This episode is a Q&A episode with questions from you about podcasting. In Episode 32, Brett asked for questions and you delivered. The first podcast Q&A episode focused on how a podcast could help your business, how you can use it as pillar content for all the content you create for your brand, and a bit of discussion about video podcasts vs. audio only.
Can You Make Money From Podcasting?
Short answer, yes. You absolutely can make money podcasting, but it takes time. Basically, it comes down to success and popularity for your podcast. You need to have a “flexible plan,” that defines how you will build and serve a community by focusing on topics at the intersection of your expertise and their interest.
You will also need to consider the format of your podcast, which includes presentation, frequency, and runtime. Will your podcast be hosted by you, solo? Will you have guest hosts for a conversation? Will you interview other people? Planning your podcast will also determine a frequency that best serves that intended audience. Whether daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly, your podcast episodes must come out when you say they will. In addition to planning the frequency, you’ll probably need to establish a general runtime. This can vary from a very short (and usually very frequent) episode length of just a few minutes to ridiculously long-form episodes that last hours.
Like in life, there is no overnight success in podcasting. Even celebrities new to the medium need to prove that they can produce episodes consistently.
How Do You Make Money Podcasting?
The most prevalent revenue method for free podcasts are to include advertisements and sponsorships into the content of the show. Ads aren’t going away anytime soon, because they benefit creators of all size, though it benefits the more popular creators than the smaller ones. Podcast patrons are probably the higher revenue option than advertising for creators that are smaller in size. People like to exhibit who they are through what they like, and merchandise for a podcast is no different than a band or tv show. In other episodes of the podcast and on social media, I’ve pointed to the exclusive deals inked by Spotify a lot. Finally, joining a network is another way to make money through podcasting.
What’s the Difference Between Open, Closed, and Free Podcasts?
Free podcasts are pretty self-explanatory. It doesn’t cost anything monetary to listen to them, and they are the largest type of podcast, because of how easily distributed digital audio content is and has been. Anyone can publish or listen to an open podcast. They are based on and distributed through RSS technology. The Michelle Obama Podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, and others that are Spotify exclusives are closed podcasts.
How Do You Distribute Your Podcast?
Today, distributing a podcast is much easier than it used to be. Often, the hosting service you’ve chosen for your podcast does the heavy lifting by creating the RSS feeds, pushing them to the various outlets. Setting up for the major players like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify are only a couple mouse clicks and a copy and paste away. Once you set up to have the feeds distributed to the various apps and platforms, nothing else is required on your part. With each new episode, a podcast creator shares by adding the episode to the feed.
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