Create a Money-Making Podcast (Without Thousands of Downloads)
You’ve put in the work—recording, editing, and publishing your podcast. But here’s the big question: How do you turn your podcast into a revenue machine?
A lot of podcasters think they need millions of downloads to make money, but that’s just not true! Even with a small, engaged audience, you can start generating revenue from your show.
In this episode, I’m breaking down three proven ways to monetize your podcast—no matter your audience size. Whether you’re selling your own products, leveraging affiliate marketing, or pitching brand partnerships, these strategies will help you make podcasting more than just a passion project.
If you’re ready to turn your podcast into a money-making tool, this episode is for you!
1. Sell Your Own Products or Services
One of the most effective ways to monetize your podcast—regardless of your download numbers—is by promoting your own products or services. This could include:
Coaching or consulting packages
Digital products (like eBooks or templates)
Online courses or workshops
Memberships or paid communities
Why This Works:
Your listeners are already invested in you. They tune in because they trust your voice and value your insights. That’s why promoting your own offerings is not just effective—it’s authentic.
How to Do It:
👉 Integrate naturally: Weave your offer into your episode content instead of making it sound like a hard sell.
👉 Be clear and confident: Don’t hesitate to share how your product or service can genuinely help your listeners.
👉 Use a clear CTA: Direct your audience to your website or a landing page to learn more.
💡 Example: “If you’re loving these podcast growth tips, you’ll love my Podcast to Profit Workshop. Join us at wildhomepodcasting.com/workshop to dive deeper!”
2. Use Affiliate Marketing
If you love sharing recommendations, affiliate marketing could be a natural fit. By promoting products or services that you genuinely use and love, you can earn a commission every time someone makes a purchase through your unique link.
Why This Works:
Your audience trusts you. When you share tools or resources that have genuinely helped you, it doesn’t feel forced—it feels helpful.
How to Do It:
👉 Choose relevant products: Make sure they align with your content and your audience’s needs.
👉 Disclose honestly: Always let your listeners know you’re sharing an affiliate link.
👉 Stay genuine: Only recommend things you truly believe in.
💡 Example: “I’m always getting questions about my podcast setup. If you’re curious, I use this microphone and this editing software. These tools have made recording so much easier!”
3. Partner with Sponsors (Even with a Small Audience)
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need tens of thousands of downloads to land a sponsorship. Brands are looking for niche audiences that are engaged and loyal. Even a small, dedicated listener base can be valuable to the right partner.
Why This Works:
Brands love micro-influencers because they often have higher engagement rates than large-scale shows. It’s not just about numbers—it’s about connection.
How to Do It:
👉 Pitch smaller, niche brands: Start with businesses that align closely with your content.
👉 Create custom packages: Offer options like mid-roll mentions, social media shoutouts, or dedicated episodes.
👉 Be specific about your audience: Share what makes your community unique and why they would resonate with the sponsor’s product.
💡 Example: “I recently partnered with [Brand X], a tool I use every week to streamline my content planning. If you’re looking to stay organized, check them out!”
Why You Don’t Need a Huge Audience
It’s time to move away from the idea that only big shows make money. The secret? Focus on engagement, not just numbers. Your podcast doesn’t have to be a passive hobby—it can be an intentional, revenue-generating part of your business.
When you’re strategic with your approach and consistent in your message, you can monetize your podcast even with a small but dedicated audience.
Final Thoughts: Start Monetizing Your Podcast Today
You don’t have to wait until you have thousands of downloads to start seeing a return on your podcasting efforts. By leveraging your own products, affiliate marketing, and strategic partnerships, you can turn your podcast into a money-making tool right now.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into podcast monetization strategies, join my Strategize & Shine Podcast Academy—a community where we go beyond downloads and focus on sustainable growth.
👉 Join at wildhomepodcasting.com/academy
Let’s make podcasting more than just a passion project—it’s time to profit with purpose! 💫
The Transcript for Share, Strategize, & Shine:
214: Create a Money-Making Podcast (Without Thousands of Downloads)
[00:00:00] You've put in the work recording, editing, and publishing episodes, but here's the big question. How do you turn your podcast into a revenue machine? A lot of podcasters think they need millions of downloads to make money, but that is not true. Even with a small engaged audience, you can start generating revenue from your show.
[00:00:20] So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through some of the best ways to monetize your podcast without waiting to get big first.
[00:00:28] [00:01:00]
[00:01:09] Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. So excited to be with you. Today, I am batch recording. I did it. I feel like there should be applause and who knows what. Uh, you know, I'm not a huge batch recorder.
[00:01:24] If you I've listened to me for any amount of time, you know this, I've talked about it. I've even done episodes about how to not batch record. But, uh, I've got my birthday coming up, just a really busy time of year, and I feel like this is the time to actually get ahead on some episodes. It's been really interesting too because I'm also incorporating a new YouTube strategy, so I want to make sure that I'm ahead on that as well.
[00:01:49] So, if you do not follow me on YouTube, go check that out, the link will be in the show notes because that is something I'm really working on. Not just doing podcast [00:02:00] videos, my podcast episodes as videos, but also doing other videos as well. So, it's time to batch record. So, I'm really excited to be ahead of the game on this one.
[00:02:09] It feels really good and, yeah, let's dive right in. Podcasting takes time and effort, and if you're using it as a tool to grow your business, you don't want it to just be a passion project, right? You want it to bring you real results. We want to see tangible, real results. And here's what most people get wrong.
[00:02:31] They focus too much on growing their audience before thinking about monetization. The truth is you don't need thousands of listeners. You just need the right strategy. So, I want to break down three ways to start making money from your podcast, no matter your audience size, so you can start to think about some of these things.
[00:02:50] Now, some of these you may have heard me talk about. I'm going to mention a couple things maybe I haven't talked about yet and kind of give you my take on some of these other things that you [00:03:00] hear about in the podcasting world and you're wondering, I don't know if I can do that because I don't have a large audience.
[00:03:05] So the first one, and this is my big one, sell your own products or services. Like if you are a business owner, you have a podcast and you are not talking about your products and services on your podcast, you are totally missing an opportunity. One of the fastest and most effective ways to monetize is to offer something directly to your audience, whether it's coaching, a course membership, or even a digital product.
[00:03:30] Now, you don't want to just do this, like creating episodes that are super salesy, but you do want to talk about your offers naturally and tie them into your episodes, right? This is that sprinkling I talk about, like throw in some stories, , talk about working with clients, talk about what's going on inside your programs and your memberships.
[00:03:51] Maybe talk about a new product you're excited that you created. Like, it's okay to share these things and talk about them on your podcast. [00:04:00] And then what you want to do is use a clear call to action so listeners know what the next step is. Is that something like to book a discovery call with you? Is it to come to a free event?
[00:04:13] You want to make sure that your podcast listeners are a part of whatever is going on in your business world. So, the other thing you might want to do in conjunction with this, right, is to offer something free, like a lead magnet to warm up potential buyers. One of the things that I preach over and over and over to my clients is making sure that you have some way of pulling in leads from your podcast, whether that's a lead magnet or like I mentioned, a free event, any of those things, we want to make sure we're mentioning them on And I love to have one that lives in the outro and then that way in the episode, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about.
[00:04:53] So an example of a CTA that I might use is . If today's episode got you thinking about launching a [00:05:00] podcast, grab my free checklist at enter your website to get started and then making sure that you're putting all these links. It's not all of them, but you're linked to your call to action in the show notes.
[00:05:12] So here's the thing. I want you to remember, because I think that sometimes we get it in our head that to be a successful podcaster, we have to have sponsors, like to make money as a podcaster, we have to have sponsors, but many podcasters actually make more money from selling their own offers. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about sponsorships in a minute, and maybe that'll help clear some of that up.
[00:05:38] Now this is my second way of monetizing our podcast. And this is something that even I am not terribly good at doing. But let me tell you, if you can get in the habit of doing this, it's going to be such a great thing for you. And that is affiliate marketing. Marketing, right? It's one of the easiest ways to start earning without actually creating your own [00:06:00] product.
[00:06:00] And if you're someone like me who's constantly recommending products, tools, courses, things like that, then you need to have affiliate links for these. I cannot tell you how long I went without an affiliate link for Descript. How many times have I talked about Descript? It is literally one of my favorite tools.
[00:06:17] I am using it right now. So, I'll put the link in the show notes, you know. You really need to be utilizing these affiliate programs. You know, go ahead and think about the tools that you use every day that you might talk about in your episodes. And sign up for them, you know, whether that's like a service, such as, you know, I use Better Health, I also use Hinge Health, if you know what those are.
[00:06:41] So if you're like a health and wellness coach and you're talking about accessibility for physical therapy and for therapy, get affiliates for those. You know, Amazon Associates has affiliate links, so anytime you mention a book or something that you're reading. Get an affiliate link for that. And then [00:07:00] also think about like, the platforms that you use.
[00:07:02] So, Kajabi, ConvertKit, Squarespace, etc, etc. Those all have affiliate programs. So, make a list, go through them, sign up for the affiliate links. You know, one other thing that, I've seen a couple people do as well. In addition to mentioning these on their podcasts, they would actually have a page on their website of the tools that they recommend, which are all affiliate links.
[00:07:25] And you know, you can just put a little asterisk, put a little note at the bottom, these are affiliate links. But. And this is like something that I think we forget to do because like if you're using a specific mic or software or anything like that, mention it in an episode and share the affiliate link in your show notes.
[00:07:43] And the best thing about affiliate marketing is it doesn't feel like selling if you're doing it authentically. If it's literally something that you're using and is making your life better, is making your business better, your podcast, whatever. Then it feels like you're actually helping your people out, [00:08:00] and you're going to get paid for recommending that.
[00:08:02] So there, you know, there's even affiliates for programs that I'm in, memberships that I'm in have affiliates. So, you know, make a list, see if they have affiliate programs, sign up, keep a list of those handy, podcast, it's really easy to just add it to the show notes. Okay, so let's talk about sponsorships and brand partnerships.
[00:08:28] Yes, sponsorships can be a great revenue stream, but you do not need 10, 000 plus downloads to get paid. So, I'm going to share with you some examples of things that you can do if you have a small audience, but you're really wanting to go ahead and get into some sponsorships and some things like that.
[00:08:50] Again, this is without a large audience. So like one of the things I see is people will wait forever to try and get a sponsor for their podcast. [00:09:00] So if I'm a podcaster and I don't have products I'm selling right now and I have a few affiliates, but I really want a sponsor, these are some of the things that I would do.
[00:09:10] So one is pitch small businesses or brands that align with your niche. This is the thing that I, I I really want to drive home, if you are creating engaging content and really connecting with your listeners in an impactful way, they are going to start to build trust with you and they're going to want to engage with the things that you're talking about, like these affiliate links, like these other things, right?
[00:09:36] You know, when I say I love Descript, my clients all go, Oh, I want to try it. They know that I have tested it a million bazillion times and that I am actually using it for myself. And so that's why I recommend it, right? I think we forget how impactful audiences like that can be. And when you have a sponsor of a smaller podcast that takes [00:10:00] action often, it's going to be just as valuable to the sponsors as a bigger audience where only a few take action, right?
[00:10:07] Get creative with your sponsorship packages. You can build them yourself. Think about things that you could add to them, such as social media shout outs or ad placements, maybe a blog post, maybe have them on your podcast to do an interview. And here's the thing too, like set your own pricing.
[00:10:25] Don't wait for sponsors to come to you. The big, big brands that are paying for sponsorships. They're paying like a price per thousand downloads, right? And it's usually not very much. I'm talking like 25, you know, somewhere around there. But, if I have a super engaged audience who's going to take action, I know that I can charge more for that and offer some bonuses like social media shoutouts.
[00:10:52] Have them come on the podcast, talk about their product, things like that. So here's an example that I'm going to share with you. If you have a podcast [00:11:00] about wellness, you could literally partner with a supplement brand that you use, right? And offer sponsored ad spots. You could tell them that you're also going to mention it on Instagram.
[00:11:11] And then maybe if they have a really unique approach to developing their supplements, you can have them come on your podcast and talk about that. This is the big takeaway from this moment in this episode is that micro influencers, and that's you, you are a micro influencer, you have a podcast, you have an audience that you're influencing, usually have higher engagement than big names, making small audience sponsorships more valuable.
[00:11:37] And I really am a true believer in like, you get to make the rules. And so if you feel like you want a sponsor. Put together a PDF, a media kit, start reaching out to people. You never know what can happen. So let's talk about next steps. If you are ready to start monetizing, [00:12:00] try one of these strategies. You know, either sell your own products or services.
[00:12:04] That's my number one for business owners, okay? Like, that's where I want you to start. Try some affiliate marketing. If you feel like you're ready for a sponsor and a brand partnership and it won't take away from what you are trying to sell, definitely give it a shot. And DM me on Instagram at wildhomepodcasting.
[00:12:20] Let me know which one you're gonna try. So one of the things about monetization is it really is personal. It's part of your strategy. It's part of your podcast strategy. And inside my membership, this is one of the things that I work on and that I try to teach everyone is that you get to pick a plan that works for you so you can start making money from your podcast sooner.
[00:12:41] You can head to wildhomepodcasting. com slash academy to join. Enrollment is open. And if this episode helped you at all, please share with a friend or leave a quick review. It helps more than you know, and it also just helps me to develop new content in the future, which I am working on. So [00:13:00] that's it for today, and I'll see you in the next episode.
