Podcast Monetization Secrets

Ever wondered why so many people who start a podcast never really get any ROI on it?

Today, I'm sharing a little known, but incredibly simple framework that will set you apart from your competition and better yet, just by following the framework you will probably own your niche in a very short amount of time.

So what is this secret framework I'm referring to? I call it the Rule of 100.

The Rule of 100 just says that when you undertake anything new in your business, you will not stop that activity until you've done it 100 times.

Want to start emailing your list on a regular basis? Don't stop until you have created 100 emails. It doesn't matter what the stats say once you get started. You're only interested in looking at results after 100 emails. Nothing matters before then.

Ready to start a podcast? In following The Rule of 100, you're now committed to 100 episodes. And nothing in the world will stop you until you publish 100 episodes.

If you don't think this matters, just try implementing The Rule of 100 for your next endeavor. I guarantee that following this rule will have a positive impact on your business.

So why is The Rule of 100 so powerful? Let's first take a look at the finer points of this rule. 

The Rule of 100 states that if you spend 100 hours a year, which is 18 minutes a day - in any discipline, you'll be better than 95% of the world, in that discipline

1. By the time you've done something 100 times, or spent 100 hours doing it, you've probably outlasted all of your competition who quit when they didn't see results after the first week.
2. As the rule states, by the time you've done 100 hours or 100 repetitions of a task, you've learned from all your mistakes and failures and you're very likely gong to be better than 95% of the population at that one thing.
3. Something changes inside of you after 100 hours or 100 repetitions. You begin hitting your stride, and you gain a confidence because you've now done the work and feel much more confident. You won't recognize yourself on the back side of your 100. It's almost like you've transformed yourself into the expert you always knew you could be, and it's happened because you've put in your 100.

Whether it's podcasting, marketing, or creating YouTube content, most people quit far too soon. And the truth is that in order to be great in your niche and in order to be a category king in your niche, most of the time you just have to outlast your competition. They will quit when it gets too hard. They will fold when it's too inconvenient. And those that carry on are left to scoop up all the business.

My challenge to you today is to make the Rule of 100 your standard for how you will take on anything new. If you can't commit to 100 hours or 100 repetitions, then it's a hard no.

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I'll see you next time!

Many of my podcast clients, and maybe many of you started podcasting years ago - long before video (in long or short form) was popular.

Quite often my clients ask me if they should be "doing video for their podcast."

This is actually a topic that came up this past week in a podcast group I am in, and my views contradicted what the original poster believed about video.

So, I wanted to have an honest discussion today about whether you should be doing video for your podcast.

I can't start this discussion without addressing the fact that this is so much tougher for women. The reality is that a guy can pick up his phone beside his bed when he fist wakes up and turn on the video and document his "first thoughts of the day" with bed head, bad breath, unshaved and even sometimes with a shirt on, and his followers will rave about his genius and his inspiring content and leave comments like "Bro, this is fire" or "So good my man!".

If a woman tried this same filming strategy, we would be accused of trying to be seductive, or we would be bombarded with comments like, "Girl, at least brush your hair." or "Honey, if you can't bother to get out of bed and get ready and take a little pride in your appearance, then you shouldn't even turn on the video."

As women, we are far harder on ourselves and on other women than we need to be. As a female content creator, we're worried about our appearance - hair, makeup, blemishes, aging, all of it - we're worried about our house looking messy. And many times, you may not even have a second away from your kids to make any sort of content.

All of the thoughts serve to stop us from even attempt video unless you're having a perfect hair day, your makeup is spot on, and your office is Instagram perfect.

4 Reasons You Should Incorporate Video for your Podcast:

1. Recording the video gives you more options when it comes to distribution of your content and repurposing your content.
2. There is a way video podcast content can be edited to appeal to YouTube audiences, so by recording video, you now have the raw material to make a great YT video with the right editing.
3. Why do you want to be on YouTube? YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, only to Google. But you can't forget that YouTube is owned by Google. So by putting your content as video into the 2nd largest search platform on the planet, you stand to get more organic traffic.
4. We simply can't ignore the fact that most content consumers will pay more attention to audio than video. 

You ignore video at your own peril.

Most people that will tell you that you don't have to do video for your podcast are trying to not make you feel pressured or guilty about just doing audio and ignoring video. 

Do you need video to have a successful podcast? No.

My perspective is more that you will remove many barriers to your success by also including video for YouTube and social media content. I rarely have my clients create a video podcast feed simply because most people are consuming content on youtube.

If you want to give yourself the highest chance of success, record video. Once you get in the habit of doing it, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

I want to remind you that if you are watching this content and like the content, please take a moment to subscribe to the channel.

I'm on a mission to release daily video content for a year, across all platforms, basically starting from zero. So, if you'd like to follow me and my journey in content creation, hit the subscribe button and then also click the notification bell.

I'll see you next week!

What do you automatically think of when I mention “monetizing a podcast”? If you’re like most people, your mind automatically goes to sponsors and advertisers. And while sponsors is a legitimate way to monetize a podcast, it is actually the hardest way to monetize a podcast. So today, I’m going to give you some much more attainable ways to monetize your podcast.

Let me give you some better options for making money from your podcast. Some of these options will not earn enough to live off by itself to start, however, as part of a multi-pronged approach to building different revenue streams of income from your podcast, over time they can add up to significant income:

• Affiliate Income - takes a little bit of work to set up, but once you start putting out content with your affiliate links, you are building a web of your affiliate links on every piece of content and every post, so over time your affiliate income grows. If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, you’ll want to check out this video I made specifically about affiliate marketing.
• Merchandise - for many podcasts, this is the first way they earn money. They create a t-shirt, mug or bumper sticker that relates to their show and tell their friends how they can buy it. Most podcasters use print on demand services, like Printify, or Custom Ink. While profit margins are a bit lower per item with these companies, you don’t have to stockpile inventory or ship products out yourself.
• Paid Communities or Memberships - This method has recurring income built into the model, and in my opinion, it is the best way to build full time income for the future. There are many different options for this income model from Patreon type subscriptions to ad free podcast feeds and everything in between, and even if you already have courses or programs, they can be turned into a recurring revenue model.
• Courses - Whether these are low ticket or high ticket, courses can be used to bring in significant monthly revenue. The problem with courses is that you have to constantly be in launch mode in order to get significant traffic to your course. There are websites like Udemy, or Teachable, where you can put your courses and get traffic directly from the platform, in addition to driving your own traffic there.
• Coaching - You can easily fill your coaching calendar with clients from your podcast, if that’s what you desire. When it comes to coaching, I’d recommend only starting group coaching programs where you are coaching 1 to many, vs 1:1. Based on my experience in coaching podcasters, many people are locked into 1:1 interactions in their private practice, and they are hoping their podcast will help them earn more income from the 1 to many option. You never want to create a revenue stream that you really don’t enjoy and want to support. So if you are already feeling burned out from your practice, or your day job, then 1:1 coaching is probably going to further drain you emotionally. So, I’d recommend building out lower touch group coaching programs, if you want to expand your coaching services. 
• Sponsorship - Last on my list of ways to monetize your podcast is getting sponsors. Let me be clear, I manage ads and ad campaigns for some of the biggest podcasts on Apple, so I am not anti-sponsor. And sponsors can be a part of your overall revenue strategy, but most often I see podcasters getting taken advantage of by sponsor relationships, and often sponsors will play on our ignorance. Let me also give you a word of caution here…if you are going down the route of taking on sponsors, please make sure you are utilizing the dynamic ad insertion features that are built into many podcast hosting companies. Without doing this, you are giving away your value in perpetuity and that is terrible for you. I’ll do an entire episode later on...

Ideally, you're creating multiple streams of income with your podcast, and affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to earn money from your podcast.

You can't just expect to post an Amazon link or an Audible discount code and expect to get sales right away. Like everything else, you have to be strategic about affiliate marketing.

Today, I cover the 3 specific criteria I use for affiliate marketing, and how you can implement these strategies to start earning affiliate income with your podcast.

Need help with your podcast?

Visit https://teampodcast.com

Everyone says they are trying to monetize their podcasts, but when we really look under the hood, everything is not as it seems.

In this episode, I'll tell you what's not working and why, but most importantly, I'll show you how to fix it.

There are many tried and true methods of podcast monetization, but today I'm sharing 7 universal truths that we see over and over again when it comes to getting monetized. Sometimes it's just a matter of building a structure for yourself and giving yourself goals in order to start getting some traction.

The continuous rise of technology and many innovative programs and websites have greatly contributed in providing faster and more efficient labor. In fact, what once was an hour’s job can now be accomplished in a shorter span of time through the help of the internet and other AI tools.

In the world of podcasts, there have been a lot of improvements throughout the years and one of the major trends is the usage of AI tools that help podcasters to massively decrease the amount of time they spend on creating content.

A famous tool that’s being used by many creators now is called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer). And today, we’re going to talk all about that.

ChatGPT and the problem with it.

Before there was ChatGPT, there were other writing tools which I personally used like Jasper.AI and it has been working well for me. Recently, I tried ChatGPT which has altered my preferences.

I switched my subscription to ChatGPT because of how incredible and high quality its service is. The cost doesn’t even matter because it’s worth it. However, ChatGPT is still in beta and so, they’re experiencing issues the same way as anyone else does in beta.

Sometimes, there are time periods where the server tends to get overloaded and shuts down and that’s understandable considering that many users are now discovering the greatness of such an AI tool. 

Introduction to ChatGPT.

These AI tools use a combination of machine learning, human behavior and sort of human conversation flows. It creates human-like responses to create conversations and content based on artificial intelligence that greatly mimics it.

It actually exceeds what we can produce sometimes as humans. If you're worried about humans getting replaced by robots or other technology. That age is upon us and we just have to make sure that we are using things properly and not contributing to our own demise with this kind of stuff. 

As for ChatGPT, it is a system that open AI has built and they have continued to improve it which made the industry stand back in awe with its efficiency and creativity. It even gives prompts informing you that the server is down or that there are other users engaging with the AI chatbot.

Using ChatGPT to write podcast outlines, scripts, and courses.

ChatGPT is such a creative tool and it greatly helps when writing podcast outlines and scripts. In fact, there's a podcast that my company is launching right now with a highly influential person in their specific niche. 

We are using AI tools to create all of the podcast art - making content outlines, determining what topics to talk about, writing podcast scripts, and more. That highly influential person will just have to sit down and record their own voice which is truly and unbelievably amazing.

Using ChatGPT is easy. In fact, I used it the last time I created a brand new podcast and I just asked some questions I wanted in order to get the content out then I combined all the responses I got into one podcast script that I could use.

You could also use AI to help determine what keywords people in your audience would be looking for. You can even ask it to write headlines for you which can also be potential podcast episodes.

Once you use the technology, you begin to understand how it responds to you. Likewise, it begins to understand what information you want it to provide to you and so it just gets better and better with each use. 

Besides creating podcast outlines and scripts, you can also use ChatGPT for creating courses. It is such a time saver as it pulls out information out of the internet faster than having to research it on your own. However, always keep in mind that these tools aren't perfect and it requires a bit of manual intervention. 

Using AI to create artwork for your podcast.

There’s this

Are you looking for tips, tricks and strategies that you can use to engineer your podcast for monetization? Or maybe just wondering how most podcasters, who have come a long way, monetize their podcasts without selling out to sponsors who don’t value the community? 

If you’re one of the podcasters who have been putting in so much effort in their work for a long time now, take this as a sign for you to get something back out of it. And that's why I’m here to help you do that as the CEO of Team Podcast which is a full service podcast production company. 

Podcasts that are ahead of the curve are evergreen

It’s not much of a surprise when podcasters walk away from their shows for quite a while and come back wanting to rebrand and resurrect their podcast. However, there are many factors to consider prior to resurrecting one’s abandoned podcast back to life.

First things first, it’s important that you recognize the content of your abandoned podcast because some may still be relevant and valuable to listeners which can ultimately save your podcast. 

There are many podcasters who have stopped producing podcasts for years because of this matter alone but despite their inactivity, they continue to get tons of likes on their page. Some still get thousands of downloads for their shows because they have an evergreen topic that people are interested in.

So as much as possible, what we want is that the topics you have for the podcast are going to be evergreen and timeless yet the great quality must always be there. Likewise, the information that you've shared is just as useful today as when the show was first recorded. 

Bringing an abandoned podcast back to life

Besides having a podcast that covers relevant topics or in demand content, it’s also important to consider your audience for the show which is equally important when resurrecting an abandoned podcast.

We want to make sure that there’s still a strong audience for the show so that when we bring it back to life, there’s an assurance that we’ll be getting support from a dedicated group of listeners who are going to be excited to see new episodes. Regardless of the podcast’s inactivity, they’re going to jump right back in. 

You should also take into consideration the fact that because of the popularity of podcasts and the explosion that we've had in recent years, it's still growing every year. Hence, if you have a podcast that has a track record of producing great content, it could be a perfect timing for the market to rebrand that podcast, bring it back into the growing market and make it more relevant and appealing to today's audiences than it was when you first brought it out.

The value of bringing back an old podcast feed

The dilemma that podcasters often face when coming back after having been away for some time is whether or not they should bring back an old abandoned podcast feed or should they just bring on a completely new show and start a new feed.

As long as you have the same target audience for your show as what you previously had before going inactive, your podcast is going to have the perception of longevity which can be greatly beneficial since people will perceive your podcast as the “OG” of whatever your niche is.

The podcast industry is a competitive field which is why even if you were early to market in your niche with a podcast and there weren’t other podcasts in the same niche, that’s no longer the case now. There may now be many shows covering the same topics as you once had with the same target audience. 

The key is to outlast your competitors and keep your show going despite how challenging the journey might be. Keep producing your shows and enjoy making them.

The advantage of being the last man standing

Outlast your competitors and in the long run, you will have

Why does every podcast beg you for ratings and reviews on Apple?

Have you heard this before?

❌ "it can help more people find us!"

❌ "it will bump up our rankings"

❌ "it will make our show more visible"

None of this is true!

Today, I'm explaining what Apple ratings and reviews really do for your show and why there is a much better call to action for you to use!

Every podcaster I have ever talked to always has the same complaint. They are not happy with the amount of downloads their show gets each month, and they want more. In this episode, I’ll tell you the only 2 ways to grow your show and how you can take advantage of them. 

When it comes to podcast growth, it’s a conversation that every podcaster wants to have. It’s probably the most asked question in any podcasting Facebook group and I have found that it doesn’t matter whether your show gets 100 downloads a month or a million downloads a month, we always want more!

So guess what? Today I am going to simplify podcast growth for you.

In my viewpoint, when you boil everything down to its most foundational elements, there are only 2 ways to grow your podcast. 

1. You have to tell someone about it.
2. Someone else has to tell someone about it.

Literally, that’s it!

I’m not trying to oversimplify the growth problem, but these are the 2 frames I want to view podcast growth through because truth be told, there are probably improvements you can make on both sides of the growth problem.

So, let’s start with all of the ways you can tell someone about your podcast:

I’m going to break this down into Organic vs. Paid:

Let’s start with the low hanging fruit of organic ways to telling others about your podcast:

1. Put it out on all of your social media channels consistently - and yes, there is a method to doing this effectively. But let’s go for the simpler question to start - are you even putting it out everywhere each time you publish?
2. Have you asked your current listeners to subscribe to the show? Tell without a crystal ball story.
3. Send it out to your email list? It sounds so simple, but my guess is that you aren’t actually consistently letting your email list know about each episode. What’s stopping you? What’s stopping me? Well, we get so busy keeping up with producing content, that sending out to your email list gets neglected.
4. Are you publishing it to your website? I know this seems like a trick question, but you’d be surprised how many podcasters we have taken over production of their podcasts for, only to start with a stack of episodes that have only published to their RSS feed, and not published to their websites.
5. Are you publishing to every available platform? Again, not a trick question, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t understand how to get their podcast to every free distribution platform, because they only know about Spotify or Apple.
6. Do you have your podcast listed in your bio of all your social media channels? So many people overlook optimizing your social profiles to show that you have a podcast. You’ll want to take care of this one before tackling the next one. Don’t make it hard for people to find your show.
7. Are you a member of groups where your target listeners are gathering on social media? If not, go join some groups and become a valuable member. Don’t just spam the group, but get in there and answer enough questions so that people want to go to your profile and check out why you know so much. There they will see your podcast on your recently updated profile.

Mention the delayed commenting strategy and the member value shout out strategies.

8) Have you put your podcast on local bulletin boards and such at businesses in your local area? You’d be surprised at how many listeners you can get locally from this. Just create a business card for your podcast and invite people to listen.

Ok, those are the main ways for you to tell others about your podcast organically, so let’s move on to the ways you can get others to tell people about your podcast.

Again, these are all going to be...