Hi there I run a website on video games and it was doing great, good traffic and earnings etc. I also started a weekly podcast on it about 2.5 months ago, and it is really taking off, we get about 3,000 downloads within 5 days after each podcast and the number grows higher each week. We are also steadily climbing within the various podcast lists within iTunes. The problem is how do I monetize the podcast? It is getting to the stage where it takes quite a bit of setup time, writing, preparation etc etc. I know how to monetize websites OK, but a podcast is a whole new medium for me and I am a little lost. Is my cast even big enough yet that I would be able to monetize it? Do some companies specialize in podcast monetization? Where would you suggest I start? Anyone I should contact? Basically any help is appreciated! Thanks!
I ran across Paul Colligan's blog which is devoted to "examining the reality of profitable podcasting." On doing a further search of Paul's appearances, I found some show notes from his presentation at the Portable Media & Podcast Expo on Jason Van Orden's blog. Jason is a self-professed "Podcasting Consultant and Expert." And indeed, there is a lot of other useful content on his site. Anyway, Jason outlined some tips from Paul's presentation, "Seven Proven Strategies to Monetize Your Podcast." They are as follows: Donations Tell them how much to give you Suggest to them something to buy for you (Cali Lewis, GeekBrief.tv asks for the Ramen Noodle fund) Newsletter Revenue Clicks are much easier to monetize than podcast audio Start an email newsletter Paul emailed to his audience this morning which resulted in a $1,500 affiliate commission Give them a reason to subscribe Send them regular updates (weekly if you can) Merchandising Sell physical products and/or virtual information products T-shirts: test using cafepress.com then move to somewhere that will give you more profit margin Be creative: Keith and the Girl sells the top 10 spots on their MySpace friends page Premium Podcasting Give some content for free, sell the rest of the content Sell the bonus/extra content Sell your podcast (PremiumPodcasting.com or wordcast.audible.com ) Commissioned Sales: Join affiliate programs. Use the affiliate links on your page. Use links in your show notes. Web Clicks Make a site worth coming to. Use monetizing clicks in your RSS feed content too. Use transcripts of your shows to get indexed in google. Use this content to monetize with ads (AdSense) and affiliate programs. For transcripts: www.castingwords.com Secret weapon: www.hittail.com Monetization Rule #1: Podcasts don't make real money -- clicks make money. -- For what it's worth...