Want the full audio interview? Tune in to hear Episode #37 Turnkey Podcast, How to Monetize a Podcast NOW! hosted by Doug Sandler and guest and podcast coach Michael Neeley.
Michael Neeley, host of Consciously Speaking launched his first podcast in October of 2014 and barely knew what a podcast was, let alone what intentions he had for his. After 500 plus episodes he 100% knew thought that there was potential here. He took down his podcast, hired a coach, and relaunched. It took him 4 to 5 months to start making money.
Doug Sandler thought most of his money was going to come from advertising and sponsorships, but that is the source of the smallest amount of revenue for the show. Seventeen months after launching Nice Guys on Business, he and Strickland had made about $500 on the show, not a very good ROI. And then, he began to introduce podcasting to people and sell his coaching and Strickland’s audio engineer skills to them.
Monetizing your podcast can be a hard thing to do if you are big on ideas but short on ACTION. Where do you even start, and how do you go about it? Your first step is figuring out what you plan on selling. The second one is figuring out what type of client is a good fit for you.
For Michael, it’s what he’s described as a “solopreneur.” — someone who is the face and name of their business, even if they have a team. They generally have interesting topics to discuss and make great guests on his show.
After you’ve introduced them to your community, you need to find out what they need to work on. Ask what’s currently stopping them from reaching the next level. Michael listens for key phrases like ‘lack of exposure’, ‘not enough clients’, ‘lack of authority’, and ‘too much time selling and not enough time delivering’.
Seth Greene, host of SharkPreneur, would interview CEOs from major companies and at some point ask them, if they could play golf anywhere in the world, where would they play and whom would they play with. They’d say something like “St Andrew’s with Bradley Cooper.” After the interview, he’d send a gift, and in response, the interviewee would say thanks. And then he’d say, “Hey, if I could set you up to play golf at St Andrews with Bradley Cooper for $100,000 would you be interested?”. Of course, they’d agree. He’d set it up and still make a profit, all without hitting any pain points for their client. Just figuring out what it is they wanted and going from there.
If you have a service to provide and can offer it to a guest or potential client based on choice phrases used during the interview. Getting through to prospective guests and turning them into clients may seem difficult, but it really isn’t. To begin, connect with them through email, LinkedIn, or other types of social media. If you get the chance, go straight up to them in person. Being on the show is mutually beneficial to both your guest AND to you as well. Doug has set up a preliminary application geared toward finding out if they’d be a good guest for the show. But people aren’t applying to be guests, they’re applying to be clients. He asks them if they’ve ever considered launching their own podcast and other leading questions. He’s created a funnel, and this is a strategy that has made Turnkey Podcasts hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Michael has enough guests to take him through to 2021, so he has a guest fee for one of his podcasts. You have a business to run. Monetize it in every way you can.
Filter your guests into one of three categories. One, are they building your bank. Two are they growing your community. Or three, are they building your influence? Not everyone is going to build your bank, and you don’t have to monetize every guest. Think out of the box.
If you’re getting more clients from being a guest on other shows, consider joint ventures with podcasters who offer similar services as you. There’s enough business for everyone, this doesn’t have to become a competition.
Other ways to monetize your podcast are affiliate marketing and freebies and write-offs. Affiliate marketing falls under the category of sponsorship, except you get paid based on what sells. Depending on what your podcast is about, you can get freebies and industry write-offs. For Michael and JJ Flizanes, hosts of Something to Wine About, all wine tasting is free, and they get about 30% off on all the wines they buy.
The last thing to be said on this topic is that it’s important to exercise patience regardless of the monetization strategy(s) you decide to put into play. Success is coming. You just have to stay in the game long enough. The Turnkey team of Podcastologists are here for you. We’re happy to figure out an action plan with you. If you’d like more information, visit www.turnkeypodcast.com.