- Host Read Ads
When you close your eyes and imagine yourself as a successfully podcaster this is surely what comes to mind. If you listen to podcasts you will notice most of your favorites do plenty of ad breaks and promo codes. If your podcast is getting in the 10’s of thousands of downloads per episode you can most likely get an advertising agency (a.k.a. Melrose Podcasts) to find brands that your audience might like. They typically will pay you based on your average downloads or CPM (the amount an advertiser pays per one thousand visitors). Even though you are getting a set amount to run this ad these brands will still give you a unique promo code to give your audience in order to track the performance of your campaign, this will determine whether or not they will renew your ads. If you are getting 10’s of thousands of listens per episode we recommend being on IAB compliant podcast host. It is normal for advertising agencies to take take anywhere from 15%-30% of the ads they sell for you depending on your weekly downloads.
- Dynamic Baked-In Ads
There are several reasons why a podcast would not have host read ads. You may not want your audience to hear you promoting brands, you may not have enough weekly downloads for them to be worth your while. You may have put out a bonus episode that week so you hadn’t sold any host read ads. Many podcast hosts will now plug in lower CPM ads that have already been pre-recorded right into your episode. Although in most cases these have a significantly lower CPM it can still ad up to be significant money if you get many downloads. The other nice thing about baked in ads is you can continue to earn money from your episodes long after your host read ad campaign has expired. Hosts typically take a higher percentage of these baked in ads, usually 40-50%.
- Subscriptions
Apple, Patreon, YouTube, Instagram, all have features for creators to charge their fans for exclusive content. This can mean several things, a weekly bonus episode or content, early access to your episodes, exclusive live streams or merch, access to your earlier episodes that aren’t included on the free feed, or offer them nothing at all just a way to donate to the show. You can set your monthly subscription to whatever price you would like and have different tier subscriptions with different offerings.
- Selling Your Own Product or Service
While all the above ways of monetizing your podcast are fantastic if your podcast is getting 10’s of thousands of listeners most podcasts get less than a 100 listeners. Even if your podcast is getting just hundreds of downloads it is still possible to make significant income with a podcast by offering a service. For example if you make or sell custom furniture and have a furniture podcast one sale could mean thousands of dollars.
