I host a
Podcasting & New Media Group on the 48Days.net Site. Very similar to this forum here.
Recently, the following question was posted by
Charles Max WoodI've been working on getting my podcast up and running. (I'll probably have my first episode out within the next few weeks.) I'm wondering how I go on and monetize this effort. I love what I do, love podcasts, and am willing to wait for the money if it means doing it right.
So, how do I start working and planning now to build my dream job or at least part time job from an effort involving a podcast. Incidentally, I also have a blog that I post related content to.
I like the idea of consulting, but want to explore more than just one option.
Justin Lukasavige replied....
What's your business Charles? It's very difficult off the bat to monetize a single podcast. You see people like Dan Miller and myself who use it to market out businesses and it's very effective.
Cliff monetizes his in a way, but he's also using it to grow his consulting business.
Until you have a few thousand followers I don't think you'll find that monetizing a podcast directly is possible.
Can you use it to get the word out and grow your business though?
And
Andy Traub replied....
Charles, I cohost a podcast w/ Cliff (
www.BusinessTechWeekly.com) and I can tell you that I monetize it by helping build my brand and looking more like an expert so that when I do have a consulting client they can see/hear that I'm an expert in my field of technology solutions for businesses. So as Justin said, you can monetize it, but in a way that supports your paid work. You have to create some pretty unbelievable content to be able to monetize it...and/or produce a ton of content like Cliff does at
www.GSPN.tv. If you really want to learn more about podcasting you should become a Plus member of GSPN.tv. You can find out about it at
http://gspn.tv/plus/.
I am a plus member myself and I'm a part of the GSPN network as a host and I can tell you that if you want to learn about how
to monetize a podcast then GSPN is the place to learn.
Charles,
Both Justin and Andy have already given you some wonderful advice.
I recently did an entire podcast episodes on the topic in question, Please click the link below to have a listen to that episode...
<a href="http://podcastanswerman.com/125-podcast-answer-man-making-money-from-your-podcast" target="_blank">Podcast Answer Man Episode 126 – Making Money From Your Podcast[/url]Let's just say that you find yourself in a position down the road where you have about 5,000 or more to a podcast that has a VERY NARROW FOCUSED AUDIENCE.
Here are some options:
Join A NetworkYou "could" join a network of podcasts that will go out and get sponsors who pay a certain amount per 1,000 downloads. This option really doesn't make sense until you have at least 50,000 or so listeners. And even then, I've not seen anyone with any financial success until they get about 300,000 downloads per episode.
Get Your Own SponsorsI have done this for some of my shows. I sell sponsorships on a flat, per episode fee. This requires a lot of work trying to track down sponsors who would be the PERFECT FIT for your audience. Finding a sponsor that your audience would ALMOST CERTAINLY want to buy from is a win / win situation every single time.
I have one sponsor who pays a significant amount for each episode. They sign a six month contract each time. We just finished the 3rd six month period and have just secured the sponsorship for an additional six months. (A total of 2 years now). Note: I had ZERO SUBSCRIBERS to this podcast when I started it. But there is a great deal more to that story.
Ask DonationsI have tried asking for donations in the past. Those donations that came in were enough to pay for investment in podcasting equipment. However, when you factor in time and a desire to an "INCOME" from podcasting, I don't think this is really a viable route at all.
Partial Premium ModelCurrently, premium content alone earns me more than 37,000 a year and is projected to earn me 120,000 per year within the next two years. How do I do this? I give away several episodes of each podcast (I produce 23 different shows) and several episodes of the podcast may only be available to a gspn.tv Plus Member. This is what Andy was talking about above.
I have several shows where every episode is free. And I have some shows where there are NO FREE EPISODES. However, a majority of my shows offer 1 to 2 episodes free each month, where Plus Members get a new episode every single week.
Free Preview - Full Version PaidThis is where you create compelling content. Give away a free version of that content to entice people to buy the full version. I've this in the past. My community hated this. I found that people who get a few episodes here and there fore free come to enjoy what I give them for free. Many decide that they WANT MORE and pay for the extra episodes. But when I tried giving just the first 15 minutes of an episode and asked them to become paid members to get the full show, it only frustrated people. Now with that said. I'm certain that I could have tweaked this model to make it more effective, but found I had better success with the Plus Membership that I have created as mentioned just before here.
You could build Own Network and Sell Ads on it.I sorta do this. I have my own network of 23 podcasts at <a href="
http://gspn.tv/shows" target="_blank">
http://gspn.tv/shows[/url]. As for ads on my own network, I simply run my own ads for PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP. I have had offers from advertisers, but so far, I've not had any compelling offers and I'm not seeking this sort of income at this time because of my success with the Premium Model.
I've considered selling ads on all my free episodes, where my plus members would get a version WITHOUT ANY ads. However, the more I listen to podcasts with advertisers, the less I like this idea. I love Dan Miller's podcast and feel he does a great job with the Audible Ad.. It's a perfect fit for this audience and it means that I get it for free. So I am cool with it.
However, I listen to a guy named Leo Leporte who does three ads in a single show. Dan will be quick to tell you that Audible isn't going to be a significant source of income from his podcasting efforts. However, Leo Leporte made 1.5 million with ads last year and has already brought in 2.5 million this year with advertising. But, as much as I LOVE Leo's shows, I find the ads EXTREMELY ANNOYING!!! I ffwd through them all. I don't want to do that to my audience.
Build your brand to sell your servicesI definitely do this. Out of the 23 podcasts that I produce, one single podcast that I produce earns me $85,000 a year. The show I'm speaking of is <a href="
http://PodcastAnswerMan.com" target="_blank">PodcastAnswerMan.com[/url]. I give EVERY EPISODE of Podcast Answer Man away FOR FREE.
As a result, my schedule is BOOKED FULL EVERY WEEK with consulting calls and podcast equipment sales. So much so that I've found myself too busy with consulting calls that I just increased my hourly rate from $95/hour to $150/hour.
I've done this, hoping that it will help allow me more time to build audio and video training products that I can sell to my audience that I will only have to produce once, but will provide me passive income as a result.
So instead of hiring me for 2 hours to teach you how to do a podcast with a co-host who is in another part of the world for $300. I hope to create a video tutorial series that will likely take me about 5 to 10 hours to create but that I can sell for $99 on my website while I'm sleeping at night. I know, from audience feedback, that people DESIRE this product and would be willing to pay for it ahead of time.
Of course, even these paid products will drive more consulting work to me. I will offer a discount on my hourly rate to someone who purchases these training products but just has a handful of questions unique to their situation. I may offer up to three hours at a discounted rate of $125/hour
-------So those are just a few of the things I've been doing over the past few years. With all that said, I will tell you that earning a living from podcasting is a full-time job. I'ts not easy money. It requires an undying passion for podcasting itself. I believe it also requires a commitment to building relationships, REAL RELATIONSHIPS, with people one on one.
The kind of commitment that it takes to answer a question like this, spending about 30 to 45 minutes of your time, to answer people's most heart felt questions about what it is that you know that can help them.
I live for this stuff. I wake up at 5am each morning and can't wait to get started on my day. I work till 5:30pm each evening. At times, I'll take an evening consulting call for those who have to work a 9-5 during the day. And I also work about 4 to 6 hours on most Saturdays.
I don't know many people who are interested in working 60 to 70 hours a week to pull the income that I do. However, it really is hard to consider what I do as "work." I love "almost" everything I do. I despise bookkeeping.
And while I've painted a pretty enticing picture above. What I'm doing today did not happen over night. I built the foundation of what I'm doing today for two years while working 40 to 50 hours a week doing my career as an insurance agent and spending an additional 20 to 30 hours a week podcasting and building community around my shows.
When I left my career in insurance, I literally had zero income coming in from podcasting. If you are interested in hearing an overview of what it had been like since then, while learning how to make money from my podcasting, then I would encourage you to click the link below to listen to this episode....
<a href="http://pursuingabalancedlife.com/follow-your-passion-and-the-money-will-follow-podcast-episode-425/" target="_blank">Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow – Podcast Episode 425[/url]-----Charles, I want to thank you for posting your question here in this forum. Would you be willing to listen to the two episodes I've listed above and let me know if this information has been somewhat helpful in answering your question?
Author