Create your own subscription podcast w/ Stripe and Castos

Create your own subscription podcast w/ Stripe and Castos
Audience
Create your own subscription podcast w/ Stripe and Castos

Mar 03 2022 | 00:09:15

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Episode March 03, 2022 00:09:15

Hosted By

Stuart Barefoot

Show Notes

Today I’d like to talk about creating your own subscription podcast without the middle man taking a cut of your revenue.

Before we get too far down into the blueprint for monetizing your podcast, there are some hard requirements I’m mentioning in this episode:

  1. You must be okay with starting a free Stripe account.
  2. You’re using Castos to host your subscription podcast feed or feeds.
  3. Bonus: If you want to make other automation magic happen, I also recommend a free Zapier account.

Why start a subscription podcast over advertising?

What’s your knee-jerk reaction when you hear that the average podcast ad rates are $25 per 1,000 downloads? If you’re like most of us, your podcast is barely hitting 500 downloads per episode — you can’t even buy a cup of coffee let alone that new Porsche.

Most advertisers are looking for the largest audience possible, not the most valuable audience possible. That’s a topic for a different podcast.

When it comes to earning revenue, if you’re a brand new podcaster or a veteran with a niche audience, going by industry standard advertising isn’t going to make us rich.

Then there’s the quality and experience factor.

Don’t get me started on automated ad insertion from larger ad networks or other podcast hosting companies. Not only are we giving up control of the ad quality, it’s an abrasive experience for the listener. A 2020 report from Nielsen shows that host-read ads perform better anyway. Host-Read Podcast Ads Pack a Brand Recall Punch – Nielsen

If you’re going to do ads, you might as well sell them direct and read them on your own show. Again, different podcast episode for a different day.

Subscription podcasts at Castos vs the world

I rarely thank Apple for much in podcasting these days, but I am thankful that this 2.6 Trillion-dollar company decided to compete with us.

Crazy right?

We’re going through another defining moment for content creators. Just like Facebook and others encroached on our blog traffic, big audio businesses are doing the same to our podcasts.

Apple offers subscription podcasts through their platform at a 30% cut + a $29 annual fee. The kicker? You have to manage your podcast on their website. The content is only available to listeners using Apple podcast app.

As a creator, you’re suffocating your total possible reach. Apple is making my case for me.

Subscriptions at Castos

  1. We don’t take a 30% cut. Each podcast hosting plan has a set of private subscribers.
  2. You can create as many private subscription podcasts as you want.
  3. Listeners can access the content on Apple or Google devices, using our free Castos mobile app or their favorite podcast app.

Let’s get back to that tug of war for your content: We’re building a subscription podcast system that podcasters will love. While Apple and others want you to exist exclusively in their platform, with their fees, and their algorithm — Castos is building a subscription platform that allows you to be anywhere & everywhere.

What type of subscription podcasts work best?

Here’s the thing: there are no rules; monetize as you see fit.

Want to run ads + have a premium subscription podcast? Go for it. I say however you can monetize your show is good enough for me. It’s a lot of work to get to where you are, I’m not going to hold you back.

Some subscription podcast ideas to get you started:

  1. Ad-free premium podcast
  2. Members-only or exclusive content
  3. Courses or premium series
  4. Audiobooks
  5. Coaching

If you can upload it, you can sell it.

And this is the important part: a subscription podcast doesn’t have to be an extension of your podcast or high-production.

You’re taking a collection of audio and putting it into a podcast feed to sell as a one-time fee or through a recurring payment. You can be as creative as you want with subscription podcasts at Castos.

  • Want to sell an audio book? No problem.
  • Create a training series for members of your online community? Easy.
  • An audio feed for each client? Send them our free audio app with only your audio in it, for free.

Stripe as the payment processor

We recently launched native integration with Stripe.

You can find it in our Automations Engine inside your dashboard. Along with our Convertkit integration, the foundation to growing and monetizing your show is starting to come together.

Connecting Stripe to our Automations Engine means that as soon as a customer buys your product, we send them access to your subscription podcast to the email they used to purchase.

Remember, you can set up us many plans as you want in Stripe, and connect it to any private podcast in your Castos account. Handy if you want to have a few options of audio content to sell, or different tiers of access.

At the top of the show I mentioned the bonus for using Zapier. If you’ve never heard of Zapier it’s a freemium service that acts as the glue between apps on the internet. If you want to send customer information to a CRM or another email provider like MailChimp, you can do that too. Check out our YouTube channel for more ideas.

Stripe produces a checkout link, a typical URL, that you can place anywhere your visitors are headed:

  1. On your Castos website
  2. On your WordPress website
  3. In your weekly newsletter
  4. In your Twitter bio

You get the picture. Stripe makes it easy to sell a subscription podcast now that Castos integrates with it natively. Combine that with our free mobile app, and die-hard podcasters should love our solution more than Patreon or Apple.

For flexibility and fees alone.

Is starting a subscription podcast right for you?

I think building out your own subscription podcast is a fantastic idea if you are the following podcaster:

  1. You have premium content people want.
  2. You have an existing members-only product for your brand.
  3. You sell a physical or digital good and you want to augment the experience.
  4. You want to sell access to your podcast not provide a public one

Of course, like everything else, it will take some rolling-up the sleeves. Some hard work.

You’ve heard me say it over and over: A successful podcast relies on all of the other things that surrounds it.

The unique premise, the content, and the promotion. Especially the promotion. The easy route is go back and throw your podcast in an advertising algorithm. You won’t have to think about it or work hard to sell your thing. But you’ll also get paid the least. $25 dollars for every 1,000 downloads if you’re lucky.

Your subscription podcast’s success will rely heavily on your ability to create something someone wants or sees the value in supporting you as an independent creator.

And your marketing chops. How good are you at identifying the right audience to promote to?

For me, it’s putting the control and the creative back into my hands, with no middle man. That’s why I love podcasting and that’s why I love subscription podcasts at Castos.

But hey, I know I’m bias, I work here. Start a free trial and check it out yourself at Castos.com or email us [email protected]

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome back to audience at Castillo's original experience broadcasting from the center of your audio universe, where subscription podcasters find their [email protected]. Press play right here in your podcast player every week. It's like a cheat sheet for marketing monetizing, growing your podcast. So good. You want to share castles.com plan audience and your closest friends. Okay. Audience starts. Now today, I'd like to talk about creating your own subscription podcasts without the middleman taking a cut of your revenue. But before we get too far down the blueprint for monetizing your podcast, there are some hard requirements I'm mentioning in today's episode. Number one, you must be okay with starting a free Stripe account. Number two, you're using Castillo's to host your subscription podcast, feed or feeds. You'll hear that in a moment. And three, a little bit of a bonus. If you want to make other automation magic happen. Speaker 0 00:00:57 I also recommend you check out a free Zapier account. All the links will be in the episode details. Why start a subscription podcast over advertising? What's your knee jerk reaction. When you hear that the average podcast ad rates are $25 per 1000 downloads. It's $25 per 1000 downloads. If you're like most of us, your podcast is barely hitting 500 downloads per episode. You can't even buy a cup of coffee. Let alone that new Porsche you've wanted. Most advertisers are looking for the largest audience possible, not the most valuable audience possible, but that's a topic for a different podcast. When it comes to earning revenue. If you're a brand new podcast or, or a veteran podcaster with a niche audience going by industry standard advertising, isn't going to make you rich. Then there's the quality and experience factor don't even get me started on automated ad insertion from larger ad networks or other podcast hosting companies. Speaker 0 00:02:00 Not only are we giving up control of the ad quality, it's an abrasive experience for the listener. Besides a 2020 report from Nielsen shows that host read ads perform better. Anyway, if you're going to do ads, you might as well sell them direct yourself and then read them yourself on the show. Again, a different podcast for a different day subscription podcasts at Casos versus the world. I rarely think apple for much in podcasting. These days sands the start of podcasting, but I am thankful that this $2.6 trillion company decided to compete with us. It's crazy, right? We're going through yet. Another defining moment for content creators, just like Facebook and others encroached on our blog traffic. Some years ago, big audio businesses are doing the same to our podcasts. Apple offers subscription podcasts through their platform at 30% cuts and eight $29 annual fee for the icing on the cake. Speaker 0 00:02:58 Uh, but the kicker, you have to manage your podcast on their website. The content is only available to listeners using apple podcast apps. And that's no fun as a creator. You're suffocating your total possible reach. Apple is making my case for me, subscriptions at Castillo's number one, we don't take a 30% cut. Each podcast. Hosting plan has a set of private subscribers. Number two, you can create as many private subscription podcasts as you want mix and match one to a thousand. It doesn't matter. Number three listeners can access the content on apple or Google devices using our free Casos mobile app or their favorite podcast app. I should have listened to number four, which is you can also connect this up to your WordPress site and serve up your private podcasts. That way let's get back to that tug of war for your content. We're building a subscription podcast system that podcasters will love while apple and others want you to exist exclusively in their platform with their fees in their algorithm. Speaker 0 00:03:58 Castles is building a subscription platform that allows you to be anywhere and everywhere. What type of subscription podcasts work best. So here's the thing. There are no rules in podcasting or better or worse monetize. As you see fit. If you want to run ads, plus have a premium subscription podcast, go for it. I say, however, you can monetize. Your show is good enough for me. It's a lot of work to get to where you are. I'm not going to hold you back. We also were really recently released the value for value a field in our podcasts. So if you want to get paid in Bitcoin, you can do that too. Okay. Some subscription podcast ideas to get you started. Number one, an ad-free premium podcast. Number two, a members only, or exclusive content podcast, number three courses, or a premium series of education. Number four, audio books, number five, coaching. Speaker 0 00:04:49 If you can upload it, you can sell it. And that is the important part. A subscription podcast doesn't have to be an extension of your podcast or highly produced. You're taking a collection of audio and putting it into a podcast feed to sell as a one-time fee or through a recurring payment. You can be as creative as you want with subscription podcasts at Casos while the sell an audio book, no problem create training series for members for your online community. Really easy, an audio feed for each client. I have customers that do that, send them our free audio app with only your audio in it for free Stripe. As the payment processor, we recently launched native integration with Stripe. You can find it in our automations engine, inside your dashboard, along with our convert kit integration, the foundation to growing and monetizing. Your show is starting to come together here at Castillo's. Speaker 0 00:05:42 Connecting Stripe to our automations engine means that as soon as a customer buys your product, we send them access to your subscription podcasts, to the email they use to purchase. Remember, you can set up as many plans as you want and Stripe and connect it to any private podcast. Your Castle's account handy. If you want to have a few options of audio content to sell or a different tier of access at the top of the show, I mentioned the bonus for using Zapier. If you've never heard of Zapier, it's a freemium service that acts as the glue between apps on the internet. If you want to send customer information to a CRM or another email provider like MailChimp, you can do that with Zapier, check out our YouTube channel, youtube.com/casos. For more ideas, straight produces a checkout link, a typical URL that you find on the web that you can place anywhere. Speaker 0 00:06:29 Your visitors are headed on your caseloads website on your WordPress website, in your weekly newsletter. In your Twitter bio, you get the picture straight, makes it easy to sell a subscription podcast. Now that Castro's integrates with it, natively, combine that with our free mobile app and diehard podcasters should love our solution more than Patrion earned, especially apple is starting a subscription podcast, right for you. I think building out your own subscription podcast is a fantastic idea. If you were the following podcaster, you have premium content. People want, you have an existing members, only product for your brand. You sell physical or digital goods, and you want to augment that experience. You want to sell access to your podcast and not even provide a public one. Of course, like everything else, it will take some rolling up the sleeves, some hard work. You've heard me say it over and over a successful podcast relies on all of the other things that surrounded the unique premise that content, the promotion, especially the promotion. Speaker 0 00:07:27 The easy route is to go back and throw your podcasts in an advertising algorithm. You won't have to think about it or work hard to sell your thing, but you'll also get paid the least $25 for every 1000 downloads. If you're lucky your subscription podcast success will rely heavily on your ability to create something someone wants or sees the value in supporting you as an independent creator and your marketing chops. How good are you at identifying the right audience to promote to, for me, it's putting the control and the creative back into my hands with no middleman. That's why I love podcasting. And that's why I love subscription podcasts at Castro's. But Hey, I know I'm bias. I work here. Start a free trial. Check it out for [email protected] or email me with any questions you have about starting your subscription podcast at hello at dot com. Speaker 0 00:08:19 Hey there, listener it's Matt, before you go, I want to offer you the aspiring podcast or two special items. Number one, if you haven't started a podcast yet, or you want to find a better podcast hosting company, start here at Castillo's use our coupon code audience 20 that's audience two zero. When you sign up for a new [email protected], start a podcast like the one you just heard or about gluten-free muffins, whatever it is, we'll help you get your podcast out into the world. Number two, did you know that our academy is free enrolled today for Speaker 1 00:08:53 [email protected]. Get access to our courses, videos, and templates all for free. Thanks for listening to the audience podcast today. We hope we're helping you become a better podcaster. All that's left for you to do is share this episode on social media bye for now.

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