77: Want to Monetize a Podcast? Here Are Your Options

 https://podcastfasttrack.com/

If I had a nickel for every time a client or potential client or random podcaster has asked me…

How can I monetize a podcast?

I wouldn’t need to monetize a podcast.

It’s a natural question, I guess - there’s nothing wrong with making money from providing value to the world - and podcasts are some of the best vehicles for value-delivery I’ve ever seen.

So heck yes, go ahead, monetize your podcast! You should if you can.

But… it’s not quite that simple, is it? You can’t simply go out and monetize a podcast. You have to take a little time to figure out exactly what the options are, which one fits you and the purpose you have for your podcast, and so on and so forth and such and such.

That’s exactly why I recorded this episode.

My goal is to help you understand what I’ve seen as successful or potentially successful ways people have monetized their podcasts.

I’m also going to be frank with you (or maybe I’ll be Joe this time) and let you know what I don’t like about each of the methods, what I do like about them, what the pitfalls may be, and whether or not that approach to monetization will make you rich or only pay for your weekly coffee.

OK - coffee is more than a weekly expense, I get it. But you get my point, right?

Here’s a rough outline of How to Monetize a Podcast

• [1:25] What do we mean when we talk about monetizing a podcast?
• [2:53] What are sponsorships? A fancy word for a commercial
• [8:01] Have you thought about hawking affiliate products to your listeners?
• [12:16] What would happen if you had a patron (or many of them) support your podcast?
• [14:24] Could make a membership community for your listeners (and charge for it)?
• [18:41] YOUR podcast should definitely feature YOUR resources

If you want to Monetize your podcast, FIRST focus on delivering value

When we talk about monetizing anything we’re talking about making money from it.

I hope that’s not too unrefined for you sensitive types, but it’s the truth. You’re trying to figure out a way you can ask people for money in exchange for the value you’re delivering to them - in this case, your incredible podcast content (for example).

That means you’ve got to be providing them the VALUE side of that equation.

You owe it to your podcast audience NOT to fill their ears with fluff.

It’s the people who throw together some quick and dirty (and useless) PDF download piece of junk who give all of us a bad name. Don’t be that girl or guy. Make your offer something worth having.

And now that we’ve got THAT out of the way…

Idea #1 to monetize your podcast: Sponsorships

Whenever I hear people talking about monetization of their podcast, they usually mean gaining some kind of sponsorship.

What’s a sponsor? It’s a fancy way of saying a person who wants to pay you to put commercial advertisements on your show.

The ads could be pre-produced or they could be something you read. Either way, it’s a commercial, plain and simple.

Sponsorships DO have benefits:

• Someone with deeper pockets than you is paying the bills for your show, at least partially
• It can be a type of recurring revenue for you
• If you/they can track sales directly from your listener base, it could be a long-term relationship

But there’s also the drawbacks (the things I don’t like about sponsorships)...

• It’s a commercial. On your podcast.

Part of what I LOVE about podcasting is that I get to listen to a topic I’m interested in WITHOUT interruption.

• Many of the companies that are getting into...