Podcasts are audio programs, much like radio, that users subscribe to and listen to on their computers or mobile devices whenever they want to. Podcasts are usually focused on one specific topic or niche.
Making money with podcasts wasn’t always something that creators thought they could do. They used to do it out of love and passion, but now they can make a living from their podcasts, and so can you.
Thanks to advertising, crowdsourcing, and other great money-making ideas, podcasts have become quite a lucrative undertaking.
If you are thinking of starting your own podcast and want to know how you can start making money from podcasts, stay tuned.
In this guide, we will discuss how to make your podcast stand out and the 8 best ways of making money from podcasts.
Some of the ideas are effective right from the start of your podcast while others work better when you’ve got an established audience.
Either way, you will be able to find out how to make money off your podcast.
Here’s How to Start a Podcast And Make Money
1. Choose a Specific Topic
When you start working out the details of your podcast, it can be tempting to want to have several topics you want to cover. This may not be the best approach, though, as you need to create consistent content. If you aren’t focused and have one specific topic, your podcast could lack the kind of sustenance that listeners want.
Choose a topic that you are passionate about or have a lot of knowledge in. That way, you will be able to connect with your audience on a deeper level. They will be able to tell that you love what you’re doing and know what you’re talking about.
When your podcast is on a topic you love, making money with podcasts is so much easier because it doesn’t feel like a job or a chore.
2. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition for Potential Advertisers
This is an important point to note when you’re concerned with how do podcasters earn money. You need to show your potential advertisers that you are worth their time and investment. A unique selling proposition will do the talking for you.
If you can show that your podcast has a dedicated audience that listens to your content every week and spends X amount of money on their kind of product or service, you’ve hooked your advertisers.
They prefer seeing detailed information like that instead of a generic ‘I have thousands of listeners that I know nothing about’ approach.
In order to show this kind of data to potential advertisers, you will have to do proper research. Buzzsprout Advanced Podcast Statistics is a good tool for this purpose.
3. How To Make Your Podcast Awesome
For the best results in the podcasting world, you need to have an awesome podcast. There are two ways to achieve this: content and presentation.
Content
Before you can start thinking about how much money you can make from a podcast, you need to create killer content. You need to attract as many listeners as possible and you’ll only do that if your content is interesting.
Consider listening to other podcasts for inspiration and ideas. Don’t copy them, but learn from the most successful podcasters. Study how long their episodes are, what kind of music they use and how they speak. Knowing this will help your content reach the kind of quality that listeners expect.
Presentation
Although there are no real set rules for how you should present your podcast, there are standards.
You can choose to have one form of presentation for your content or use different styles throughout your episodes. Whether you choose to focus on doing interviews or have them sporadically depends on you.
You can also have more than one host or have guest hosts on occasion. Whatever you decide to do, try to keep it consistent. Let your listeners get used to a certain way of doing things and they’ll love you for it.
How To Make Money From Podcasts
1. Advertising
Advertising is likely going to be the biggest way you can make money from podcasts. In 2018, brands spent more than $470 million on advertising in the podcasting industry. This number is expected to grow in the coming years.
You can sell advertisements on your podcast in three ways: direct to brand, through an agency or programmatic.
Direct to brand
If your podcast is aimed at a brand’s audience and demographic, they’ll want to advertise through you. You can sell advertisements based on a cost that is agreed between you and the brand. Normally, the price is determined and based on a cost per 1 000 downloads basis. Ads like this are normally product endorsements.
Through an agency
There are several podcast advertising agencies that you can work with. They act as a middleman between you and the brands. The agencies will judge your podcast and determine which brands would do best when advertising through you.
You can approach agencies with good reputations such as Midroll, AdvertiseCast and PodGrid.
Programmatic
This kind of advertising is growing in popularity. Programmatic advertising allows advertisers to buy and place ads, including targeted advertising content very effectively and quickly.
For this advertising approach, the demographic of a podcast is more important than its genre. Acast is a favorite tool for this kind of advertising.
2. Subscriptions
This is a basic concept – you put your podcast content behind a paywall and ask your listeners to pay for more exclusive content. You should still provide free content, but keep your best stuff for those willing to pay for it.
Selling subscriptions to your podcast episode is a tactic that might work better for well-established podcasters. You may want to wait before using this method of making money from podcasts until you have a nice and big following.
3. Premium Content
Premium content is similar to subscriptions because you will provide content to your most loyal listeners at a fee. This fee would be a monthly and recurring thing and would allow you to treat your listeners.
However, you will still offer free content, minus the special premium content such as behind-the-scenes specials, access to exclusive merchandise and similar treats.
Patreon is a great way to ask your fans to support you and ensure you make money from podcasts.
4. Crowdfunding
When it comes to discussing making money with podcasts, crowdfunding is a great way to get started. By asking for donations from your listeners, you can make them feel part of your community and earn money.
You don’t have to ask for donations from your ‘crowd’ directly, you can host special occasions such as ‘fund drives’ and projects. You can even have a ‘tip jar’ on your website or a donation link.
Just make sure that your content is good enough that people will want to pay you to keep creating new stuff.
5. Create Courses
Creating courses is not a foreign concept for podcasters making money off their podcasts. Most of the more popular podcasters are doing it or have done it in the past.
You can create an online course that is similar to the topic that you discuss in your podcast episodes. Online courses should be easy to follow and informative as well as entertaining.
Upon completion, the reader must feel like they have achieved something worth their time and money. If you think you can create such a course (or two), then there is no reason for you not to create courses and make money from them.
Creating an online course is not that tough; it sounds. You can use Teachable for building your own course easily and start earning millions like more than 100,000 creators who have been using Teachable.
6. Coaching
You can use your knowledge and teach others what you know or how to become better at something.
If you are not confident enough about where to start or what topic you should select that you can teach, PLR sites can be a great resource for you that covers almost every topic. You can get a membership plan to buy the rights to sell different courses, training and tutorials. The interesting thing is that all those courses and training programs are ready to sell as your own.
Coaching is a bit like selling a service but in this case, you are guiding the person you’re coaching, not doing anything for them yourself. The most common topics that coaching is done include dieting, healthy living, exercising, business success and mental wellness.
7. Sell Products
Another great way to make money from podcasts is to sell physical products. It can be merchandise based on your content or something that has your name on it.
If you have a popular slogan or catchphrase, that could also be used to make merchandise that you can sell.
8. Sell Services
Selling services is a money-making method that is sometimes overlooked by podcast creators. You can sell your services if you are skilled in something specific. For example, if you can analyze markets, you can sell your analyzing services to those who need it.
How Much Money Can You Make From A Podcast?
It is difficult to put a precise number on how much money you can make from podcasting. But it is certainly possible to make a handsome amount every month.
The popular podcasters out there are able to make a lot of money. If you have enough listeners, you can ask anything between $15 and $25 for 30-second cost per minute ads.
Joe Rogan, the man behind The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, has a net worth of about $100 million. Although he made money before podcasting, he was able to continue making a good living with his podcast. You can, too, if you dedicate enough time to your content.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve finished this guide, you know the best ways of Making Money From Podcasts and nothing is stopping you from getting started. As long as you take heed of the advice shared here, you should be able to create a podcast series that will make money and keep you happy.