How to make money from a podcast! (And you don't need ads!)
Making Money in Podcasting: Tips and Tricks for Podcasters
In this episode of The Podmaster I'm going to talk about how to make money from a podcast!
Hi, I'm Neal Veglio, founder of Podknows Podcasting. And for more than 20 years I've been experimenting with podcasts. Along the way, I've learned a thing or two about how to help people like you grow podcasts legitimately, with highly targeted real listeners. Not bots from clickfarms.
And that brings us nicely on to this episode's topic - how to monetise that audience once you've connected with it.
Get ROI from your podcast
Are you pouring your heart, soul, and possibly the contents of your wallet into a podcast but can't seem to find that sweet spot where your labour of love actually starts to love you back... monetarily?
Well, if you're about to chuck your microphone out the window in sheer frustration, hold on a mo.
You're about to get the equivalent of a podcasting lightning bolt up the arse from yours truly, The Podmaster.
You see, this episode isn't just another ramble through the world of podcasting for beginners; it's a meaty, juicy, potentially wallet-fattening dose of podcast monetisation advice.
And by the end of this, you'll know exactly what options are on the table.
You're going to learn the difference between a podcast being a cash vacuum and a cash generator.
What does work then?
Methods for monetisation in podcasting
Stick it out, as I map out a strategy that goes beyond the humdrum of CPM rates that'll have you earning more per listener than most podcasts with pre-roll ads longer than their actual content.
And it doesn't matter if you're well-known or niche.
And if after listening you'd like to talk about how I help people like you to turn their listeners into customers who'll be excited to give you their money, book in for a free call with me.
Timestamped summary:
00:00 Maximise ad revenue without upsetting listeners.
03:17 Utilise mid-roll ad for own services.
06:49 Podcast content value varies, worth considering investment.
10:22 Unlimited earnings from podcasting, invest in marketing.
Mentioned in this episode:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
One of the biggest challenges of doing a podcast
Speaker:is figuring out how to make money from your podcast.
Speaker:It's not easy, but it is very doable,
Speaker:provided you take the right strategy. And right
Speaker:now I'm going to take you through exactly what that strategy
Speaker:is.
Speaker:When most people think about monetizing a podcast, what they're
Speaker:probably thinking about is advertising and sponsorship,
Speaker:those pre roll ads that you hear on some of the big
Speaker:podcasts in the world. But there's a reason why
Speaker:those podcasts are monetizing in that way.
Speaker:It's because they come with baked in audience. These
Speaker:advertisers know that these big podcasts will have
Speaker:huge audiences based on their brand equity. Well, what if
Speaker:you're a bit lesser known? Maybe you're somebody
Speaker:that's an influencer in a very niche space, or perhaps you're a
Speaker:brand that isn't a household name. What can you do to
Speaker:monetize a podcast then? Well, there are several ways that you can do
Speaker:that. I advocate personally
Speaker:for having the podcast being the marketing
Speaker:platform rather than the product. You are
Speaker:the product. You the person that brings all the genius and
Speaker:insight to your people, to your tribe, as
Speaker:the Gary Vaynerchuk crew would say. But
Speaker:before we get more deeply into that, let's talk about all the
Speaker:options that are available to you when it comes to monetizing a podcast.
Speaker:We've already mentioned sponsorship and ads. Now, if you're getting
Speaker:around about 5000 downloads
Speaker:per episode within the first 30 days of release, then
Speaker:you're eligible to start looking at that as a revenue generating
Speaker:model. You're not going to make a fortune from it because the
Speaker:CPM rates, as in cost per melee
Speaker:rates, are very low. You're looking at around about
Speaker:$25 per every 1000 listeners you
Speaker:have. If you've only got 5000 downloads per
Speaker:episode, that's not going to be a lot of money for you unless you've
Speaker:got loads of ads in your podcast episodes. And if you're only
Speaker:getting 5000 downloads per episode,
Speaker:you might need to have that conversation with yourself about
Speaker:striking the balance. Are you going to upset your
Speaker:listeners? The few listeners that you've got?
Speaker:Comparatively, given you've got 5000
Speaker:downloaders, are you going to upset them? If
Speaker:you load their content with ads? There's a real balance to be
Speaker:struck here, and the ends are weighted between
Speaker:continuing getting trajectory for your podcast reach in
Speaker:terms of new listeners and getting money from those that you
Speaker:have. I'd almost always suggest not having
Speaker:a pre roll ad on a podcast unless it's absolutely huge. And I'm
Speaker:talking millions of listeners. Even then, I
Speaker:would get you to seriously consider whether or not a pre roll ad is a
Speaker:great idea. A mid roll ad can be really
Speaker:useful, but here's where I think the
Speaker:nuances. If you use a mid roll ad to advertise a third
Speaker:party, as in a sponsor or advertiser that wants
Speaker:to use your podcast as a platform for their marketing
Speaker:messaging, then you might be
Speaker:possibly hurting yourself because the listeners aren't invested
Speaker:in your advertisers, they're invested in you. So for
Speaker:me, I would say if it's only about revenue generation
Speaker:and you're looking to grow your revenue base with
Speaker:income from the podcast, consider using
Speaker:that mid role slot to advertise your own services. And
Speaker:if you don't actually have a service offering or any kind of offering
Speaker:for someone to pay for, then maybe think about getting that
Speaker:started. Coaching can be a great product
Speaker:for certain industries and certain service providers.
Speaker:Otherwise you could do things like retreats. You could do
Speaker:one to one sessions, you could even do group
Speaker:webinars and charge tickets for those
Speaker:there's affiliate marketing I'm not personally a massive
Speaker:fan of affiliate marketing because for me I feel it lends
Speaker:itself to people advertising for the sake of getting the
Speaker:revenue rather than just sharing a good product
Speaker:and endorsing that because they truly believe in it. Any article
Speaker:you see on this website or on any of my podcast episodes, any
Speaker:mention of any brands or products, it's because I
Speaker:use them personally and can recommend them based on that
Speaker:use. You'll never catch me running an affiliate campaign for
Speaker:any product I haven't either used myself extensively
Speaker:or still use. Another
Speaker:option for revenue generation is merchandising. That could be
Speaker:anything from t shirts, mugs,
Speaker:pens, you name it, any sort of stationery. A lot of people
Speaker:probably think about setting up an Etsy store or any other kind of e commerce
Speaker:website and have listeners buying those products.
Speaker:And that's the revenue generation model. But I'd like you to think about
Speaker:this another way. Perhaps you could use the
Speaker:merchandising as a gift in return
Speaker:for the podcast listener helping you to grow your
Speaker:show, as in recommendations, sharing of
Speaker:episodes, reviews, proving that they followed your show in Apple
Speaker:podcasts or Spotify, and maybe even getting their friends to do the
Speaker:same. That way what you're actually doing is instead of
Speaker:selling the merchandise, you're rewarding listeners
Speaker:with the merchandise and you're ultimately going to get
Speaker:more revenue benefit in the longer term anyway because you're going to be
Speaker:able to get free advertising for your podcast. What better
Speaker:way to build a business than have your listeners
Speaker:as your biggest advocates in business? They call this the
Speaker:ladder of loyalty, and if you can get someone at the top of that
Speaker:ladder, you're on to a winner.
Speaker:Crowdfunding and listener support. Yeah, we've all heard of those
Speaker:websites that charge a membership in return for exclusive
Speaker:content. Patreon is one of those. You've got superfans and all these
Speaker:other websites as well. Buy me a coffee. That is another
Speaker:useful tool for generating revenue from your podcast
Speaker:content. The problem with this is a lot of people come into this thinking it's
Speaker:going to be really easy money. But if you
Speaker:think about it, it's actually a lot harder than offering your
Speaker:own service as an offering and using the
Speaker:podcast as a marketing platform. For that, we're back into the
Speaker:domain of the podcast being the product.
Speaker:There's no one side fits all to this. What one person might
Speaker:see value in, in terms of your content, someone else might think, well, why am
Speaker:I going to pay for that? So if you're looking at early releases of
Speaker:episodes, one set of listeners might think that's a brilliant thing, that's well
Speaker:worth investing money in, whereas other listeners would be like, well, I might
Speaker:as well wait until it's for free on the free version of the feed.
Speaker:So you've really got to think quite hard about how you're going to
Speaker:make this offer worthwhile investing in.
Speaker:You could do behind the scenes content that could be valuable to somebody,
Speaker:maybe even exclusive content that only paid members
Speaker:get. But of course, you've then got to bear in mind the conversion rates. So
Speaker:you might be putting all that effort in to create content that
Speaker:only five to ten people will ever hear. And if your main
Speaker:audience is thousands, sometimes it could
Speaker:be quite human for you to concentrate all that effort
Speaker:on the thousands of people that aren't giving you money and
Speaker:cutting corners with the few people that
Speaker:yes, they're giving you money, but they're not giving you those dopamine
Speaker:hits. Well worth thinking that one through before you follow
Speaker:down that path. As a revenue generation model,
Speaker:live events and workshops is another
Speaker:feasible way of you getting some revenue from your podcast.
Speaker:I'm talking about charging listeners to come to a live
Speaker:event and see the podcast playing out in person, or maybe
Speaker:workshops around the theme of your podcast. If you're a
Speaker:business coach, this could be a really, really good way of
Speaker:generating some new leads for one to one coaching by having a
Speaker:group coaching session at a predetermined location that they
Speaker:can show up at. It's a great way of offering listeners a
Speaker:taste of what your products are.
Speaker:So we're going to come back to my favorite type of
Speaker:monetization model for podcast episodes, and that
Speaker:is you as the product offering your
Speaker:services and your products with the podcast being the marketing
Speaker:platform. The great thing about this is it's really easy to
Speaker:funnel. You can start off by offering a free download that sort of acts as
Speaker:an introduction to what you do and who you are. Once they've downloaded that free
Speaker:product, you can then start upselling them because they'll be on your email
Speaker:list. You can start talking to them and nurturing them and
Speaker:educating them as to what you do. Those bigger
Speaker:problems they have that you can solve. You can help them
Speaker:identify those things that you can solve for them in
Speaker:real time, in regular communication through your email
Speaker:that's updating them about new podcast episodes. See how this
Speaker:works. So that's why that's my favorite method
Speaker:of monetizing a podcast, because then you
Speaker:don't have the ickiness of dealing with advertisers and making sure
Speaker:that their ads are going out and that you're getting paid for them and all
Speaker:that complicated paperwork that's going to be involved in that. You don't
Speaker:have to worry about memberships and keeping your listeners entertained and
Speaker:ensuring that they're getting the value for money from those special bits
Speaker:of content that you're having to record for them. You're definitely not having to worry
Speaker:about growing volume of audience in order to make enough
Speaker:money to survive and keep the podcast paid for. There's
Speaker:no ceiling on your earnings with this method. You
Speaker:earn as much as you decide, and that's down to
Speaker:how much you invest in the marketing of your podcast. And if you need
Speaker:to know more about how to grow a podcast in 2024,
Speaker:then you should definitely check out this other article that I've created
Speaker:on Podnospodcasting Co. Uk
Speaker:blog. The Podmaster is a Podnos
Speaker:podcasting production. Find out more about us at Podnos
Speaker:Co. UK. That's
Speaker:podknows. Co. UK.
