So you love podcasting and you want to make some money from it? Take a look at the tips below to see how you could make money from podcasting!
Firstly, before we get into the ways to make money from your podcast, ensure that your podcast has a specific topic so that you are able to target an audience. If you begin your podcast too generally, then it will likely be much more difficult to gain and retain listeners as well as potential advertisers in the future. Once you build an audience, you can begin to broaden your podcast into other topics you may be interested in.
This may go without saying, but also, make sure you devote yourself to making the best podcast possible. Having high quality content will also help you down the road when you may be looking for potential advertisers.
Ok, so now that you've got the basics of a specific topic for your podcast and you've put your time and effort into making a great podcast, it's now time to figure out how to actually make money from it. If you're looking for an overview of monetization, see this article first before digging in below.
Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate marketing refers to when you earn commission when you refer people to companies. Typically, you earn money when someone purchases the products or services you promote. It is best to only promote products and services that you use or are familiar with so that you can authentically promote them to your listeners. There are many affiliate programs, so a simple Google search of Affiliate Programs will help you find the right program for you. Amazon and ShareASale are two popular programs you can check out.
Sponsors & Advertising
- Often times you need a larger audience in order to work with podcast ad networks that connect you with advertisers. However, many podcast hosting companies have their own ad networks and offer monetization abilities for podcasts of all different sizes. Also, if you feel there are companies that would be a perfect fit for your audience, reaching out to them directly is a great way to connect for advertising, especially if you have a smaller audience. Midroll and Authentic Shows are popular ad networks, but a simple Google search into Podcast Ad Networks as well as some research into podcast hosting companies will help you find the best ad network for you.
Services, Coaching, Consulting, & Courses
- Given that you are presumably an expert in whatever topic your podcast is about, you can offer a service, coaching/consulting, or course related to your expertise for a fee. In more general terms, you can sell your expertise and abilities to your listeners. You can offer help and guidance to listeners and act as a coach or consultant to them. Or, you can teach your listeners through a course by going into much more in-depth discussions of your topic. There are many online course creation platforms, but a few that you can check out are LearnWorlds, Thinkific, and Podia.
Crowdfunding & Donations
- It is also possible to make money podcasting by asking for donations from your listeners to help support you as well as your podcast. PayPal and Fundly are just two platforms where you can collect donations.
Premium Content
- Offering premium content on platforms like Patreon is a great way to monetize your podcast because you can offer any content that you want at whatever price point you decide. This gives you the freedom to make extra content that you may have wanted to create, but had on the back-burner, and it gives your loyal audience members some extra content. Some examples of premium content could be additional interviews, Q&As, or behind-the-scenes content.
Events
- If you are in a location where many of your listeners are also located, hosting an event can be a good way to make some money as well as bring your listeners together. An event can also make listeners even more excited about your podcast!
Physical Products
- Creating and selling merchandise is an excellent way to monetize your podcast. Not only does it bring in some money, it can be exciting to create merchandise and listeners are often very excited about the opportunity to purchase merchandise for the podcasts that they support.
Books and Audiobooks
- If you grow your podcast to a point where you have a large audience and you are interested in writing your own book, book sales and audiobooks are a great way to make money and grow you podcast.
Networking
- Bringing guests onto your podcast that you could potentially collaborate with in the future can be a good way to monetize your podcast. You never know what kind of business collaboration could come from networking!
Public Speaking
- Again, if you grow your podcast to a point where you are well known in your industry and topic, you may be approached for speaking gigs.
Any of these methods can be combined to help you make money off of your podcast. Monetizing your podcast can definitely take some hard work, but there are many avenues for making money off of podcasting. It is just up to you to figure out the right way for you to make your podcast into a business. So, as always, happy podcasting!
Interested in podcasting with Live365? Join our waitlist to be the first to be notified when podcasting is available on the Live365 platform.
Discover thousands of free stations from every genre of music and talk at Live365.com. Keep up with the latest news by following us on Facebook (Live365 (Official) and Live365 Broadcasting) and Twitter (@Live365 and @Broadcast365)!
Article Image: Three U.S. dollars on top of a laptop. (TheDigitalWay via Pixabay.)
