How To Earn More From Your Podcast
How to maximize your podcast’s potential in terms of income
Many bloggers and writers have later on turned to podcasting to reach a wider audience. And they are not wrong to do so. However, it is also known that podcasting is not something that you can do in the blink of an eye. I know because I have also started one. If you don’t have access to a studio, it may already be a huge problem for you to find a quiet spot where you can record without noise and other disturbances.
Having considered all these things, it makes sense to also want to earn something from your podcasts. Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn this into a side hustle to give you extra income?
What are some of the ways you can earn more from your podcast?
Below are some strategies that you can use today:
1. Turn some of your episodes into a paid subscription
Why publish everything for free when your paid episodes can finance your free episodes? A subscription model can very well be the simplest way for you to earn from your podcasts.
If you are on Substack, it would be very easy for you because Substack already has a feature that lets you mark some episodes as “paid”.
Simply go to the “Podcast” tab in your dashboard and click the “New episode” button.
After uploading your podcast, click the “Settings” icon and click the option for “Paid subscribers only.”
2. Distribute your podcast on external players
Did you know that through Substack podcast settings, you can distribute your podcast episodes to Spotify, Apple, YouTube and other external players?
Simply go again to the “Podcast” tab and click “Settings”.
Scroll a little below and you will find a list of the external players where you may want to distribute your podcast.
The first in the list is “Spotify” and it is very easy to synchronize your podcast there.
Just click the “Sync to Spotify” button and this will in turn automatically include your podcast on Spotify, listing both its free and paid episodes.
For more information about integrating Substack with Spotify, here is the tutorial.
If a listener wants to listener to your paid episodes there, they need to upgrade their account to “paid”.
Click here if you want to submit a show to Apple. You can also submit your episodes to Pocket Casts and Overcast.
3. Accept donations
There are many generous people out there who can support you through donations from time to time. For this you can use “Buy me a coffee”, “Patreon” or “Ko-fi”. Create an account on these websites, get a link and share this to your podcast listeners.
Here is an example of my Ko-fi donation button.
4. Sell merchandise
Your podcast episodes are not the only items that you can offer to your followers. You can also offer them your merchandise that also represents your brand.
You can try to sell T-shirts, mugs, stickers and other items on the following:
5. Earn from Affiliates
Your podcast can be one of the best channels to promote your affiliate products.
One program that can help you with this is the Amazon Associates Programs. Sign up and earn commission from sales of just about anything from home, clothing, electronics, toys, games and other products.
If you are a writer, you can earn commissions from books sales through your affiliate link.
Earning More From Your Podcast
There are many ways to earn more from your podcast episodes to maximize its potential. It may take a little time and effort, but once you have finished the initial set up, you can reap the fruits of having extra income coming from your podcast. If you are really busy, perhaps you can begin with one or two methods that you think can best work for you.
