Table of contents
If you are a creator or a business owner who wants to make money, podcasts can become your wild card. Acting as the easiest way to make money in 2023, podcasts remain popular in 2024 and beyond. The main driving factors of their popularity today are the increased use of mobile phones and the desire of modern customers to get more knowledge out of video and audio content.
When researching the market, you will probably see that content marketing produces three times the leads as dollars invested while costing much less compared to most forms of traditional marketing. And most people, hearing content marketing terms, tend to think about email newsletters, writing a blog post on your site, and posting on social media.
But in reality, modern content marketing is now much more than that. Video and audio content has grown in popularity over the last few years and is believed to be the key source of qualified leads for many large and small brands.
As a result, for businesses that want to stand out from the crowd, podcasting can not only act as one of the most efficient monetization methods but also help establish their credibility in their industry. Here, we collected all the hows and whys of making money with podcasts in 2024.
What is a Podcast?
You can think of a podcast as a streaming age's answer to radio. A podcast refers to a digital audio file users can download or listen to via an internet connection and represents an effective way to make money. Even though podcasts are mostly listened to and downloaded, they can still be available in video or in both formats.
Podcasts relate to a form of media content developed when The iPodder was introduced in 2004. It was a program that enabled users to download internet radio broadcasts directly to their Apple iPod. This is how the term "podcast" was born, where the name is made up of the words 'iPod' and 'broadcasts.'
Now, podcasts have gained immense popularity. Statista shows that Podcast Advertising maker is suggested to reach $3.46 billion in 2023. In fact, the predicted annual growth is 9.81% within the estimated timeline (CAGR 2023-2027), resulting in a projected market volume of US$5.03 billion by 2027.
Each podcast is a series created by a host and often a co-host and then published episode-by-episode online, allowing viewers (also called subscribers) to download and stay updated about all new episode releases. Podcasters are a hume community, sharing news and updates in the domain.
In contrast to traditional marketing methods for premium content production, like radio shows and TV ads, podcasts are more accessible and convenient for viewers. They aren't even regulated yet, so that means hosts don't need a broadcasting license to create and publish podcast premium content.
This makes them affordable for anyone with basic industry knowledge, interesting topics to discuss, and small equipment needed, like a microphone, camera, or smartphone, and a membership at a hosting platform, like Spotify to create their own podcast.
Monetizing a podcast is also easy when you produce quality and engaging content, making it either additional content for a business or even a full-time income.
What Is the Purpose of a Podcast Episode?
An episode of a podcast either covers the entire chosen topic or acts as a series of a series. Podcasts, in general, may have many purposes, but the key one is to educate and entertain the audience as an example. Listeners may have different reasons to subscribe to a podcast; these may include:
- Hearing updates and breakdowns of current events;
- Learn about a specific topic or an industry;
- Enjoy the jokes of hosts;
- Listen to interviews with popular artists acting as co-hosts;
- Experience narrative storytelling and audio drama.
Regardless of the main goal of the listener, the majority of them will listen to a podcast mostly for educational or entertainment purposes. Whether listeners are looking for something new to learn about your business, in general or simply have something to take their minds off a mundane task.
Benefits of Podcasting for Business
1. Acts as a Premium Content Marketing Tool
Content marketing means providing valuable information to the target audience with the goal to make money and build long-term relationships with customers as a business. When your target audience likes your content and trusts the information you have to offer,
When the audience likes and trusts your brand, they are more likely to buy from you when they're ready.
Podcasts are a great way to make money and develop a rapport with your customers, growing trust, brand credibility, and loyalty. Podcasting can also be used to repurpose the content you have already made or vice versa, allowing you to get more traffic for a lower cost and with smaller efforts needed.
2. Allows to Build a Network
Hosting a podcast can also become an excellent opportunity to connect with other experts and main players in that field. Building a network in that domain is crucial, so it isn't surprising that hosts prefer to invite other hosts so they can discuss different topics and share the community.
It will benefit your business if you are able to ask popular hosts on a similar or completely different topic (which can be done even remotely) and create a podcast together, allowing you to gain more trust and credibility on the market, therefore, make money.
3. Establish Authority in the Industry
Hosting podcasts can work as trusted content, meaning both search engines and viewers will consider you as a trusted and reliable source of information.
In a world where almost everything can be found online, people tend to trust those sources that are either highlighted by search engines like Google (meaning you appear at the top of search results) or those mentioned or shown by influencers.
So, establishing a quality and informative podcast offers you a chance to act as a domain expert and make money through expertise.
4. Podcast Listeners are a Wealthy Audience
According to recent statistics, 45% of podcast listeners earn over $250,000 in yearly income. Therefore, they are a wealthy audience that can make informative decisions and buy your services, converting to customers faster than with other audiences.
But the key thing here is providing value. When trying to attract an engaged audience, you should ensure that you provide value at the beginning and over time so that your customers trust you. Since the process always takes time, don't rush into sales as soon as they enter your podcast platform.
5. A Podcast Sponsorship Can Make Money
The more listeners you have, the higher the chance you will have to turn a podcast into a side hustle through podcast sponsorship and make money. The process is simple: brands will pay you so you can advertise their products and services during the show, or you can even offer paid interview segments from similar interests.
Let's say you are a clothing company, and you started a podcast about fashion trends with a popular model or fashion influence as a host. Here, you can take any relevant advertising programs, like partnering with advertisers and companies that create eco-friendly material for clothes or something like that to start making money podcasting.
6. Podcasts can be Turned into More Content
Podcasts can be audio and video content. In terms of video content, podcasts can be turned into a higher amount of exclusive content pieces than just one long video. You can use a podcast and upload it to editing tools like Rask AI as an example and artificial intelligence, which will generate engaging Shorts you can later share on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
In addition, audio content can be transcripted (also done by AI tools like Rask AI) to create blog posts, an article, and even online courses written materials to make money faster. Using podcast pieces on different channels helps grow brand visibility, increase your search rankings through SEO (when content is optimized), and attract more relevant customers to the brand itself.
7. Attract Different Types of Audience
Let's be honest; we live in a world where everyone is looking for something specific and personalized. The same relates to a business using one marketing channel and only one type of exclusive content to explore, like an article. While this might be your wild card in terms of attracting qualified leads, you are still missing a chance to attract and interact with a broader captive audience.
Podcasting here allows you to tap into a whole new audience channel. While some people are less reluctant to read content like an article or buy a service/product through advertising, they might be more interested in listening to a podcast.
Podcasting platforms let you place your brand in a new arena and make money there. Therefore, you will be able to reach a higher audience that originally won't be able to hear your podcast or learn about your brand through Google, as an example.
8. Podcasts are Solid Advertising Tools
Even though your podcast isn't a traditional advert, this marketing type can still produce high results. Podcasts are shown to have 4 times better brand recall compared to display ads and allow owners to make money easier.
In fact, a recent Nielsen survey found out that 62% of participants report that podcasts have made them consider purchasing a new product or service. Another benefit of podcasting advertising is that the traffic is more organic.
So How to Start Your Own Podcast?
We have talked enough about podcast benefits, so you may have already come up with a decision to give it a try. Let's dive deeper into the steps of podcast creation in 2024 that you may want to know before getting started.
Step 1: Define Your Niche or Topic
The first step is always defining a topic or a niche you may seem to fit. Although some decide to enter different niches at the same time, focusing on one (at least at the very beginning) will help to identify the target audience better and develop a premium content strategy.
Working with one domain and diving deeper into its details and challenges will help you faster establish yourself as a subject matter expert. Choosing a broad enough topic to reasonably talk about for several episodes is the best way to start, then try to elaborate on a similar topic so listeners know you continue to dive deeper into it with each new episode.
Step 1.2: Research Existing Podcasts
In order to come up with an idea for your podcast or get a better understanding of what is currently happening in the industry you have chosen, we recommend starting by digging to see if there are any other podcasts that are similar to yours and watching them.
You may find out there are a lot of similar popular podcasts, or they don't even exist - in both cases, you can continue with the topic if you are sure that your podcast will be able to grab users' attention. If not - choose another topic and continue research.
Step 1.3: Choose Your Format and Hosts
This step requires you to decide whether you want your podcast to be run by one host or several. Here, you should also decide whether you need a partner, advertisers or not. If so, you will need to get in touch with other podcasters and a partner to discuss all the details at the beginning, staying on the safe side of the law and kicking off the project as soon as possible.
A cadence means a publishing schedule. Simply put, it is how often you will release new episodes. Some podcast creators prefer to release episodes every day, while others release only once a month, but the one piece is longer compared with the first option. It also depends on your editing skills, availability, or the editing tools you use.
Step 2: Build Your Brand and Online Presence
How you name a podcast will play a huge role in your market success. You want to make your podcast memorable and easy to spell, so make sure you combine these two crucial things when thinking about the name of the podcast. We highly recommend avoiding using the word "Podcast" as an example in your show's name - it doesn't add value and only takes up valuable character space.
Character space is also crucial, so consider a length of 29 characters or fewer as the best length for a podcast name. Alongside a title, you will also need to invest some time in creating your branding elements.
Building a brand isn't possible when you don't even have a brand book or at least a basic understanding of the color palette and key branding elements. So, if at this stage you don't have it - start building the visual brand style now so the community knows it's your business.
A good start will be identifying a tone of voice and visual elements that will be translated not only within your podcast but also at every social media account and website you run. This will help your potential listeners quickly identify you among other podcasts, growing your brand visibility and making you more recognizable on the market.
Step 2.1: Develop a Website or RSS Feed for the Podcast
Whether you already have one or several podcast episodes or not, having a website is always good.
There are several ways you can make your podcast accessible and let you make money, but the website seems to be the most popular method in 2023 and remains in 2024. Luckily, there is no need to hire developers to build a website; even those with only marketing skills in the past can develop a website using no-code technology.
Once the website is ready, you can start optimizing it using SEO services, create informative descriptions of what the podcast is about, and provide download links or embed your episodes, allowing subscribers to come to the main page and enjoy your podcasts.
Another appealing option for some creators is using a RSS feed via a podcast-specific hosting site. You can choose from well-known trendy sites like Anchor or BuzzsSprout instead of traditional WordPress or Wix.
Step 2.2: Create and Run Social Media
In most cases, podcasts are tightly linked to social media. So, if you decide to start a podcast, it makes sense to start running social media accounts as well. Considering the vast amount of platforms available today, we recommend choosing one or two based on your target audience (their age and location).
You should also ensure you post about new podcast episodes on time, share news, interviews with hosts, and translate brand colors. Social media also allows you to enter a community that will help you grow your business later.
Step 2.3: Create an Account in a Podcast Platform
When having a website and a strong marketing strategy - this step becomes optional. Though it is the only way to guarantee your podcast is available for as many listeners as possible.
Making the podcast and your brand, as a result, more discoverable, you can submit it to a directory. The platform you will end up on will depend on whether your podcast is audio or video version, or both. Please note that not everyone is keen on audio content, so making videos will help you attract all types of listeners. Some of the most popular podcast platforms that are worth considering are:
- Apple podcasts (formerly iTunes);
- Spotify;
- Stitcher;
- Audible;
- Google Podcasts;
- iHeartRadio.
Step 3: Choosing Editing Software
Let's imagine that you already have a microphone and a camera to film and record a podcast (you can always use just your phone); the next step will be choosing editing software. If you are a seasoned editor looking to improve your skills and you don't worry about publishing a podcast once a month - you are probably familiar with all the pro editing tools.
But if you don't have pro editing skills or are just getting to know the market, you will need AI-powered editing software, like Rask AI. Such tools are highly useful for both - editing and localization (though we will talk about this point a bit later).
They are powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning technologies, so they can do all the work for you. Depending on the software you choose, these tools can cut long videos, generate numerous shorts for YouTube and Instagram, stabilize the video footage, improve quality and video quality, add effects, and translate a podcast to various languages.
You can also outsource the editing process to specialists, though editing software is much cheaper than traditional editing services - the choice is always up to you.
Step 4: Record and Edit Your First Podcast
Once everything above is done, you are ready to start recording your podcast. Experienced and new podcasters write episode scripts or show notes in advance so that they know what to say ahead of time, though there are others who like to improvise during the podcast.
Step 4.1: Name Your Episodes
Each episode should have a unique name. Make sure that the episode titles accurately describe what the episode is about, what is going to be discussed, whether it is the first episode on the topic or a series of them, and who the guest speaker on the episode is.
While you may think you need to create super informative titles for all episodes, the truth is that direct, simple, and engaging titles are what drive the traffic. People tend to choose whether they want to listen to and watch a podcast based on the title and description, so this is your chance to stand out from the crowd.
Step 4.2: Write Show and Episode Descriptions
In order to keep the title simple and engaging, you can also write a description for the show itself and then for each episode. The best thing will be describing the idea behind each episode while also answering these questions:
- What is your podcast about?
- Who benefits from the podcast?
- Who is the host, and why is the host running a podcast (expertise, background)?
- Why should people listen to your podcast? Whether it is educational or engaging podcast content?
- What will the host talk about?
- How often/when do you release additional episodes?
Step 4: Promote Your Podcast
The last though crucial point about running a podcast is making it available to a wider audience. While traditional marketing is also a way to go, you don't want to miss the opportunity to attract more listeners.
That is why you should consider translating your podcast into more than one language to monetize it. While it will let you earn money, opening up new organic and ad revenue streams and allow your podcast to work as a stable income, you can also populate your content in other languages and, therefore, faster prepare for the localization - which will be the next step in your global market success.
For that task, you can also use AI editing software like Rask AI. This tool allows creators to translate a podcast into more than 130 languages and generate voiceovers in over 29 languages. It can also take one long video and identify the most engaging parts of Shorts you can later use on different social media platforms, like YouTube and Instagram.
Last Thoughts on Making Money Podcasting
Whether you are a first-time creator, a business owner, or anyone with good editing skills looking for making money podcasting - it has never been easier to start running it than now. Begin with searching for a niche audience. Don't forget to promote your podcast to get more views and make money, breaking into a world market. Use tools like Rask AI to speed up and simplify both editing and translating processes, growing the ROI and becoming a well-known brand.
