The Best Podcast Monetization Model REQUIRES Ubiquity

There is a lot of complaining. There's not enough thinking right now in the podcast space. And I want to chat about this on this episode of the podcast report. I am streaming this live to Facebook. So if anybody wants to jump in, make a comment, that kind of thing while doing it, I'll take that, maybe even make it part of the episode. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, which again, is the majority of you, which is part of today's topic, thank you so much. And you can respond all the regular ways. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast report yet, the podcastreport.com Apple will get you that route. Google will get you that route. Pandora will get you that route. Stitcher will get you that route, Tunein will get you that route, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I bring this up because it's really important. My podcast is available every single place it can possibly be available, meaning that I am available in every possible way that people can get me. I am on Luminary, which at the time of this recording, just launched recently, a hotspot for debate. There are a number of people who pulled their podcast away from Luminary. I'm on Pandora right now, and at the time of this recording, not everybody's able to get there. And I put myself everywhere. Let's chat about the complaints. What is happening is a number of people are saying, believing, posting, podcasting, complaining, tweeting, Facebooking, et cetera, that, well, I don't like my podcast on X. And X could be, you know, at the time of this recording, it's Luminary. But at other times, it's been other things. I've heard people complain about their podcast being on Stitcher because of sound quality. We've chat about that in past episodes, complain about, you know, the, the strategy behind a podcast, getting on YouTube or that type of thing. We've chatted about that in past episodes. But I think what's really important for today's conversation is just a simple realization, a simple understanding, a simple embracing that. The best podcast monetization strategy requires ubiquity requirements. What does that mean? You are going to make the most money from your podcast by getting your story, your message out to as many people as humanly possible. You might make money from that directly, you might make that money from that indirectly, you might make money from that integrated. See previous episodes of the podcast report. But it's all based on how many people are able to get your content. There is some feelings right now that I'm not going to put my podcast on a place that puts other ads because I don't get a piece of the action. They're allowed to make money, just like you're allowed to make money. If an organization pops up that has a new audience, you want to be there for them. If an audience pops up that brings podcasting to someone that hasn't had podcasting before, you want to be there. And if an audience takes a podcaster from a certain place to a better experience, you want to be there as well. You know, I've once joked, but I'm kind of serious about it. I wanted at a previous podcast type of event, event to sell T shirts. Let's say that the only one who's allowed to make money in podcasting is me. And then the second part of the joke is, well, everybody would want the T shirt for free. But the fact of the matter is that is kind of the gut reaction on some people's levels. Yeah, people might make money out of you trying to make money out of getting your content out to as many people as is humanly possible. That's okay if they provide a service. If they go in and change your content, remove it and that kind of thing. Obviously, that's ridiculous. But it's a big playbox, it's a big Internet, it's a big planet, it's a big international audience. And if we're smart about this, we can actually leverage this so that all of us do better as a result. So what? Some people are complaining. Some people are trying to get shows removed. Some people are, you know, and not just little guys like. Like the BBC has gotten their podcast removed from some platform. I can't remember what it was, the Spotify gimlet people got their podcast removed from someone else. Whatever. It's just a freaking mess. And the best monetization strategy for anyone is in getting your podcast everywhere. I'll say that one more time. The biggest monetization strategy is in getting your podcast everywhere. Now, the other big complaint that's coming out is people are releasing things that aren't technically podcasts. You know, if a podcast is behind a paywall, not everybody can get it. Is that technically a podcast? If the president of Facebook, if the CEO, if Mark himself, were to release a podcast and put it only on Facebook, is that a real podcast? Doesn't matter, don't care. I'm recording this episode of the podcast report on Facebook Live because now there are a couple of billion people on Facebook. And I'm glad I can share this content with you. For the episodes that I don't record on Facebook Live, I definitely try to get that content on Facebook. And the smartest automation would be to make it available to everyone. So not only is it an issue of not taking your podcast, not taking your podcast off of anyone who is willing to distribute your podcast for you, but it's also an issue of maybe you put your podcast on things that aren't even necessarily podcasting. Why don't you email the audio file? Why don't you YouTube and Facebook and Twitter the content, get your stuff everywhere? Because that's the biggest chance your monetization model has always been in getting a lot of people to consume your content. If the content is someplace that you don't like, what does it cost you? What's the problem? What's the fault? Now, flip side of this, be strategic. Right now, podcasting is huge. I. I've been bullish on podcasting for 15 years. My first book came out a couple of years before the iPhone did. I did not realize how quickly and how big and how bullish the industry was going to be about it. But, hey, let's take that. If someone wants to spend a kabillion dollars somewhere to make a really bad plan for bringing a new audience, but they introduce you to a couple of new people, yeah, it's kind of sad that they wasted their money. But the fact matters. You've been introduced to a couple more people. Now. What you want to do is you want to be really strategic about this. You want to let people know that the platform that they're consuming you on might not be around forever. So for those of you listening to me, for those of you watching me on whatever platform is there, thepodcastreport.com is the place where you're going to always find the podcast report. And I did it@thepodcastreport.com because podcastreport.com at the time was taken. And gosh darn it, I feel myself to be the only one. But here's the deal. As others distribute, as others go away, as others fall, as others rise, I'm going to be everywhere, and I'm going to send people back to the podcast report to subscribe, back to the podcast report, to leave comments and that type of thing, I'm going to do well, and I recommend that you do the same. There is a lot of money there is in creating problems. There is a lot of waste of time in creating problems. There are a lot of people who aren't creating content and aren't making money because they're creating problems and complaining. Don't be that. Get your message out to the world. Put it anywhere the people will consume it. Monetize it, and you'll be in a great place. This is the Podcast Report. My name is Paul Colligan. More information about the Podcast Report can be found@thepodcastreport.com if you want to follow up, you can follow up on the podcastreport.com Facebook or the podcastreport.com Twitter or the podcastreport.com Instagram. Yeah, we did that strategically. We did that on purpose. Sending everybody back to the Podcast Report. Please monetize your podcast. Please be strategic about it, and please don't be silly and take it away from someplace else. Thank you so much for listening. It's always fun. We'll chat soon. Bye.