How Can I Make Money on a Podcast?

*if you need a very direct answer, skip to the bottom of the article

This question is so common that I don’t even blink when strangers ask me about my personal finances. At first, it shocked me because, if I had a normal job this wouldn’t come up. The strange thing is that I don’t make money on my podcast, but everyone assumes that I do.

So, why is this assumption so common? I think it’s based on a myth that has been growing in our culture, especially in the last 5–10 years. Now that it’s so easy to sell things, like custom t-shirts and the attention of your followers, we assume that everything is for sale.

Selling attention is the most visible form of the myth. Gary Vaynerchuck pushes the sale of attention in his book, Crushing It and his constant streams of other media. When people hear Vaynerchuk’s ideas, they often set up a false dichotomy: work a 9–5 job that I hate or cash in on the attention economy. If the day job is a super highway that you’re driving down, it looks like the attention economy is the only off-ramp. So, up your game on Instagram.

Attention is valuable, but it’s not the only game in town. Imagine you’re a painter and you make incredible murals. Now, one of the biggest brands in the entire world invites you to come to their newest office building and paint on their walls. They will tag you in media of all kinds and you will get more attention than you have ever received in your entire artistic career. They just won’t pay you, but you can monetize the attention like crazy. Would you do it?

It sounds like a slam dunk, but there’s more here. I love the story of David Choe. He’s one of the wealthiest visual artists in the entire world. He was invited to paint a mural at Facebook’s office a few years ago. He could’ve done it for free and monetized the attention. Instead, he did it for stock in the company and the rest is history. At this moment, David has a modest social media following, but his net worth is listed at about $200 Million.

Wait, how many followers do I need to make money?

Simple answer: zero. Complex answer: it depends. How are you making money? Odds are it is independent of your follower count. For example, if you make money on YouTube ads, you actually get paid by view, not by follower. If you sell a product through an affiliate link on Instagram, then you are paid by a cut of the purchases people make. If you have 1 million subscribers, but no one buys, you don’t make money.

It’s counterintuitive and uncomfortable, but the truth is that being independent of your follower count is good. I know a young woman who loves making films, but she’s been taught that Instagram followers and social media influence are so important that she distracts herself from the work she loves. She spends time on Instagram instead of building her skills. Eventually, she noticed that pictures of her in a swimsuit brought dramatically more followers. So, she started doing more shoots in bathing suits. Then, she started doing lingerie, but she felt uncomfortable and exposed. She was torn between her integrity and her quest for more followers. When she realized that the people who want to see her swimsuit photos are not the people who will watch her latest documentary, she was free to focus on the art she loves.

If you get distracted from your art to build a social media presence, that will hinder your progress. You might need a lot of practice too. You might be an average artist. You might stay that way if you don’t focus. The 10,000 hour rule has been hotly debated for years, but Malcolm Gladwell tried to put it to rest in a discussion with David Epstein. Malcolm explained that he included the 10,000 Hour Rule in his book outliers not to convince people to practice, but to show that excellence requires an environment that allows for an enormous amount of practice. If you are constantly checking Twitter, you’re not in the environment for excellence. Focus and you stand a chance at surpassing mediocrity.

Want a great way to make money so you can focus on your art? Consider a job. It worked for Anthony Trollope who wrote for 2 hours every day before work.

To generate significant attention for a monetization strategy, you’re going to need word-of-mouth. By having a steady income, you can give away your product for free to the tastemakers who will generate that word of mouth for you.

For those, who just want the answer, here are some ways to make money on a podcast

-post on platforms that will pay you per view (e.g. YouTube)

-arrange a sponsor that will pay you per view

-sell your own product and advertise it during each episode

-use affiliate links and invite listeners to click the links to products

-arrange for product placement

-charge guests to be on your show

-use the content of your podcast to build a product for sale (e.g. online course)