There is no shortage of potential income streams for your podcast. But rather than telling you all the things you could try, how about some real-world case studies from ten successful independent podcasters?
Our recent survey suggested that only 1 in 4 indies monetize their content, despite the majority of them wanting to build some income streams.
So, on this episode of Podcraft, we’re going to dig into the monetization methods and strategies that have actually worked for our IndiePod Legends, as well as the many that haven’t!
Transcription: Podcast Income Stream Lessons
The aim here is to show that while some revenue streams are a good fit for some, they don’t work so well for others. We’ll also answer questions like:
WHEN should you try to monetize?
What are some great on-ramps for smaller podcasts?
Can monetizing your content hamper your creativity?
Meet Our Indiepod Legends
“Download numbers don’t matter when it comes to trying to sell ad space. There’s that podcast industry standard of, like, you have to have 10,000 downloads to even think about getting partnerships. Well, we dispelled that myth pretty quickly, and I think more people are catching on to it.”
“I’ve been going all the years on Patreon, and I’ve never cashed the money in. I thought it was going into my bank account, but because it’s only small amounts, I didn’t really keep track of it. And then a couple of weeks ago, Patreon wrote to me saying I’d got $2,000 stacked up in the account, and I thought Christmas had come early.”
“It’s very rare that I reach out to someone and say, hi, this is what I do, and I want you to spend money on my podcast. It’s a little bit more organic. It’s more about relationship building.”
“Be patient. Don’t quit your day job. Wait. Give value until you can’t give any more. Then ask. Because when you do that, the amount of money, the amount of people that want to provide value back to you is so much exponentially greater. And so just be patient.”
“…and she had sent over a package of candles because I’d been spending money with her. So I made her the sponsor, and so she ended up working with me. She gave me a really nice promo code for listeners, so when they buy from her they can get 20% off their candles. And so I feel like that’s probably a direction that I would prefer to go.”
“I look at it as monetization will come, because I’m building a following. I’m now in the position where my host enables me to carry ads on my podcast, which really just kind of lowers my hosting bill each month. So I don’t get much monetization that way, but it’ll come. Little things are starting to happen.”
“It’s not that I wanted to put all my eggs in the Patreon basket, but it’s really that I’ve not found anything better than Patreon. I’m fine to stay with it. In theory, I’d love to have multiple revenue streams along those subscription lines, but it just hasn’t happened.”
“But so far, brands have come to me and said, hey, we have this product, we’d love to get it in front of new people, can we sponsor your podcast? And so that’s usually how the conversation has gone so far. I’m very mindful of it, though, because I don’t particularly enjoy, like listening to ads, and I especially don’t enjoy the shows that have a ton of ads. I want it to be beneficial for my sponsors, so keep them very, very minimal. And so that has worked well for me in the past. It really just covers the cost of producing the show.”
Andrea – The Mindful Marketing Podcast
“It’s been interesting to be approached by businesses who just want to explore producing new types of content. And it isn’t just about social media. People are starting to realize that social media moves so quickly and algorithms are so volatile and temperamental that investing time and effort into more in depth and high quality content is something they really want to do. And podcasts, I think, are just at the cusp of being that medium that offers that as a marketing message, which is really, really exciting.”
Originally posted on August 19, 2024 @ 9:24 am