3 Ways to Monetise Your Podcast
By Sng Ler Jun
Now that you are well aware of the benefits of podcasting, you may be curious about the scalability of your projects. Such is a valid concern, especially since you are looking to put in resources, effort and time to create a show. And the truth is: you can make money from making podcasts, albeit not immediately.
"Podcasting is still in its nascent stage so podcasters shouldn't expect to become instant millionaires,” cautions Mr Ronster Baetiong, Podcast Network Asia’s chief executive. However, the future for podcasting is bright so if they start now, they could become one of those podcasting veterans or OG podcasters."
For many of these podcasting veterans, the first step to raking in some form of income from podcasting is to have commitment. This translates to being consistent in churning out new episodes, having a plan, and establishing rapport or building relationships with your listeners.
Interestingly, it would be folly to dismiss how supportive the podcast industry is today. “A great hack is to cross-promote your shows with another podcast,” says Ms Anna Ratala, the founder and chief executive of Zvook, a tech platform that helps match brands with podcasts based on the right target group. “Offer to give a shout-out to another similar show on your podcast, and ask if they could do the same for you!”
But how exactly can you make money from podcasting?
The two categories of monetisations
There are two broad categories of monetisation: direct and indirect monetisation.
The former is all about how your podcast is a widely-sought after product, favoured by listeners and brands; people would pay to hear your content. Think of it as a premium subscription service where you profit from selling original and exclusive content to others.
The latter, however, is the more popular of the two and happens when you position your podcast as a platform to sell things, whether they are a service or a product, and create a demand for them — almost like an infomercial.
Read on to find out five practical strategies you can adopt to monetise your podcasts.
1. Through Ads or Sponsorships.
Ah, the two famous words from the marketing lingo. Advertising and sponsorships are likely the first few thoughts to come to mind when planning content for a podcast. You can look for sponsors through a variety of means, such as by checking out other podcasts in your locale or attending podcast festivals to scour for sponsors.
When you have secured a sponsor, you then decide to do either a “pre-roll” mention at the beginning or a “mid-roll” mention during the middle of your show. With time, as the number of listeners grow, so will the revenue.
That said, it is often easier to land a good sponsorship if you have a good podcast host (you can consider getting a reputable guest speaker) or have an established pool of listeners.
2. Create Premium Content
This is a great monetisation tool. Like a magazine subscription, listeners can choose to pay a premium to tune into a special podcast episode, one that is not available on your podcast feed. You do have to make sure that the content of this podcast episode is unique. You can consider the following:
In-depth interview with a special guest
Additional interviews with a guests or behind-the-scenes footages
Livestream the episode, where guests can see the in-person interactions between the hosts and a guest, or just the hosts themselves
Or simply, an ad-free podcast episode
An interesting trend in the industry today involves podcasters creating paid membership tiers with their listeners. Listeners subscribing to different tiers get rewarded accordingly. The perks may include letting them have the autonomy to choose the content they are willing to listen to, unique interactions with guests or hosts, and more. In fact, many content creators (YouTubers or Twitch streamers) are also using Discord to interact with their audiences.
Plus, this is a great way to build a community.
3. Repurpose your content
By now you would know that there is value in repurposing your podcasts. By turning your audio recording into an entirely different medium (a blog post, for example), you can eventually leverage these new mediums as marketing collateral too.
If you happen to have a lot of podcast episodes, you can consider turning them into an audiobook or even publishing them as a manuscript.
Ms Jamie Ng, founder and chief executive of Singapore-based podcast advertiser company MatchCasts, adds: “Some of the best podcasters treat their podcasts like a startup and their listeners as users and manage it as such. It is also important to utilize other forms of medium to drive awareness, retention and also continuous growth."
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Keen to find out more? Check out this year’s Asia Podcast Festival (1 Nov - 3 Dec 2021) where we celebrate and recognise podcast excellence in Asia. Join community conversations as we bring together only the best in the industry to discuss themes revolving around the unique landscape of podcasting in Asia. Or simply sign up for Podlab, a four-week long workshop where you get to learn from industry experts to supercharge your podcast career.
