How to Make Money Podcasting — Podcast Monetization Models

Podcasting for anything beyond hobby, in this case for business, requires that the podcasters consider making money from the podcasts. After all the efforts, it only sound fair.

In this article, you’ll find out why you can make money podcasting and at the same time increase audience loyalty and quality of the content and offerings.

Commercialization doesn’t always translate into bad things.

Introduction to podcasting for business

Image credit: Ole Begemann.

Just as a quick recap, there are two ways to use podcasts for your business. The first way is to integrate it to your business as a marketing channel. This involves building a complete online media strategy and add podcasting as one component.

The second method is to tap into podcasting as a content distribution channel to publish your content and reach as many audience as possible.

While both of them overlap each other, there is a clear distinctions between them in business application.

Why podcasting for money is not a bad thing

As you’ve probably known, I am a firm believer of marketing technology, i.e. using technology to reach the audience and promote products.

Before I get hate emails, let me elaborate. The new era of marketing doesn’t involve blatant advertising or get-in-your-face promotional message. In fact, it educates more than promotes.

If you know the benefits of buying certain brand of snow tires, you are more likely to buy them. Marketers can help the audience solve their problems instead of hard selling.

The quality of podcast content is no longer optional, as I’ve said repeatedly. Nowadays, people have more choices but limited time. They can just choose to do other things if they don’t get any value from their current activity. They can switch to another podcast or read another blog if they find the one they’re listening is far from expectation.

But, who provides the content? The podcast, of course! Unless there are ways for them to make a living, chances are they won’t keep the podcast for long, let alone keep publishing great content.

There are also cost involved in podcasting. At the very least, the cost of equipment and monthly hosting account. Having some income stream to cover this endeavor certainly helps.

Let’s say that a podcaster successfully builds their expertise and is seen in the industry as the go to guy or authority in the topic, they probably get many opportunities to expand their business and grow it to the next level.

What happens next is more quality content to reach even more target market as before.

As to the risk many people concern about is that after being commercialized, there is a chance that the podcast becomes blatant advertising medium or at least biased.

Nothing is further from the truth. Certainly everyone is biased to certain points of view. Sometimes as a podcaster, we need to be bold to be interesting. Nowadays, the audience have the tools and power to spread the news and switch channels.

I mean, they can click on a button to unsubscribe to a podcast at anytime. They can tell others and complain about the lack of quality of a podcast. Anything. In fact, this is the idea behind social media.

It is still the responsibility of a podcaster to keep the balance between content and promotion. Done right, the audience may even see promotion as a kind of recommendation, which is just another type of useful resource.

Finally, being able to monetize from the podcasts often give motivation to keep the podcast up and avoid podfading.

3 models of generating income from podcasts

Image credit: Jeffy Can (ultimaslair).

Two main ways to make money podcasting is advertising and sponsorship, but there are dozens more ways to profit from podcasts.

Some of them may not be for your or your business but adding just two or three profit streams can make a difference. I hope you’ll agree.

1. Direct model

In direct model, you profit by making use of the podcast content directly. If you ask for a donation in a podcast and get it, that’s as direct as it can be.

The revenue comes from one of these:

• Advertising. Selling podcast time for money.
• Sponsorship. Letting others to sponsor the podcast.
• Donation. Request for some donations to support the podcast.
• Premium. Get better quality, more content, more often.
• Access to archives. Sell a whole year of content as downloads or CDs.
• Licensing. Let others use your content for a fee.

2. Indirect model

What comes as a result of podcasting is often unpredictable. Podcasters can quickly establish themselves as the experts on particular topic. Sometimes, a single mention or coverage in media can bring a lot of opportunities. One obvious example is getting book deals.

Some opportunities that can help you get or increase revenue for your business that come from your podcast:

• Book deal. Publishers seek experts who know their topic well and have existing audience.
• Speaking engagement. Invitation to speak at industry events, seminars, workshops, etc.
• Consulting. Get paid from people who can benefit from your expertise.
• Job offer. People want to hire experts and one of the best in the industry.

3. Integrated model

In this model, the podcast is used as a component of the whole marketing mix. It can fit into certain part of the business or marketing rather than a monetization mechanism.

For instance, you can drive podcast audience back to your web site to register for white paper downloads. Those who raise their hands are very qualified for specific service or product you offer through the white paper.

The revenue sources for integrated model are:

• Your own products or services. Podcasts can be used as a lead generation or nurturing tool. They also qualify as a customer retention tool for many type of products and services.
• Affiliate marketing. No man is an island, so it’s just common sense to offer complementary products or services and get commission from them.
• Merchandise. People love to be part of something they like. Being able to show that they’re part of certain community or listen to a podcast is not something to be overlooked.

How to start

There is no surefire way to start profiting from your podcast. Some of them, especially in the indirect model, come unexpectedly although you still have some control upon them.

Others like the direct model is straightforward. You can choose the easiest method first like donations and get some revenue. After some time, you may be able to sell premium or archived content. It depends on which path you want to take.

For integrated model, a carefully planned strategy is required to make sure that the whole process works before you start using the podcast to achieve it.

Whichever model you choose — you can certainly choose more than one, building podcast audience is about delivering what the audience really want. If what you do to profit from it is helpful more than blatant commercialism, your chance of being successful is higher.

To your podacast profit!