quality in return.

1. Your podcast coach once launched a podcast and that's it.

I said it earlier: if someone has launched a podcast, then they can and should sell that base-level knowledge to someone who needs it, but with one caveat: they should be honest about how far they can take you.

The problem comes from a coach over-stretching themselves and pretending that they can take you through podcast launch to growth and monetisation.

Maybe they have a track record in monetising things online and think that translates to...