Episode 188. How to Monetize Your Podcast: Podcast Curious Series

 
 

In this podcast episode, we’ll explore the world of podcasting, its origins, aligned reasons for starting a podcast and how to monetize your podcast. 


The Origin of Podcasting


You’ll learn a brief history of the term "podcast," explaining that it's a combination of "broadcast" and either "play on demand" or "portable on demand." 


Statistics on Podcasting


You’ll hear some statistics about the podcasting industry, specifically that approximately 90 million Americans are weekly podcast listeners, and the industry is projected to have over 100 million listeners in 2024.


Why to start a podcast


In this episode, we emphasize the importance of creating podcast content for the joy of it, rather than just for monetary gain. Nichole encourages listeners not to make money the primary goal when starting a podcast, as passion and authenticity are crucial for sustainability.

The episode then delves into the various reasons why someone might want to start a podcast, including sharing a message, enjoying conversations, diversifying marketing channels, avoiding platform restrictions, and going deeper into topics.

  • To share an important message with the community.

  • Enjoyment of talking and having conversations.

  • Diversifying marketing channels beyond social media.

  • Not being bound by platform rules.

  • Appreciation for audio-based content.

  • The desire to provide a better podcast experience.

  • The opportunity to go deeper into topics.



How to monetize a podcast 


The second half of the episode focuses on how to monetize a podcast. Nichole discusses methods such as advertisements, sponsorships, partnerships with aligned brands, becoming the face or voice of a brand's podcast, using calls to action to promote one's own services and programs, and most importantly, the power of authenticity and connection. Nichole suggests that by being true to oneself in the podcast, one can attract the right audience and, in turn, monetize the podcast effectively.

  • Advertisements and Sponsorships - Discusses placing paid ads and sponsorships in podcasts.

  • Sponsorships and Partnerships - Collaborating with aligned brands for sponsorships.

  • Being the Face or Voice of a Brand - Becoming the voice or face of a brand's podcast.

  • Calls to Action - Using the podcast to promote your own services, offers, and programs.

  • Authenticity and Connection - The host's favorite way to monetize, by being genuine and attracting dream clients through the podcast.


The episode concludes with a reminder not to lead with the goal of making money, and instead, prioritize genuine and meaningful content creation. 

Stay tuned for the next episode, which will address when to DIY podcasting and when to outsource podcast production.


Ways to work with Nichole Joy:

 
 

Subscribe to the show:

iTunes

Google

Spotify

Stitcher

Transcript:

Now let's get into the episode this week. So I have a couple of episodes that are coming out right now that are this podcast, curious series. And so I posted actually on my personal Facebook page asking people what were your questions ? About starting your own podcast, if that's something that's been on your soul for some time, that you wanna be able to express yourself, get your message out beyond social media.

What are the things that come up for you? What are your questions? And as I went through the questions, it was really enlightening and some of them were added to the curriculum for the program that I'm gonna be teaching starting this October. And then some of the questions I felt like were a little bit more appropriate to answer on the podcast because I feel like.

There are certain questions that , the answers to which will help you decide whether or not podcasting is correct for you.  And this week's podcast, curious series kickoff. 

We are discussing how to monetize a podcast. Before we get into that, I wanna start with a basic history of the Word podcast. What is podcast  the definition? When I did a little bit of research, what it came from was this idea of broadcasting, right? It's a broadcast of an audio blog.

And the pod piece, the p o d, at the beginning of podcasting, depending on who you ask, the origin was either play on demand or portable on demand and concept being , it's portable on demand, or play on demand audio blogging or a broadcast.

and my dad, who, when I first told him I had a podcast four years ago, he's like, what is a podcast? The way I explained it to him in English is his second language. So I had to try to, um, explain it. You know, very simply is, it's very much like a radio station where there aren't necessarily commercials and we don't play music.

Right. It's kind of like voice radio or talk radio, but it's your own station. It's your own show.

I also found a couple of really interesting statistics in regards to podcasting. As of right now, the estimate. Is that 90 million Americans are weekly podcast listeners

the industry expects significant growth this year and beyond,

and the projection as of right now is a hundred million plus listeners in 2024.

In the United States .

So before we start talking about how to monetize your podcast, I wanna share something actually that my daughter that was very inspired by my daughter. So one of my children is very known to leave these little love notes and little drawings. She likes to write and draw and color and make pictures, and she leaves these little love notes for me in my bathroom or in my office, and it's really cute.

I stumble into work. Work at my home office in the morning sometimes, and I'll find these little gifts that she leaves behind. So she left something in my bathroom counter last week and it was. Very inspiring and inspired part of the message behind this podcast. So if you're listening and not watching on video, .

, she made this   drawing that says, I love to make stuff. And there's just like little doodles and coloring and drawing it On the back it says to dad and mom, and I thought that was really fascinating because. Through the eyes of a child. They make things for the sake of making them.

They make it because they find joy, they find pleasure, they find it fun to make things just for the sake of fun and play. And I think it's so interesting how. Somewhere along the line, we lose track of that as we become adults and we pick up a lot of conditioning in the world, we start to, um, not all of us, but some of us start to be conditioned to believe that the only reason we should be making or doing things, particularly when it comes to our business, are vocation.

Is for the sake of money. And so there's nothing wrong with asking how to monetize a podcast. I believe that yes, compensation and fair exchange makes sense when you're doing things in your business. And also, I feel like if that is the primary reason that you wanna start a podcast is to make money, maybe don't start a podcast , if anything that you are creating or doing for your business is primarily for the sake of money, I don't think it's gonna be sustainable. You will run out of steam because things that we're doing in creating in our businesses require energy and they require, um, our attention and capacity to hold this thing and to bring it to fruition.

And in order to do that, If money is the only driver, you can quickly lose steam. So while I wanna talk about how to monetize a podcast, I don't want that to be the primary goal here. And I also wanna share a quick personal story since I brought up my dad in the beginning of the episode, the same day that I was explaining to him.

What a podcast is and how I launched a podcast. His first question to me was, oh, how do you get paid for that? How much money do you get paid for that? And it was. Very innocent. Right? And also kind of cute because I'm like, well, that's not actually actually how that works, particularly in the beginning, right?

When you're starting your first podcast in the beginning, chances are you might not have sponsorships right away. You might not be monetizing right away, and that's okay. So I'm, what I'm asking of you is to shift into a different mindset about why you want to start a podcast. So my very first. Point on monetizing your show is why not to start a podcast, not to start it, if that's the primary goal.

And again, this applies to whether it's starting a podcast, creating a digital course, creating some group program, , or any of the other things that you've been considering putting together for your business and for your community.

The other thing about that is we can feel when money is the primary motivator for somebody that is offering us something or selling us something. You know the difference when you walk into a store, . You can probably think right now of two different stores that you shop at pretty regularly and two different people that you tend to see there pretty consistently.

Maybe different stores, different people, but perhaps they both work on commission. You know the difference between the person who is like forcing all of these things down your throat that you know damn well or not giving when you put them on. It's the dress that doesn't do anything for your, uh, complexion.

It's the shoes that look god awful with that outfit and you know the difference when they're pushing the. Stuff and pushing the product just for the sake of making a profit, versus the person who puts intentional items in your dressing room before you step in, or brings very intentional guidance and support when they're guiding you and helping you, and assisting you in finding the outfit that is giving.

There is a difference, and I know you can feel the difference when you walk into the fitting room and they have intentionally created a space where all of these items feel like you. They look like you, and they have actually made an effort. Even if they're on the same exact commission structure, there's a difference and we can feel it.

So when you turn around and look at it the other way, your community can feel it when you're putting something out strictly for money. Now, does that mean I don't want you to earn money off your podcast? No, of course not. I want you to earn money. Money allows us to do really great things. Money allows us to help in bigger ways.

I just don't want us to get into a space of leading with how to monetize my show. now that we got the why not to start a podcast out of the way,  

let's talk about the various reasons why a podcast may be a really helpful tool in helping  you express your business mission throughout your life. One, you have an important message that you wanna share with your community two you.

Enjoy talking and having conversations.

Three. You wanna diversify your marketing channels and go beyond social media.

Four. As part of that, you don't wanna be bound to Zuckerberg's rules. Five. Maybe you enjoy listening to audio blogs or podcasts or audiobooks, and you really find this medium to be incredibly helpful.

Number six. You may have listened to a shitty podcast and you feel like you might be able to do it better and or your community needs to hear your way of navigating this so that it'd be helpful and by a shitty podcast. If you listen to episode 184 on shitty books and courses, you'll know what I'm talking about here.

And seven, if you'd like to go deep, if you'd like to go deep in having these conversations and sharing messages with your community, something that an Instagram caption for example, will not allow you to do. There is a limit on the number of characters that you can write on any given Instagram caption.

And I know this because when I do write captions, I far exceed the 2200. Character limit, and I find myself continuing the message in the comments, and I still feel like, but there's so much nuance to this. There's so much more I wanna explain and a podcast allows you to do that. It allows you to go deeper.

Even in IG reels, you have a 90 second cap in YouTube shorts, which is kind of comparable to IG reels. You have 60 seconds.  . I have a lot more to say about a given topic than 60 or 90 seconds will allow.
Now let's transition to talking about how to monetize your podcast.

Number one is pretty straightforward, pretty well known, and I think we've all heard of ads and sponsorships.

So if you're gonna be video casting and putting your podcast on YouTube, for example, which I do know if you reach a certain number of views or a certain number of minutes viewed, I don't even know the criteria anymore. I don't think that I qualify yet. So it will take some time perhaps. But knowing that in the future if you reach a certain number of YouTube views, you can start to get paid for ads being placed within your videos.

Now, if it's on your actual show and it's on the audio podcast that goes out to, let's say Spotify or Apple or iHeart, you can actually have paid ads and sponsorships placed wherever inside of your show. And these are things that you would, uh, work out and make an agreement with brands that pay to have commercials, for example, inside of your show.

And there may be a unique link that you share with your community that earns you income.

An example that I've used on my podcast is as follows on HoneyBook. HoneyBook is a C R M system. So  I'll show you an example of what that looks like with HoneyBook right now.

 Okay. Number two is sponsorships and partnerships with aligned brands. So this is a little bit different than like an ad or commercial break. This might be something that this podcast is sponsored by blank. They're very similar. . So another example is the birth worker retreat.

When we start having sponsorships for the birth worker retreat, certain levels of sponsorship, will be able to have a sponsored by blurb on our podcast, myself and the other co-hosts. So that's something that you'd like to talk about and you tend to provide services or other offers for birth workers.

Reach out to me so we can talk about you sponsoring the Birth worker retreat this January.

Number three. This is something we don't talk about and we don't hear about that often, but it's out there as you might be the face and or voice of a brand. So I once had a company who, uh, we did a couple of collaborations together and they were looking for a new voice and face of their podcast. It didn't end up working out 'cause the logistics just weren't, they weren't correct.

But knowing that that's an option, if there's a particular brand  that you tend to work with quite a bit and they are looking at launching a podcast, that may be something  that could work really well for you and your business.

Number four, calls to action for your services, your offers, your programs. So you'll see in the beginning of my shows I do announcements and those are often things that I have coming up. It's to let you know what's coming up. It's to let you know the ways that you can go deeper and work with me in various ways.

Via my own CTAs on my own podcast, my own calls to action. I could also sponsor my own show. And I've done this in the past where like this episode is sponsored by the podcasting course. The link is in the show notes, and that's fine. I can sponsor my own show.

And by far, this is my absolute favorite way to monetize your podcast. Be yourself, be as you as you can be. ' when you do that, you are attracting your dreamy clients, the  people who you are a perfect match for the people that you are here to help and support along their journey.

When you show up and speak your truth and speak from your heart, speak from your soul, and you pour yourself into your show. Your aligned people will find a way to work with you. They will sort through your show notes. They will find your website. They will look at all the things you have going on. They will look for a way to reach out to you to see what you're offering right now, where they can go on their journey with you, or they can take their next steps in their journey with you.

When you do that and you're emitting your. Frequency into somebody's ear for five minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, however long your shows are

and you're match. They will find a way to open up dialogue with you and get in your dms and see if they can work with you.

It's happened to me multiple times where I will get on a 30 minute free consult, call that initial discovery call to see how I can help somebody. I don't talk on those calls almost always, when somebody has listened to my podcast and they get on those calls with me, they'll say, I feel like I already know you because I listened to your podcast, and then I know that I've done my job correctly and all I have to do in those 30 minutes is

Listen to them. I wanna hear about them. I wanna hear about you, your business, what are the things that you're working on? What are the things that you're building? . And then at the end, I will generally share the ways that I think I can best help you. Whether that's an opportunity to work with me, a course that I have, or referring you to a particular person or company where I think you'll be best served.

And the beautiful thing about this is it allows us to show up as our true self to Decondition and to go through this process of peeling off the layers that we've picked up throughout our lives of how we're supposed to be, how we're supposed to show up online, and how we're supposed to be as a business owner and actually just be ourselves.

It is not a brand that we are creating. I am not creating myself as a brand. I am being the brand. I am me and I am the brand. So the more I allow myself to publicly on the podcast be myself, the better I connect with the correct people.

I hope you enjoyed this episode . Stay tuned for the next episode in the podcast Curious series where I will be answering more questions about  the correct time to d i y? And when is the correct time to outsource your podcast? Enjoy.

podcastGuest Userpodcast, online marketing, business coach, spiritual business coach, business mentor, mompreneur, mompreneur mentor, mompreneur coach, online business podcast, business podcast, doula, birth worker