Monetizing a Podcast

Monetizing a Podcast
Audience
Monetizing a Podcast

Oct 29 2020 | 00:16:44

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Episode 0 October 29, 2020 00:16:44

Hosted By

Stuart Barefoot

Show Notes

“How do podcasts make money?” is a legitimate question to ask yourself as you pour time and resources into creating a show. If you want to do it seriously, finding a way earn money podcasting will help you produce it over the long term.

In this post, we’ll go over 20 different strategies to monetize a podcast to help you get started. Updated for 2020, we sourced advice from successful podcasters, industry veterans, and newbie hosts on how they monetized their podcast.

 

How Do Podcasts Make Money?

There are two main distinctions in how podcasts make money today. When combined together, they produce a steady revenue stream that can help you earn an income podcasting.

The strategies that are currently the most popular fall into the direct monetization category. Direct podcast monetization is when the show is the thing you’re selling. You can profit from creating original content, repurposing it, and granting exclusive access to paying members.

On the other side is indirect podcast monetization. This is when you use your podcast as a tool to sell other things. Your podcast becomes the vehicle to promote products and create demand among your listeners.

With the general definition down, now let’s dive into specific podcast monetization techniques for each category. Remember, finding a balance between many strategies is the best way to make money podcasting.

 

How To Monetize A Podcast Directly

Here are our favorite direct podcast monetization strategies to explore. Choose the ones that fit best for your show.

 

1. Ask for donations

The simplest way to monetize a podcast is to ask people for money. Plenty of fans are happy to throw a few dollars to their favorite podcasters to ensure they continue to get great content. When people ask us how to monetize a podcast, this is always the first solution we recommend because it’s easy to set up and promote.

You can add a PayPal button or open a Stripe account and add a donation form to your site. Or set up a GoFundMe campaign for a simple collection page.

To avoid feeling slimy about this kind of self-promotion, keep your calls-to-action authentic. Are you asking for donations so you can spend more time creating new episodes? Tell your audience that.

If people understand where the money is going, they’ll be more apt to donate.

 

2. Create paid membership tiers

The latest trend in podcasting is creating paid membership tiers. Listeners can pay to access exclusive content, private Facebook groups, or podcast swag.

The best way to get this started is to create a Patreon account. It’s well-respected and simple to use. You can use their default settings or create your own system of levels and rewards for donors.

patreon example for the FYP Podcast FYP Podcast’s Patreon landing page.

If you go with Patreon, play around with the level options. You can reward fans for their contributions with swag, content, or other perks. You may find more listeners are willing to support the show because they’re receiving either a physical product or exclusive episodes for their contribution.

Other membership site options include Glow.fm and Supercast.

 

3. Sell sponsorships or ads

Sponsorship is the most common way to monetize a podcast. Aside from accepting donations it’s also the easiest because you don’t have to create or sell anything. You just have to set up a deal with a sponsor.

You’ve probably heard podcasters start their show or break in with something like “This episode is brought to you by [some company]. If you’re looking for a…” You get the idea. That’s a sponsorship.

Sponsorships pay more depending on how many people listen to your show. As the number of people who listen increases, so will your revenue. But that also means this is a tough way to make money if you don’t have many listeners.

Generally, you can charge for “pre-roll” and “mid-roll” mentions. Mid-row (during your episode) pay more. Promote the sponsor at both points if you’re comfortable.

Here are a few places to find sponsorship deals:

Learn more at How to Get Podcast Sponsors (That Your Audience Won’t Hate)

 

4. Join an advertising network

Advertising networks like AdvertiseCastMidrollPodcorn, and PodGrid act as middlemen between hosts and sponsors.

When you apply to each platform, they will take a cut from the ad placements included in your show so be sure to read the fine print. Typically, the revenue share follows a CPM model where you are paid for every 1,000 impressions served to the ad unit.

Confused? Here’s what the math boils down to. AdvertiseCast has a 70/30 revenue share model where the podcast host takes 70% of the revenue earned and they take 30%. If a podcast has between 1,000-2,499 listeners per episode, the 30 second ad unit has a $23 CPM. After 2,000 listens, the sponsor pays $46. That’s $23 * 2 because the sponsor is charged per 1,000 listens. In the end, the podcast host will take home $32.20 and AdvertiseCast takes $13.80.

how to monetize a podcast advertisecast cpm rates 2020 AdvertiseCast’s average CPM rates depending on reach as of February 2020.

Depending on your reach, it’s important to estimate what you might earn from an advertising network. AdvertiseCast has a pricing calculator that estimates the total cost of ad units placed in your show. Just remember, you’ll only take home 70% of the total.

 

5. Sell premium episodes

Since you know your audience likes to listen to your podcast, there’s a good chance some of them will pay for premium versions of your content. All you have to do is create some special recordings that are only available for purchase.

You might sell:

  • Q&As with special guests
  • Early access to episodes that will be free one day
  • Ad-free episodes
  • Live-streamed episodes

The Daily Wire takes a unique approach to premium content. For $10/month, subscribers can access video versions of their podcast episodes.

the daily wire's premium content example The Daily Wire’s premium content offering.

An easy way to create premium content is to record it while you record your free stuff. Let’s say you invite a guest on your show. Record a 30 minute discussion, then an additional 10 minutes to sell as a bonus. Make sure that extra 10 minutes includes something juicy people will want to buy.

A word of warning here: Make sure your free stuff still has plenty of value. You don’t want your listeners to assume you’re hiding all the good stuff in the paid content or they won’t bother.

 

6. Gate your back catalog

If you started a podcast ages ago and have built up a back catalog of episodes, try this strategy.

Instead of creating new premium content, you can restrict access to your older episodes. This means you’ll add a paywall for users to listen to the older material.

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is a great example. His recent episodes are free to download, but his older stuff costs $1.99 on his website.

 

7. Sell repurposed content

A great way to create sellable content is to repurpose things you’ve already created. This reduces the time you would spend making something similar.

Take a few of your best podcast episodes that relate to similar topics. Transcribe them yourself or use Castos automatic transcription services right from your dashboard. Then edit the transcriptions, add more value and resources where you can, and package them together into a book.

If this strategy to monetize a podcast appeals to your listeners, invest a little money into a professional design from a service like 99Designs. Then you can put it in a format that’s suitable for Amazon. Selling books on Amazon is far more effective than trying to sell it through your own website.

Next, market your new book on your podcast. Point out that it’s a comprehensive way to learn everything you’ve taught.

 

8. Syndicate your show to YouTube

An easy way to squeeze some cash out of what you’ve already created is to publish your podcasts to YouTube as videos.

This is a quick process. All you have to do is enable monetization in your account settings and Google will handle the ads and distributing your money.

Enabling Monetization within YouTube.

You don’t have to do a lot of video editing. Just add a single image to your episode recording. Also think about YouTube SEO best practices to surface your videos in more search results.

How much can you make on YouTube? It depends on a number of factors, like video views, how long people watch, whether they skip your ads, and whether they click on your ads. Generally speaking, you can make between $0.50 and $2.00 per view.

Instead of simply uploading your entire recording, break it into consumable chunks that last three to five minutes. For instance, you might slice out a few buzz-worthy questions from your interview. Even though it all comes from the same recording, you’ll end up with more video content. Then give it a compelling headline that makes people want to click. “Mark Roberts Says Blockchain Will Take Over The Travel Industry in 2020” is a better title than “Episode 019 | Blockchain Technology with Guest Mark Roberts.”

 

How To Monetize A Podcast Indirectly

Here are even more ways to make money from your podcast. Check out some of these techniques to monetize a podcast indirectly.

 

1. Sell physical products

When an audience loves a podcast, they might be buying merchandise that shows off the show. You could sell T-shirts, mugs, stickers, or really anything that lets your audience connect with the show outside of listening to the latest episodes.

Showcase the podcast’s name, a repeated catch phrase, or an inside joke on the merch. Your calls-to-action can describe the moment a listener may pass a stranger on the street and realize they’re wearing a tee shirt from their favorite show. Instantly a bond is formed from their shared love of your show.

Joe Rogan, host of the popular Joe Rogan Experience, has its own store stocked with many of the products Joe wears.

The Joe Rogan Experience’s merchandise store.

And these days, you don’t need to actually handle any products in order to have your own E-commerce store.

With Teespring, you can design and showcase products that are only printed/created when someone buys. This way you don’t have to put any money down.

With Oberlo, you can create a drop-shipping store that automatically purchases products from another source when your customers make an order.

We advise that you use a print-on-demand service for merchandise at first. This way you won’t have to buy a pallet of inventory. If you buy a bunch of inventory, there’s a chance you won’t be able to sell it.

 

2. Public speaking

Public speaking is actually a simple transition for a lot of podcast hosts. If you’re comfortable speaking on your show, you’ll probably do well in front of a crowd. Admittedly, standing in front of a bunch of people is a unique challenge, but it’s less of a problem if you already know how to craft a script.

How much you can make on speaking fees varies widely. Some speakers get a small stipend and travel expenses. Other speakers make six figures or more.

How do you get into public speaking?

  1. Find local groups that meet to discuss your niche or industry. Try Meetup, Facebook groups, or even your local paper to source who organizes the event.
  2. Contact them and offer to present a topic, but be open to their ideas for topics. Let them know that you intend to plug your podcast.
  3. Prepare a presentation with visuals and outline a script.

You’ll have to start small in the beginning. Don’t expect to fill stadiums–or even auditoriums. Your first speaking gigs will have 5-8 people in attendance, but that’s okay. Use those gigs to hone your presentation skills and build relationships.

 

3. Sell mastermind slots

A mastermind group is a unique way to monetize a podcast because you get more value from it than just money.

A mastermind is a small group of people dedicated to supporting one another toward a common goal. They offer education, brainstorming, and accountability to help you stay on track with whatever you’re trying to learn or accomplish.

In a mastermind group, you’re a member too, which means you have to limit it to a small group of people who can add value to your business as well. You should not be a teacher, but you can still charge for slots because you’re the organizer.

The challenge with masterminds, however, is that members expect value. They put a lot of work in too, so they won’t be satisfied if you or anyone else who’s part of the mastermind disappears for a week or two. If you choose this avenue to promote your podcast, you need to commit to it.

You can meet in person if your members are close, but masterminds work well online too. We recommend using a private group, like a Facebook group or Slack work space.

 

4. Sell access to an e-course

If your podcast is educational or aims to teach listeners a new skill, creating a standalone e-course is the perfect way to earn some money.

To create a course, you can either do it on your own website (with a tool like MemberPress) or host it on a third-party platform like UdemyCoursera, or Skillshare.

Udemy's dashboard to create a mastermind course. Udemy’s dashboard to create a mastermind course.

If you think courses are the right way for your to monetize a podcast, we recommend creating your first course on one of those third-party platforms. Yes, you’ll pay some fees for each person who takes the course, but you’ll skip having to build a functional system on your own website. If courses turn out to be your money-maker, then bring it all in-house.

 

5. Sell content upgrades

A clever way to monetize a podcast is to include a downloadable resource with each podcast episode that relates to that episode. This is called a content upgrade because it upgrades or enhances the listener’s experience.

For instance, let’s say you host a fishing podcast. In one episode, you talk about fishing for trout. At the end of the episode, you tell your fans to go to your website and buy your 99¢ map of the best trout fishing spots in the U.S.

To sell a content upgrade, you’ll have to place a payment form on your site somewhere for listeners to pay and download the form. The best place for this is the page where you publish your podcast download links and/or audio player.

And if you’re selling content upgrades to monetize a podcast, you may as well add an ecommerce shopping cart to your site so you can list your content upgrades individually. This way people can browse your previous upgrades in one place, rather than sorting through every post.

 

6. Sell information products

An information product is a type of content people buy to learn new things. It could be anything: A template, a resource, a guide, an ebook, a worksheet, etc. Unlike content upgrades, a general information product doesn’t have to relate to a specific episode, but would solve a broader issue or problem your listeners face.

The biggest benefit of selling information products through your podcast is that you can plug them as often as you like in your podcast script to prevent sales from falling flat. You can also source questions or comments from your listeners and answer them on your show, which adds more value to their purchase.

 

7. Sell an app

If you’re acutely aware of your listeners’ challenges and problems, you can monetize a podcast by designing an app that suits their needs. If you host a parenting podcast, you might sell a calendar app designed specifically for parents. If you host an astronomy podcast, you might sell a star-finder app.

Elsie Escobar of Elsie’s Yoga Class Live and Unplugged is a great example of this. She sells a $3.99 app that gives users access to 70+ yoga classes with PDF explainers.

Alternatively, you might sell a simple branded app that helps people interact with you and your content better. It could have your podcast episodes, blog content, updates, your schedule, and maybe a way to talk with you directly.

App development can be expensive if you don’t know how to do it yourself. Make sure you get plenty of information from a developer before you get started so you don’t burn too much cash or wind up with a half-finished product you can’t afford.

 

8. Host an event

If you have a local following or a devout audience who wouldn’t mind traveling to see you, sell tickets to a live event where your fans can meet you in person.

The type of event you host will depend on your audience and your podcast’s topic. You might give a lecture, run a workshop, teach a skill, or simply host a group discussion. Eventbrite is a great tool to sell your own tickets for a live event.

To be fair, this is a challenging way to monetize a podcast. We recommend holding onto this tactic until you have a loyal following. Events don’t need thousands of attendees to turn a profit but you do need some people to show up.

And if you’re considering traveling to new cities to host events, analyze where your listeners are first. Head to your podcast host’s analytics dashboard and go through the geographic reports. A no-brainer is hosting events in cities where you already have a following.

 

Get started with Castos today

And see just how easy podcasting can be.

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9. Sell consulting or coaching services

The biggest benefit of hosting a podcast is that you establish yourself as an authority in a niche. Your audience comes to respect you as an informed expert. So a great way to monetize a podcast is to offer services that tie in with your topic.

For instance, a productivity and wellness podcast might offer personal life coaching. A marketing podcast might sell personalized marketing strategies.

Getting started here is quite easy. You just need a landing page on your website with a form or widget for people to sign up for a coaching session with you.

What’s a coaching session? It can be anything you like. It might as simple as a phone call or Skype chat, or as complex as an in person visit at the client’s location. Put together whichever type of service is right for your customer.

 

10. Sell affiliate products

Some companies have open affiliate programs you can take advantage of. You don’t have to arrange a deal or get approved. You just sign up and tell them where to send your payments. You get paid whenever someone signs up with your link.

Instead of creating your own products to sell, you could sell other people’s products for a cut of their sales. There are two methods to do this.

The first method is to promote their products yourself. For example, Audible’s partner program is common among podcasters. They give you a free link to promote. You get $15 anytime someone signs up for a free trial using your link.

Audible’s Creator Program affiliate program.

The second method is to have the product owner come on your show to push their own products. The benefit here is that the product owner knows how to sell his own product better than you, so he can say the right things to drive more sales.

You’ll still need a special URL to track sales. We recommend something like yourdomain.com/product-name. Set up the URL with a redirect so you can see exactly how many people followed it. Make sure to establish a reasonable commission beforehand.

Make sure to disclose any affiliate relationships. If you don’t, your listeners might feel deceived.

 

11. Generate business leads

Many businesses start podcasts to support larger initiatives. Even back in 2018, Fast Company found “branded podcasts are the ads people actually want to listen to”.

If you host a podcast that complements your company, you’re in the perfect position to generate extremely qualified leads. For example, say you own an accounting company and recently started a podcast educating people on how to do their taxes. While you’re giving away free advice on the show, you’re also weaving in your company’s value in doing people’s taxes for them. When April comes around, who is the first company your listeners will think of to handle their complicated tax returns? Yours.

 

12. Start a podcast network

Some hosts love being part of a podcast network while others enjoy their independence. But one perk of a network is bargaining power.

Bargaining power is the relative influence someone has over someone else. When each party has relatively equal bargaining power, each has the same footing inside a negotiation. By building a podcast network, you’re positioning your podcast and others to have more equal power to the sponsors you want to attract.

Starting a podcast network can take many forms and be either a formal, contractual structure or something more DIY. Team up with complementary shows in your niche where you have some overlap or build a network full of unrelated shows to hit multiple niches.

In either circumstance, pooling the reach and influence of each podcast within a network allows you to pitch more lucrative sponsorship deals. You also have more of a chance to get on the radar of larger advertisers with bigger budgets because you’ve increased your bargaining power.

 

Experiment With Multiple Monetization Techniques

There are plenty of methods to monetize a podcast. There’s not one path or one right way to do it.

The trick, however, is to monetize your podcast in a way that doesn’t disappoint your listeners. This means finding the monetization technique they don’t find intrusive. In many cases, that means using a little bit of several techniques, rather than pushing one method too hard.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Podcast Monetization

 

1. How do most podcasts earn money?

Recently Matt Wolfe and Joe Fier surveyed 1,000 podcast hosts on how they earn money podcasting for Podcast Magazine. Most were using a combination of the techniques we outlined above. Here’s what they found:

The February issue of Podcast Magazine details how podcasters make money.
 

2. Should I start a podcast to make money?

No! While podcast revenue is on the rise, starting a podcast solely to earn money isn’t advisable.

The foundation of how to earn money while podcasting is having a loyal audience. Loyal audiences follow hosts who are passionate about their topic. If the sole objective of a podcast is to earn money, there will be an obvious lack of enthusiasm and in turn, no eager fans tuning in each week.

Start a podcast because you want to share your unique voice with the world, not because you want to make a quick buck.

3. When should I start thinking about monetizing my podcast?

We’re firm believers in starting to thinking about podcast monetization even before you publish your first episode. If you haven’t started a podcast yet, be sure to consider how the show’s topic, style, format, and content will lend itself to future monetization strategies.

If you plan to talk about sensitive subjects or hotly debated topics, know you may alienate a specific set of sponsors. But fear not, podcast ad revenue is expected to reach $863 million in 2020. There will be sponsors out there who want to speak to your niche audience, and that’s just one monetization avenue to consider!

Once you start publishing a podcast, we recommend putting out 10 to 12 episodes first to build an audience.

 

4. How many downloads do I need to start monetizing my podcast?

There’s no hard rule here. Generally gathering 400-500 downloads per episode is a great time to starting monetizing a podcast but this is a guideline.

If you’re considering joining a podcast advertising network, they may have minimum download requirements before you can apply.

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome back to the audience podcast. I'm your host, Matt. And today we're talking all about podcast opportunity. Most specifically, in making some money with your podcast, you want to monetize it. You want to earn some revenue. Well, maybe you want to become a sustainable creator making money with just your podcast and all of your creating efforts. Maybe you want to make just enough money to pay for your Castillo's hosting and buy a new microphone, or you want to use it to grow your brand and drive business and increase the bottom line. We're going to go from a 50,000 foot view today. We're going to hit some of them really high line, and then maybe in future episodes. And one of the things I really want to do is kickstart the Facebook community over at podcast hackers on Facebook, which is our Facebook group to really start to dive into some of these topics a little bit more live, right? Speaker 1 00:00:56 So do some live streams. And me talk about this and bring on people who are doing this directly. So if you're not in the podcast hackers group, go ahead and check it out on Facebook to search for podcasts, hackers on Facebook. Join that group, tell them that I sent you from the podcast. Uh, and if you want to get a little grade on your podcast journey, where are you in your podcast journey, go to casto.com/podcast, greater get a little grade on how you're doing with your podcast efforts. And then when you get that grade, you'll get a little video, a little bit of advice. You get some downloads to make your show a little bit better and you can join a private podcast. So you can dip your toe into the private podcasting world, which is what we're going to talk about today as an opportunity. Speaker 1 00:01:35 Okay, let's first dive into the most traditional route of podcast monetization and that's advertising and sponsorship. And what makes the two slightly different from one another. So advertising is that typical ad read, right? You hear an ad read for a new mattress. You hear an ad read for a food delivery company. These are very common or MailChimp, right? A lot of the podcasts that I listen to, I hear, you know, started an email newsletter, easy and free mailchimp.com, et cetera, et cetera. These are advertising spots. And this is the one that comes up most often in my discussions with other podcasters, that's generally the route that people are looking for. They want more downloads so that they can turn to an advertiser and say, look, I have a thousand downloads an episode. I'm selling an ad spot for whatever the, whatever the number is. And that's the traditional route. Speaker 1 00:02:28 There's two different ways to go about it. You can go into an ad network, something like a pod corn and sell your spots to a network, or you can do direct ad sales. Generally, if you're in your early stages of podcasting, podcasting is a huge opportunity. And as a side note, like a huge opportunity would be a marketplace or a network for smaller podcast creators, right? Folks who are getting less than 500 downloads a month and their podcast. So these ad networks will then you'll submit your show, you'll submit your downloads. And then they'll sell that to whoever wants to bid on, on that space for those download counts. But you're not in control fully on who can buy those spots. I'm sure you could say no to a lot of these advertisers. If you just didn't feel like a good brand fit or whatever, but you're still not in control of that ad inventory. The ad network is the one selling it for you. So if we want to have more control over the ads, we can do direct ad sales. And this puts the onus on you, or maybe a agency or a freelancer that you hire to do direct ad sales to sell the inventory for you. And this is something that I'm very familiar with. I do this with my own personal podcasts, and I'm really going to kickstart it with my local podcast, which EAs even has a smaller audience. Speaker 1 00:03:56 And this is great for creators that have really niche podcasts, things that have a hyper focused podcast. Um, I do one that's specifically about WordPress and I do one that's about my local market. And these are two areas that there is not a lot of competition, also, not a ton of global listeners. And it allows me to build an audience, uh, with a little bit more precision. So you might not be able to go into an ad network because the download count is low relative to, you know, people with music podcast or pop culture podcast or news or political topics and things like that. But it allows you to build that hyper-focused market or audience, and then sell direct ads on it because there is a buyer for that space. You have to just find them. And that is the challenge, right? So the two more traditional routes, uh, uh, of an advertising route is so when it comes to that advertising, it's going into an ad network or going in doing a direct ad sales. Speaker 1 00:05:06 And the one thing that you might consider too, when you go into an ad network is sometimes the agreement is it's not you reading the ad, but it's an ad that somebody injects from the brand or from a creative, uh, that represents the brand. So oftentimes I know I listened to a few podcasts where this happens and it's a little jarring, right? It's generally sort of buffered by having like a little jingle or this sort of sound, uh, transition, and, you know, an ad's coming. And then it is just somebody totally different, uh, from this ad network, selling something or advertising something. And then, you know, depending on your audience and where you're going with your brand might not be something that you're fully invested in. So that's always something to keep up, uh, in the back of your mind when you're doing ad networks versus your direct ad sales, where you have, again, that not only the control of the advertiser, but the creative, uh, the next thing is sponsorship. Speaker 1 00:06:01 And I put this in a different category because sponsorship is, uh, when you're sponsoring the creation of content or at least that's the way that I define it when I'm looking at podcasts opportunity. And I can tell you that, uh, this is very common in the YouTube world. So, you know, picture any tech reviewer, uh, reviewing a Microsoft laptop, uh, or a new Sony camera, right? The whole field, the whole premise of that video is all about that product. It's still a unbiased review. You hope in most cases, but it's created by that brand to represent their product. And it doesn't always have to be a hundred percent about the product. It could be something totally different. It's just sponsored by the brand. Uh, in the podcasting world, there is a podcast created by Salesforce studios, Salesforce being the world's largest sales CRM, it's called blazing trails. Speaker 1 00:07:02 And if you go to blazing trails.salesforce.com, it says blazing trails, a podcast for Salesforce studios presented by, uh, VIP, which is a hosting company for big enterprise sites using WordPress. And there's no ad read about VIP, uh, in at least in the last two episodes that I listened to, but the whole idea is they are bringing it to you. There, they are sponsoring the creation of this content. So you don't necessarily need to add, uh, read the ad. You just know as a listener, Oh, thanks VIP for creating the blazing trails podcasts. And we see this across a ton of different brands too, that do this, this kind of sponsorship. And if you mix the two of like direct ad sales, so if you have a small niche podcast, again, I think this is an even better opportunity for a smaller creators is you can approach a brand, a product, a business in your space, an outlet, uh, outline a creative story arc, uh, you know, an exploration of a particular topic that's that could be of interest to them. Speaker 1 00:08:10 And they could fund with air quotes, the creation of this content. And that's what I like about the sponsored content. Especially for small creators, you can kind of create this journey. You can sell it to a brand. Sure. You're going to, you're going to have to do that work. But what I love about podcasting is you can be creative like that. It doesn't have to be, you know, you have hundreds of thousands of downloads and you're looking for the best, you know, CPM. When people are advertising, you don't have to do it that way. You can get creative, especially with audio. So that's it, that's the advertising and sponsorship route. Those are the most traditional routes that I see coming into play with monetizing a podcast. And next up is selling a private podcast or a community. This is very common in a lot of larger podcasts that I listened to, where they're selling access, they're selling additional content behind the scenes. They have a community, a forum, something and an applique circle, which hosts sort of like Facebook groups, but it's not Facebook groups. It's its own group network Speaker 2 00:09:24 Very popular Speaker 1 00:09:27 And selling that access, selling that private podcast as you will. Well, number one, you can do that with cast dose. We make it easy for you, but it's a huge opportunity. Speaker 2 00:09:37 No, Speaker 1 00:09:38 Just upload another podcast. That's private to your members and they pay you whatever it is, a hundred dollars a year, a hundred dollars a month. Like you, you get to make that decision and kind of get a feel for where your, um, you know, where your content can take you, where your audience can take you in terms of price point, but the infrastructure of it all making that private podcast again, very easy here at Casos and you can get creative with it, which I really like next up is a supplemental monetization. It's a phrase I made up supplemental monetization. These are things that your podcast can have an indirect effect on for making new streams of revenue. And the most common one that I run into is as folks who are selling a book or selling, uh, speaking gigs, even though we are not doing many conferences these days, a lot of conferences, obviously virtual, but I see a lot of authors, a lot of public speakers, you know, they all have podcasts. Now, in fact, I talked to a lot of them at Casos. It's like, no, my, my publisher says I need a podcast. Like they won't do business with me until I have it. Speaker 1 00:10:45 And it's a great way to raise awareness for selling the books or, you know, getting booked for speaking gigs. And next, from there it's selling merchandise, you know, a lot of creators. And especially in like the gaming industry, I've run into a few gaming podcasters. And a lot of it is backed by merchandise. So ads number one, but secondary to that would be selling merchandise. Pat's sweatshirts, very easy to do those types of things. These days use a website like Printful, you can upload your logo to all kinds of products, sweatshirts, pillows, cups, bags, you name it. So selling merchandise. Speaker 1 00:11:24 And these next two here are sort of kind of hand in hand. It's either selling your services. When I started podcasting it's cause I was running a digital agency, I was building websites for people and the podcast was a natural extension to, you know, what we would call our customer support, uh, in our sales all at the same time. So it's a little bit of, you know, getting yourself out there, promoting yourself, uh, talking about how you do business. That's the customer support segment of it. And then hopefully folks sign up and buy your service. I mean, this podcast audience brings a lot of traffic into Casos for, uh, hosting podcasts. Speaker 1 00:12:02 So it's a great complimentary to, you know, selling your services or selling your knowledge. So if you're a consultant, a lot of people still do a podcast and they might not have this, you know, traditional product and service offering, but they have, I don't know, consulting time that people hire them for a very premium price point to get access. I know a lot of other podcasters that do podcast education that do this kind of thing, right? They like doing the podcast because it's it's content, it's creative. It gets them out there. And Oh, by the way, if you just wanted to chat with them, there's a call to action for their consulting. Or maybe even a digital download, like they have a ebook or something like that. Uh, blurred lines between, you know, a lot of these things, but depending on your industry, they can be, you know, pretty black and white. You can kind of really see where the opportunities lie. Speaker 1 00:13:01 And then I'll just leave you with two other bonus areas, uh, selling locally, uh, running a local podcast. This is something that I do. And then depending on you know, where your creative efforts lie and what your long-term goals are, where the podcast and the topics of course, but I do a local entrepreneurship podcast, which is not too different than the podcast that I do at large, but it's just for the local market. So yeah, there's, there will be that cap of listenership, but the good news is, is there's probably less competition in the local space, I guess, depending on where you live and it doesn't obviously have to be an entrepreneurship, it could be something else. But the idea is, look, there's, there's a limited audience here. If you can get in front of that audience and own the majority of that audience. Well, it's a lot easier than looking at all of these massive top 50 podcasts on iTunes and saying, boy, how do I compete in that space? Speaker 1 00:13:59 Maybe you can win locally. That's just like saying you can go after a niche topic. But I think a lot of people, when they go after a niche topic, or also thinking niche topic at global scale, how do I get everyone in the world on this niche topic to listen to me, it's a huge, huge effort, but maybe you focus locally and you can win. It's also easy to sell advertising in your local market. Generally you probably know a lot of people. It's what encouraged you to start a local podcast. And while the dollars might not be as big, it can certainly be a great way to number one, just pay for your maybe Castle's hosting or maybe your other things that you do around content marketing and get your brand out there. Speaker 1 00:14:48 Get your feet wet for doing something at a larger scale. So selling locally, starting a local podcast, a huge opportunity, which I think is still not on everyone's radar. And then next, and this is sorta meta, but opportunity in podcasting space is all about creating opportunity, doing a podcast, creating a podcast, whether you have no goals or anticipations to make money from it, or have advertisers or do the selling merchandise stuff. I think just doing a podcast generally creates opportunity for you had, I never started a podcast eight years ago. I would not be in this seat doing this podcast on audience or working for Castillo's. There's tons of opportunity to be found by just starting a podcast, connecting with people, both the guest and the audience to very intimate ways to have conversations and share those conversations with others. And I think ultimately the Domino's fall to creating new opportunity for you. Speaker 1 00:15:50 And it sounds, you know, very ethereal, but also something that it does happen over time. So if you're still saying, boy, do I do this podcast thing? I say, yes, of course I'm biased. But I think eventually you run into some kind of new opportunity for yourself, for your brand, for your business or for somebody else to connect somebody. It's just a great way to find new people in. And again, find that opportunity. All right, is the audience podcast go to castles.com/subscribe, join the email newsletter. If you haven't subscribed as your first time listening, you can subscribe to us on all major podcasting platforms and also casos.com/podcast. Greater. Get a little grade on your podcasting journey, get some helpful tips, advice, some downloadable material to make your podcast better. All right, thanks for listening. And we'll see you in the next episode.

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