Whether you already have a podcast or are thinking of starting one, like with any business, one of the questions you should constantly ask is how to monetize your podcast. A large audience base is meaningless if your podcast doesn’t generate adequate revenue for you.
But how much do successful podcasters earn? At the top end, there is Joe Rogan, whose podcast earned around $30 million in 2019. With over 100 million downloads, Tim Ferriss has one of the highest-ranked podcasts, which earns him around $54K per episode.
If Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss sound like outliers, let’s look at others in the podcast industry who aren’t as big as these two but are still generating substantial amounts of money with significant potential for growth.
The Ramsey Show, hosted by Dave Ramsey, is expected to bring in $3.7 million in advertising revenue. The Tim Dillon Show isn’t far behind. It earns its creator close to $1.5 million every year.
Your podcast could be about anything, from true crime to gardening to naval history. If you know how to monetize your podcast, you can generate a reasonable amount of money if you apply the tactics we will discuss in this guide.
Ways to monetize your podcast in 2022
These proven methods can help not just monetize your podcast but also diversify your revenue stream and grow your business.
Seek donations
The first tactic might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many podcasters don’t do it. If you can consistently provide value to your listeners, no matter how small your audience might be in the initial stages, you can ask them for donations to sustain the show.
It’s easy, simple, and a direct way to monetize your podcast. You can request your audience to support you through PayPal or Patreon. There’s nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
Offer tiered membership
Another way to monetize your podcast is by offering membership tiers. You can give your paid members exclusive access to additional content. This also frees you from having to seek brand sponsorships.
If you already have sponsors, you can offer your paid members ad-free content. Ensure that you mention your membership tiers in all your podcasts, along with the exclusive content and other discounts the paid members will be getting.
Get sponsorships
The tried and tested method to monetize your podcast is by getting sponsors. Like with all sponsorships, you will be selling air time for sponsors’ ads. These can be pre-roll (before), mid-roll (during), or post-roll (after the episode).
There are three things you need to keep in mind before you start looking for sponsors. Your podcast needs to have a stable audience for brands to be interested in you. To put it simply, you shouldn’t seek sponsorship when you start your podcast but wait for it to form an audience.
Secondly, look for brands that would be interested in your audience. Once you segment your listeners and back them with statistics, it becomes easier for brands to partner with you. Finally, different ad placements should have different fees. The mid-roll segment is usually the most expensive since the audience is less likely to skip those ads.
Promote products
In conventional sponsorship, you allow brands to place their ads in your podcast episodes. These ads will be created by the companies, and your podcast would be the channel to reach your audience. There’s another way to monetize your podcast, and that’s through directly promoting products.
As a host, you can talk about the product and its benefits. This will seem more credible because it’s coming from an individual your audience can relate to. Importantly, this won’t disturb the flow of your episode. To do it effectively, you should ideally try out the product and speak from firsthand experience.
But you should be careful about the brands you choose to promote. Remember that they should be respectable and in alignment with the character and brand equity of your podcast.
Repurpose and sell your content
Repurposing content is an effective way to monetize your podcast. The information and insights you share on your podcast need not end with that episode. They can be transcribed as blogs, social media posts, emails, and articles.
This is why you should constantly engage with your audience through other platforms. For example, if you create an email newsletter with episode announcements and other giveaways, you can offer your repurposed content to that audience.
You can also pitch these articles to popular online publications with a link to your podcast. Along with additional revenue, this also increases your visibility and builds credibility. It might also get you invites to appear on other popular podcasts, where you can promote your podcast.
Syndicate your show to YouTube
Looking for ways to monetize your podcast? The second biggest search engine on the planet, YouTube, could be the solution you need. By repurposing your podcast into videos, you can reach a global audience that runs into billions and find numerous ways to increase your revenue.
The biggest reason for joining YouTube is that it puts your work in front of audiences who otherwise wouldn’t find you. Remember that podcasts run on different platforms that many of your potential audience members may not use. But most of them would be on YouTube.
The first step is to join the YouTube Partner Program. This will give you access to YouTube features and resources, making it easy to monetize your podcast. But among other requirements, your podcast needs to have a minimum number of subscribers and viewers for you to join the program.
Once you’re admitted into the program, these are the four ways in which you can monetize your podcast that’s now repurposed as videos on YouTube:
Advertising revenue: The platform will share with you a part of the revenue they generate from ads that are overlayed, displayed alongside, or played before or during the content you upload.
Membership: YouTube allows you to create membership tiers and charge your subscribers monthly fees for exclusive content and extra perks.
Merchandise: You can sell branded merchandise through your YouTube channel, which will create an extra income stream for your podcast.
YouTube Premium revenue: If any subscriber of YouTube Premium watches your videos, you will get a share of their subscription fee.
Sell merchandise
While YouTube allows you to send branded merchandise, you can also do it independently. For this, you need to develop a unique and interesting brand identity, including a logo, graphic elements, and artwork. You can always find qualified designers online, and there’s no need to go to a specialist design agency unless you want work of exceptional intricacy.
The next step is to get these printed on everything from t-shirts to mousepads to coffee mugs. You can find manufacturers online who will not just produce your merchandise but also take care of its shipping.
Mention your merchandise on your podcasts, website, emails, and social media channels. If you have tiered memberships, offer exclusive discounts to your paid members. The more branded merchandise you sell, the more visibility they will generate for your podcast.
Create online courses or ebooks
If your content is educational or informative, creating an online course is an effective way to monetize your podcast. And it doesn’t take a lot of effort to create one, either. You can repurpose your content into interactive videos or articles with easy-to-use advice and recommendations.
In case your content doesn’t easily translate to a course, you can create ebooks out of them. These should be easy to read and have concise information with actionable steps. The biggest advantage of a digital asset like an ebook is that you can easily scale it without having to produce additional copies.
You can market these to your listeners with special offers for paid members in case you have membership tiers. Along with your podcast episodes, you should also have shorter YouTube videos that highlight your ebooks and online courses. You can also offer them through marketplaces like Amazon to reach an exponentially large number of users.
Offer consulting services
Another way to monetize your podcast is by offering consulting services to your listeners. You should only do this once you have a minimum number of users and you have been creating content on a specific topic for a while.
Your regular content will be for all audience members. The consulting services are for those looking for customized solutions. Whether your podcast offers fitness tips or real estate investment recommendations, you can charge your listeners for personalized answers to their queries.
Ensure that you mention the successes of your current and past clients to your listeners. This offers social proof to potential clients.
In short
A podcast needn’t be a side hustle. It can be your primary income stream if you take these steps to monetize your podcast. You can start focusing on a couple of these ideas until you figure out the combination that works well for you.