How to Make Money With Your Podcast in 2024 (WITHOUT Sponsors or a Subscription!)
Want to make more money with your podcast in 2024? I’m not talking about getting sponsors or starting a subscription... If you’re a business owner, then truly monetizing your podcast comes from confidently and consistently selling your own services and products.
Today, I’m sharing my best advice on how to do just that! You’ll hear this demonstrated in an analogy to bread crumbs as you learn what those crumbs are and why it’s essential to sprinkle them throughout your podcast content. Plus, I go into detail on what it means to tease your audience and how to feel more natural selling your services. Ready to leverage your podcast for more money this year? Read on no
Monetizing your podcast by selling your own services and products
What does it mean to truly monetize your podcast? This is the first topic I want to address because a common misconception is that monetization always equates to getting sponsors or starting a subscription. The reality is, if you’re a business owner, the best way to make money with your podcast will always be by selling your own services and products. If you’re not sure how to do that without feeling sleazy or salesly (or even if you need help structuring your episodes for this strategy), then I have an analogy that I know is going to set you up for success.
The “crumbs” you should be sprinkling throughout your podcast content
Now, before I get into detail on my bread crumb analogy, it’s important to remember the role that your podcast plays and the role that you play with your services and products. Chances are, people are listening to your podcast because they have a problem, right? That’s the “why” that keeps them coming back each week. You and your services, on the other hand, that’s the “how”. They’re how your audience can solve that problem, and that means it’s only natural to present the two things together. Don’t be afraid to sell because, at the end of the day, that’s how we help people. Connecting someone who has a problem to your solution is a win for everyone.
So what should your podcast episodes sound like if you’re going to effectively implement this strategy of selling your services and products to your audience? This brings me back to my analogy, best demonstrated through the use of bread crumbs (or cookie crumbs if you have a sweet tooth!). Either one works, but I want you to imagine your services and products are the loaf of bread and you’re sprinkling some of those bread crumbs throughout your podcast content. These bread crumbs could be personal stories of your own journey or even just a conversation that you recently had with one of your clients. If you do this correctly, your audience should be able to follow that trail of bread crumbs back to your offer suite! I love this strategy because you can talk about a topic all day, but really showcasing how it provides a transformation makes it so much more real and, ultimately, more investible.
How to tease your audience and feel more natural selling your services
Weaving in stories that tease your offer suite and feeling more natural selling your services takes a lot of practice, and it’s something I’m still working on myself. That’s why, if you want one more behind-the-scenes pro-tip, I would suggest planning your content well in advance and outlining all of your podcast episodes before you hit record. These are both things that have helped me immensely! Using bullet points to outline my episodes gives me the opportunity to slow down and ask myself, “Do I have anything I can weave in here? Is there any story or did I have a client meeting recently? What did we talk about?”. The result is episodes that are not only linked to my marketing schedule but also born out of what people are talking about, what my audience needs, and how my team and I are proactively addressing that with our clients.
Remember, the key to monetizing your podcast is being confident and consistent about selling your services and products. Sprinkle in those bread crumbs that position you as the authority in your niche and the solution to your listeners’ problems. Then, they can follow those bread crumbs straight to your offer suite! Want even more support on how you can do this? Join me inside the Strategic Podcast Academy!
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
159: How to Make Money With Your Podcast in 2024 (WITHOUT Sponsors or a Subscription!)
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull: Your podcast should be bringing in leads and clients for your business, and if it's not doing that, you may be asking yourself. What now? So in today's episode, I want to break down how you can make more money from your podcast in 2024. [00:00:18][17.4]
[00:00:20] Caroline Hull: Hi there and welcome to Share, Strategize and Shine. I'm your host, Caroline Hull, a podcast strategist and CEO of Wild Home Podcasting. I've built my entire career through podcasts by sharing my experience using strategic systems and shining a light on the power of podcasting. If you are looking to cultivate leads for your membership, group program, or consulting services, I'm here to help you create a holistic and integrative podcast strategy that will let your business thrive. Let's dive in. [00:00:55][34.4]
[00:01:01] Caroline Hull: Hello everyone. Welcome back to Share, Strategize and Shine. I am going to make a confession today. There is something I've been wanting to do with my podcast for a very long time, but I have been afraid to do it. And I know that sounds so silly because I am a podcast person. I've been doing this for a long time. I know the tech, the ins and outs, but I have been avoiding changing my RSS feed host forever and I wanted to share that with you as the problem that we solve this week. Because if you've been podcasting for any length of time, you know that just literally like a few years ago, trying to transfer someone's RSS feed host was a nightmare. It was a big job. You ended inevitably end up with a broken link somewhere. It was very frustrating. Uh, it was something that I avoided at all cost. I think I've only helped a couple of clients do it simply because I didn't love to do it. And I would only ever have clients do it if they were on a platform that I just really felt like it wasn't serving them. A really good example of this is SoundCloud, and not a great one for podcasters, right? But I recently had a strategy call with a client and she wanted to switch RSS feed hosts, and I said, listen, I will help you. Absolutely. But here's a couple things that I recommend. You know, let me know how it goes. Or if you get stuck or if you need help. And she messages me and she says, so easy, I did it. And I was like, oh my gosh, they must have really improved the process because I've been avoiding it for so long. So I went ahead and did it. I switched RSS feed host. It was so easy. It was almost scary how easy it was. I really wish I had done it sooner and I'm really excited that I did it. So let me talk about why I decided to switch RSS feed hosts. I have been with Libsyn for a very, very long time and it's a great platform. It's a wonderful RSS feed host. Um, I still like, you know, will cheer them on and and recommend them. They are one of the pioneers in, in podcasting. So I have a lot of respect for Libsyn. But one of the things that is really important to me is an RSS feed host that is going to evolve with the industry as it's evolving, and I just don't think that Libsyn was necessarily built for podcasts like mine or a lot of my clients. And so we have actually been using Buzzsprout more and more. And the reason being is because it is a little cheaper one. But two the options and features really are better, and one of the big ones for me was I really wanted dynamic ads. But to get that on Libsyn, you have to upgrade your account and pay a lot more per month. And that didn't really make a lot of sense to me because I knew that I could do it in other places. Dynamic ads, in case you're wondering, are ads that you can place on every episode in your library. So let's say you're running a workshop and you want to run dynamic ads on all of your episodes is a workshop that's only going to happen at one time. You can add this ad and then take it away. And this is something that I really wanted to play with as a podcast strategist, and I've been unable to play with with my own podcast because I was on Libsyn. So. To solve this problem, I had to switch RSS feed host. This was not a decision that I took lightly. I feel like this is a really big step for me. Something that, like I said, I've been avoiding it for years and it was a hard decision. And when I did it, I'm so glad I did it. And I am now hosting my podcast over on Buzzsprout. So if you are looking at your RSS feed host and you're like, this isn't the things that I wanted, or maybe it's not functioning properly. Switching is so much easier and RSS feed hosts like Buzzsprout make it so easy to do. They walk you through the process on their website. So highly recommend. Don't sit on this if there are features you want and you need to switch, definitely do it. Just a pro tip, be sure to leave your old RSS feed host up for a while, and also be sure to download all your stats and basically create a spreadsheet where you'll have your stats from your old host, and then you'll start a column for your new host, and you'll be able to add them all together so you'll know what the total downloads of your podcast is. And that is the problem that I solved this week. [00:05:28][267.0]
[00:05:34] Caroline Hull: So you may have seen the title of this episode and click to play. Just to hear me talk about getting sponsors or starting a subscription for your podcast. Because a lot of times when we hear how to make money with our podcast, that's what we think about. But I want us to throw that thought out. This is not about adding to your plate. So if you are a business owner and you have a podcast, if you are a coach and that's how you help people, you're a business strategist, health coach, any of those things, social media coach, any of those kinds of coaches. And you have a podcast. The thing that you need to be selling on your podcast are your own services. Uh, one of the well, I'm going to talk about a few mistakes that I see people making. But one of them, I think that the mistake that we make when we come into podcasting is thinking that in order to monetize, we have to get a million downloads and get sponsors. And actually, when I'm talking about monetization of our podcast, I'm talking about selling the things that we already have, selling our services, selling our programs, getting people into our world. That's what the podcast is for, right? And you see, as a coach, one of the biggest things that you can leverage is your content on your podcast, because people want to connect and they want to get to know you. And that's probably why they listen to your podcast in the first place. Maybe they came across your podcast looking for something specific, or it could be very true that they found you somewhere else, and then saw that you had a podcast and then went and listened to all your episodes. Does anybody ever do that? Raise your hand. That would be me. [00:07:09][95.5]
[00:07:10] Caroline Hull: So let's talk about content and how it relates to making more money in your podcast. The biggest mistake. This is the biggest one I see online coaches make with or podcast is that they don't sell on their podcasts. They create these amazing episodes, but never actually mentioned their services or how to work with them. And like just having an in your outro is not enough. And so when we're talking about making more money in 2024 with our podcast, we're going to talk about content. Okay, so stick with me. I've got some really good tips for you in this episode. So definitely take notes. So if people are listening to your podcast, it's because they need help with something, right? And your podcast is the why. You are the how, right? So we want to be sure to share how to work with you. You have to become a master of cookie crumbs. I've talked a lot about cookies on this podcast, and if you've ever worked with me, it's one of my favorite analogies about using crumbs to direct people to the big cookie or the piece of the cookie, and then the big cookie. And so we're going to talk about some of those crumbs today specifically. But I've been baking a lot over the holidays. I started baking so much I know. Stick with me. You're all like, what is a side thing she's sharing here? But I've been baking a lot of bread. I've been baking bagels, rosemary bread, sandwich bread. And as I was getting ready to sit down and record this episode, I was like, you know, I don't want to talk about cookies today. I want to talk about bread. So for this episode, we're going to change the metaphor to bread. All right. So I want you to think of bread crumbs throughout your episode. You need to sprinkle bread crumbs. Right. These are the things that lead people to the bigger pieces of your business. And when we talk overall about, like, your podcast being a piece of the funnel, this is where this really makes a lot of sense. And so I'm not going to go into it too much. But I just want you to think of the amazing rosemary bread sitting on your countertop that you just baked and came out of the oven is your programs, offers services, and you're let's say you're a dog, got a piece of that bread and there's little crumbs everywhere. There's like a trail of crumbs leading to this piece of bread on your countertop. You need to have these crumbs in your content. Okay. So throughout your episodes we're sprinkling these in. And you do this by sharing stories of your own journey client stories. And. Oh, I was just talking about this with a friend type things. These are the crumbs, right. And this does take practice. So as I'm doing this episode and you're sitting here listening to this, you're like, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? I need to write this down. Like just know that this takes practice. This isn't something that necessarily happens overnight. There's a couple of different crumbs that I want you to leave. So I did mention, um, you know, stories of your own journey, client stories. Um, I like I really love it to when you are recording an episode and you remember. Oh, I had a conversation with the client about this the other day, and this is how we talk through it, and this is where we ended up. I love those kinds of crumbs as well. Another crumb that you need to leave is teasing what you're working on. So doing this and episodes can be hard if you don't plan ahead, which is why you should plan your content around your marketing schedule. This is really, really important and if you need help with doing this, I have a whole workshop on what this needs to look like. You just want to head to WildHomePodcasting.com/plan. Okay, but let's get back to teasing. So it's as simple as mentioning that you are creating something to help solve a problem you're talking about, right? Or maybe even teasing something inside of one of your programs, but you need to start weaving this into your episodes. [00:11:06][235.9]
[00:11:09] Caroline Hull: Sometimes we just need a little bit of help and a little bit of feedback on what we're working on, and that same thing applies to our podcast. I am so excited to now be offering podcasts Voxer Coaching Days. These are days where you get to actually rent my brain and start moving forward on your podcast. Just think of me as a podcast coach in your pocket for the day, to book your podcast Voxer Coaching Day and find out a little bit more about how they work. Head to WildHomePodcasting.com/Voxer. [00:11:40][31.0]
[00:11:45] Caroline Hull: And so this isn't like some of this is very second nature. You know, as coaches, as people who sit and chat and share. Some of this does come easy, but I think it's really interesting because when we have this conversation about podcast episodes, this really does apply to all of your content. And I think one of the things that we are afraid of doing is talking about ourselves and what we do too much, right? And we don't want to do that. Like we want to make sure that we mention these things many, many, many times. I talk a lot about this in the workshop that I did the Annual Planning and Podcast Workshop. So definitely like if you want to dig into this a little deeper and actually come up with a plan, I highly recommend going and checking that out. But one thing that has really helped me with this, because this is definitely a struggle for me, is selling does not come naturally to me. This is something I have had to work at and learn and become comfortable with, and that's very hard for me. So teasing actually is something that I'm not genuinely very good at. But one thing I have tried to do more and more is weaving in stories of how I'm actually helping people, and how I'm actually applying some of these principles to not only my podcast, but other people's podcasts, because we can sit here all day and talk at people, but they want to see, like, did this thing actually work? Did they actually use it? Did they apply it or are they actually taught walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Right. And so one of the things that I will do, and this is like a little behind the scenes pro tip is I actually outline my episodes. So for instance, this episode that I'm recording right now, I have this completely outlined and I have bullet points of what I want to talk about as I'm outlining my episodes each week. This is the moment where I will say to myself, do I have anything that I can weave in here? Is there any story or did I have a client meeting recently? What did we talk about? Nine times out of ten now, the episodes that I'm creating are coming from these conversations as well. So not only are they linked to my marketing schedule, but they're also born out of the things that people are talking about. And this is just all part of the content creation process. Being aware of what your audience needs, what people are talking about around you, all of those things. But actually outlining my episodes helps me to weave these comes in so much easier. Because if I was just sitting here recording and didn't have an outline, chances are I would probably forget to leave some crumbs in my episode, right? Because I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking more about the content. But, you know, again, people want to connect with you. They want to hear what you're doing. They want to get a deeper understanding of who you are. And one of the best ways to do that is to like, again, share those stories. Share those client stories. But when we're talking about sales, right. All of these things that I'm talking about are going to make people more aware of what you sell and make it easier for them to say yes to buying. Again, this should be happening across all of your content and really, really utilizing your podcast to warm your audience and get them into your funnel. And I will have a workshop coming up on this, so be sure to join my email list to learn more about that. Because when we start talking about the funnel, it's a little bit different conversation and not something I can dive into on this episode today. Because really, what I want you to take away from this is that you have got to start leaving crumbs in your content, talking about what you sell, if you want to make more money from your podcast. And this can also mean running ads for your own programs and services. That's another really great way to do it. But I can tell you all day about something, but if I can share a story of how that something provided a transformation, it makes it more real and more investable. Right. Like I'm okay putting my money down on that, because I can hear you saying that it worked. And again, when people are coming to your episode, they're looking to solve a problem. They want to be seen. They want to feel heard. They they want somebody who understands what they're going through or what they're struggling with. And it may not be a huge struggle. It can be a little tiny struggle, but they just need a quick win. And so a lot of times they will come to our episodes. And again, we want to share the lie. Right? We want to share why they need to be doing this. We need to be the how our programs and services need to be the next step for them to achieve what they want to achieve, and not because we're doing it in the sleazy way, but because that's how we help people. That's how we give them the how, right, of all the things. And so my challenge to you after listening to this episode is to really think about how you can start weaving more of these things into your podcast content. I talked in the trends episode last week about how you need to be thinking of your podcast as a long form piece of content that's warming your audience, and so even, you know, a step beyond like pro step, next step is to take these crumbs that are in your podcast episodes and start sprinkling them over your social media as well. And so that way, your social media and wherever else you show up in the world leads to the episodes which then lead into your funnel. And one of the best places to start working on this if you need help, if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know even where to begin is inside the Strategic Podcast Academy. That is a membership that I have where we really do talk about these pieces, this strategy. Right, because it does take a little bit of strategy. So I'll be sure to link that in the show notes. And, you know, here's to making more money from our podcast in 2024. If you listen to my trends episode, you know, I talked about how I think this is going to be a great year for podcasting and I really, really do. I am so excited to see how people start utilizing their podcasts in a more strategic way. And that in turn is going to help us make more money from them. So cheers to that and I will see you next time. [00:18:06][381.2]
[00:18:08] Caroline Hull: Thank you for listening to Share, Strategize and Shine. To give your own podcast some shine, download my free Podcast Guide to Creating Episodes for Sales by heading to the link in the show notes. Be sure to leave a review and connect with me on Instagram for more podcast strategy insights. Until next time.
