How To Make Money With Podcasting?

Have you been thinking of starting your own podcast for a while? Do you also wish to make decent money through your podcast? Have you already been running a podcast for a while and looking for ways to raise your earnings? If YES, there is some good news for you. There are many ways you can easily monetize a podcast. Some ways are suitable for beginners who are just getting started with podcasting. On the other hand, there are some ways only established podcasters should adopt. They’re more suitable once you have a wide audience base.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter which stage one is at on their podcasting journey. You will easily find one way or the other to easily make a decent income with podcasting.

Let’s get started…

Table of Contents

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing provides you with a commission when you refer someone else to other brands or companies. When someone buys something through your affiliate link, you make money. As simple as that!

This method works the best if you are promoting a product you are familiar with or regularly use it. That way, you can be authentic with your recommendation.

Traditional sponsorships work great if you have a wide audience base. But if you don’t, it’s still possible to promote various affiliate offers by creating an ad spot for yourself. Another way is to naturally incorporate a product or a service when you are delivering your usual content.

Almost all popular services or products have affiliate programs. One of the most widely used platforms for affiliate marketing is Amazon. Another great option is to join ShareASale or another similar network where aspiring affiliate marketers can join specific programs by searching and then applying.

Lasso is one of the most highly recommended plugins with the help of which you can easily make short links redirecting to your tracking link. This way, you can easily say a short URL on your podcast which is easy for listeners to remember.

Creating a WordPress Website is another great addition to enable people to learn in detail about the types of companies or brands you are mentioning.

Advertising and Sponsors

When you have started out with looking for different ways of earning money through a podcast, advertising and sponsors are usually the first things that come to mind. There is no shortage of podcast ad networks to connect you with different advertisers. Some of the tasks they do include searching for advertisers, negotiating costs, obtaining scripts, etc. But if you wish to work with them, it’s important to have a 5k-10k audience size every month.

Midroll is one of the biggest advertising networks along with another famous network known as authentic. A majority of companies hosting podcasts have their own networks too. If you have a smaller audience, you can also directly reach out to brands you think are a fit for your listeners.

Courses

Most podcasters create a course to help people learn in detail what they talk about on the podcast. One of the greatest ways to teach stuff in a way that’s easy to grasp is an online course where upon completion, people can get a specific outcome.

This method also helps in building an email list so that your listeners can have some knowledge about your course via email as well as your podcast.

Another great option most people choose to promote courses is through a webinar. It offers value and conveys your offer in about 45 minutes, after which you can offer your course in the end. This method usually works as people are engaged with you live and the interactivity is high.

Services

You can also earn money by offering services that are in line with the type of content you deliver on your podcast. For instance, if you are analyzing online ads on a podcast, services that match are Facebook ads management and Google AdWords.

The Podcast is meant to show your expertise in an area. From this example, it’s clear that the audience would get ads management of an expert level. Such an approach makes it easier to get clients without trying to sell them on some capabilities alone. There are different industries and fields you can follow the same approach for.

Consulting and Coaching

Consulting as well as coaching is similar to offering different kinds of services. The only difference is that you don’t do all the work for your clients. Instead of taking matters into your own hands, you guide your clients towards making improvements.

Some of the common industries brimming with coaching and consultants are diet, fitness, business, etc. Of course, there are other prominent industries requiring expert consultants and coaching as well.

Donations and Crowdfunding

Even the most successful of the podcasters ask people for support and donations to keep the podcast running. One of the best candidates for this type of monetization includes podcasts focused on entertainment.

Patreon is one of the most common platforms to accept donations. This platform makes offering bonuses or additional content super convenient. Of course, the frequency and intensity of the offers depend on the amount people are ready to support your podcast with.

This approach gives you the flexibility to have a paid-only RSS feed. This feature is going to blend in nicely with the next way of making money through a podcast that I’m going to tell you.

Premium Content

There is no limit to what you wish to offer with premium content. However, here are some common features that most famous podcasters offer with their premium content. Let’s take a look.

Additional interviews
RSS feed free of ads
Behind-the-scenes content
RSS feed with early-access
Q&A sessions with hosts

It’s a good way to add more value to your community. All it requires is an investment of a few dollars each month.

The Daily Wire is a news and Podcast site that offers the audience a podcast’s video version, a tumbler, live episodes, and other types of bonuses when you buy an annual subscription. This is one of the excellent examples of premium-level content.

Events

Apart from making some handsome amount, events are a great way to bring your fans together and offer them more value. Have you heard about the Walker Stalker conference? A podcast that talked about The Walking Dead TV show started this conference.

They carry out various events at a global level. The best part is that they are so popular now that even famous actors are getting involved. Doesn’t it sound amazing?

Another popular example is that you can have early access tickets to Sam Harris’s live events, thanks to the combination of Patreon and Live events.

Products

In this section, we’re going to talk about physical products that can help you make money with podcasts. Products including t-shirts, mugs, etc sell like crazy if you leverage the benefits of a podcast.

The Generation Why Podcast provides its audience with an active Patreon page, premium content, and a variety of different products.

If you are worried about getting stuck with a large number of products, don’t straightaway print out your merchandise. Before you start getting decent sales numbers, you can use websites like Teespring.

Books

One of the best ways to enhance your authority and at the same time, make money is to leverage a famous podcast and sell some books. If you have a good audience base for your podcast, you can use them to get the initial reviews and sales. Not to mention, it will also help your book stand out in the crowd. Two examples include

Will It Fly, the WSJ bestseller by Pat Flynn
Rise of the Youpreneur by Chris Ducker

Once your book launches, you can also guest post on some other podcasts. This will help you promote your book even further.

Public Speaking

If people like to hear you on your podcasts, there is a great chance they want to hear you at live events and conferences too. Of course, you get paid to do this. Plus, you can also gain exposure to people who are your potential podcast audience. If they love listening to you on live, they wouldn’t mind listening to your podcast too.

Combine Methods

As you can already see, earning through a podcast is pretty versatile. There are many methods to do the same. You have to figure out the best way to convert your podcast into a business generating passive income. Have you decided on a method you’ll use to make money through a podcast? You can pick your favorite, use a combination of different methods, or alter your monetization methods according to your specific requirements.

How Much Money Do Podcasts Make?

According to the latest data of AdvertiseCast average 30-seconds CPM (Cost per 1000 Listeners) rates are $22, while 60-seconds CPMs are $30.

We already know that Big names have a wide array of listeners all over the world and get a huge sum in return. But those who are starting out make a decent sum too. You can always check out the number of patrons and estimate how much money a podcast is making even i everyone doesn’t share their revenue.

If there’s anything you think I’ve missed – talk to me in the comments below!

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