How to Make Money Podcasting
So you have finally started your podcast, now you are looking for ways to earn a few bucks or maybe more than a few from it. We have explored some of the steps you can maximize your podcast - check them out below.
Sponsors & Advertising
For every business that involves content creation, sponsorship and advertising are the default modes of generating income and this is applicable to podcasts. While this is, a viable means of getting money there is usually a catch. Most times before, you can get adverts placement or sponsorship, your podcast has to have generated enough following and preferably in a niche that is not very competitive.
Generally, podcasters try to market their works to a brand-related to their chosen niche, negotiating fees and advancements. You can do all the work personally, especially if you do not have the funds or opt for a podcast ad network. Some of the more popular podcast networks include Midroll or Authentic.
Crowdfunding & Donations
If you are just starting, it might be difficult to get sponsors or advert placement, your next best bet is crowdfunding and donations. Some donation websites used are GoFundMe page or Patreon – Patreon is currently the most popular. It is set up in a way that your fans can access more material and content depending on the amount of money they donated to your cause. Asides that there is an extra feature that allows you to have a separate paid-only RSS field.
Selling Physical Products
Depending on your podcast niche, you can delve into selling physical products relating to your podcast. Ideally, most podcasts start by selling podcast-related merchandise such as T-shirts, mugs, and caps.
It is also possible to sell more content through e-books or physical books. Again, this or depends on the type of podcast you are running.
Hosting Events
Hosting an event is a live rendering of the podcast – usually involves the podcast hosts and guests while the audience observes and possibly get involved. It makes it very interesting since podcast is usually one-dimensional and hardly any immediate feedback or questions.
This is one of the goldmines of podcasting if properly executed you could get sponsorship and advertisement, crowdfunding and donations and also sell physical products all this while gaining from ticket fees for the events.
Selling your guest Product
Like most podcasters such as yourself, your guests are also likely to be selling their products; this creates an avenue for you to make extra income by setting up affiliate link.
Meaning that as soon as a purchase is made using your personalized link, you get a percentage off every sell. Careful not to make this a theme to your show, audiences notice when you are bringing in guests just so sell products rather than the benefit of the podcast content.
Photo by Jean Balzan from Pexels
Charging your guests
This is one of the more controversial ways of monetizing a podcast – it often brings a mixed bag of emotion. Charging your guest is easier when you have a large fan base – they get to market their product to your fans and so in essence, you are charging them for advertising, which is very fine.
Paywall Old Episodes
With your podcast generating followers daily, your new followers might want to see your earlier episodes – also your long-term followers might want to experience a bit of nostalgia by checking out older episodes. Either way, setting up a paywall would provide income each time they try to access them.
The paywall strategy is one used by many services, including newspapers, sports channels, and movie channels – and it has proven to be very effective.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
