The great thing about podcasting is that you can create anything. Selling your equipment is not the only way to monetize your podcast. You can make a lot of money from your podcast.
Are you thinking of starting a podcast or already have a podcast and want to increase your earnings? The good news is that you are in the right place.
Now let’s discuss various ways you can monetize your podcast.
1. Courses – Selling a course in your niche is a great way to make money. Teach a specific skill that helps people improve their lives and helps them make money. First, you have to start building an email list. Then, invite those email listees to your live webinar and pitch them your course at the end.
Creating your courses doesn’t require much investment. In your course, you can talk more about your skills and the value that you are offering. Think from the buyer’s perspective. What value is your course adding to their life?
E-courses are easy to sell as compared to other products because buyers know exactly why they are buying and what they’ll get out of it.
Webinars are one of the best ways to sell your courses. Create a webinar and show what value you offer for about 45 minutes. People are more engaged in webinars when they interact with you live.
2. Affiliate Marketing – In affiliate marketing, you get a percentage of commission on products that you promote and sell. You can promote products that you are already using, the more familiar you are with the product, the better you will be able to explain its benefit to your audience. Create an ad spot between your podcast and the product you want to sell.
Affiliate marketing is very similar to sponsorships. In sponsorships, you get paid for a number of downloads, in affiliate marketing you get paid a certain percentage of the product you sell to another company.
Audible.com provides a lot of affiliate programs for podcasters. Whenever you promote any affiliate product make sure it resonates with them.
3. Ads & Sponsorships – If you want ads and sponsorships from big brands you need to expand your audience. The bigger the exposure you have, the more they are willing to pay. If you run a podcast in a small and specific niche, some companies target specific audiences.
For podcasters, sponsorship is the best way to make money. How much money you will make from sponsorships depends on how many downloads per episode you get.
Sponsors pay on a cost-per-thousand basis. Sponsorship rate ranges from $18 to $50 CPM. There are typically two types of podcast ads –
1. Host promotes the product- You will promote the product in between the podcast. When you introduce the sponsor by yourself it’s sound more good.
2. Pre-recorded ads – A company that will pay for ads provides you with a pre-recorded advert. You have to download that advert and place it in between your podcasts.
4. Sell Services – If you operate in certain niches such as Medical, Lawyer and Interior designing you can do it for them, and call it a service. You can sell one-on-one coaching services to people. The only drawback of selling services is to scale them. It takes a lot of effort and time to scale the service business.
Let’s say you are a web developer and SEO expert like me. You can sell them as your services. Tell people about your expertise and experience and also show your portfolio. By showing off your skills and talking about them it’s easier to get clients.
5. Patreon and Donations – If you have built a loyal listening community ask them to support you through donations and monthly Patreon support. Certain niches are difficult to monetize, and brands sometimes avoid sponsoring them. In that scenario, you can ask your loyal fans to support your work through donations.
6. Sell Merchandise – Sell a product you own a hundred per cent. Create a website, add a logo and use platforms such as Shopify to automate the whole process. If you have a small audience you will not be able to sell a lot of merch you need a large, engaging audience.
For example, if you have a podcast about web development, you can print your logo or use different programming languages to generate income.