How to focus on monetizing your podcast

Your podcast, your business

You have a podcast, are making fun with it, and want to make money. Well, you could do it, and this also can happen by "accident," but if you trit the podcast as a business, you will increase the chances to make money and make a good chunk of money.

Free platforms such as Anchor provide all you need for a podcast, including monetization options for free. The chance to make significant money there is slight. You better be more deliberate on monetization if you want to make it the primary source of income.

There are many ways to monetize podcasts; you can get sponsorships, sell ads, give premium content for paying listeners or get donations. You could also use the podcast as a marketing channel for selling products, lectures, courses, services, or apps and do affiliate marketing. each one of them has different requirements and different characteristics to the podcast

Monetization will affect everything.

At the start, you will choose what your business modal is and how you want to monetize the podcast. You can select multiple ways, and it's ok if you understand what it takes from you.

How many listeners do you need to monetize the podcast? You think, well, it's different for each case. If you have 1000 listeners, paying you a monthly fee for a subscription for premium content can be a high income. If you plan to sell only ads and sponsorships, 1000 is too low.

It would be best if you considered other parameters of how you will monetize the podcast. For example, if you go with sponsorship, you effectively become a marketplace that matches the sponsorships and your audience. They both need to fit so you will make money from it.

set vision and goals

After you figure out the business model, you need to set your vision for the podcast. The vision is essential since it is the lighthouse for you when you will set the podcast's goals. With that vision in mind, set a yearly goal for the podcast, where you want the podcast will be, and how it will affect your income. For example, in 12 months, you will have 1000 paying subscribers to your premium content.

The next step will be to break the main goal into small goals and milestones. What will be your goal for the next quarter, for example, 100 paying subscribers to the premium content? Break this goal into small milestones; it's much easier to guess how to get the first ten customers than 100.

plan, execute, and measure

The next step is to plan how to reach those milestones and extract from the milestones concrete tasks. Don't forget that you also need to add the routine tasks for the podcast, such as preparing for the show, inviting guests if you have any, and planning the questions for them. Put the repetitive tasks in your calendar so you will be in the habit of preparing for the show. Don't put all of the tasks in your calendar. You will lose focus in such a case.

The next step is to do the planned tasks, every day prioritize the tasks, and make sure that you are working only on these tasks. Don't dive into every shiny object that pops up every two weeks in the podcasting world. Also, remember that the plan for reaching the milestones is a guess, and you might choose the wrong path. Try Every day to recognize whether you are on the right track.

Every week measure the impact of the tasks on your goals and milestones. If you don't see any progress, you might need to break down the milestones into smaller ones. this could also be a sign that you are on the wrong path. Adjust the plan according to the results.

summary

Monetizing your podcast can give you a lot of benefits and make money from what you love to do. Take it seriously. You can set the goals, plan, do the tasks, and measure by writing them with pen and paper. You can also use a tool like goalskeeper.io to help with the process.