5 Ways to Make Money From Your Podcast

Casey Combest: Starting a podcast can be really fun and really rewarding, but it also can be a great way to create revenue for yourself and your business. Today, I'd like to talk to you about the five ways to create revenue through podcasting.

First, sponsorship and advertising. So many times our podcast will align really beautifully with a bigger brand. Giving that brand access to your audience and to your hard earned audience that you have worked really tirelessly to serve can be a really profitable thing. Giving them a 30 second ad spot at the beginning or a name sponsorship can show that not only do you trust that brand, but your clients and your customers should too.

Number two, affiliate marketing. While we don't have a whole lot of firsthand experience with this, early on in podcasting, so many big shows got started with affiliate marketing. They might have a link on their website that says, click this link to redirect to Amazon so that they get a percentage of whatever you purchased that day, or if they've referred you to a product or a service, they'll get that same referral. Affiliate marketing is a wonderful way to grow your podcast revenue.

The third way would be paid subscriptions. When Apple rolled out their new paid subscription model a few years ago, we were really, really excited. Now, we haven't seen a whole lot of larger brands really take advantage of this feature in Apple's podcast. We do still see a lot of brands take advantage of things like Patreon, where someone can sponsor a show for exclusive content or behind the scenes footage or something that's a little special outside of the public facing show.

Number four, merchandise. So many times, podcasts have a great name and people really do wanna support you, but they're really not sure how to, if you haven't made something available, having t-shirts, coffee mugs, or something else. It's a great way to allow your supporters to financially support your show.

Number five, courses and coaching. A lot of times podcast is sort of the thing that leads the way for a brand to really start and lead into their coaching and courses. Sometimes people see that they want to do some type of coaching or courses, but then they decide, "Hey, let's do a podcast to drive that revenue." no matter where you are in the process, a podcast can really help filter into your courses and coaching, and as well as courses and coaching can help grow your podcast.

And I would add this as a bonus. So many times we think of, Hey, we've gotta pay for the show. We've gotta pay for our time on this podcast. But a lot of times the real revenue driver is selling what you already sell and selling more of it. Because you spent time to garner the trust of an audience and build that audience. They know your voice, they know your passion behind what you do and when they're ready to. They're gonna buy from you. So remember, the best way to drive revenue when you're looking at growing your podcast is through selling more of what you already sell.