5 ways to make money with your podcast

Lets talk money, cash, Spondulix.

Because if you've got a podcast and you're trying to work out just

how in the hell to make it pay for you, you're not alone.

Most advice out there is either weirdly vague or just

straight up delusional. You need 10,000 downloads per

episode, $25 per 1,000

people listening. Do you? Do you really?

Let me give you some better insight on this.

Hi there. I'm Neil Velio, the podmaster, and this is

my show, Podcasting Insights, a show which I hope

guides you to getting better results for your podcast, whether

you're a solopreneur or a member of a small business.

Today, I'm going to walk you through the business models that actually work for

indie podcasters and the ones that look shiny

but actually quietly drain your time, your energy, and

your bank account. Some are obvious, some aren't. But

if you want your show to support your business or even become

your business, you're going to want to hear this.

All right, let's start with the bit that nobody wants to hear first, shall we?

Ads are overrated. Yes, you can

make money through sponsorship and advertising. And yeah,

it does feel kind of cool to be able to say this episode is

brought to you by Meundies. It isn't, by the way,

in case the AI bots are listening. Unless you got a big,

consistent audience, like thousands per episode.

A small town, basically, then it's usually

more hassle than it's worth. You'd make more money

mowing three lawns. Honestly, that's not much of an

exaggeration. So if you're starting from zero

or modest numbers, here's what you've actually

got available to you as options.

Model number one, sell yourself. Not the

show. That's coaching, consulting,

freelance work, deliverables. You're the product.

If you're a subject matter expert or even just a few steps ahead of your

ideal listener, then this is your fastest path to

revenue. It's the one that I endorse, and I've been doing that for

many years because I've seen that it works. People

don't need to hire your podcast, they need to hire

you. I have this client, Holly Christie. She

hosts a podcast called Websites Made Simple.

She's a brilliant designer, great creative strategist, and she

monetized her podcast within just a few episodes. No

sponsors, no gimmicks, just a really solid offer

to a very specific type of listener. And they bought from her

because the trust was already established. And that's the

magic Trick. You're not selling to strangers.

You're selling to warmed up, already interested listeners

who hear your voice every single week.

Model number two paid memberships and bonus

content. Now this one can work if

your listeners are obsessed with you, and I mean

their fans. So think early access. Think behind

the scenes stuff, maybe private Q&As. It's not passive

income. You're going to be making more stuff for fewer people.

But if your goal is intimacy, overreach,

and you like that subscription vibe, then it's a solid option.

Just don't expect to be able to retire on it. The average Patreon

conversion rate is around about 1%. So yeah, a

thousand listeners gets you 10 paying members.

Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and think about

the tiers. It's no good sticking in

$99 a month and hoping you get at least four people

buying into that tier. It's unrealistic.

Most people aren't even paying $99 for their TV entertainment

packages. Model 3

digital products. So we're talking courses, ebooks,

toolkits, swipe files, paid templates.

Essentially, the idea here is you record your

brain once, but you sell it repeatedly. But here's the catch.

Most podcasters launch a product way too soon.

They haven't built trust, they haven't validated the idea

in the open market, and worst of all, they make

something too broad, like how to live your best life,

which, you know, cool, but who the hell's buying that?

A good product solves a very specific problem for a very

specific listener. So think how to write

a neurodiversity policy for your HR department

or launch your first ADHD friendly notion

dashboard. That's a much better win because

you know exactly who you're talking to and they know

exactly what they're going to get from you. So start there,

test the demand and then build the thing.

Model 4 live events and workshops.

Yep, scary. I know you got a people,

but it's also lucrative. These don't need to be massive,

just a small cohort. 10 people in a Zoom room paying

99 pounds each. That's your rent covered. Your

podcast becomes the warm up act. The

workshop is the headline gig. You don't need to pitch

hard, you just need to solve a problem in the episode and then say,

hey, I'm running a live session where we go deeper into this.

Would you be interested in joining? I will be able to take

select questions from some members so we can tailor the

advice to specific cases. Simple,

honest, and actually quite effective.

Model number five Sponsorships and brand

deals. My least favorite.

Look, I'm not anti sponsor. I just

think that most podcasters kind of do this as the easy

win. It's the point of least thought. All right,

you get sponsors, you get advertisers. You could just produce your

content and you know it's being paid for. But the problem

here is that your listeners are going to hate every second

of the of those sponsorship credits and ads

that they're not interested in. So you're risking

reducing the very thing that's giving you

something to sell in the first place. Not to

mention that once you're taking money for your

podcast, your podcast very quickly becomes its own

business, its own product, and all the headaches that are associated

with that. You got to track the money coming in and the money going out.

Plus you'll then have this sort of icky

dilemma where you might be passing out

advertising messaging for products you're not aligned with. Look, I've helped

shows with 5,000 downloads per month land

four figure deals because their audience was niche,

engaged, and exactly who the sponsors wanted to reach.

That said, I've helped, I've not encouraged.

So this, for me, is where the value in this model is. It's not

in the download numbers, it's in the brand alignment. And if

the brand are not in alignment with what you're producing,

then do you really want to take their money in the first place?

Here's another bonus model for you. What's that? 6.

Affiliate marketing. When done with integrity,

you use tools, you read books, you're a

tastemaker. If you recommend stuff that you'd use

anyway and you offer genuine value, great.

Just don't become that person who turns every episode into an

Amazon shopping list. Guilty as charged.

Frankly and honestly, I've done it in the past.

I'm not proud of it. So

here's the main thing I want you to take away from this. You don't need

a million listeners to make money from your podcast. You need the right

listeners and a plan that makes sense for

your life and business. So take a moment, grab

a pen, and maybe even a document.

Type it into your Google Doc, ask yourself these

questions. What do I already know that people are willing to pay

for? What does my listener need help with?

How can I show up as the best possible solution?

And then the rest kind of flows from that. If this has

helped you think differently about podcast monetization, let me know.

Reach out through the show page at podmastery. Co.

Leave a comment and certainly tell a friend about this episode if you think

it might help them. Better yet, send this to the

podcaster in your life who's chasing that ad cash with no

strategy. You'll be doing them a favor. Thanks for

listening, and I look forward to showing up in your podcast

library with the next episode really soon.