To ask how much a podcaster can earn is about the same as asking how much a musician can earn; it all depends on the popularity of your content. Hugely popular podcasters like Joe Rogan earn $800,000 per episode. Others, like Last Podcast on the Left, earn about $50,000 per show. Both of these podcasts have their niche audiences who support the show when they purchase advertisers’ products, buy subscriptions to get exclusive content, and even just listen to the show regularly.
The Atlantic estimates that a podcast can charge an advertiser $40 for every 1,000 listeners to their show. The goal is to increase the numbers of listeners to raise your advertising rates. With all podcasts, quality comes first. No one wants to listen to something that sounds awful and isn’t interesting. To compete with other podcasts, you’ll have to have a unique concept and quality delivery. Don’t skimp on the equipment and software you use to create the podcast, because people will notice and get turned off.
If you are looking to how much to get paid as a podcast guest check our other guide.
Marketing Your Podcast to Increase Revenue
Once you have a quality product on your hands, it’s time to market it. You’ll want to start by spreading the word through your friends and family, which will help extend its reach and pull in a reasonable amount of listeners. Hopefully your friends and family will increase this by spreading the word themselves. Beyond that, make sure you market your podcast on social media through organic and paid advertising using targeted audience options.
Another very important step to marketing is getting your podcast on as many streaming services as possible. To start, you’ll need to pick a hosting platform to be able to automatically populate your podcast episodes through RSS feeds on streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Some free options are Podbean, Buzzsprout, Simplecast, and Anchor. Once you create your accounts with these streaming platforms, you’ll be able to either keep the podcasts entirely free for listeners or use the streaming platform’s subscription services, which will charge users to listen to your content.
Tips on Getting Podcast Sponsors
How Much Do You Get Paid for a Podcast
We’ve all listened to our favorite podcasts when all of a sudden the host starts talking about products and promo codes. They offer up a discount specifically for the followers of the podcast to use at the advertiser’s online store. At first, your podcast will likely not have the pull in terms of numbers of listeners that will attract advertisers. But once you get some strong numbers – at least 1,000 – you can begin reaching out to businesses to see if they would consider plugging their products on your podcast.
Some tips on this: first, get your data together. Spotify and Apple will supply you with analytics to help you understand your audience better. You’ll want to show a potential advertiser these key demographics of your audience such as age, gender, and location, as well as the amount of people who listen to your podcast overall. If you are able to pull information such as listeners’ jobs, interests, and education level, that will also be of interest to the advertiser.
Second, decide how much a plug on your show will cost. You can’t ask for the moon when your podcast only has a few hundred listeners. Start off low and build that price as you gain more followers. As a rule, consider charging $30 to $40 per 30 seconds of advertising for every 1,000 listeners.
Third, think about what your audiences might be interested in purchasing. If you’re hosting a podcast about hauntings, you can reach out to tourist attractions offering guided tours or stays. Offer them the chance to plug their business with a special promo code that will direct people to their websites to purchase their services.
Setting all these things in place will help you to attract advertisers who will continue to work with you as they start to see returns on their investments in your podcast.
Summary
Making money as a podcaster may not be the easiest task in the world. But if you have a great podcast idea and know how to produce episodes, you have two ingredients that will help you build a following. Maintaining and increasing your listeners will keep your podcast lucrative. Advertisers will pay more as your listener base grows. Expect to make as much as $40 per 1,000 listeners.
