Let’s talk about monetization!
Monetization is simply how you receive money from making your podcast. If you are podcasting just for the fun of it, then skip this section. If you want to make a living at it, like I do, then this will be particularly important to wrap your head around. There are ways to receive money from your podcast. We already talked about Patreon, to fund your podcast, it can also be an avenue for income as well, but there are other approaches.
It is particularly important you decide on a monetization strategy from the beginning. It can be a big endeavor. And it is especially important to diversify your income streams…
…decide on a monetization strategy from the beginning. It can be a big endeavor. And it is especially important to diversify your income streams…
…So, for simplicity, we can divide this section up into two parts, direct monetization, and peripheral monetization.
Peripheral Monetization
By peripheral monetization, I mean ways your podcast can make money outside the realm of the podcast itself. This can take the form of newsletters, or supplementary blogs, that host ads or affiliate marketing links. Or even merchandise on an online store! You can use your podcast as a vehicle to drive interest and traffic to these sites that make you money.
Essentially, affiliate marketing works by providing ad space on your website or blog that users can click on to purchase a product, this is the same if you provide links to products as well. For every purchase you get some of that purchase profit. This can have great effects because the blogs on the sites you create can stay there for as long as you are hosting the blog or website and the amount of content can grow. This is best approached by being as direct as possible with your audience. Declare to them that you are using affiliate marketing and ads and how they help support your creation of more podcasts. Your supporters will understand and be more than willing to help.
The next area is with merchandise. Your supporters would love a T-shirt or anything that can rep your podcast. This process is a lot easier nowadays, with print-on-demand (POD) services, like Printify.
Printify: https://try.printify.com/qvs85cdsylf7
These services can be linked to your website, or you can make storefronts or designs on the platforms themselves and link your audience to it. This works so well, because you don’t have to invest heavily into upfront inventory and worry about selling it all off. When a purchase is made by a supporter, the item gets made to that order and shipped to them. The investment upfront is extremely low, provided you invest some time and money into quality assurance and purchase prototypes from your shop to make sure they are of the quality that you want to be standing for your podcast and its brand.
But there is a downside to this, sometimes this peripheral content can be enveloping to the point the consistency in your podcast’s releases or quality dips in favor of more of this type of content. It can be hard to keep up with it. That's why it's best to use this sparingly or outsource this work to some good content creators that you trust to represent your podcast brand.
Direct Monetization
I think of direct monetization as ways that your podcast itself makes money through the download or the number of downloads. This is usually paid out by a network that you have partnered with. This is an area I am always learning in. And as a result, this section might sound quite different from each year-to-year iteration of this book.
Dynamic ads are the newest thing. Dynamic ads differ from “balked in” ads. The difference between the two is that “baked-in” ads are forever part of the recording. This means that the sponsor purchased the space, you recorded it, and inserted it into the podcasts recording. After that it is there forever. Even after the podcast has been up for years. It’s “baked-in” to the recording.
Dynamic ads differ because it gives you the ability to change the ads in the uploaded file whenever you want. No matter how long the podcast has been up. You can then swap sponsors or ads as the situation arises. Now, anyone that downloads an old episode of your podcast will hear the new ad! This can be done anywhere in the format of the show.
Let's do an example, if a sponsor purchases a new 50,000 impressions (an impression is everytime a hears an ad), which translates to 50,000 downloads, and you record a new ad. You can upload that new ad to all your podcasts, even past episodes. This increases the value of legacy content and impressions of the new ad. Then, after the impression quota is filled you can simply replace all the ad space with a new sponsor and/or ad.
YouTube is another way to monetize your podcast and reach another new branch of listeners or supporters. It’s not for everyone, but a lot of podcasters do it. Especially, if you have video content. Usually taken from the studio during recording but it can also be animated content too. The trick with YouTube is you need a video part to your podcast as well as the audio for it to be appealing. But to play a slight devil advocate to myself, is that it could not work for your project. Put simply, it is not always a practical thing for every podcast project. So, it's up to you, as the genius behind the curtain, here! It is always worth the try! Video for podcasting is becoming an increasingly popular thing. I’ll always advocate tying it, and the whole subject of video for podcasting can be its own section in this book someday. But for now, it's simply here as an add on comment.
Ratings/Reviews matter
This is one area I wish I could say don’t worry about, but I can’t. Ratings and reviews matter. Especially when you are just starting out. I try to put it to people this way, say, you are looking for a new podcast and you see a bunch of one-star reviews or even only three-star reviews. You are not going to listen to that show. It might be why podcasters always sound desperate, but it is one of the only direct metrics we have besides downloads that at once serve us. And one of the ways we can collect people’s opinions and feedback on the show, what they like, hate, and love, so we can do more of what listeners love!
Generally, people will give honest and reasonable responses really should you be running into a mean comment and if you do, take it for what it is and move on. It's like saying to the person, “Yes, and not helpful, but thanks!”.