The majority of podcasters aren’t making as much money as they could. Actually, I think that a lot of smaller podcasts aren’t profitable at all, which is one of the reasons why so many podcasters stop. Although acquiring sponsors to place advertisements on the show is frequently the first thing that comes to mind, there are other ways to make money from podcasting.
Even though sponsorships might generate income, particularly for larger podcasts, depending only on them may result in a never-ending search for new sponsors who might not be as generous as anticipated. Expecting more than $100 per ad spot is frequently impractical for tiny podcasts with fewer than a thousand downloads per episode. Today, I want to share nine real ways to ACTUALLY make money from your podcast.
- 9 ways to monetize a podcast in 2024
- 1. Brand Sponsorships
- 2. Quality Over Quantity: Why 200 Engaged Listeners Beat 2000 Social Media Followers
- 3. Build Relationships with Brands
- 4. Creating and Selling Intellectual Property
- 5. Affiliate Marketing
- 6. Premium Content, Subscriptions & Paid Memberships
- 7. Running Ads
- 8. Post your episodes on YouTube
- 9. Donations and Merch
- Conclusion
9 ways to monetize a podcast in 2024
1. Brand Sponsorships
I love this way, but I don’t think it’s my favorite way to make money from my show. The problem is that many of you are small business owners with something to offer, even while I know not all podcasters have goods or services to sell.
Therefore, if you had the option, wouldn’t you rather advertise your own products than those of others? Not to mention that, in most cases, your own offerings are more valuable and bring in more money per client than what a sponsor would spend on each episode. It’s likely a better ROI for you to sell your OWN products or services instead.
Having said that, I would want to discuss a few things to think about if you plan to look for paid sponsors for your program. I know from having sponsors on my program that they can arise in a few different ways.
You are in charge of negotiating the conditions and signing the contract when you pursue the sponsor. In other cases, sponsors approach you with their own terms and contract. I’ve been in both situations, and both has advantages. No matter how it develops, consider your objectives and the products you wish to provide.
- What’s a Brand Sponsorship?: Think of it like – big and small companies pay you to talk about their stuff on your podcast.
- Why Are Brands Interested in You?: Because you have something special – a connection with your listeners that big ads can’t buy.
- The Power of Podcasting: Unlike social media, where people swipe ads faster than flash, your podcast keeps listeners hooked for the whole show.
2. Quality Over Quantity: Why 200 Engaged Listeners Beat 2000 Social Media Followers
A thousand podcast listeners is more powerful than having thousands of followers on social media when the topic is monetizing your audience. Why is that? Because, my bud, it’s all about attention. For how long? How frequent can you keep your audience’s attention? Attention is currency these days. People get lost on their smartphones, sometimes going back and forth between apps and tapping on notifications. That is getting increasingly hard for brands to keep the attention of their target audience for more than a few seconds. Unlike “social media dancers”, podcasters have this power of keeping listeners hooked for the duration of an entire episode.
- The Attention Game: Attention is like gold these days. It’s hard to keep, but podcasting makes it easier because listeners stick around if you and your guest are talking stuffs.
- Niche is Nice: Even if you Have a small but super-focused audience, your listeners are more likely to buy what you recommend.
- The Parasocial Connection: Your listeners might not know you personally, but they feel like they do. Thats the thing, That’s powerful!
3. Build Relationships with Brands
You might be sitting on some real opportunities without even knowing. Start reaching out to brands and businesses that would be interested in putting their products and services in front of your audience. Find the contact information for their marketing department and shoot that person a DM or an email telling them about your podcast and your interest in creating episodes highlighting their products. Be thoughtful and clear in your communication and highlight how excited you are to introduce their product or service to your audience. Also, don’t forget to include your podcast analytics and use the same argument I presented about why you have a small but real audience.
- Reaching Out: Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. They don’t come if you just sit idle and do nothing. Just Make a list of brands you’d like to work with and go reach out to them personally.
- Audience First: Choose the brands that match with your audience’s interests and wants. Trust is important, so only promote products/services you believe in.
- The Power of Follow-Up: Even if a brand initially says no, staying on their radar can lead to future opportunities.
How to Land Those Brand Deals: Tips for Reaching Out to Companies
- Get Their Attention: Find the right person to talk to in the marketing department and shoot them a message.
- Be Clear and Excited: Tell them why you love their product and why your audience will too.
- Show Them the Numbers: Share your podcast stats and explain why your small audience is mighty.
4. Creating and Selling Intellectual Property
Another way to make money from your podcast is by packaging and selling your intellectual property online. So, it sounds more complicated than it is. Let me simplify it. Just identify a problem your audience has, and you create a solution so they can go from point A to point B.
An e-course is the ideal method for you to make money off of your podcast if it is in any way instructive or useful. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to create an online course. a podcast’s material can be easily summarized in an e-course, along with a few more pointers and useful guidance.
Potential customers find e-courses appealing since they are based on tangible outcomes. They are fully aware of what they are getting into and what they stand to gain.
Additionally, it’s likely that you’ll have a large number of students as soon as you launch your course because you already have a captive audience.
- Identify Audience Needs: Use your podcasting to identify common problems your audience faces.
- Offer Solutions: Develop digital products like courses, ebooks, or coaching sessions to address these needs. Just like a blog. We provide solution and sell products from amazon or services from in the process according to your needs.
- Modify the Offers: Provide premium offers for your podcast listeners to add more value to deepen your relationship with them.
5. Affiliate Marketing
You know those awesome guests you have on your show? Well, if they’ve got something to sell, why not ask them for a little something in return? You can ask for a commission for helping them sell their things. Plus, don’t forget to score a discount for your listeners – they’ll love you for it! Just make sure to tell them you’re earning a commission, so they know what’s up.
Affiliate Models are great Because you’re not stating, “This podcast is sponsored by _,” but rather, “Here are three ways I’m making my life easier as a busy mom,” affiliate links can be really effective. Additionally, you mention an affiliate link in several of those ways.
Additionally, maintain a well-organized bank of affiliates if you haven’t already. It might be in your project manager, such as ClickUp, or it might be a spreadsheet. However, keep a record of every business you affiliate with, the discounts you have with them, the code and link, and the terms of the deal for both you and the customer.
- Easy Entry: Start earning commissions by promoting products/services through affiliate marketing.
- Know Your Audience: Choose affiliate products/services that resonate with your audience.
- Transparency Matters: Always disclose your affiliate relationships to maintain trust with your listeners. Sane goes with the sponsors.
I’d also wanna say this, you may use affiliates to monetize your podcast in ways other than just the episodes themselves. Your blog, social media accounts, email list, and more can help you increase your revenue. For instance, in order to boost visibility through search engine optimization, I will also mention an affiliate product in the blog post that goes along with it if I promote it in an episode. I can also interact with my email list and use social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest. There are countless options!
6. Premium Content, Subscriptions & Paid Memberships
Ever heard of Spotify or Apple Podcasts? If not then please give up podcasting! Well, did you know you can offer premium content directly on these platforms? Yeh, that’s true, Your listeners will pay a monthly fee to access exclusive episodes. It’s like having a VIP section for your most dedicated fans!
Creating paid membership tiers is a certain strategy to monetize your podcast when you have a loyal and engaged audience. Because your listeners believe they are gaining intimate and exclusive access to unique content, this is a terrific way to monetize your content and benefits both parties.
Additionally, a subscription plan is a smart approach to maintain your freedom from brand collaborations while still making money from your podcast.
Alternatively, you may provide your paying subscribers with an ad-free option if you already have that big ad agreement under your belt. There is a way where there is a will!
- Platform Options: Consider platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts for offering premium content behind a paywall.
- Ease of Access: Direct subscription options within podcast apps streamline the process for your listeners.
- Leveraging Analytics: Use analytics to determine the best platform for your audience and content.
- Create tiered memberships: You can provide various tiers with increasingly superior features and special benefits. Because it accommodates a range of pricing points, even people on a tighter budget might be persuaded to sign up.
- Ensure your membership is worthwhile: Although you can’t always count on it, you might discover that many of your listeners will assist you out of kindness and because they think your podcast will succeed. Make sure your listeners believe they’re receiving a fair deal because you’re asking them to commit to a regular payment.
- Create Bonus or Premium Content for Subscribers: With the unique content you provide to your subscribers, you may be imaginative and enjoy yourself. You can decide how labor-intensive you want this part of setting up a membership program to be.
7. Running Ads
Ads, ads, ads – they’re everywhere! And guess what? You can cash in on them too! Got a small or big audience? there’s always some money to be made. Podcast programs frequently start and end with advertisements. While sponsorships suggest a continuous partnership between the brand and the podcast, advertisements are brief interludes during which a business advertises their goods or services.
You can sign up for an advertising network like Advertise Cast or Adopter Media if you want to start placing advertisements in your podcast.For a nominal cost, advertising networks handle all the laborious tasks, such as facilitating your connection with advertisers.
- Going through a network for your ads: There are two choices to think about when it comes to making money out of your podcast. Will you pitch and negotiate your own contracts, or will you rely on a network to put you in touch with sponsors? If you sign up for a podcast network, they might put advertisements on your behalf, but you might not be in charge of the content. Both options have advantages and disadvantages.
- Choosing ad placements for your podcast: Additionally, you should think about the pieces you wish to sell and the available spaces for your podcast advertisements. Remember that you can also promote your own goods. Finding a balance between promoting your own content and giving sponsors the best placement is crucial, in my opinion. Additionally, think about how many advertisements you can actually fit into each episode. Depending on the duration of the episode, this might change, but you must be careful not to bombard listeners with too many advertisements.
8. Post your episodes on YouTube
YouTubers make bank, and you can too! Although podcasting is primarily an audio-based medium, you may utilize YouTube Ads to monetise your episodes.
Doesn’t the goal of a podcast get lost when videos are posted on YouTube?
You might think so, but here’s the thing: in 2022, YouTube was the most popular platform for podcast consumption, with 33% of Americans using it to access podcasts. Second place went to the music-streaming service Spotify, which is used by 24% of Americans to listen to podcasts. Crazy, huh?
YouTube podcast episodes: The Friendship Onion
Making your material available on YouTube allows listeners to engage with your content in a new way and share it on other platforms, regardless of whether you upload audio-only or video recordings of your podcast episodes. Here’s how to do it:
- Meet Requirements: Make your YouTube channel meets the eligibility criteria, including 1,000 subscribers.
- Enable Ads: You have to Allow YouTube to run ads on your videos automatically to start generating ad revenue.
- Explore Donation Options: I’d suggest you Encourage viewer donations through Super Thanks or Super Chat during live recordings.
9. Donations and Merch
Who doesn’t love free money, am I right? Ask your audience for donations – it’s as simple as clicking a button! And if you’re feeling extra fancy, set up a channel membership or sell some sweet merch. Your fans will love supporting you.
Talking About Merch, that’s gonna be is our last piece of advice on podcast monetization. Do your listeners have a strong devotion to your show? Do your episodes contain any well-known quotations or running jokes that your audience enjoys? Make podcast gear and allow your audience to express their support by wearing it!
- Channel Memberships: Just Offer your audience some exclusive perks to channel members in exchange for recurring monthly payments.
- Merchandise Sales: Launch a merch store where fans can purchase branded products directly from your channel.
- Donations and Tips: Enable donation features like Super Chat or Super Thanks to allow listeners to support your podcast financially.
Conclusion
One of the most interesting and promising ways to connect with people who are interested in what you have to say is through podcasting. However, you shouldn’t restrict yourself to just one road because there are other ways to become profitable. You can expand your show and possibly increase the revenue from a podcast you’ve worked very hard on by integrating it into a multi-channel and multi-platform network that includes digital items, memberships, online courses, and numerous affiliates. Keep podcasting and Keep earning!
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