10 Ways to Make Money from Podcasts
Make money from podcasts the easy way! Follow these 10 successful techniques to turn your shows into a profitable business.
There are over 67 million people in the US that listen to podcasts every month. That’s a lot of potential listeners, which is why we’re going to show you 10 ways to make money from podcasts to get your fair share.
#10. Knowing Your Target Audience
The internet is a vast sea of content. Your podcast can easily get lost if you don’t know who you’re trying to reach, and if you can’t talk to your listeners, you’re not going to make money.
Define who your average listener is to tailor content to their needs. For example, football based shows like The Manchester United Redcast are for a specific team. They cover a weekly sports roundup about their favourite matches. Content like this is very specific, so it’s easier to get noticed online.
Build up your audience by regularly making awesome content that’s interesting to engage with and tailored for your average listener.
#9. Creating Awesome (& Unique) Content
The better your podcast, the more listeners and followers you will attract. When starting out, your audience will be small. Take advantage of this time to create awesome quality content that’s relevant and unique for your audience.
Work out the kinks of your shows. Get better at structuring, presenting, and editing to produce more engaging content.
- Structuring Shows: Create consistent themes and topics so listeners know what to expect as mentioned here.
- Call to Actions: Prompt listeners to do something, like where they can go to buy your merchandise.
- Editing: Use better techniques to quickly edit and produce higher quality shows as mentioned here.
- Presenting: No one wants to listen to a boring person, so get better at engaging your listeners with these 20 tips.
- Building a Community: Engage and create a buzz on social media to build a community of followers. You might be using it wrong, so here’s how to fix it.
As you grow, invite bigger and brighter guests with influence to attract an even larger audience. The more followers you have, the better the chances you will make money from podcasts through merchandise, sponsorships, and business relationships.
#8. Building Relationships
People are more likely to engage with your podcasts if they know who you are. The same can be said about businesses to build relationships.
Interview people on your podcast who you can collaborate and do business with later on. For example, if you run a football show talk with managers or players to build your relationship. When an opportunity presents itself you are in a better position to get noticed. Sell merchandise as an affiliate, get exclusive interviews, and become sponsored.
#7. Finding Sponsorships
Popular podcasts make barrels of money through sponsorships. Businesses see the potential of reaching the right people, so if your podcast fits a specific target audience then you could be making just as much money.
Take The Football Ramble podcast. Their audience and influence are huge. They have over 160k followers on both Twitter and Facebook. Betting company bet365 is the official partner of the show as they can see the potential reach.
If you have a large enough following then you can catch the attention of sponsors. When approaching them make sure your listeners are a right fit for what they offer. For example, bet365 take football bets, so they’re a perfect fit for The Football Ramble podcast.
#6. Using Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way of selling, but without actually producing anything. By pointing listeners towards online stores, you can generate a passive income.
At Radio.co we use affiliate marketing to sell useful tools for radio broadcasters. For example, pages like this one have links to radio tools like microphones and mixers. When clicked and purchased by the visitor, Radio.co gets a percentage from the profits. You can do this as well.
Sign up as an Amazon Affiliate. Create unique links for your account and embed them on your website. Here’s how to build your own links. The more traffic you get through your links, the higher your passive income will be.
#5. Increasing Sales Through Products & Services
You get a small percentage of the profits through affiliate marketing. Increase your sales by selling your own products and services.
Sports podcast show, The Football Ramble, sell their own branded merchandise. It may seem like hard work to sell your own stuff, but a lot is outsourced and managed elsewhere. Using an online marketplace like Redbubble, you can create branded mugs, t-shirts, and bags.
Start looking at your podcast as a business. It’s a marketing tool to turn your listeners into paying customers. Sell your goods by mentioning where people can go during your shows. Link out on your website or point them to your store.
#4. Coaching New Talent
Are you knowledgeable in your area? Why not share what you know by teaching new talent. Take construction podcast The ConTechCrew. They offer consultations and other services to help teach new talent in their industry.
If you have something to teach then it’s worth passing it on (and make a bit of money in the process). Setup consultations to teach 30 or 60 minute sessions using software like Calendly. Accept payments via PayPal or bank transfer.
If you don’t have a lot of time to teach, then try packaging your knowledge into training courses.
#3. Complete Course Training
The best (and most satisfying) way to make money from podcasts is by selling things you made. Invest the time and resources to make a product, then reap the rewards with 100% of the profits!
Some of the most well-known podcasters make money from courses, like:
- Cliff Ravenscraft: A to Z of podcasting and digital products.
- Jason and Jeremy: Internet business mastery coaching.
- John Lee Dumas: Training courses like Podcaster’s Paradise.
At Radio.co we did this by creating our own courses. Each one focusing on a different subject, teaching you things you might not know, like how to turn your podcast into a successful business.
People won’t buy your course right away. Offer something of value to show that your content is worth the price tag. Look at how successful podcasters promote their courses, like giving away bits of their content for free.
#2. Selling Book & Audiobooks
Books and audiobooks are an extension of online courses, but with the aim of offering high-value content.
John Lee Dumas is a well know podcaster. He produces his own show and creates in-depth courses like the Podcaster’s Paradise. A lot of the content he creates is re-purposed, like his Podcast Launch book. It’s nothing new, but it’s packaged in a way that’s easy to digest in a short 76-page book.
If books aren’t your thing, then you can create an audiobook. John Lee Dumas re-purposed the content from his book and turned it into an audiobook. It’s a simple, but effective way of profiting from your own content.
#1. Community Crowdfunding & Donations
You need a passionate and loyal fanbase to make any money through donations.
A crowdfunding platform like Patreon allows you to get your listeners’ support through donations. There are already podcasters doing this like Rob Casternino. Through Patreon, he setup recurring monthly subscriptions for listeners. Contributions vary, kind of like monthly service plans. The more the listener donates, the more things they get.
For successful and continuous donations, you need to make sure supporters feel exclusive. Thank them in episodes, send them some swag, or do something fun for them.
Make Money from Podcasts Today
Every day more people are downloading and listening to podcasts. Take advantage of this trend by profiting from your own podcast.
Our How to Launch a Profitable Podcast course teaches you everything you need to know about how to make money from podcasts. It doesn't matter what type of podcaster you are, the course teaches you actionable strategies that will rocket your podcast to the top of the charts and turn it into a profit-making machine!
