Learn the monetization strategies that other podcasters are using as I'm joined by Brian from ProfitCast in this special crossover episode.

Sponsorships

This is the way most podcasters are interested in using to monetize their podcast. Yes, it is the easiest, because you can simply promote it, promote impressions, and get paid.

The most important number to sponsors isn't actually the size of your audience, but it's how engaged your audience is and how likely they are to take action on the sponsors.

Most podcast sponsorships will pay based on how many thousand impressions you get (CPM), how many actions are taken (CPA), or a flat rate.

John Lee Dumas's income for Entrepreneur on Fire looks great, but you have to have a very popular show with lots of downloads per episodes. But only a relatively small portion of John's income comes from podcast sponsorships.

The most important thing to do with any style of sponsorship is making it relevant to your audience. This is how Audible.com and Audiobooks.com have great success in this space, because they have audiobooks that appeal to almost anyone.

I've had sponsors for The Audacity to Podcast before. Now, I regret it because it would have been better to promote my own products and services than someone else's. This perspective is shared by Cliff Ravenscraft and Gary Leland.

Potential sponsors do want to see large numbers, but the likelihood of your audience taking action is even more important to them.

Before you try working toward getting sponsors, make sure your podcast has great content, presentation, and production.

Look at the success of Serial. That team was highly skilled in creating, presenting, and producing great content. Serial took almost a year to produce, so they had great momentum and leverage before the show even started.

You'll see similar stories with other great podcasters. They invested heavily into making a great “product” in their podcast.

But having great content isn't the only part, you also need great marketing or else no one will know about your show.

Steps before you approach a sponsor

  1. Have a great podcast: content, presentation, and production.
  2. Know your actual numbers! I recommend Blubrry Stats or LibSyn.
  3. Know your audience. How engaged are they? What products and services would be a good fit?

Affiliates

Who isn’t using affiliates? Pat Flynn is a great example. He chooses products that he knows and can truly recommend, and he knows his listeners will appreciate them, too. Just look at his BlueHost income! He gets that because he made a video that communicates great information targeted for his audience, and it happens to promote his affiliate link. Michael Hyatt is also having great success with this.

Affiliate income builds over time. The more content you put out, the more you could build your reputation and build a large archive of relevant affiliate links. December, 2014 was my own best month for Amazon.com affiliate income—$1,200! That big spike (double my previous record) resulted primarily from Christmas shopping plus the podcasting deals I was emailing.

If you live in Colorado, you can't join the Amazon.com affiliate program. You need to look at your local regulations to see whether you can join a different affiliate program. Communicate why you made that choice and your audience will probably be understand and continue to support you as they can.

Even if a company doesn't offer an affiliate program, you could negotiate a coupon code with them and then you get a portion of all orders placed with that coupon code. This is how my LibSyn affiliate programs works, how Cliff Ravenscraft's previous sponsorship for Family from the Heart worked. This is also extremely trackable for that retailer.

A promo code is great because it can often give great incentive to people to use that code.

When you try to apply for more exclusive affiliate programs (or try to have one created for you), make sure you explain to the retailer why it would be a good fit. This is great practice for approaching a sponsor someday!

Offering affiliate links can often be an easy way for your audience to reciprocate after receiving your free content.

When you have separate content ventures, make sure you're tracking them separately within your affiliate accounts.

Product resale

Instead of trying to earn the 4%–8% from Amazon.com, consider becoming a reseller yourself! This could allow you to make up to 50% on the same items! This is commonly called “drop shipping.”

Gary Leland has great success with drop shipping. Cliff Ravenscraft

When you can't beat the price, try to beat the value. That value could simply be in packaging everything for someone to buy—they don't have to shop around and pick all the right gear (Cliff Ravenscraft does this well with his gear packages). But when I plan to launch my own podcasting gear store, some of these products and packages will have extra video training included with them.

You could make extra value by recording a “how to setup” video, a list of secrets, or anything else that someone couldn't get somewhere else.

Just remember that this kind of thing could get complicate. If you want to accept credit card payments, your website will need:

  • a security certificate (SSL),
  • a payment gateway (Stripe works great for this),
  • ecommerce software (I like Woocommerce or Easy Digital Downloads),
  • a reseller license and tax ID, and
  • an agreement with distributors (contact the manufacturer to find how what wholesale distributors might work with you).

Product/course creation

This is the best way to make money! Invest the time and resources to make a product, then you can make up to 100% of the profits!

Listen to my last episode to get some ideas for products you can create for your podcast.

The most profitable podcasters are making their income because of their products/courses. For examples:

  • Cliff Ravenscraft—Podcasting A to Z and digital products
  • John Lee Dumas—Podcasters' Paradise, other training programs
  • Michael Hyatt—Best Year Ever, Get Noticed WordPress theme, Platform community
  • Lou Mongello—unofficial Disney products
  • Jason and Jeremy—$7 ebook, Internet Business Mastery coaching program

Don't start with your biggest product and idea. It's better to under-promise and over-deliver. For your first product, make it something small. The few dollars you may make from that will feel amazing and be the first small step toward big momentum.

Starting small also helps with your long-term success by exposing people to the value you can create, without forcing them to take a leap of faith. Consider an ebook, PDF guide, or short video tutorial.

80% of your audience will spend very little or nothing, but 20% of your audience may account for 80% of your income.

You may have a fantastic product, but you won't have any success if you're not driving them to that product and marketing its value to your audience.

Look at how successful podcasters are often giving away great content for free, but that content is so valuable and enticing that attendees are almost desperate to get the premium product or course.

Services/Coaching

Your expertise may be best on a one-on-one basis through coaching and consulting. Many people will benefit far more from the personalized one-on-one instead of a group setting.

Your value will be small when you start, but it will grow with your reputation and experience.

If you're not a good teacher, it may be better for you to offer your expertise as a service. For example, you can hire me for several hours and thousands of dollars to teach you everything you may need to know in order to fix your podcast RSS feed. Or, you can hire me to use my expertise to fix it for you and save you the time and effort for only a flat rate fee in most cases.

People are more interested in paying for solutions than paying for time.

Donations

You need to have a passionate and loyal fanbase in order to make any money through “donations” to your podcast. (Technically, “donations” are for nonprofits. But we'll use this in consider when people give you money for your show.)

Look at the thousands of dollars that Rob Cesternino through Patreon contributions every month (I think Rob is the most humble successful podcaster).

This gives your audience the chance to feel part of your show. Give them the shoutouts and thank them for their support.

I'm amazed and humbled by the support I receive for my free Once Upon a Time podcast. Some of our supporters are automatically donating $50 per month (hundreds of dollars per year), just because they love what we do!

Tom Merrit is probably the most amazing with this—more than $13,000 per month from his audience!

To have a successful campaign, make sure that you're making your supports feel exclusive. Thank them in your episodes, send them fun swag, or do something fun for them.

Look at other successful creators on Patreon to learn what's working well.

Premium content

This was more popular in the early days of podcasting, but many (like Keith and the Girl, NPR, and other popular shows) are still having great success with this.

Paying for a subscription could grant your audience:

  • exclusive episodes,
  • exclusive community,
  • back-catalog of episodes,
  • and more.

This model doesn't work for everyone. (I wouldn't want to sell my old episodes, because each episode is marketing me and my expertise.)

Ask yourself this question, “Is my content truly worth paying for?”

Don't alienate your free audience! Give your paying audience more.

Announcements

Need personalized podcasting help?

I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

  • Comment on the shownotes
  • Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
  • Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)

Connect with me

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

About the Author
As an award-winning podcaster, Daniel J. Lewis gives you the guts and teaches you the tools to launch and improve your own podcasts for sharing your passions and finding success. Daniel creates resources for podcasters, such as the SEO for Podcasters and Zoom H6 for Podcasters courses, the Social Subscribe & Follow Icons plugin for WordPress, the My Podcast Reviews global-review aggregator, and the Podcasters' Society membership for podcasters. As a recognized authority and influencer in the podcasting industry, Daniel speaks on podcasting and hosts his own podcast about how to podcast. Daniel's other podcasts, a clean-comedy podcast, and the #1 unofficial podcast for ABC's hit drama Once Upon a Time, have also been nominated for multiple awards. Daniel and his son live near Cincinnati.
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John Lee Dumas
9 years ago

DJL,

GREAT ep and post…very thorough and valuable (as usual) 🙂 One key point I’d like to add re: EntrepreneurOnFire is how creating FREE courses has added to our bottom line in a major way… FreePodcastCourse.com and TheWebinarCourse.com are both totally free, have thousands of Podcasters and Entrepreneurs going through these courses, and generate massive revenue by getting people closer to that yes line…our yes line being Podcasters’ Paradise and Webinar On Fire. I think we’ll see this as a trend where Podcasters start to realize the value of the long game…

John Wilkerson
9 years ago

Wow, Daniel! This was a great episode. The interview sounds like you and Brian were hanging out and having a conversation. Great job!

Kev Hopwood
Kev Hopwood
9 years ago

I like to use affiliate links on my site and podcast. However. I use a number of performance marketing websites like commission junction and Amazon affiliates. But is their a way that I can track my commission within my WordPress dashboard? To bulk all of them in one place!
Please help.

Jeffrey K. Holbrook
Jeffrey K. Holbrook
9 years ago

This episode was excellent! Great content! The info was delivered without all of the usual “Amway Style” hype that the Internet marketing community has the reputation for spewing out. Just a normal chat between two authorities on what works and doesn’t work. SOOOOOOO REFRESHING!
Oh yes, I listened to the whole thing, of course, I ALWAYS listen to the whole thing. Your content is always worth it. Keep it up!

Justin Kupanoff
Justin Kupanoff
9 years ago

Hey Daniel, another quick question for you!
Is it considered an affiliate if you just have your own coupon code for your listeners to use to purchase a specific product? If not what would that be called? I’m getting a little mixed up in the terminology I think.

Paul Andrew Kennedy
Paul Andrew Kennedy
9 years ago

Your 10,000 quote, and the fact you never even picked up the phone after I asked you multiple times, like a God fearing consultant should…. i won’t even explain to the lost what the good book says about your duty if asked to give an explanation of faith……motivates me even more to give freely away to those coming up after me, what could have taken you 2 hrs to explain. 100 bucks to tell me 600 to build would have been fair….thanks for the inspiration and motivation, priceless….quit begging for support on the podcast awards….just rely on your content….it stands tall all by itself….u r one the best resources in the game, it’s your people sales consultant skills that need polishing, and dollar signs that need to be wiped from your eyes…mammon is alive and well in modern day Babylon….and you got my number…bro.

Steve Shaw
8 years ago

Another way to make money podcasting is that if you use the podcast to interview influencers/celebs in your industry, it (a) endorses you, making you stand taller with your own audiences and drive higher conversions through association; and (b) by interviewing them, you forge relationships with them, invaluable for JV opportunities, and they’re highly likely to link to you (endorsing you further and sending significant traffic) via their social media channels and so on.

Steve Shaw
8 years ago

Respectfully disagree 🙂 – it’s a powerful strategy that can increase both your reach and income, eg. John Jantsch, Chris Ducker, etc. Builds your brand, your profile, your podcast audience, customer base, JV opps and so on.

Steve Shaw
8 years ago

You’re not dependent on their promotion of you, the endorsement of you is more implicit, your own authority is elevated anyway and helps attract your marketplace to what you do. Social mentions by a proportion of those you interview are however likely and can have significant benefits both directly and by association. And it’s the start of a relationship with them that can lead to other opportunities for mutual benefit.

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[…] Learn how podcasters make money here. […]

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[…] Sponsors and ears. Hour long commutes and radio shows with substance is what people are desiring. great example of setting up your podcast for income here. […]

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[…] more by audience loyalty than numbers. Says Daniel J. Lewis in “how-to-podcast” podcast The Audacity to Podcast, “Potential sponsors do want to see large numbers, but the likelihood of your audience taking […]

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[…] Do a podcast […]

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[…] Lewis, D. J. (2015, January 19). How podcasters are making money with podcasting. Retrieved from https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/how-podcasters-are-making-money-with-podcasting-tap206/ […]

Sean T. Plouffe
7 years ago

Awesome post

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[…] How podcasters are making money with podcasting – A how … – Award-winning "how-to" podcast about podcasting for passion and success […]

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[…] a variety of ways to make money off podcasting, but the most direct way would have to be through advertising and […]

Ramon Smothers
Ramon Smothers
7 years ago

Great post and informative as I begin my podcasting journey!

trackback

[…] Advertisers pay you to run ad spots on your show, or you can make money with listener contributions via Patreon. Here are a few other ways to make money with a podcast. […]

amie
amie
7 years ago

just a heads up, this link isn’t working with this text.

Look at the thousands of dollars that Rob Cesternino through Patreon contributions every month (I think Rob is the most humble successful podcaster).

amie
amie
7 years ago

Noticed a few links actually weren’t working.

Stuart Ralph
6 years ago

Hi Lawrence.

RILEY BOOKER
RILEY BOOKER
6 years ago

hey girl hey

RILEY BOOKER
RILEY BOOKER
6 years ago

What is a podcast?

JAMIR PEREZ
JAMIR PEREZ
6 years ago

hi riley

RILEY BOOKER
RILEY BOOKER
6 years ago

omg 😀

RILEY BOOKER
RILEY BOOKER
6 years ago

Here,this is what a podcast is, it is a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

Murd Gfm
Murd Gfm
6 years ago

Does anyone know of any distributors who upload your podcast to all major platforms the same way onerpm and cd baby do for music. A one stop shop that shows you statistics. Second question. Do ppl make money from a certain amount of streams just like music?

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[…] a few ads and bring in enough income to live off of, you’re very likely mistaken. But there are lots of options for driving revenue through Podcasting that go way beyond simple […]

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[…] a few ads and bring in enough income to live off of, you’re very likely mistaken. But there are lots of options for driving revenue through Podcasting that go way beyond simple […]

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[…] a few ads and bring in enough income to live off of, you’re very likely mistaken. But there are lots of options for driving revenue through Podcasting that go way beyond simple […]

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