Your Podcast as a Brand
In this video interview with JD Lasica at Podcamp West, Michael Geoghegan talks about how to make money with podcasting. He quotes a survey run by Gigavox Media, a company he started with Doug Kaye, in which one third of the podcasters who responded indicated they would like to make their living with podcasting.
Some of the interesting points he makes about how to do this include:
- Think of your podcast as a business.
- Think ahead. Determine where you want to be and then spend some time thinking about how to get there.
- Think of your podcast as a brand.
Michael refers to Grape Radio, which he helped create, as an example of these points. Grape Radio was started as a business by partners who each invested money in the resources necessary to do what they had in mind. Does this mean your podcast will require a large outlay of capital to get going? Not necessarily. But you should know in advance that you want to make money, think about how you will do it and start taking the steps necessary to make it happen.
I find #3 especially interesting. If you create a brand around your show it will allow for exciting possibilities in the future. This could be in the form of events or other shows that revolve around the brand. When it comes to branding, you need to decide whether the brand is a person (possibly you) or whether the brand is the show. In Michael’s examples, the brand is the show, Grape Radio. In the case of Howard Stern, he is the brand. There is also the case where the podcast is a tool to extend a brand you are creating or already have.
If you decide now what you want from your podcast, it will give you clarity of purpose and make it easier to think ahead and take the steps necessary to get to your goal.
