How to Make Money with a Podcast

Ever wondered when’s the best time to start seeking podcast sponsors or how to differentiate between ads and sponsorships? In today's episode, we unravel the essentials of monetizing your podcast with our community member Leslie, who just launched her show and has burning questions. 

We break down the basics of sponsorships and get straight into self-sponsored content. Discover how promoting your products or services can be a robust form of self-sponsorship, setting you on the path to effective monetization right from the start. 

But that’s not all—we dive into various sponsorship models, sharing firsthand experiences with baked-in ads, dynamic content, and the strategic placement of pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads. 

I'm sharing our successes and challenges with top-recommended platforms like Buzzsprout and Riverside and highlighting resources such as Justin Moore's Brand Deal Wizard for securing those coveted brand deals. 

Even if your audience is small, we share insights on aligning sponsors with your brand to maximize every opportunity. Plus, engage with us and our community through questions, our newly rebranded newsletter, "Content Therapy," and more! 

Join us for an episode with practical tips and engaging stories to elevate your podcast monetization game.

Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)

Looking for a podcast community that supports you on your journey? Check out Podcasters Connect today.

Chapters

• 0:01 Making Money With Podcast Sponsorships
• 4:52 Maximizing Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities
• 19:13 Engaging With Audience for Content Creation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I love it when we get to revisit questions that come up so often in this community of content creators podcasters, youtubers but specifically a topic that I myself have been learning so much about in the last 12 months, and that is sponsorships. We're talking about how to make money with a podcast, and we're talking specifically about sponsorships and we're answering a specific question that we had from the community. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we? Okay, welcome back, crystal here today, and I'm excited to dive into this. So we have a free Facebook group. That is the profit podcast online community. If you want to come hang out with us there. We have a thousand plus creators hanging out asking questions and from time to time, I'll pose questions whenever I'm interested in what you're interested like. What do you want to learn about in the community? And so what I asked was like, what questions do you have about monetization and um, this is what Leslie said. So shout out to Leslie and she says my question is regarding sponsorship.

Speaker 1: 1:36

My podcast launches tomorrow. Like, so excited, like, and I know your podcast is out there, leslie. So shout out. We're going to give you a shout out on the show notes and everything. So I'm a total newbie. I've heard a little here and there about sponsorship, but I don't know much about it. I'd like to know where and how to start with learning what to do? How soon is too soon to seek out sponsors and ads? What's the difference between ads and sponsorships? Should you create silences during your podcast recording or editing to account for any future breaks for ads? Tell me all you know. So great question, leslie. I feel like I've gotten this question multiple times as a you know my my content therapist. You know like I've I'm here to help you with all of these questions, but I've worked with multiple people that are in varying you know degrees of their content and this comes up a lot.

Speaker 1: 2:33

But before we get there, before I officially answer this question, I want to give a fan mail, shout out. So if you're listening on the podcast, um, whether you're on Apple podcast, spotify, wherever you're listening, you can actually do a fan mail like text me. You'll see a place where it says send crystal a text message. And so that is where our thin mail messages come from, and I'm excited about this one, so I wanted to shout this out. She says love this episode about fan mail. So meta, right Headed to my desk now to play with it and also to test it here from a user perspective. Lol. Star emojis. Oh, and I'm in Houston too. From Lucy Reyes at Cheers to Productivity. So thank you so much, lucy, for your fan mail and I hope that you give this feature within Buzzsprout a try. I mean, it's just, it's so much fun. I love hearing from y'all. So if you're listening on the audio version or if you can pause the video, if you're watching it, run over to Apple or Spotify. Send us a text message, because I want to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 3:41

But let's move on to Leslie's question. She wants to know how is she going to make money with her podcast when it comes to sponsorships, and what does that look like? So let's just dive right in Like what the heck are sponsorships right? Like, what is the difference between a sponsorship and an ad? Like, let's just get started here. So I like to call them either self-sponsored content or sponsored content, which is where you're working with a brand and outside companies, where, if it's self-sponsored, you are literally sponsoring your own stuff, like your own lead magnets, your own services, your own products. Like you are like saying your own thing in your podcast. You're saying this episode is brought to you today by Profit Podcasting, the only podcast course that can teach you how to start, launch and market your podcast in under 30 days. It is my program, I'm the creator and I am pitching it to you as a you know, sales ad within my content. That's what a self-sponsored ad looks like. That is me, crystal Profit, sponsoring my own profit podcasting course, and that is what self-sponsored ship ads look like.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Then you have sponsored ads where Buzzsprout paid me to talk about how incredible they are and how amazing they are, and it's one of the reasons why I talk about them all the time. Not really Like I don't just talk about them because they pay me. Like I, I talk about them because I genuinely love the product. I mean they have cool stuff like fan mail. This episode today is not sponsored by Buzzsprout, but I'm just saying like that's the difference We've all seen when people are like this is brought to you by, or this is in partnership with, or I'm an affiliate for, like all of those different languages is whenever you have sponsored content showing up and I have a lot of sponsored content experience now that I've worked with several different brands and this model looks different depending on what kind of content that you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 5:36

But since you specifically asked about making money with a podcast, what does that look like? This could look like you recording content that you bake into each individual episode. I had a sponsorship earlier this year with Riverside and we baked in 10 episodes the ad that I wanted to have and it changed the ad up. It wasn't the same ad every single time. So from January to March of this year, you can go back and listen to all the episodes that had the sponsored content baked into the actual episode of the Profit Podcast. It was baked into the audio-only version. You didn't see those here on the YouTube channel, but you would have heard it on the Profit Podcast, and so that's one way that you could get your content sponsored, is working with a company and having it baked in the other way is dynamic content.

Speaker 1: 6:28

So I do this a lot with my self-sponsored stuff, where it's like I want to insert an ad for every single one of my podcast episodes and at this point I mean we have over 400 that have been recorded and that are live on the audio only version of the Profit Podcast and I can tap into that and add a pre-roll ad, so something that plays before the podcast officially starts. Right, it's like the intro before the episode really dives into the meat of the content. Yeah, I could do a mid-roll ad. So you will hear this on the audio-only version, where I have ad spots that I sell within the Buzzsprout ads platform and that allows me to monetize my show. So again, another plug for Buzzsprout you can run ads on your platform from other Buzzsprout podcasts that wanna advertise. Now I have other videos, other content that really dive into how Buzzsprout podcasts that want to advertise. Now I have other videos, other content that really dive into how Buzzsprout ads work. But you can sponsor your own products and also upload that into Buzzsprout ads and then other podcasts will distribute that out on their platform.

Speaker 1: 7:38

But for me the way that I make money is. I'll get a notification that, like there's a match. You know, like, hey, this company or this podcast wants to advertise on your show. Is it a good fit for you? Do you want them to do it? And then you have a way of giving feedback instead of just saying no, like that doesn't work for me. They are trying to get better at matching my podcast with shows that would be a great fit. So I give them feedback. I'm like, oh, this isn't a good fit, or the quality of the audio wasn't great, or I'm not interested in that. And so I do give that feedback and let them know, because then they come back to me with better opportunities for me to monetize my show.

Speaker 1: 8:20

And that's typically in the mid roll. But again, it's added to every single one of my episodes, as opposed to the baked in model where it's just on those specific ones and they will live there in perpetuity. Right, they'll live there forever, but you have a smaller distribution list of where all of that content will be or the ads will be listened to. So that's kind of the difference between self-sponsored ads, dynamic ads oh, I talked about pre-roll, mid-roll and then post-roll is typically what is at the very end of the podcast episode. So after the music is done it's faded away. Then you can insert an ad at the very end, but the most effective ones that I have found are the pre-roll or the mid-roll. I have other videos, other content about podcast ads. So if you have questions about those, go check out those videos, but you can always put them in the comments. So if you're watching this already and you're like I, have questions so many questions put them in the comments, because this, too, could become another piece of content where we're talking about making money with a podcast.

Speaker 1: 9:23

So when to start looking for sponsorships, what does this look like? So if you listen to the profit podcast, then you have heard me talk to experts who monetize. You've heard me talk to Justin Moore, who is the creator wizard, who literally talks about everything having to do with sponsorships. I have taken his program, brand Deal Wizard You're going to find a link here and in the show notes for to check it out. I am a proud partner. I talk about this course all the time because it has made me tens of thousands of dollars and I wanted to do the same for you too. It's helped me secure brand sponsorships and brand deals with the podcast, with creating user-generated content. So I'm creating the content and I'm giving it to another brand for them to use, whether it's for paid advertisement and they want to use it that way or they just want to put it on their own platform. So I learned so much about what that looks like from Justin, so I highly recommend go check him out. At a minimum, get on his email list, because it is fantastic and there's always opportunities for getting sponsors Like and he is trying to align you with sponsors that match up to you and your brand.

Speaker 1: 10:37

But the other one is Tracy DeForest. She was just on the show. She's from produce your podcast and we talked about what it looks like to monetize with a smaller audience. Like what does that look like? If you have an audience that's very focused, then there may be some brands that you can reach out to that would love to partner with you. But what I have found in working with the different companies that I have, you almost have to still, to this day, prove to them that this works. And it's why I talk about self-sponsorship so much and why I'm so passionate about it, because I think that when you have a proven track record and you can say, oh, I did some dynamic content for my lead magnet and here's the conversion rate. Or I put baked in ads into these five episodes and here's how many people clicked on the link or went and downloaded the thing or went and bought my course.

Speaker 1: 11:33

When you have metrics and you can show that to a potential sponsor or advertiser, then you just have so much more power. There is power in numbers. So much more power. Like, there is power in numbers when I can say, oh, I've worked with seven different brands now and here's the model that we used, pick which one works for you. It makes companies feel a lot more confident than just like oh, I don't know what I'm doing, but sure, like, give me money, yeah, sure, whatever money that you decide on, like it's good with me, sure, a hundred dollars, sure, absolutely, I'll take it. Like. People like you can have so much more clarity and confidence whenever you're working with brands.

Speaker 1: 12:13

But you have to know the foundational things and what you need to understand is sponsorship does not look the same from company to company, brand to brand or even campaign to campaign. I just secured a brand deal where I am going to create three videos back to back for them and then one video a month for the foreseeable future. So it looks different from campaign to campaign. It just depends on what the company is really trying to do and the goals that they're trying to achieve. So keep that in the back of your mind. Like it's never too early to seek sponsorships and to go after these partners that can help you, you know, create really solid content, but also align those messages with the stuff that your audience is hungry for.

Speaker 1: 13:01

I think that that's that's the next piece, but let's move into how to find sponsors. Like what does this look like? So, research, you've got to do your research. This is something I learned from Justin and I sat down and I wrote out. I have a spreadsheet. It's like my sponsorship pitch list. It's all the companies I would dream and love to work with. I wrote all of them down and I encourage you to do the same thing, leslie, or anybody else that's listening to this.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Like what niche are you in? Like what industry? Like what are the businesses? Who are the key players in that industry? And maybe you're like, oh my gosh, like it's Canva, like they're a huge player. They would never sponsor my little tiny podcast or it's you know, jeep Wranglers and they would never sponsor my little tiny pot. Maybe they won't, but who are the other people Like, maybe let's not go after the behemoth huge companies, who are some of the smaller, like medium to small players in your industry that are already already investing in this type of advertising, because that's the low hanging fruit.

Speaker 1: 14:05

The people that are already already investing in this type of advertising because that's the low-hanging fruit, the people that are already sponsoring content and they are in this space. They're gonna be the first ones to perk up and to be like, yeah, let's have a conversation about this. Right? You have heard all the ads, I know, I've heard all the ads. I know all the people that are sponsoring podcast content, and wouldn't it be so much easier to go to them and say this is the type of audience that I have and this is how often I'm publishing. These are some of my basic stats. Put that up on a silver platter and say let's partner together instead of just grasping at straws and trying to convince companies that aren't investing, like their advertising dollars aren't in digital media at all, they're still doing snail mail and mailers Like that's their main thing, and they're going to be a lot harder heel to climb than someone that's already investing in the digital space.

Speaker 1: 14:58

So, finding sponsors, do your research and actively look at people that are in your network that can introduce you to those players, right? Who do you know that knows someone? Who do you know that can introduce you to someone that knows the decision maker? Like, I created a piece of content recently talking about making the ask, like that's sometimes all it takes is who do you know that you can make the ask? Will you please introduce me to this person? Right? We don't want to come off desperate. We don't want to be desperate no, no, no, no desperation here, but we do want to make it like a point to make sure that we make the ask if there's someone in the industry.

Speaker 1: 15:40

So do your research, make the ask and then pitch them, pitch them. The worst thing that can happen is they say no and you move on, but you can learn so much in those no's. Whenever somebody says no to me, I say okay, well, why is that? Or was it the budget? Was it the content? Was it the idea? Like, why the no? Right, we're not just gonna accept the no and that's it and like, walk away, like, no, no, no. Why the no? Because you can learn so much in that piece of it. But again, I want you to go follow Justin more because he is the king of like putting all of this in layman's terms, to where even I can understand what's going on and how all this works. And I want you to go check out his program, brando Wizard, because it is so fantastic, super helpful. And again, it's where I learned all of this stuff, it's where I learned so much of what I'm doing today in my content.

Speaker 1: 16:37

But the final key piece that I really want to hone in on is tracking and measuring. Because, leslie, if you were to go ahead and start self-promoting your own stuff, like your business, your service, it could just be your website. Maybe you were just saying, hey, if you're listening to this podcast, make sure you go check out my website or follow me on Instagram or get on my email list, like. Whatever your call to action you want it to be, make it be something that's trackable, that's measurable, that you can say oh, on this date I started making this call to action on my podcast and these are the results. Start tracking and measuring that success today so that you can use it in future sponsorship opportunities or brand deals or whatever it is that you want to pursue whenever you're thinking about monetizing your podcast. But always go for those opportunities that make the most sense. And I said that was my final thought.

Speaker 1: 17:31

But this is one thing I want to circle back around to always make sure that the thing that you're going after that sponsorship, that product, like whatever it is that you're going to promote aligns with your audience. Because at the end of the day, like if I'm a health and fitness podcast and McDonald's comes to me and says, hey, we want to sponsor your podcast, can you talk about the new double bacon, you know, water size, whopper size, super size, like all this? No, no, it's not aligned. It is not aligned with who your audience is. That's not what they need to hear. They don't want to hear about McDonald's because you're talking about, like you know, health and fitness journeys. Like that is not aligned, it is not cohesive.

Speaker 1: 18:10

So make sure that the things that you are pitching, whether they're paying you or not, it's just like a, you know, a opportunity to cross promote, cross collaborate, always, always, always, always align it back to your audience. What's in it for them. Why do they care about this? Why is this something that's going to keep them happy and make them interested and get them excited about what you have to share, because it will not convert and when you will not get future sponsors if you do campaigns that do not convert, well, because they want to know, oh, you've worked with other companies, how did those campaigns go? And if you say, um, they didn't perform well, well then that's not going to look good on you. So you want to align with companies where you know that you can rise together and serve your audience in a way that is absolutely going to help them, it's going to help you and it's going to help the brand. So you have a fantastic win, win, win. That is a strategy you're going after. So great question, leslie, thank you so much for submitting this.

Speaker 1: 19:13

And if you have questions about content podcasts, youtube, whatever it is put them in the comments now or again. You can submit them through the fan mail app, through Buzzsprout. So it's on your audio player and it just says send Crystal a text message, send me your questions. I wanna know what questions you have. I wanna know what you wanna know about monetization, about strategy about content, all the things. I am here to answer your questions and be the one that you ask the questions to that. You're a little embarrassed to ask other people, because I've been there. I know I've already asked all the dumb questions. There's none left. I've already asked all of them for you, but that's all I have for you today. So make sure you are following the podcast wherever you're listening. You are subscribed on the YouTube channel.

Speaker 1: 20:00

You've hit that little bell that says, oh, I want to hear more about what Crystal has to say and I want you to come hang out with us on our newsletter. So I started my newsletter several years ago. I don't even know how many years multiple years, right, like it's a half a decade long relationship that I've had with my email subscribers and I just switched things up and now it's called content therapy and I'm trying something new. I'm trying something where I'm reading my email newsletters and it's a new experiment and I don't know it could be a total. You know what show. It's not going to be great, but we're going to see together. So come hang out with me, subscribe, get on my email list. I want you to hear this, I want you to hear the audio version and I want you to come play with us, because we love to have so much fun on our content journeys around here. But that's all I have for you. So, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.