What will podcast monetization look like in the future and is it even really your best move? Have you thought about that? I bet you have. When a lot of people start a podcast, they think, “How am I going to make money from this?” It’s all about money. Or is it? In a capitalistic world, we want to make money. I’m no different. I got to make a living. We got to live. But how does a podcast make money? That’s one of the leading questions I also get when people want to talk about podcasting. And there are various ways, but it depends on where you’re at, to see if you can even facilitate having monetization for your show. So let’s break that down a little bit more, shall we?
One of the first things people think of when they think of monetizing your podcast is ads. The ads that you hear on popular shows like those latex mattresses or the chef in a box type food grocery delivery programs. You hear the same ads, over and over again. Those are the type of ads that people think of akin to radio. A radio ad that is talking about a big national product. They usually have about 30 seconds worth of airtime to try and to sell you on a product and for you to buy it. These type of ads are ads that will only buy into a show, if they have a certain amount of downloads. When they’re looking at downloads, they’re looking at what your episode is doing in the first 30 days from the publishing of that episode. These advertisers are looking for big download numbers and I am talking in the 1000s. If you don’t have that, you probably won’t be able to get any of that money and monetize your show that way. Especially if you are starting out and you don’t have a big following or audience already.
A lot of the people that I work with are independent podcasters and yet you can still make money from it. One of my clients is going to reach out by herself, to see if local companies will partner with her. Perhaps they’ll give her an item to review on the show. That also lines up with our audience as well. Because if your audience isn’t interested in the product you’re trying to sell, your advertiser is not going to be happy with it. That client is going to say, well, what was the whole point of all of this, why did I spend money, if your audience isn’t even going to line up with my product? So if you want to approach a sponsor yourself and get some sponsorship, so whether that would be for money, a trade off of you speaking, so the airtime that you’re going to give them and access to your audience through your podcast. So typically this is an ad, where you would talk about why you love their product or service and how it’s been so helpful and how it can help you as a listener as well. And that is what you’re speaking about in that ad for your show. Your sponsor will then want to look at your download numbers and maybe see if there was any uptake in their product or service based on the release date of your show, to see if it was even effective. That’s one measurement parameter. However, I don’t always like going that route and recommend that to my clients because there’s a lot of stuff that you’ll need in the back end. You’ll need to have access to stats. Depending on your media hosting platform, and if these stats are even IAB certified so that’s the International Advertising Bureau. Then you’ll need to pull reports so, however long the sponsor is going to sponsor your show is how long you’re going to need pull reports for. For example if you’ve promised them a report once a month, and they’re on a four month campaign, you’ll need to have to pull reports every four months and make sure that they hear the mentions, including which episode they were in, where the timestamp that they were mentioned, all the details to make it easy for them to figure out if you have delivered on the promises. When you approach a sponsor, you’re going to let them know what you’re going to promise them, the airtime, maybe a link to the sponsor on your show notes. Do you have a website? Will you be inserting their logo as an ad on your website? You want to make sure that the sponsor sees you have done all these things, and kept your promises, of course, because there’s going to be a contract involved. So, do you hear what I’m getting at there are so many steps and layers. The contracts the negotiations, the promises, the act of doing all the ads, and then the after the fact, of giving them the evidence that you’ve done all of this, and that their money was worth the sponsorship so hopefully they’ll come back again. With a lot of the clients that I work with, they’re independent podcasters, which they don’t have a huge team behind them. And so the resources are stretched thin. Finding sponsors, keeping in touch with them and making sure that they get everything that was promised is quite a bit of work, and honestly, almost a full time job on its own, especially if you want recurring sponsorships, all the time. So I don’t necessarily recommend going that route, either.
Another way to monetize is through an affiliate program. So this might be a product or service that you already use. So for example if your podcast is a marketing tool for your business and you already use a couple services within your business that will help a listener as well. Sometimes these services will provide you with an affiliate link that you can share for a referral, and that referral will get 10%, 15% or 20% off, whatever it may be or a free month trial or whatever it is, you want to mention that in your show, so you get the kickback from being an affiliate. This way you’re not necessarily getting dollars, money, but you are getting, whether it be a percent off of your own yearly subscription or a free month or something like that, you are getting some benefits for mentioning this product or service as an affiliate link. I find a lot of listeners will click on those links because you use the product yourself as well, that that’s why you are recommending it. So this is akin to an endorsement, when I work back in the radio days. A host will endorse a product, and pretty much give it like its stamp of approval, and usually those type of ads worked because the listener, really trusted what the host has to say. So in the podcasting world, we don’t have a difference between an endorsement and an ad. It feels like all ads that are read by the host, are almost pretty much endorsements on their own. So that’s why an affiliate link, really, really works because it is essentially an endorsement on this product or service that you’ve used before. Podcast listeners really trust the host and what they have to say they have invested so much time listening to your show, they trust you so wholeheartedly, unlike any other form of media. So when you do have a host read ad, whether that be for a sponsor, whether that be for an affiliate link, whatever you are advertising, there is a higher chance of conversion of your listener, buying into and taking action on what you’re selling.
Another great way to monetize your show that people have been doing for a little while now. It’s kind of like a Kickstarter campaign where you are asking the listener to support your show. In turn, you give them a lot of great bonuses and insider information that the regular public on your RSS feed won’t figure out. For example, you can produce bonus episodes, so maybe behind the scenes sneak peeks of what is to come, or an extension of an existing interview, or perhaps something that has nothing to do with the podcast itself, maybe more about your personal life, if you have a huge fan base, loving what you do on your own. So, for example the one I can think of is the sewing podcast that I listened to. I like to make my own clothes, I’m a crafty type person, and I love this sewing podcast, and so, their main RSS feed is all about sewing, and that’s great. But if you signed up to their Patreon level so Patreon is another platform, where it’s like the Kickstarter, for a monthly fee that the hosts have decided upon, they figured what that price is. There are different tiers for me to buy into and get extra access. So one tier like for $5 for example, I could get bonus episodes about their personal life, and because the two hosts have their own businesses. I get more behind the scenes about their businesses which is really interesting to me as a listener. Another tear to that bonus could be $10 a month, and not only do you get the private RSS feeds so a private podcasts, but maybe you’ll get an additional discount code to use for their businesses and purchase their products or services. And then another tier could be adding on fun bonuses like T shirts and stickers and pins and all the fun swag that you can have for your show. So there’s different tiers and different ways for your listeners to pay for a tier to support your show. Because these fans like I was saying earlier, they love you, they trust you, they love the show. So being a superfan, they want to help support it, so it will always continue.
But kind of the new way of monetizing in this sort of sphere, big platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify is actually taking a look at this model. In fact, they’re not taking a look, they’ve created their own version of this model. Because to them, they know this works. This already exists in the marketplace, but they want to make it their own, so that they can also create revenue from it because afterall Apple and Spotify is still a big for profit business. Their way of creating tiers is going to be a little different, and I’m sure it’s going to shift and change and evolve a little bit over time. But essentially you pay for the service to be able to create a private RSS feed. So bonus insider information episodes that a listener, a super fan, will want to pay for, and use at that price. At least, that’s the model it is right now, where the host of the show can set the price for this private all access superfan extra podcast. That’s essentially what it is. So you have your public show that everybody listens to and a super fan can pay into a tier to either get bonus episode or maybe sometimes ad free ad. For a platform like Spotify, if you have one of their paid subscriptions, your music streaming services ad free. So in this way for podcasting, they’re thinking the same thing. Perhaps the regular public RSS feed will have ads in there, but if you buy into their tier, you can listen to the podcast ad free. So what kind of looks like that is the future of monetization for podcasts, at least in the sense of trying to either have ads, or give the listeners an opportunity to listen without ads. Either way, it’s about making money, whether that is making money for you, the podcast host or making money for the distribution platform where people are listening to the apps. For a big audience. I can see that working, because there are people who will pay to not listen to ads, but there are also a good percentage of people who don’t mind ads at all, because they’re usually pretty short, and so they’ll just listen to it and whatever, they’re gonna get to their main content soon anyway and they don’t mind, they’re not as annoying, perhaps, like other ads like maybe on TV or the radio, etc.
So as an independent podcaster, I think you get more bang for your buck. If you went and found sponsors or talked about your affiliate programs because you do get a kickback even though it might not be physical cash coming in. However, if you want to go to the listener backed tier routes, like the new ways to listen on Apple and Spotify. With those monetization plans, they’re calling them the subscriptions, if you want to subscribe, and pay, it’s a nice way of making money as well. But don’t forget, you are going to have to pay to make this happen so you’re giving up some money and hoping in turn, people will pay for it. So, pros and cons to all these different ways to monetize. Even though this whole episode was talking about monetization, I actually don’t recommend it. Yeah, because your podcast is already a marketing platform for you, whether you have a personal brand, or you own a business, you are using your podcast to get your word out. It is a free way for your listeners to really hone in on who you are and have this great relationship through your voice. When you are podcasting every single week. It’s like having a conversation and hanging out with your best friend, every single week, once a week. Now, honestly, I don’t hang out with my best friend that often. I would like to, but honestly I don’t. People spend more time at their jobs than they do with their families. So a lot more people listen to your show than they do hanging out with their own best friends, that’s the equivalent there. So using your podcast as a marketing tool brings in revenue, because your podcast is showcasing your authority. It is showcasing the fact that that you are a leader in this space. That you are a leader in your marketplace in your niche. You have a lot to say about it, because you have a podcast, your own platform to talk about your passions, your niche, so people get to know like and trust you. And then in turn, buy your products or your services and work with you and cha-ching! There’s your money without having to do the back end of satisfying your sponsors or putting money into a tier that you’re not quite sure, you’re going to make any money out of.
I would actually not bother with monetization, believe it or not, yeah, I said. I said what I said. Don’t bother with monetization. Because then you’re also not staring at your stats, all the time. Podcasting isn’t about your stats. Stop looking at those and just create your content, have fun with what you’re doing and if you have great content, your listeners are going to stay with you because they want to learn and grow with whatever you are putting out there. Entertain them or educate them, whatever it is with your podcast, your content is king. If they love what you’re putting out, they’ll come back each and every time.
So let me know. Is monetization, a thing you’re thinking of? Is it something you’re already doing and what has been successful for you with that or not successful? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks as well, and how you see monetization in the podcasting space. Let me know drop me a voicemail here on my website. There is a little purple button that says “Send Voicemail” to the right of your screen. Or email me, visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you and hear what you think about making money with podcasts.
