Portable Media & Podcast Expo: Paul Colligan - 7 Proven Strategies to Monetize Your Podcast
Awesome words of wisdom from Paul Colligan. Forgive the rapid format of my notes, but there are lots of gems below.
Donations
- Tell them how much to give you
- Suggest to them something to buy for you (Cali Lewis, GeekBrief.tv asks for the Ramen Noodle fund)
Newsletter Revenue
- Clicks are much easier to monetize than podcast audio
- Start an email newsletter
- Paul emailed to his audience this morning which resulted in a $1500 affiliate commission
- Give them a reason to subscribe
- Send them regular updates (weekly if you can)
Merchandising
- Sell physical products and/or virtual information products
- T-shirts: test using cafepress.com then move to somewhere that will give you more profit margin
- Be creative: Keith and the Girl sells the top 10 spots on their MySpace friends page
Premium Podcasting
- Give some content for free, sell the rest of the content
- Sell the bonus/extra content
- Sell your podcast (PremiumPodcasting.com or wordcast.audible.com)
Commissioned Sales:
- Join affiliate programs.
- Use the affiliate links on your page.
- Use links in your show notes.
Web Clicks
- Make a site worth coming to. Use monetizing clicks in your RSS feed content too.
- Use transcripts of your shows to get indexed in google. Use this content to monetize with ads (AdSense) and affiliate programs.
- For transcripts: www.castingwords.com
- Secret weapon: www.hittail.com
Monetization Rule #1:
Podcasts don’t make real money…clicks make money.
September 29th, 2006 22:17
Thanks for sharing your conference notes, Jason.
Speaking of Cafe Press, can you or your readers recommend any other print on demand services that you’ve been happy with? I know of several but have no first hand experience with.
Extra points if anyone can recommend a union shop: I do a lot of work in politics, and if you’re printing swag for a Democratic / progressive / labor project, it’s gotta have the union bug.
Thanks!
September 30th, 2006 11:18
Shaula,
I recently got custom t-shirts from Zazzle.com. You can design your shirt online. It was the first time using their site, but maybe give that a try.
Jason
September 30th, 2006 11:33
Jason, I had heard that Zazzle did custom US postage stamps, but I didn’t realize they offered a broader product line.
If they can do even more, that’s great news.
Thank you for the reply and the tip. :)
June 25th, 2008 00:13
this site you can leavI really aggree with you Barry. I m working for a similar kind of company called WiseTypist http://www.wisetypist.com. We also offer the similar service but at 30% less than their price. You may go with their service really for smaller works but coming to volume you houls really check once with our company
Thank and regards,
Linda