Beginner or small-time podcasters have an opportunity to monetize each episode they publish.
While it does take some time and followers before you can start making a living, many podcasters are willing to go the distance and put in the hard work.
What To Know About Income Generation For Small-Time Podcasters:
Small podcasters with less than one year of experience can make roughly $15-$19/hour podcasting. They rely on affiliate partnerships with brands by reading ads in their shows. The site Anchor, which Spotify bought, allows podcasters to get paired with advertisers that fit their niche market
How Many Followers Do Podcasters Need To Earn Their First Check?
Podcasters can have different revenue sources; hence, the first check will depend on your available avenues.
Most podcasts and YouTube channels require at least 1,000 followers before they can properly start making money at their craft.
The first pay a podcaster would often get from affiliate links unless the podcaster was exclusively hired to do the show.
How Exactly Do Small Podcasters Make Money?
The easiest way for small or beginner podcasters to earn money is through affiliate links, a passive form of income.
Affiliate links often provide anywhere from 5% – 30% commissions for each purchase made from each purchase made through a podcaster’s exclusive link.
Beginner podcasts with over 100-500 listens or downloads might be able to negotiate a $10-$15 ad deal with a company through sites like Anchor.
More popular podcasters can get twice or even triple that amount per ad run on their podcast.
We know that podcasts like Armchair Expert make millions every year because they have millions of listeners and companies willing to have their commercials aired to those listeners.
Is It Hard To Make Money With A Podcast?
It will be a challenge for beginners to make money with podcasting, but the secret to making a living from podcasting comes from a good strategy.
Exert your efforts into promoting your podcast. It would help if you banked on your network to expand and build credibility to gain a following that brands will look into.
You will convince brands to invest in your podcast if you can prove your worth.
How Long Does It Take For Podcasters To Start Making Money?
The amount of time it takes to earn money from podcasting depends on many things:
- Fanbase
- Advertising
- Affiliate partnerships
- Consistency
Having a large fanbase that consistently shows up each week for your new episode is crucial to making money from partnerships and deals.
The more listeners you have, the more likely companies are willing to work with you. Furthermore, you are more likely to earn from sales and purchases that your listeners make with those companies.
For example, podcasters who use YouTube as their primary avenue need to get at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of views before monetizing their content.
You could start earning as early as day one if you already have a large social media following or fanbase on other platforms. This makes it easier to sign contracts with companies who want to make sure that you are a “sure thing.”
However, if you are just starting out with no fans at all, you are probably not going to make money from day one.
Does Spotify Pay Podcasters Per Stream?
Spotify pays podcasters per stream, but this only happens to select podcasters.
Usually, those podcasts have millions of listens and exclusive deals with Spotify’s platform, meaning that they won’t host episodes anywhere else.
Instead, most podcasters make money through third-party partnerships like companies that want you to read their commercials for them.
Anchor, which Spotify bought, allows podcasters to get paired with advertisers that fit their niche market or receive help from listeners.
What are the Revenue Sources that Podcasters Can Look Into?
There are plenty of revenue channels that podcasters can look into.
One would be passive sources of income, such as affiliate links, eBooks, online video courses, or even listener support through services like Patreon.
There are active sources of income, such as episode sponsorships, although these are usually done for more established podcasters.
Podcaster should mix both sources to ensure that money continuously flows into their bank accounts.
What Can Podcasters Do to Increase Their Hits and Revenue?
Podcasters need to put a little more effort into increasing their viewership and revenue.
Viewership:
Having a high viewership is essential for anyone looking to monetize their podcast.
Without proof of high viewership, it will be hard to monetize your podcast unless you’re an established personality in your target industry.
Since viewership is essential in establishing your revenue channels, you will need to market your podcast to your network. That means reaching out to your friends and colleagues on different social media networks and inviting them to listen and possibly leave a review.
You will need to keep doing this until you have a steady following.
Ideally, it would help if you looked at inching your way to the top one percent of podcasts on the internet, around 3,000 downloads per episode.
Don’t fret if you don’t get there yet; consider having milestones as you work your way there. If the reviews prove that you provide value to listeners, it becomes easier to monetize your show.
Revenue Sources:
While you work your way up to increase your listeners and downloads, you can consider other revenue sources.
The most direct revenue line here is your services. You can use your podcast to promote your lessons if you produce any courses on your niche.
Your podcast may even serve as a supplement to any product or service you already offer, such as an ebook you’re selling or if you consult or work with clients.
Aside from promoting your courses, you can sign up for affiliate marketing programs. Affiliate marketing is a good option for passive income, especially if you want to promote products or services that you like.
These products are often related to your niche, although sometimes, podcasters do affiliate marketing from sponsors.
Merchandise:
You can also look into producing merchandise that carries the brand. You can sell items your listeners are likely to use and stamp them with your branding.
These items include mugs, mousepads, shirts, or any other product that your listeners will love. Note that merchandise is also a passive income source, so take it easy to produce them.
But when you grow your listeners, the more likely you’ll get an increase in sales of your merchandise, services, and even clicks to your affiliate links.
Sponsorship:
Once you’ve established your listeners, you can expand to more massive revenue channels, particularly sponsorship.
Sponsorship offers a lot of possibilities here. Brands pay to have their products and services mentioned discussed on the show.
You can start sponsorship small, then rise through each milestone. If you have established your podcast but want to entice sponsors to put ads on your show, you can talk with well-meaning peers who add value to your podcast.
You can work out exchange deals at first to gain confidence with the sponsor and other businesses who might be interested.
Product Placements:
Once your podcasts can provide value to these businesses, you can eventually start charging for product placements. Eventually, you’ll be going from mentions to ad spots and later on actual program sponsorship.
Perhaps the pinnacle for many podcasters would be program sponsorship. Companies pay podcasters to mention these products in passing, put actual advertisements on these products, or even feature the brand as a segment or for the whole episode.
The revenue generated from these sponsorships