October 2, 2025 • 13 mins
We explain why sponsoring niche podcasters and YouTubers beats mass ads for small businesses and local services. We share pricing ranges, performance tactics like affiliate links, and how authenticity drives trust and conversion.
• housekeeping, health update, and sponsorship changes
• local referrals and side projects including game trailer and indoor media billboards
• limited-time free ad screens for early indoor media adopters
• why micro-influencers outperform celebrity and mass media for SMEs
• host-read authenticity and trust from real experience
• measurable ROI with affiliate links, codes, and custom URLs
• pricing bands for 1k–100k creators and budget planning
• local vs national targeting for relevance and cost control
• B2B focus on credibility, guesting, and long-term trust
• action plan: test 3–5 creators and allocate 5–10% budget
Thanks for listening to The Trading Post Podcast!
Find all our important links— https://linktr.ee/traderstu
This episode of The Trading Post is proudly sponsored by Press X 2 Play Games, Metro Trading Association, and the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Exciting news—I’m featured as The Trader at the Trading Post in Press X 2 Play’s upcoming video game! Learn more about Press X 2 Play at pressx2play.games, discover how Metro Trading Association helps businesses grow through barter and trade, and explore the magic of the Michigan Renaissance Festival.
Questions or guest suggestions? Email us at thetradingpostwithtraderstu@gmail.com
“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform.
The track is protected under U.S. Copyright (filed and registered), and rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.
For additional licensing, custom audio, or to inquire about future collaborations and performances, contact:
📧 durracellmusic@gmail.com
🌐 www.durracell.com
© 2025 The Trading Post Podcast. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies, and share my
exciting journey of using apodcast to market my business
instead of relying on SEO.
I'm your host, Trader Stew.
SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
Hello and welcome back to the Trade Post.
I am your host, Trader Stew.
A little housework to getstarted here.
First of all, still sick.
Still got a abuse of coughdropping on the mouth to try and
not cough at the microphone.
I've had this stupid cold for Ithink it was like a month now.
I got it at the beginning of themonth.
I was just looking at it with mywife.
(00:45):
My wife is now wicked sick,can't get rid of the cough.
My little son, the two-year-old,he's still got it.
Frontny nose, stuffy nose, thecough.
Not as bad as us, of course.
You know, how they are.
The 10-year-old, the stepson, ishe knocked it out.
So he's done with it.
And I still got this little weaklittle cough thing.
(01:07):
Other than that, I feel fine.
It's a stupid cough, man.
My god.
Anyway, what else do we gotgoing here?
Oh, Michigan RestaurantsFestival is official with your
covert.
Last weekend was the lastweekend.
So the mid-roll is now gone forthe sponsorship ad for them,
which is of course notavailable.
And that gets me into the uhtoday's address topic.
(01:32):
What I want to talk about.
Of course, I'm still sponsoredby the association, the barter
company.
And if you have any questionsabout that, Holler, if you have
any questions about the localhomes in your area, if you're
not a retroid or little area,still give you Holler.
And I'll give you a referral orwhatever to that area.
What else?
(01:53):
Uh my video game is still, Ihaven't I haven't seen the sneak
peek of it yet.
I know they're working on thesneak peek.
But like I said, my voice isgone.
I didn't do my voice, but mycharacters are there.
Put the training post uh fortrailer.
That's in the uh uh press actionplay uh video game company that
(02:15):
has been produced for the thatgame called Git Prep.
And then uh what else?
Uh I think that's it.
Oh, and quantum uh indoor media.
So check out those indoor mediabillboards.
And you if you're a sponsor atBillboard right now until you
know he's done building up hisuh his area, you get free
(02:37):
advertising for your screen.
In fact, they produce acommercial for is a 15th second
of his commercial.
You get five more commercialsaround the area on the other
five WFC on competing do youmention that as long as you keep
a TV integrated in yourbuilding.
So it's a pretty good gig rightnow.
(02:57):
It's like$5,000 in the valuethat there he's giving you for
you know this TV, which isawesome.
And once he's got not enoughminers in the buildings, the
area, then that's an explodingoffer, and you can't get into
them.
So all right.
All right, let's get into it.
(03:17):
Sponsoring niche positive task,which is why I want to talk
about this.
What the uh now that the uh theRenaissance festival's no longer
sponsoring me because thefestival's over.
But sponsoring niche podcastersand YouTubers is one of the
smartest moves that uh I believesmall businesses uh could make
right now to stretch advertisingdollars and uh drive results in
(03:40):
35 beyond, basically.
The targeted approach offersunique advantages uh over
traditional mass marketing withproven uh benefits reporting and
reception, engagement, and RDI.
And that's because most smallbusinesses, like the small
public company, the small photostoo, but we can't afford you
know the mass productions thatthey are involved with putting
(04:01):
your ad out on uh bigger venue.
And I guess that could be uh I Igot heard Facebook has gotten
expensive and also is now not asbut useful as it is used to be
because I guess it's nobody's onit.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess it's for theultra-crowd.
I don't know.
I'm only on it for themarketplace, to be honest.
(04:22):
But I don't follow anybody, Idon't like anything, I don't
comment, I don't whatever.
I don't got it on Facebook.
I got I got off of Facebookduring 2020.
What I mean is a keyboardwarrior, and but I can't change
anybody's light, just I gotaround those crowd's back all.
So anyway, I digress.
So why why the niche podcastersand YouTuber?
(04:45):
Why why not go for somethingthat's huge, like you know,
maybe Mr.
Beast or whatever.
Well, drilling those are the bigdogs, I guess.
And you know, going on both thespectrum is the podcaster
spectrum and a YouTuberspectrum.
So excuse me, white podcasters.
Excuse me, I'm gonna water here.
(05:08):
White podcasters and uhYouTubers worth a thousand to
right around fifty thousandfollowers and speak to focused
audiences deeply andpassionately about specific
topics or industries.
My god.
I guess that's in that outbecause I don't want to do that.
(05:31):
Okay, so most brands uh notprefer the micro influencer uh
realm uh over celebritiesbecause you can they can inspire
higher trust and a strongerengagement and offer much better
value for innovative marketingdown rate that you expect.
And like I said, you can'tafford, you know, I am toasting
in that I used to just can't.
And not as a local big dog scan,but not the little guys, right?
(05:54):
So that's another reason why.
And also for the amount of moneyyou put into somebody that's a
micro influencer up to 50,000followers.
And by the way, I don't I thinkon you on YouTube you can still
see how many followers they had.
Not podcasting, so I don't thinkanyway.
Anyway, that's that's the round,right?
One to five, fifty thousand.
(06:15):
So, and then uh host red andsponsorship to the podcast are
really powerful because uhlisteners really the hosts and
they trust the expert and astrusted experts, uh basically
because usually the host has totry it on them to or been
through whatever they'responsoring, creating an
emotional connection that thatwas brand they call Ben Carey's
(06:36):
great responses to the offers.
And I'm sure if you heard mytalking about the Machine
Renaissance Festival, you cantell that I was there.
I've been there, done that.
It's awesome.
I want it, it was great.
And you can't get that kind ofreach by somebody who's just
talking about it and has neverbeen through or experience from
(06:57):
thinking to the RenaissanceFestival.
So obviously much morepassionate about talking about
it because I've been there tohave fun there.
And uh done thebehind-the-scenes things over
the on the media night.
It was fun, and my kids lovedit.
I'm like, what was it?
So yeah.
(07:19):
So here's the benefits for smallbusinesses.
Okay, so laser-targeted reach.
Your messages reach an audiencethat is already interested in
your type of product or service,leading to more relevant leads
and higher conversion rates.
So I talked about that.
High engagement, that's me.
All right, micro-aniche creatorshave engagement rates.
So here's the likes and thecomments and the listener
(07:41):
actions.
You get two to three timeshigher than large celebrities
because their audiences trulyvalue the recommendations.
So I've seen many times thatsubscriber count no longer means
anything on YouTube, even as faras how much pay they get.
Or yeah, uh revenue or what doyou call it, ad sense that is no
(08:01):
longer, I guess, gauged on theiron their subscriber count.
Used to be like, okay, give mesubscribers, you know, like and
subscribe, like and subscribe.
I guess that those days you'regone.
I'm not on YouTube, so I don'tfollow it anymore like I used
to.
So, but you know, and that'sbecause no, there was no what do
you call it?
No action.
(08:21):
There's the the celebrityfollowers, they got the
followers and subscribersbecause people's friends follow.
Oh, I should subscribe andfollow.
But they'll never watch a video,right?
They just did it to the pull totheir ass tube, and that's a
lower cost, less competition.
Sponsorship costs are a fractionof what mega influencers charge,
(08:42):
and there's less ad clutter,making your message stand out
more.
So there is oh, I even I thinkabout that too, because if you
are advertising on a celebrity,they're gonna have maybe 15 ads
at their hour-long dealing,right?
Whereas if you get a microinfluencer, you might have
three.
So you'll want three, orwhatever they keep saying.
(09:02):
Yeah, authenticity and trust.
Uh, these creators are trustedfor their knowledge and real
opinions and makingenforcement's genuine
recommendations and not ads.
Like I already mentionedearlier, this uh authenticity
drives randomity and loyalty.
So yeah, you I got like I said,uh the authentic authenticity of
me being a line of sciencefestival, or even just me
(09:23):
working for Nitro Trade, I couldtalk about trade all day and
part it all day because guesswhat?
I've been doing it for like 10years.
And I have my business in ittoo, because I believe in this
so much when I had a business.
So if I get a business in thefuture, I'll probably do it
again.
You know what I mean?
So you get measurable results.
Performance-based partnershipslike affiliate links will have
(09:44):
small businesses that track oureye directly.
Many campaigns pay only forleads or conversions, keeping
and spending efficient.
So that means you get the thelink.
So if you are partnering with aninfluencer, and the only time
you pay the influencer is ifthey convert somebody into
(10:07):
buying a product to payingcommission on that product.
That's genius.
That's a great idea.
Because you don't pay for thethousands of admits that they
might have got.
Do you only pay for the twopeople that bought whatever?
You know, that came through.
It was all to the Python.
That's a good idea.
So long streeters with athousand to ten thousand
(10:29):
subscribers typically charge$50to$300 for sponsorship video,
while 10,000 to$100,000subscribers can earn$250 to
$2,000, making it you know, moreaccessible for small business
budgets.
And brand sponsoring small buthow they went creators, thank
local service providers andregional organizers, see better
results than any intentionalaudience.
(10:51):
That's irrel relative to theirbusiness.
That's the other thing, too.
If you find somebody, maybe likeme, it's a Metro Detroit, you
had a business in Metro Detroit,or even Flint or whatever in the
area, uh you you'd be better offsponsoring someone like me or
putting an ad in my pay that youwould with again, let's just
(11:12):
rogue it again.
Because they are you're payingfor a lot more than you need,
right?
So you only need the small metroarea.
You don't need everyone down inHawaii, Alaska, you know, all
over the you're paying for allthose hits, not for a national
toilet business.
For any ship products globally,then yeah, it works out.
(11:35):
It's a great idea.
You should do that.
But if you're a local, like sayagain, 12-hour electrician or
whatever, you're not gonnabenefit at all from anybody
watching those videos down.
Uh in B2B, more campaigns focuson building long-term brand new
trust, uh, which is 67% andcredibility is 54% than law, raw
(12:00):
B generation, leveragingpodcasts and YouTube
sponsorships to position thebusiness as an industry follow
you.
Again, that's also powerful too.
You can jump on a podcast andthen you build more credibility
that me because you're talkingabout your business and what you
do, what you've done, what yourstory is, what the struggles
(12:22):
have been.
Yeah, everyone likes a strugglestory, and then you might get
part of version rates that waytoo.
You know, and then generally, ifyou are uh guest on the podcast,
get whatever, it's free.
So there's that as well.
So anyway, a small business canmaximize returns by finding uh
(12:44):
three to five credible nichecreators, those audiences match
their market, building genuinerelationships, and designing and
collaboration kind of thingsthat feel organic rather than
force, and this method keeps themarketing budget tight and
results big, especially the B2Band service sector.
So I would just suggest if youhave a marketing budget, okay,
(13:05):
for like five or ten percentcommitted towards trying out,
you know, sponsoring or uh uh anad, putting an ad on a local
podcaster for a YouTuber.
That's it.
All right, that's it.
For you guys new out there, begood or be good at it.
unknown (13:18):
Bye.
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies, and share my
exciting journey of using apodcast to market my business
instead of relying on SEO.
I'm your host, Trader Stew.
SPEAKER_01 (00:24):
Hello and welcome back to the Trade Post.
I am your host, Trader Stew.
A little housework to getstarted here.
First of all, still sick.
Still got a abuse of coughdropping on the mouth to try and
not cough at the microphone.
I've had this stupid cold for Ithink it was like a month now.
I got it at the beginning of themonth.
I was just looking at it with mywife.
(00:45):
My wife is now wicked sick,can't get rid of the cough.
My little son, the two-year-old,he's still got it.
Frontny nose, stuffy nose, thecough.
Not as bad as us, of course.
You know, how they are.
The 10-year-old, the stepson, ishe knocked it out.
So he's done with it.
And I still got this little weaklittle cough thing.
(01:07):
Other than that, I feel fine.
It's a stupid cough, man.
My god.
Anyway, what else do we gotgoing here?
Oh, Michigan RestaurantsFestival is official with your
covert.
Last weekend was the lastweekend.
So the mid-roll is now gone forthe sponsorship ad for them,
which is of course notavailable.
And that gets me into the uhtoday's address topic.
(01:32):
What I want to talk about.
Of course, I'm still sponsoredby the association, the barter
company.
And if you have any questionsabout that, Holler, if you have
any questions about the localhomes in your area, if you're
not a retroid or little area,still give you Holler.
And I'll give you a referral orwhatever to that area.
What else?
(01:53):
Uh my video game is still, Ihaven't I haven't seen the sneak
peek of it yet.
I know they're working on thesneak peek.
But like I said, my voice isgone.
I didn't do my voice, but mycharacters are there.
Put the training post uh fortrailer.
That's in the uh uh press actionplay uh video game company that
(02:15):
has been produced for the thatgame called Git Prep.
And then uh what else?
Uh I think that's it.
Oh, and quantum uh indoor media.
So check out those indoor mediabillboards.
And you if you're a sponsor atBillboard right now until you
know he's done building up hisuh his area, you get free
(02:37):
advertising for your screen.
In fact, they produce acommercial for is a 15th second
of his commercial.
You get five more commercialsaround the area on the other
five WFC on competing do youmention that as long as you keep
a TV integrated in yourbuilding.
So it's a pretty good gig rightnow.
(02:57):
It's like$5,000 in the valuethat there he's giving you for
you know this TV, which isawesome.
And once he's got not enoughminers in the buildings, the
area, then that's an explodingoffer, and you can't get into
them.
So all right.
All right, let's get into it.
(03:17):
Sponsoring niche positive task,which is why I want to talk
about this.
What the uh now that the uh theRenaissance festival's no longer
sponsoring me because thefestival's over.
But sponsoring niche podcastersand YouTubers is one of the
smartest moves that uh I believesmall businesses uh could make
right now to stretch advertisingdollars and uh drive results in
(03:40):
35 beyond, basically.
The targeted approach offersunique advantages uh over
traditional mass marketing withproven uh benefits reporting and
reception, engagement, and RDI.
And that's because most smallbusinesses, like the small
public company, the small photostoo, but we can't afford you
know the mass productions thatthey are involved with putting
(04:01):
your ad out on uh bigger venue.
And I guess that could be uh I Igot heard Facebook has gotten
expensive and also is now not asbut useful as it is used to be
because I guess it's nobody's onit.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess it's for theultra-crowd.
I don't know.
I'm only on it for themarketplace, to be honest.
(04:22):
But I don't follow anybody, Idon't like anything, I don't
comment, I don't whatever.
I don't got it on Facebook.
I got I got off of Facebookduring 2020.
What I mean is a keyboardwarrior, and but I can't change
anybody's light, just I gotaround those crowd's back all.
So anyway, I digress.
So why why the niche podcastersand YouTuber?
(04:45):
Why why not go for somethingthat's huge, like you know,
maybe Mr.
Beast or whatever.
Well, drilling those are the bigdogs, I guess.
And you know, going on both thespectrum is the podcaster
spectrum and a YouTuberspectrum.
So excuse me, white podcasters.
Excuse me, I'm gonna water here.
(05:08):
White podcasters and uhYouTubers worth a thousand to
right around fifty thousandfollowers and speak to focused
audiences deeply andpassionately about specific
topics or industries.
My god.
I guess that's in that outbecause I don't want to do that.
(05:31):
Okay, so most brands uh notprefer the micro influencer uh
realm uh over celebritiesbecause you can they can inspire
higher trust and a strongerengagement and offer much better
value for innovative marketingdown rate that you expect.
And like I said, you can'tafford, you know, I am toasting
in that I used to just can't.
And not as a local big dog scan,but not the little guys, right?
(05:54):
So that's another reason why.
And also for the amount of moneyyou put into somebody that's a
micro influencer up to 50,000followers.
And by the way, I don't I thinkon you on YouTube you can still
see how many followers they had.
Not podcasting, so I don't thinkanyway.
Anyway, that's that's the round,right?
One to five, fifty thousand.
(06:15):
So, and then uh host red andsponsorship to the podcast are
really powerful because uhlisteners really the hosts and
they trust the expert and astrusted experts, uh basically
because usually the host has totry it on them to or been
through whatever they'responsoring, creating an
emotional connection that thatwas brand they call Ben Carey's
(06:36):
great responses to the offers.
And I'm sure if you heard mytalking about the Machine
Renaissance Festival, you cantell that I was there.
I've been there, done that.
It's awesome.
I want it, it was great.
And you can't get that kind ofreach by somebody who's just
talking about it and has neverbeen through or experience from
(06:57):
thinking to the RenaissanceFestival.
So obviously much morepassionate about talking about
it because I've been there tohave fun there.
And uh done thebehind-the-scenes things over
the on the media night.
It was fun, and my kids lovedit.
I'm like, what was it?
So yeah.
(07:19):
So here's the benefits for smallbusinesses.
Okay, so laser-targeted reach.
Your messages reach an audiencethat is already interested in
your type of product or service,leading to more relevant leads
and higher conversion rates.
So I talked about that.
High engagement, that's me.
All right, micro-aniche creatorshave engagement rates.
So here's the likes and thecomments and the listener
(07:41):
actions.
You get two to three timeshigher than large celebrities
because their audiences trulyvalue the recommendations.
So I've seen many times thatsubscriber count no longer means
anything on YouTube, even as faras how much pay they get.
Or yeah, uh revenue or what doyou call it, ad sense that is no
(08:01):
longer, I guess, gauged on theiron their subscriber count.
Used to be like, okay, give mesubscribers, you know, like and
subscribe, like and subscribe.
I guess that those days you'regone.
I'm not on YouTube, so I don'tfollow it anymore like I used
to.
So, but you know, and that'sbecause no, there was no what do
you call it?
No action.
(08:21):
There's the the celebrityfollowers, they got the
followers and subscribersbecause people's friends follow.
Oh, I should subscribe andfollow.
But they'll never watch a video,right?
They just did it to the pull totheir ass tube, and that's a
lower cost, less competition.
Sponsorship costs are a fractionof what mega influencers charge,
(08:42):
and there's less ad clutter,making your message stand out
more.
So there is oh, I even I thinkabout that too, because if you
are advertising on a celebrity,they're gonna have maybe 15 ads
at their hour-long dealing,right?
Whereas if you get a microinfluencer, you might have
three.
So you'll want three, orwhatever they keep saying.
(09:02):
Yeah, authenticity and trust.
Uh, these creators are trustedfor their knowledge and real
opinions and makingenforcement's genuine
recommendations and not ads.
Like I already mentionedearlier, this uh authenticity
drives randomity and loyalty.
So yeah, you I got like I said,uh the authentic authenticity of
me being a line of sciencefestival, or even just me
(09:23):
working for Nitro Trade, I couldtalk about trade all day and
part it all day because guesswhat?
I've been doing it for like 10years.
And I have my business in ittoo, because I believe in this
so much when I had a business.
So if I get a business in thefuture, I'll probably do it
again.
You know what I mean?
So you get measurable results.
Performance-based partnershipslike affiliate links will have
(09:44):
small businesses that track oureye directly.
Many campaigns pay only forleads or conversions, keeping
and spending efficient.
So that means you get the thelink.
So if you are partnering with aninfluencer, and the only time
you pay the influencer is ifthey convert somebody into
(10:07):
buying a product to payingcommission on that product.
That's genius.
That's a great idea.
Because you don't pay for thethousands of admits that they
might have got.
Do you only pay for the twopeople that bought whatever?
You know, that came through.
It was all to the Python.
That's a good idea.
So long streeters with athousand to ten thousand
(10:29):
subscribers typically charge$50to$300 for sponsorship video,
while 10,000 to$100,000subscribers can earn$250 to
$2,000, making it you know, moreaccessible for small business
budgets.
And brand sponsoring small buthow they went creators, thank
local service providers andregional organizers, see better
results than any intentionalaudience.
(10:51):
That's irrel relative to theirbusiness.
That's the other thing, too.
If you find somebody, maybe likeme, it's a Metro Detroit, you
had a business in Metro Detroit,or even Flint or whatever in the
area, uh you you'd be better offsponsoring someone like me or
putting an ad in my pay that youwould with again, let's just
(11:12):
rogue it again.
Because they are you're payingfor a lot more than you need,
right?
So you only need the small metroarea.
You don't need everyone down inHawaii, Alaska, you know, all
over the you're paying for allthose hits, not for a national
toilet business.
For any ship products globally,then yeah, it works out.
(11:35):
It's a great idea.
You should do that.
But if you're a local, like sayagain, 12-hour electrician or
whatever, you're not gonnabenefit at all from anybody
watching those videos down.
Uh in B2B, more campaigns focuson building long-term brand new
trust, uh, which is 67% andcredibility is 54% than law, raw
(12:00):
B generation, leveragingpodcasts and YouTube
sponsorships to position thebusiness as an industry follow
you.
Again, that's also powerful too.
You can jump on a podcast andthen you build more credibility
that me because you're talkingabout your business and what you
do, what you've done, what yourstory is, what the struggles
(12:22):
have been.
Yeah, everyone likes a strugglestory, and then you might get
part of version rates that waytoo.
You know, and then generally, ifyou are uh guest on the podcast,
get whatever, it's free.
So there's that as well.
So anyway, a small business canmaximize returns by finding uh
(12:44):
three to five credible nichecreators, those audiences match
their market, building genuinerelationships, and designing and
collaboration kind of thingsthat feel organic rather than
force, and this method keeps themarketing budget tight and
results big, especially the B2Band service sector.
So I would just suggest if youhave a marketing budget, okay,
(13:05):
for like five or ten percentcommitted towards trying out,
you know, sponsoring or uh uh anad, putting an ad on a local
podcaster for a YouTuber.
That's it.
All right, that's it.
For you guys new out there, begood or be good at it.
unknown (13:18):
Bye.
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