Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Writers, don’t fall for this offer from Global Talk Radio that’s currently doing the spam circuit.

Here’s a new and FUN way to promote your book, business or website!

Talk about it “on the air” in your own words… reach a highly-targeted audience and you might open doors to new opportunities! A RADIO INTERVIEW CAN SET YOU APART FROM EVERYONE ELSE!

Global Talk Radio produces 5-minute and 10-minute professional interviews with authors and entrepreneurs for our top-rated “In The News” program. Interviews are pre-recorded by telephone, and you supply “talking points” to help focus the conversation on what is most important. Recent guests included Emmy-nominated writer/producer Dr. Kenneth Atchity, authors Nick Quintanilla and James Conaway, Ben Bluml (Senior VP at the American Pharmacists Association Foundation) and entrepreneur Jenny Ta of Sqeeqee.com. You could be next!

Your promotional interview includes:

A professional interview, recorded by phone
Your interview is posted on our station’s site indefinitely
Your archive is fed into Google and other search engines via keywords
You will also receive “honorable mention” on our home page
GTR will hyperlink your archive to a website or web page of your choice
You can download a FREE MP3 copy of the interview
THIS WEEK ONLY!! Send us your picture or graphic, and we’ll post it with a link back to your website!

Hurry! Only 5 guest spots are available! (Interviews are available first-come, first-served, but you have until December 15th to record the interview.)

Sign-up is easy. Please visit us at href=”http://www.globaltalkradio.com/publicityworks.htm”>http://www.globaltalkradio.com/publicityworks.htm for details and to book a guest spot.

I’m sure you’ve already guessed what this breathless pitch omits: these spiffy “professional interviews” involve a fee. TV-infomercial-style, you’re urged not to stop to consider–OFFER ENDS NOVEMBER 29!–because you really, really have to hurry–ONLY 5 INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE! Plus, the interviews are on sale! You can get a a 5-minute interview (regularly $200) for $97, or a 10-minute interview (regularly $300) for just $147!

Global Talk Radio touts its “highly targeted audience,” but the reality is a little different. On GTR’s front page, there’s a screenshot of its traffic ranking from Ranking.com, under the headline “Global Talk Radio’s traffic surges!” The screenshot appears to show a big jump–from the 180,000 range into the 100,000 range over the course of a few months. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that these figures are from 2009 and early 2010. So they’re not exactly current.

More recent is this info from Quantcast, which measures actual visitors. Between October 26 and November 24, 2013, Global Talk Radio’s website received 752 visitors. Not exactly a mass audience. Global Talk Radio’s Alexa rank is similarly unimpressive.

Don’t fall for vanity radio. If you want an interview to post on your website, consider creating your own podcast. Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn offers good advice on how to do this (there are helpful suggestions in the comments as well).