When you’re starting out podcasting the hardest part is justifying the ROI. Are you going to get back more than what you’re putting in.
An easy way to see the potential of your podcast is to monetize it.
Here are some easy ways to begin building an income stream from your podcast.
Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/podcastonthego/
https://www.instagram.com/podonthego/
https://www.facebook.com/podonthego
Transcript
(00:00):
What’s up ladies and gents, welcome to the podonthego SHOW. I’m your host Razz. And this week, our theme is monetization, probably the most talked about theme and podcasting. The thing that people want to know about the most, because they want to know if I’m putting all this time. And so podcasts. If I’m spending hours and hours every week, how can I make money from it? What’s going to be my return on investment. So this way we’re going to talk about monetization and today is podcasting one-on-one. So we’re going to talk about how to make money right now. If you’re just starting a podcast. If this is your first podcast if you have a small audience, how can you start making money right now? Or how can you at least set yourself up to start making money? Because maybe you only have a hundred people listening, but you know, maybe in the future you’ll have 10,000 people listening every month or 20,000 people listening every month.
(00:56):
How do you make sure that the original episodes are still monetizable? So you gotta, you gotta start from the beginning. And so today we’re going to talk real quickly about how you can get paid. Now, some different options. Number one is find a local sponsor. Somebody can meet in person and pitch and somebody can build a relationship with, and person number two is to connect your podcasts with your business or with the expertise. That way you can send people back to your business to monetize the podcast. And number three is affiliates and affiliate commissions and commission based products. So number one, finding a local sponsor. So this is, these are all things that I’ve done before. And when I was in Savannah, when I was in Chicago. And soon now that I’m in Gastonia and back in Charlotte, again, this, these are things I’m going to start doing again, number one, you can join a local chamber in Savannah.
(01:55):
When I lived there, there were, I don’t know, a half a dozen to a dozen different chambers. I could have joined with all different types of niche markets. So join a chamber. You can meet people that way. You’ll meet people that are, I forget what the, I forget what I used to call them. But whether your competitors “copetitors”, you know, people who are in your industry, but aren’t necessarily your direct competitors. So you can find people like that. You can make friends or friends of friends who will want to support your podcast. You can start a local meetup. I’ve done it several times. And it works. Every time I meet somebody that either becomes a friend or a supporter or a sponsor, or they have, you know, somebody who wants to be a part of the show to help promote the show. You can interview locals.
(02:40):
This is something that people always leave out. They want to go straight for Richard Branson. And I dunno, Tom cruise. He’s always like the famous person I think it was just the first name that comes to mind, I don’t know why, but yeah, will Smith, but they forget about just local people. Like there are famous people locally who have a lot of support and a lot of following, and you can interview those people and they’re easier to get and they will potentially be able to help you sooner with your podcast. So that’s something to keep in mind as well, find a mentor. I’ve talked about this several times and I’m always going to say it, but the small business development center, one, there’s gotta be one that’s close to you and score the council of retired executives. So they, why a mentor is important because they can introduce you to people who can help you specifically.
(03:34):
They are mentors to other people. They have mentors themselves. They understand the value of giving back the value of collaboration. And as your mentor, they’re going to want to help you in any way possible. So that’s step number one. A lot of times it’s find a mentor and number in the last, last one that a lot of people leave out. And a lot of people forget about is to volunteer locally, like do something that’s like help somebody else. Number one, you’re going to feel great after you help somebody else. Like it’s going to be the highlight of your week, your month. Whenever you’re feeling down, it’s always good to go out and help somebody else. And you’re going to get that boost of dopamine. You know, that makes you feel good, but number two, and it’s just the right thing to do.
(04:19):
But number two is that the type of people who volunteer are people with X, you know, excess time, free time, they’re wealthy, they’re educated. And they are in a place where they want to help others. So they’re good people to be around and to have a mentality of, of giving and a mentality of helping and a mentality of collaboration and building up. So these are the type of people that you want to be around when you’re starting a podcast. And we starting a business just in general or just, you know, just in general, like you want to, I personally, I want to be around people that want to help others. I don’t want to be around people that are always thinking about taking and extracting. I want to be around people that create and they give back. And when you volunteer, these are the, the exact type of people that you’re going to be around.
(05:08):
So that’s just something to keep in mind. These are the, you know, these are, these are all people, local sponsors who will be willing to help you grow your show. So keep that in mind promote your own business. I meet a lot of podcasters who have an expertise in something that could be a mechanic that could be a chef. They could be a public speaker or a marketing professional, but then they want to start a podcast with something completely different. You know, they’re going to start a podcast out ballet or music or a talk show with just their friends, which is cool. You can do that, but it’s going to be hard to make money that way, because people want to know that you’re and expert in something, which is again, why I started this. I’ve been doing podcasts and in the industry and loving the industry for probably, I don’t know, seven, eight, nine years now.
(06:04):
So that’s why, that’s why I’m on here doing this show, because this is my expertise now, podcasting and digital marketing and, and videography and live streaming live production. This is my, this is my expertise. So with this podcast, I’m promoting my own business. And every time I do a show, every time I get a view, people go back to my website and either, you know, click on links, click on affiliate links. They do, you know what I’m saying? They bring me more profit by doing this show. I’m making more profit for my business, even though I don’t have a sponsor specifically, you know, right now I’m still promoting my business. So that’s something to keep in mind. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast with a of friends talking about something completely random, that’s fine, but it’s going to be a, it’s going to probably be a long time before you make a ton of money from it.
(06:57):
So just, just keep in mind that you’ll be in the long haul. But if you start a podcast that is specific to your expertise, your industry, whatever that may be, then it’s going to be a lot easier for you to, to make money starting out, you know, as are you know, as a, a young podcaster or it’s something else to keep in mind, two more things, really, as if you are a say, you’re a mechanic and you want to start a mechanic podcast, then who are your vendors? Who are the people that sell you, your tools, who sells you, your oil? Who, who do you go to for specific parts? Those, those of vendors that could be sponsors for your podcast. So that’s something to keep in mind. The second thing is that maybe you don’t have to start a podcast. Maybe don’t have to start a podcast.
(07:47):
If you already own a business, maybe you could find a podcast that you can sponsor in your industry and get the same return on investment without the amount of work, something to keep in mind. And lastly is affiliates. So affiliate commissions, if you don’t, if you don’t know what those are, they are probably one of the easiest things to get. When you’re first starting out the, and there are a lots of affiliate programs out there, pretty much every online business isn’t a process of creating an affiliate program or, or has one. And you just have to look for it. Commissioner Johnson, junction, CJ, cj.com. I believe it is they’re one of the OGs and industry. So you can check them out. And an affiliate program is basically where you sell somebody else’s product and you get a, you get a commission from it.
(08:41):
It’s important that you let people know that whatever, wherever you put an affiliate link, let people know that this is an affiliate link that there’s Lee legal. Now I’m not an attorney. So just make sure that you understand that you do your research on that and what you have to put in writing to let people know that it isn’t, that it is an affiliate link, but it’s something that you have to do. So you can’t just send people to links and they don’t know it anymore. So commission junction is a, is a popular one. Amazon associates is a very popular one, a very easy one. And basically, you know, all these things, they’ll give you a specific link. And every time somebody clicks on that link and purchase or something, then you get a small commission back. Usually the affiliate the affiliate will set the commission.
(09:28):
So you have to agree to it, but you know, sometimes there’s, you, sometimes you can find a better, a better option. Ebay, eBay has an affiliate program. Clickbank is another OG in the industry. They have affiliate programs. Squarespace is one that I’m probably going to start using myself because I recommend a lot of my podcasts to just go to Squarespace, just use a Squarespace account. So that’s something I’m going to start. I’m going to start using on my platform as well. Casper mattresses. At one point I heard every podcast, especially a lot of comedy podcasts promoting Castro mattresses. And as I’m, as I’m assuming that they became, that also helped their what, what’s the word I’m looking for? I’m assuming it also helps Casper’s sales by promoting specifically to podcasts because I heard them, I heard them everywhere. Yeah. So, yeah, so that’s something that you can do right now.
(10:27):
And then the cool thing about affiliates is that it’ll be there forever. And as your podcast grows, people are always going to go back and listen to episode one and two and three, and the introductory episode. Those always going to be some of your biggest hits and most popular episodes. So why not put an affiliate link in your resume episodes that way when people go back to it and listen to it, it’s still top of mind that there’s a way they can support you. Right. Also what I see a lot of people doing now, and I didn’t put it in the list, but it just came up, popped up in my head is a PayPal link or a, what else can you do? Oh, a cash app link, you know? And it just, the way that they can just send you 2010, 15, 20 bucks, if they want to or more or Patreon. Patreon is another good thing to do, but that’ll be more Patreon will be more of a, probably podcasting 201, which I’ll do tomorrow, where I’m going to teach you some things.
(11:22):
Why don’t we, he expert podcasters and current podcasters with larger audiences. Some things they can do to make a ton of money. So I think that’s it. I think that’s pretty good. So yeah. So what did I say? Affiliates, local sponsors and connecting things with your current business. So my final thoughts start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. There’s some Arthur Ashe and that’s, that’s pretty much it. You have to start somewhere and it’s always good to get in the habit of promoting yourself on your podcast and letting people know how they could sports support you.
(12:03):
So yeah, you have to start somewhere and that’s really the, especially as a podcasting 101, you know, it’s so important to have a plan when you’re beginning. All right, I’ll end it there. Thank you guys for watching today. I’m Razz, I’m the host of podcast on the go show, the podonthego SHOW and the owner of Podcast On The Go. So if you want to support the podcast, you can go to pod on go.com and find a studio near you. And if you support the industry, you’re supporting me there. You can check out some of the blog posts. You can check out some of the you can share the show, sharing the show is great. Subscribe. If you want to support the show. So, so thank you guys. I appreciate you for watching and I’ll talk to you next week. Peace out.
