Podcast Monetization - The Indirect Method - The Podcast Report Episode #42

Podcast monetization, the indirect model. It's the podcast report, episode 42 show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com 42 it's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul A podcast without direct monetization might be the most profitable podcast model of all. My name is Paul Colligan. I am, well, obviously a podcaster and best selling author of the number one top selling book, how to Podcast 2015. I've been in podcasting since the beginning. I love this industry. I have since day one been refining the avatar for the show a little bit. I know who you are. You're a podcaster looking to make your podcast a real business. That's what this show is about. That's what the podcast report is here for. We're not a massive play, but we are a deep one. Welcome to the show. Got a number of new listeners. The numbers are going up every week. NMX just happened. Different events have just been just happened. People are buying the book, people are finding out about what we've got. Because of that, there are a number of you of whom this is the first episode and thank you for that. I love new listeners. We have 41 before this being episode 42 and all you're welcome to go back. We've got some good stuff there. Why the topic this week? Well, I'll tell you this right now, this audience, the audience for this show, the podcast report, is very interested in monetization. Every episode I've done about monetization, every episode where I've touched on it has been some of our top downloaded podcast has been some of our top transcript downloads. Transcript download Paul, what's that? Well, if you send the hashtag ep4two as an episode 42 to the hotline at 503-897-1290 I will send you the transcript from this episode as many have done for monetization episodes before. Anyway, the industry is interested in monetization as well. I've chatted with this in past episodes and it's something we're all fascinated with. My take in podcasting has always been a little bit different, but it's been a take not based on hope. Not this crazy chase. Your passions and the profits will follow, but logic and hope in the business and the marketplace and what I've seen work. And I'll tell you this, this industry needs a little bit of logic and well, we're going to hit the next couple episodes. Some of the different models for monetization and how they make sense. Indirect monetization is the first one. And indirect monetization is simply revenue because of your podcast, not directly from your podcast. Instead of seeing revenue from ads or sponsorships or that type of thing, it's consulting that comes because your podcast has positioned you as an expert in the industry or speaking engagements or writing engagements. And that's either magazines or books or, you know, paid website postings, whatever it is. Or for some, it's simply just access you wouldn't have otherwise. I know one guy who did a podcast merely to get on the movie screener list. And once he got on the movie screener list, he stopped because he wanted to get paid in movie screeners. And this can happen. It's the indirect model of podcast monetization. Now, why does this matter? What does this have to do with anything? Well, in the past episodes, I've pooh, poohed the whole Kevin Costner, if you build it, they will come model of podcasting. No matter what you do, no matter how you were trying to monetize your podcast, you want to have a plan. And I will say this, the indirect model of podcast monetization is not the lack of a plan. If anything, the indirect model requires more of a plan. Because simply, the right place, right time strategy is no longer an effective one, if it ever has been. You know, there are a few who have been at the right place at the right time, knocked out of the park. That just isn't going to happen anymore with where the industry is, where we are at, where our listeners are. Those are just the facts. So if you're looking to monetize your podcast, you're looking to do it via the indirect method. We got to look at what makes for successful indirect monetization. I've got seven elements for you. You might want to write these down. Number one is simply that you know what you want from the podcast. You know who is going to listen and bring the indirect monetization, and then you're going to develop a plan for getting that content to them. You know, if you're looking for a book contract as a result of your podcast, well, you need to know that people who give away book contracts are going to be listening to your show or listening to this type of show. If you're looking to get movie screeners from the academy, you know, you got to know that movie screeners are going to be listening to your show. The very first step of indirect monetization is knowing what you want and again, doing the podcast and hoping something happens. That's not enough. The second thing you do is you know exactly who your audience is and you're able to express it in 10 words or less. The better the indirect monetization option is, the more niche the audience, the more specific of an audience that you serve, and I've spoke to this in the past, the better the chance for an indirect monetization option coming your way so you know exactly who your audience is and you can express it in 10 words or less. Notice at the beginning of the show I said, these are podcasters looking to make their podcast a real business. Podcasters looking to make their podcast a real business. That's a very, very specific niche. And someone who wants to work on the business of podcasting and business side of podcast monetization might come after this show, but you know the hobbyist or that type of audience won't come and you got to be specific. 10 words or less. One really good way to help define your process is deal with a so that you can statement and what a so that you can statement means is your show exists so that you can what? And in an example of this show, so that you can understand the real business of podcasting and know what comes next for you and, and your show. Number one, know what you want from the podcast. Number two, know exactly who your audience is and be able to express it in 10 words or less. Once you get those two things, now you've got a real idea and focus and attention to your show that can bring in an indirect monetization option for you. Next thing you got to do is you got to understand and communicate your format. You want to let the world know why you're doing this, what you're reaching out to. People who are listening to you might not realize that you've targeted them specifically. And if you mention to it and if you speak to it, you could be a really interesting place. Now, understanding and communicating your format, part of understanding, communicating your format is the value of the show. And you might want to still have ads on your show if you're in the right, if that would attract the right audience. For some people, an ad might make might get them to pay more attention to you, might get them to take your podcast more seriously. Some won't. It depends on what your audience is. But again, the better you know that audience, the better off you're going to be. Full transparency might be something that you want to try. I mean, if your desire is to get movie screeners, well, then you might want to just say and hey, movie screener, deciders go ahead, send me a show. You know, I've spoken to the show many times that I get higher level consulting, you know, clients from this. And if you're looking for, you know, high level consulting and podcasts, you might want to consider getting a hold of me and the show. A full transparency just might work. The next thing you want to do, especially in indirect monetization, since they don't know why you're doing this. If you're not doing this for the ads, if you're not doing this for the sales, they got to know why you're doing this. And they got to know that you're predictable. They have to know that, you know, well, I mean, if this guy doesn't come out on a regular basis, why would I offer him a consulting gig? Why would I send him screeners? Why would I give them a book writing contract or that type of thing? And predictable just means you're going to do what it is that you say you're going to do. It doesn't mean you have to have a show every day. It doesn't mean you have to have a show every week. It just has to be whenever you tell the world that your show is coming out, it comes out and they begin to know you and they begin to play with you as predictable if you change, or better fact, a closer thing would be when you change. Just explain why be predictable. The next one. You are more approachable than other podcasters. Podcasters, yes, they love their audience and they love interaction and they love social. But a lot of them sometimes forget how important that is. And you want to speak to your audience, you want to be very, very approachable. Because when you get that option, you want somebody to know that I can contact this person and I can follow up with this person. So if someone wants to reach you, they need to know how easy it is to do, make sure that's part of the show. The next thing is, and this is really important, and this doesn't fall with all indirect monetizers, but you got to know when business came from the podcast. Earlier, before I started recording this, I was on the line with the client and the client was telling me they're doing this, this and this with the show and it's great and it's a great revenue model and everything's perfect. But they had no way to tell if the listener to the show that they were looking to make money for came from them or if the listener to the show came from the outside. And, you know, one model is if you're just serving your existing audience with the podcast. That's great. But if you're looking to build your audience with the podcast, you want to be able to track that as well. You got to that your business comes from the podcast. And if you are have an existing business or you have an existing way to contact, you might want to look at something like a Google voice number or a different email address or something to track that people came in as a result of the podcast. And then finally, last but not least, and this is huge, you want to make sure your content is delivered to both audiences. Now, what do we mean by both audiences? Well, audience number one is the audience that you're doing the show for. That is your demographic for the show. That is the audience. But then there's that second audience of the people who you want the consulting contract from or the speaking gig or the writing gig or that type of thing. And that's where you might want to consider wrapping up your show and getting it to somebody else in some very, very direct ways. I mean, imagine, you know, you want a book contract. Imagine delivering a shrink wrap CD of your show to an editor. Better yet, get that shrink wrap CD inside of Amazon. Send it from Amazon, an Amazon gift wrap. Nobody out there doesn't, you know, boy, people open up their own Amazon gifts, their own Amazon presence. And, you know, if you think of creative ways to get your content to your audience, you're going to be at a really interesting place. And don't expect them to listen. They're busy. And the bigger the gig that you're looking for, the busier they are. And you want to make sure that the content is being delivered to both audiences. So let's hit these really quick again and then we'll close up. You know what you want from the podcast? Very specifically, you have a model of indirect monetization that you are working for. You know exactly who your audience is. You can express it in 10 words or less. And you might do the so that you can formula you understand and communicate your format because, well, if you don't understand the communicator format, your audience isn't going to get it and they're not going to understand what you want from this. You become extremely predictable and become more approachable than all the other podcasters so people can come and get ahold of you. You know, when podcast, when business comes from the podcast because you got to track it. And then you make sure your content is getting delivered to both audiences when you do these seven things. If you want to embrace a indirect model for podcasting. You do these seven things and you're going to be on your way. If you can't match them, you got to know why and you got to have a better plan. Hey, Paul, I can't do one element of it, okay? This isn't gospel, you know, this isn't the holy word. But boy, if you can't do one of these seven elements that I've got listed here, you better know why and you better know what it is that you're doing differently. Thank you so much. I'd love your thoughts on this one. ThePodcastReport.com 42 is the blog. We've got comments there. We've also got social media. You can go to facebook.com I'm sorry, yes, facebook.com the podcastreport twitter.com podcastrpt if you want to get the mind map and the transcript for this episode, go ahead and text EP4.2 to 503-897-1290. If you just want to leave a voicemail message, you can do that as well at the show hotline right now. Just one link at this week's episode. That's the book. That's how to podcast 2015. If you want to subscribe to the show. If you'd like to get future episodes of this show sent to you on a regular basis, go ahead and subscribe through. However you like to listen to podcast. However you'd like to subscribe to podcast thepodcastreport.com iTunes, Stitcher, Pocketcast, TuneIn, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Overclassed, Overcast. All of those will get you the show automatically. If you want to do the old fashioned email thing, you can. I'm@the podcastreport.com I'm sorry, the podcast report@outlook.com thank you so much. Chat with you next week. Bye.