How do you monetize your podcast without alienating your listeners?

Understandig your niche and target audience is one of the first steps when launching a podcast. You want to think about: - What problem am I solving? - How do I want my ideal listener to feel after they have consumed one of my episodes? - How can I provide value to my listener and what makes my podcast different than the ones that are already out there?

I host a career podcast and it's essential to choose your niche and value prop. For me, I interview Recruiters to help job seekers advance past the final round interview. It's niche, and the value prop is clear. It's called "The Final Round Podcast"

Choosing a niche that you are well versed in is crucial to be able to target the right audience. You must pinpoint what you bring to the table that helps them. For example, my podcast is in the motorsports genre but I cater specifically to women in motorsports. I help them take center stage to share their stories. Most of them are not well known in the sport such as local racers that want to get their names out there.

Here are several ways to monetize a podcast: Sponsorships: You can partner with companies or brands that align with your podcast's content and audience. Advertising: You can sell ad spots in your podcast episodes to businesses or advertisers. Merchandise: You can sell merchandise related to your podcast, such as t-shirts, mugs, or stickers. Affiliate marketing: You can promote products or services related to your podcast's niche and earn a commission for each sale. Paid subscriptions: You can offer premium or exclusive content to your listeners through a paid subscription model. Live events: You can organize live shows, workshops, or meetups related to your podcast's theme and charge tickets or admission fees.

Examples include ad rolls (pre, mid, or post), affiliate links in the show notes, selling merch, or gated content behind a paywall

You can create sponsorship packages that incorporate ad spots (pre-, mid-, end-roll), social media posts with affiliate links so the partner can track conversions, and other advertising mediums. For example, in one of my sponsorship packages, I will do a live episode at the business's location no matter where they are. I will fly out to them if needed. Also, they get race car placement for every season in that same package. I have also partnered with Ladies of Motorsports Magazine and ads in their magazine are a part of every sponsorship package and I pay them for the ad space. It benefits their business and mine.

Having too many ads can be frustrating to your listeners. Keeping the ads to a minimum is important because you don't want the ads to dilute your message. Having ads and promotions that fit your niche is also beneficial because your listeners might learn about a product or service they might be interested in. It is also beneficial to the brand you are advertising as you may be bringing them some clients, making their marketing efforts successful.

You want to be consistent but not lose quality in the process. Ask your listeners what cadence/schedule they want to hear. Then react based on the audience's feebdack!

Podcasting is a great tool to connect with your audience at a deeper level. Using your social media is a great way to initially grow your podcast and have your followers consume more content from you on a different platform. Getting people from your podcast to social media is also beneficial because they would be getting more content and have the possibility to interact with you via messages. Sharing freebies and giveaways on your podcast is another great way to reward your listeners.

One way to grow your community is to encourage listener feedback and engagement. This can be done through social media, email newsletters, or even live events. By actively seeking and responding to feedback, you can build a sense of community and trust with your listeners, making it more likely that they will support your monetization efforts.

Using social media and email newsletter are great tools to be able to build a community for your podcast. For example, we use Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin to build our community and have an email newsletter that goes out 2x a week. We give an incentive where the newsletter subscribers get to listen to the podcast episodes the night before the release date so they get a VIP experience and behind-the-scenes content or news before we post on social media. We also poll on Instagram or use the questions feature at times to be more interactive and get feedback.

There is a lot of learning that goes into starting a podcast. It requires new technology and new software. If you don't have a lot of money to invest at first, then start small and build on it little by little. You can also invest your time to learn and educate yourself on how to best edit, launch, etc.

Investing in your podcast is another important way to monetize it without alienating your listeners - better audio, better retention!! You can invest in high-quality equipment to improve the production quality of your podcast, which will help to attract more listeners and make your podcast more appealing to advertisers. Additionally, investing in marketing and promotion can help to increase the visibility of your podcast and attract more sponsors.

Starting a podcast at first doesn't have to cost a ton. You can literally start a podcast with Apple headphones and a phone using a free podcasting platform of your choice. Of course, it won't be the best quality at first but the best thing to do is to start with what you have. A good mic is crucial. You want to make sure your sound is clear and crisp. As far as editing goes, if you're a mac person you can start with garageband. That is what I use when I don't hire out to an audio editor. There are courses on skillshare and other platforms that can teach you but I'm a learn as I go person. I just jumped in head first! Once you have gotten a few episodes under your belt you will get in a rhythm and figure out what works best for you.

Analyzing your podcast episodes is important to understand what type of content your audience is interested in. When you're first starting your podcast, remember that it will evolve and change with time. In the beginning phase, you are still looking to understand your niche and find your rhythm. Once you have established your voice and style, it will be a lot easier to put out episodes.

Here are some ways to test and optimize your podcast: Track your podcast metrics: Keep track of your downloads, listens, and other key metrics to gain insights into your audience and how your podcast is performing. Use audience feedback: Encourage your listeners to provide feedback and use their comments and suggestions to improve your content.

I think you missed one huge opportunity, and that is to treat your podcast like actual content and take it to video platforms, namely, YouTube! On, YouTube have the ability to market the contact based on keywords and attract an even greater audience to your contact. YouTube is the second largest search engine, website, and social media in the world. If your contact ranks based on your critical keywords there, it will also rank in search in Google. Very very important stuff if you’re really trying to blow it up!

I wanted to share some of my favorite tools that I use for my podcast Passport to Thrive. - Riverside FM to record - Audacity to edit - Anchor to distribute -Descript to turn the podcast into text - for email marketing/ social media

Biggest tip I can share - start with an audience in another medium (say on social media or a newsletter), and THEN launch a podcast. Very hard to grow since no organic reach on podcasting platforms.

I will share the tools and workflow we use: -Podbean to host the podcast -Convertkit for my email list -Whereby to record guest episodes -Garageband to edit -Quicktime to record solo episodes -Blue Yeti mic -google workspace for our calendars, email, everything -zoho bookings to schedule podcast interviews (questionnaire is provided to the guest through there) - hired a podcast manager to handle pitching guests and scheduling interviews - hired a social media manager to create all of my reels, and graphics. I provide the content to her. She manages my accounts during the hours I work my corporate job. -hired an operations manager to help run everything so I can focus on my corporate job during the day and deal with things after work