How To Monetize Your Podcast
Podcasting is a business, and if your content is unique and useful, listeners will convert from leads to customers. How can you create valuable content that will engage listeners and set you up with an active following of listeners? How do you then grow your audience and leverage your audience to start making money?
In this article
- How To Monetize Your Podcast
- How Can You Create Valuable Content?
- 1-Build Your Brand
- 2- Host An Event Relating to Your Podcast
- 3 – Advertising – Open Your Podcast Up To Advertisers
- 4 – Advertising for Niche Markets
- 5 – Advertising in Geographical Areas
- 6 – Micropayments – Accepting Small Payments From Your Listeners
- 7- PayPal – Accepting Micropayments with PayPal
- 8 – Amazon’s Honor System
- 9 – Advertising – Open Your Podcast Up To Advertisers
- 10 – Advertising for Niche Markets
- 11 – Advertising in Geographical Areas
- Summary – Making Money Podcasting
Before you dig in to many of the questions that may be floating through your mind, you first need to ensure that you are creating interesting and unique content for your podcast.
How Can You Create Valuable Content?
Is it your intention to make money from your podcast? It is possible, and we are going to show you how by providing you with tools and ideas that will help to you to create revenue streams to grow your podcast and podcasting business. Some of the key ways to create revenue streams are: receiving micropayments, selling valuable products or services that are an extension of your podcast, and gaining advertisers. Creating a brand, reaching loyal listeners, and producing great content will attract advertisers and generate an income from your audience.
Valuable content can be defined as content that is interesting and applicable to your target demographic. You first have to think about the audience you will be speaking to and then find ways to make your content appealing to them. A few questions to get you started: How old is my target audience? What do I want them to take away from listening to my podcast? Am I informing them of something, or simply trying to entertain? Try out these ways to create a revenue stream for your podcast.
1-Build Your Brand
Once you have answered some of these questions, you can then start to build your following of listeners. At this point you will have determined who your targeted audience is so you can start to market your podcast towards your intended audience. You can do this through social media channels, like Facebook or Instagram, depending on the demographic of your listeners.
2- Host An Event Relating to Your Podcast
Having an offline component to your online podcast can greatly increase the reach and growth of your podcast. If you host a live edition of your podcast or speak at a conference you can create awareness about your podcast. Make sure that if you are speaking at an event or presenting, that you create engaging presentations that can help to elevate your brand.
3 – Advertising – Open Your Podcast Up To Advertisers
Since your podcast covers a specific topic, it is likely that your audience consists of individuals with a heightened level of interest in the subject matter that you are discussing. When good content and a large audience for that content is combined, the opportunity for generating revenue from your podcast through corporate advertising will arise. If you can grow your audience and show that you have X many listeners, and X many subscribers, you can then approach companies and present a brief proposal about how you can advertise their company’s products and services on your podcast.
4 – Advertising for Niche Markets
Find merchants who want to be a part of your podcast.
When looking for niche market advertisers, review the theme and concept of your podcast. What is it that you are knowledgeable about and what do you promote on your show? Are there any related fields that you could endorse? For instance, if you are a doctor with a health show, you might consider finding advertisers from the pharmaceutical industry and promote a pain reliever such as Tylenol or a natural remedy such as Lakota.
5 – Advertising in Geographical Areas
Focus on one area and target local companies.
Advertising works well not only for niche markets but also for podcasts that promote a specific geographical region such as Yellowstone National Park. There may be a camping equipment supply company wanting to reach that audience. With your podcast, you are now providing a means to reach their target market.
6 – Micropayments – Accepting Small Payments From Your Listeners
Micropayments, a pay-per-listen model, requires users to pay for content each time that they want to download your podcast. Receiving micropayments is the most common revenue generator for podcasters. In asking for a micropayment, you are validating that the content within your podcast is worth what you are charging, particularly if your podcast is educational, provides insider information that you have written, and is unique to other content available on the web.
Here are a few companies that will help you to accept micropayments for your content.
7- PayPal – Accepting Micropayments with PayPal
PayPal is an online intermediary that accepts customer payments on your behalf, then deposits the payments into your personal or business bank account.
PayPal allows you to accept all major forms of payment. You get features comparable to merchant accounts and gateways at a lower cost. Accept credit cards, bank transfers, debit cards, and more. A simple integration into your shopping cart allows your customers to pay securely and easily.
PayPal is affordable for businesses of all sizes. Fees are applied only when you accept a payment – if you don’t receive money, you don’t pay a penny.
- No monthly fees
- No setup fees
- No gateway fees
- Anti-fraud systems at no extra cost
This is an easy, quick way to start accepting credit cards online. Add PayPal if you already accept credit cards online, and connect with PayPal’s 78 million accounts.
PayPal’s fees at time of writing are as follow:
- Monthly Sales Volume = $0.00 CAD-$3,000.00 CAD
- PayPal Fees per transaction 3.9% + $0.30 USD
8 – Amazon’s Honor System
Did you know that you can accept micropayments with Amazon?
Web sites use the Amazon Honor System to collect voluntary payments from their users and to accept payment for digital content. In many cases, the Honor System is the only way a Web site can economically collect small payments. In others, the Honor System allows the Web site to raise money for continued operations without resorting to intrusive banner advertisements.
9 – Advertising – Open Your Podcast Up To Advertisers
Since your podcast covers a specific topic, it is likely that your audience consists of individuals with a heightened level of interest in the subject matter that you are discussing. When good content and a large audience for that content is combined, the opportunity for generating revenue from your podcast through corporate advertising will arise. If you can grow your audience and show that you have X many listeners, and X many subscribers, you can then approach companies and present a brief proposal about how you can advertise their company’s products and services on your podcast.
10 – Advertising for Niche Markets
Find merchants who want to be a part of your podcast.
When looking for niche market advertisers, review the theme and concept of your podcast. What is it that you are knowledgeable about and what do you promote on your show? Are there any related fields that you could endorse? For instance, if you are a doctor with a health show, you might consider finding advertisers from the pharmaceutical industry and promote a pain reliever such as Tylenol or a natural remedy such as Lakota.
11 – Advertising in Geographical Areas
Focus on one area and target local companies.
Advertising works well not only for niche markets but also for podcasts that promote a specific geographical region such as Yellowstone National Park. There may be a camping equipment supply company wanting to reach that audience. With your podcast, you are now providing a means to reach their target market.
Summary – Making Money Podcasting
It is possible to generate income from your podcast. After you have conducted an evaluation of your podcast, you will have the necessary tools at your disposal to present to potential advertisers. Try a number of different ideas from this chapter and see which method proves most successful and financially viable for your advertisers.
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