Podcast Monetization Secrets

Use This Secret Rule to Crush Your Competition!

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0400

Ever wondered why so many people who start a podcast never really get any ROI on it?

Today, I'm sharing a little known, but incredibly simple framework that will set you apart from your competition and better yet, just by following the framework you will probably own your niche in a very short amount of time.

So what is this secret framework I'm referring to? I call it the Rule of 100.

The Rule of 100 just says that when you undertake anything new in your business, you will not stop that activity until you've done it 100 times.

Want to start emailing your list on a regular basis? Don't stop until you have created 100 emails. It doesn't matter what the stats say once you get started. You're only interested in looking at results after 100 emails. Nothing matters before then.

Ready to start a podcast? In following The Rule of 100, you're now committed to 100 episodes. And nothing in the world will stop you until you publish 100 episodes.

If you don't think this matters, just try implementing The Rule of 100 for your next endeavor. I guarantee that following this rule will have a positive impact on your business.

So why is The Rule of 100 so powerful? Let's first take a look at the finer points of this rule.

The Rule of 100 states that if you spend 100 hours a year, which is 18 minutes a day - in any discipline, you'll be better than 95% of the world, in that discipline

I want to share with you 3 reasons I believe the Rule of 100 is so powerful.

By the time you've done something 100 times, or spent 100 hours doing it, you've probably outlasted all of your competition who quit when they didn't see results after the first week.
As the rule states, by the time you've done 100 hours or 100 repetitions of a task, you've learned from all your mistakes and failures and you're very likely gong to be better than 95% of the population at that one thing.
Something changes inside of you after 100 hours or 100 repetitions. You begin hitting your stride, and you gain a confidence because you've now done the work and feel much more confident. You won't recognize yourself on the back side of your 100. It's almost like you've transformed yourself into the expert you always knew you could be, and it's happened because you've put in your 100.

Whether it's podcasting, marketing, or creating YouTube content, most people quit far too soon. And the truth is that in order to be great in your niche and in order to be a category king in your niche, most of the time you just have to outlast your competition. They will quit when it gets too hard. They will fold when it's too inconvenient. And those that carry on are left to scoop up all the business.

My challenge to you today is to make the Rule of 100 your standard for how you will take on anything new. If you can't commit to 100 hours or 100 repetitions, then it's a hard no.

If you like this content, please subscribe below and hit the notification bell. If you are listening to this content as a podcast, please subscribe and follow on whatever app you are listening on.

I'll see you next time!

Should You Be Doing Video for Your Podcast?

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0400

Many of my podcast clients, and maybe many of you started podcasting years ago - long before video (in long or short form) was popular.

Quite often my clients ask me if they should be "doing video for their podcast."

This is actually a topic that came up this past week in a podcast group I am in, and my views contradicted what the original poster believed about video.

So, I wanted to have an honest discussion today about whether you should be doing video for your podcast.

I can't start this discussion without addressing the fact that this is so much tougher for women. The reality is that a guy can pick up his phone beside his bed when he fist wakes up and turn on the video and document his "first thoughts of the day" with bed head, bad breath, unshaved and even sometimes with a shirt on, and his followers will rave about his genius and his inspiring content and leave comments like "Bro, this is fire" or "So good my man!".

If a woman tried this same filming strategy, we would be accused of trying to be seductive, or we would be bombarded with comments like, "Girl, at least brush your hair." or "Honey, if you can't bother to get out of bed and get ready and take a little pride in your appearance, then you shouldn't even turn on the video."

As women, we are far harder on ourselves and on other women than we need to be. As a female content creator, we're worried about our appearance - hair, makeup, blemishes, aging, all of it - we're worried about our house looking messy. And many times, you may not even have a second away from your kids to make any sort of content.

All of the thoughts serve to stop us from even attempt video unless you're having a perfect hair day, your makeup is spot on, and your office is Instagram perfect.

4 Reasons You Should Incorporate Video for your Podcast:

Recording the video gives you more options when it comes to distribution of your content and repurposing your content.
There is a way video podcast content can be edited to appeal to YouTube audiences, so by recording video, you now have the raw material to make a great YT video with the right editing.
Why do you want to be on YouTube? YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, only to Google. But you can't forget that YouTube is owned by Google. So by putting your content as video into the 2nd largest search platform on the planet, you stand to get more organic traffic.
We simply can't ignore the fact that most content consumers will pay more attention to audio than video.

You ignore video at your own peril.

Most people that will tell you that you don't have to do video for your podcast are trying to not make you feel pressured or guilty about just doing audio and ignoring video.

Do you need video to have a successful podcast? No.

My perspective is more that you will remove many barriers to your success by also including video for YouTube and social media content. I rarely have my clients create a video podcast feed simply because most people are consuming content on youtube.

If you want to give yourself the highest chance of success, record video. Once you get in the habit of doing it, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

I want to remind you that if you are watching this content and like the content, please take a moment to subscribe to the channel.

I'm on a mission to release daily video content for a year, across all platforms, basically starting from zero. So, if you'd like to follow me and my journey in content creation, hit the subscribe button and then also click the notification bell.

I'll see you next week!

8 Ways to Monetize Your Podcast With Any Size Audience

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0400

What do you automatically think of when I mention “monetizing a podcast”? If you’re like most people, your mind automatically goes to sponsors and advertisers. And while sponsors is a legitimate way to monetize a podcast, it is actually the hardest way to monetize a podcast. So today, I’m going to give you some much more attainable ways to monetize your podcast.

Let me give you some better options for making money from your podcast. Some of these options will not earn enough to live off by itself to start, however, as part of a multi-pronged approach to building different revenue streams of income from your podcast, over time they can add up to significant income:

Affiliate Income - takes a little bit of work to set up, but once you start putting out content with your affiliate links, you are building a web of your affiliate links on every piece of content and every post, so over time your affiliate income grows. If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, you’ll want to check out this video I made specifically about affiliate marketing.
Merchandise - for many podcasts, this is the first way they earn money. They create a t-shirt, mug or bumper sticker that relates to their show and tell their friends how they can buy it. Most podcasters use print on demand services, like Printify, or Custom Ink. While profit margins are a bit lower per item with these companies, you don’t have to stockpile inventory or ship products out yourself.
Paid Communities or Memberships - This method has recurring income built into the model, and in my opinion, it is the best way to build full time income for the future. There are many different options for this income model from Patreon type subscriptions to ad free podcast feeds and everything in between, and even if you already have courses or programs, they can be turned into a recurring revenue model.
Courses - Whether these are low ticket or high ticket, courses can be used to bring in significant monthly revenue. The problem with courses is that you have to constantly be in launch mode in order to get significant traffic to your course. There are websites like Udemy, or Teachable, where you can put your courses and get traffic directly from the platform, in addition to driving your own traffic there.
Coaching - You can easily fill your coaching calendar with clients from your podcast, if that’s what you desire. When it comes to coaching, I’d recommend only starting group coaching programs where you are coaching 1 to many, vs 1:1. Based on my experience in coaching podcasters, many people are locked into 1:1 interactions in their private practice, and they are hoping their podcast will help them earn more income from the 1 to many option. You never want to create a revenue stream that you really don’t enjoy and want to support. So if you are already feeling burned out from your practice, or your day job, then 1:1 coaching is probably going to further drain you emotionally. So, I’d recommend building out lower touch group coaching programs, if you want to expand your coaching services.
Sponsorship - Last on my list of ways to monetize your podcast is getting sponsors. Let me be clear, I manage ads and ad campaigns for some of the biggest podcasts on Apple, so I am not anti-sponsor. And sponsors can be a part of your overall revenue strategy, but most often I see podcasters getting taken advantage of by sponsor relationships, and often sponsors will play on our ignorance. Let me also give you a word of caution here…if you are going down the route of taking on sponsors, please make sure you are utilizing the dynamic ad insertion features that are built into many podcast hosting companies. Without doing this, you are giving away your value in perpetuity and that is terrible for you. I’ll do an entire episode later on dynamic ad insertion and how to use it.
Newsletters - For those of you that aren’t as deeply entrenched in the online marketing community as I am, you may be thinking that I’ve taken a step back in time to mention newsletters. However, you’d be wrong. Right now newsletter businesses are incredibly popular and lucrative, and the tools to create a newsletter for your niche have made it easier than ever before. So whether you’re using your podcast content to create original articles for your newsletter or whether you’re curating content from your niche, this is a strategy that can bring in big bucks. Some newsletters have actually sold for tens of millions of dollars over the last couple of years.

I’ll also be doing a deeper dive into each of these types of monetization and giving you a full episode to explore the strategies and the tactics where people are finding the most success when they are utilizing each of these monetization methods.

If you like this content and want more of it, please subscribe to the channel or follow me on your podcasting apps.

Also, if you are serious about creating full time income from your podcast and need a tried and proven blueprint, I’d encourage you to check out my Podcast Freedom Community. You can find it at https://podfreedom.io

Secrets to Boosting Podcast Revenue with Affiliate Marketing in 2024

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0400

Ideally, you're creating multiple streams of income with your podcast, and affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to earn money from your podcast.

You can't just expect to post an Amazon link or an Audible discount code and expect to get sales right away. Like everything else, you have to be strategic about affiliate marketing.

Today, I cover the 3 specific criteria I use for affiliate marketing, and how you can implement these strategies to start earning affiliate income with your podcast.

Need help with your podcast?

Visit https://teampodcast.com

Do This If You Really Want Sales from Your Podcast

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:00:00 -0400

Everyone says they are trying to monetize their podcasts, but when we really look under the hood, everything is not as it seems.

In this episode, I'll tell you what's not working and why, but most importantly, I'll show you how to fix it.

7 Universal Truths of Podcast Monetization

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 03:00:00 -0400

There are many tried and true methods of podcast monetization, but today I'm sharing 7 universal truths that we see over and over again when it comes to getting monetized. Sometimes it's just a matter of building a structure for yourself and giving yourself goals in order to start getting some traction.

How to Use ChatGPT for Your Podcast

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 03:00:00 -0400

The continuous rise of technology and many innovative programs and websites have greatly contributed in providing faster and more efficient labor. In fact, what once was an hour’s job can now be accomplished in a shorter span of time through the help of the internet and other AI tools.

In the world of podcasts, there have been a lot of improvements throughout the years and one of the major trends is the usage of AI tools that help podcasters to massively decrease the amount of time they spend on creating content.

A famous tool that’s being used by many creators now is called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer). And today, we’re going to talk all about that.

ChatGPT and the problem with it.

Before there was ChatGPT, there were other writing tools which I personally used like Jasper.AI and it has been working well for me. Recently, I tried ChatGPT which has altered my preferences.

I switched my subscription to ChatGPT because of how incredible and high quality its service is. The cost doesn’t even matter because it’s worth it. However, ChatGPT is still in beta and so, they’re experiencing issues the same way as anyone else does in beta.

Sometimes, there are time periods where the server tends to get overloaded and shuts down and that’s understandable considering that many users are now discovering the greatness of such an AI tool.

Introduction to ChatGPT.

These AI tools use a combination of machine learning, human behavior and sort of human conversation flows. It creates human-like responses to create conversations and content based on artificial intelligence that greatly mimics it.

It actually exceeds what we can produce sometimes as humans. If you're worried about humans getting replaced by robots or other technology. That age is upon us and we just have to make sure that we are using things properly and not contributing to our own demise with this kind of stuff.

As for ChatGPT, it is a system that open AI has built and they have continued to improve it which made the industry stand back in awe with its efficiency and creativity. It even gives prompts informing you that the server is down or that there are other users engaging with the AI chatbot.

Using ChatGPT to write podcast outlines, scripts, and courses.

ChatGPT is such a creative tool and it greatly helps when writing podcast outlines and scripts. In fact, there's a podcast that my company is launching right now with a highly influential person in their specific niche.

We are using AI tools to create all of the podcast art - making content outlines, determining what topics to talk about, writing podcast scripts, and more. That highly influential person will just have to sit down and record their own voice which is truly and unbelievably amazing.

Using ChatGPT is easy. In fact, I used it the last time I created a brand new podcast and I just asked some questions I wanted in order to get the content out then I combined all the responses I got into one podcast script that I could use.

You could also use AI to help determine what keywords people in your audience would be looking for. You can even ask it to write headlines for you which can also be potential podcast episodes.

Once you use the technology, you begin to understand how it responds to you. Likewise, it begins to understand what information you want it to provide to you and so it just gets better and better with each use.

Besides creating podcast outlines and scripts, you can also use ChatGPT for creating courses. It is such a time saver as it pulls out information out of the internet faster than having to research it on your own. However, always keep in mind that these tools aren't perfect and it requires a bit of manual intervention.

Using AI to create artwork for your podcast.

There’s this artwork platform called Midjourney which is another amazing AI tool that creates artworks based on text descriptions which works quite similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E.

Through Midjourney, we’re able to create visual images that are compelling and that are hopefully going to cause people in the podcast catalogues to be more curious about what the podcast is talking about, and have them go in and listen.

Putting content produced from AI tools into AI detection software

Many of these AI tools that we use produce high quality content and so some people may get the urge to run them through an AI detection software. You don’t have to worry about this issue though. They won’t be because they're human in touch.

So you won’t have to spend so much time on working, let chat GPT do the work for you whether it’s for writing an email, recipe, content, outlines, or whatever it is that you want. Surely, it’s going to come out good.

Use these tools to your advantage because if you don’t, you’re going to be left behind. What it should do is it should shorten your time for production and allow you to scale and create more valuable content.

I’m sure there will be more things that will come along in our space that will help us create faster but better content because we're not going to be limited by what a human can physically produce.

I've been using these tools and if you haven’t listened to my last podcast episode called “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast”, go back to that and realize that the entire script that I used for that podcast was written by AI. I prompted it and it gave me what the content was. As expected, I did it faster than I would write it myself.

If there's anything I can do to help you with your podcast, I will be more than happy to help out. You can visit https://www.teampodcast.com/tuneup and I’ll give you a blueprint for how you can monetize your podcast.

Outwit, Out Play, Out Last: Secrets of Podcast Success

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 03:00:00 -0400

Are you looking for tips, tricks and strategies that you can use to engineer your podcast for monetization? Or maybe just wondering how most podcasters, who have come a long way, monetize their podcasts without selling out to sponsors who don’t value the community?

If you’re one of the podcasters who have been putting in so much effort in their work for a long time now, take this as a sign for you to get something back out of it. And that's why I’m here to help you do that as the CEO of Team Podcast which is a full service podcast production company.

Podcasts that are ahead of the curve are evergreen

It’s not much of a surprise when podcasters walk away from their shows for quite a while and come back wanting to rebrand and resurrect their podcast. However, there are many factors to consider prior to resurrecting one’s abandoned podcast back to life.

First things first, it’s important that you recognize the content of your abandoned podcast because some may still be relevant and valuable to listeners which can ultimately save your podcast.

There are many podcasters who have stopped producing podcasts for years because of this matter alone but despite their inactivity, they continue to get tons of likes on their page. Some still get thousands of downloads for their shows because they have an evergreen topic that people are interested in.

So as much as possible, what we want is that the topics you have for the podcast are going to be evergreen and timeless yet the great quality must always be there. Likewise, the information that you've shared is just as useful today as when the show was first recorded.

Bringing an abandoned podcast back to life

Besides having a podcast that covers relevant topics or in demand content, it’s also important to consider your audience for the show which is equally important when resurrecting an abandoned podcast.

We want to make sure that there’s still a strong audience for the show so that when we bring it back to life, there’s an assurance that we’ll be getting support from a dedicated group of listeners who are going to be excited to see new episodes. Regardless of the podcast’s inactivity, they’re going to jump right back in.

You should also take into consideration the fact that because of the popularity of podcasts and the explosion that we've had in recent years, it's still growing every year. Hence, if you have a podcast that has a track record of producing great content, it could be a perfect timing for the market to rebrand that podcast, bring it back into the growing market and make it more relevant and appealing to today's audiences than it was when you first brought it out.

The value of bringing back an old podcast feed

The dilemma that podcasters often face when coming back after having been away for some time is whether or not they should bring back an old abandoned podcast feed or should they just bring on a completely new show and start a new feed.

As long as you have the same target audience for your show as what you previously had before going inactive, your podcast is going to have the perception of longevity which can be greatly beneficial since people will perceive your podcast as the “OG” of whatever your niche is.

The podcast industry is a competitive field which is why even if you were early to market in your niche with a podcast and there weren’t other podcasts in the same niche, that’s no longer the case now. There may now be many shows covering the same topics as you once had with the same target audience.

The key is to outlast your competitors and keep your show going despite how challenging the journey might be. Keep producing your shows and enjoy making them.

The advantage of being the last man standing

Outlast your competitors and in the long run, you will have a distinct advantage for simply being the last man standing and having an audience of listeners who have stuck with you and your show.

It doesn’t matter if you were the first one to come up with a podcast creating content for a certain niche. What matters more is that you outlast everyone else who comes up in the same competitive field that you’re in. That’s why it’s necessary to develop a different audience who’s going to be loyal and engaged.

Having great support from your audience is a big deal. They will pave the way for you to have more listeners as they spread the word about your show and how engaging and worthy they are for people to listen to.

Outlast your competitors as it gives you credibility and authority not just within your own niche but also to the whole podcast industry. If your show has been around for a long time, it shows your dedication for your work and producing high quality content. It also highlights your commitment to providing your listeners with great shows.

Being the last man standing makes your show more appealing to potential advertisers and sponsors insofar as they'll see you as a reliable and trustworthy partner that's been there for the long haul. They’ll see you as a credible partner who has outlasted the newness and the hype of podcasting.

Podcast trends to consider

Another factor that you should consider when you’re thinking about rebranding or resurrecting your podcast is that there are some trends that affect how podcasters produce shows.

At present, we’re in the micro influencer niche downspace rather than in the generalist space. If you started a podcast when everyone could be a generalist, then you're probably going to want to niche down as tight as you possibly can within the niche that you want to work in. That will work for you since people are no longer looking for generalist podcasts. Instead, they’re now looking for specific ones.

Another thing that has changed, if you haven’t listened to recently produced podcasts, is the way podcasters introduce their shows. We’re now very much like YouTube. Every second of the introduction counts.

People nowadays prefer authenticity. That’s why podcast intros nowadays are more authentic than ever. No more voice-overs with many sound effects. For the first few seconds, you try to catch someone’s attention to listen to your show which is why you don’t want to compress a lot of ads or music in the beginning.

How to rebrand your podcast.

If you’re planning on bringing back your old podcast, fret no more because it's not hard to rebrand and relaunch it, it's not nearly as hard as setting it up for the first time.

So if you still have your podcasts alive and well in an RSS feed, even if you haven't produced any shows in a while, you might want to start looking at your analytics and see if it's something you want to bring back.

You can reach out to me if you need help bringing your podcast back to life. My team and I are more than happy to help as much as we can. We are familiar and have experience in rebranding and resurrecting old podcasts all the time.

You may also reach us through our website (https://www.teampodcast.com/). Let us help you monetize your podcast and develop multiple streams of income from such an amazing medium.

Debunking the Biggest Myth About Podcast Reach

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Why does every podcast beg you for ratings and reviews on Apple?

Have you heard this before?

❌ "it can help more people find us!"

❌ "it will bump up our rankings"

❌ "it will make our show more visible"

None of this is true!

Today, I'm explaining what Apple ratings and reviews really do for your show and why there is a much better call to action for you to use!

2 Ways to Organically Grow Your Podcast

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Every podcaster I have ever talked to always has the same complaint. They are not happy with the amount of downloads their show gets each month, and they want more. In this episode, I’ll tell you the only 2 ways to grow your show and how you can take advantage of them.

When it comes to podcast growth, it’s a conversation that every podcaster wants to have. It’s probably the most asked question in any podcasting Facebook group and I have found that it doesn’t matter whether your show gets 100 downloads a month or a million downloads a month, we always want more!

So guess what? Today I am going to simplify podcast growth for you.

In my viewpoint, when you boil everything down to its most foundational elements, there are only 2 ways to grow your podcast.

You have to tell someone about it.
Someone else has to tell someone about it.

Literally, that’s it!

I’m not trying to oversimplify the growth problem, but these are the 2 frames I want to view podcast growth through because truth be told, there are probably improvements you can make on both sides of the growth problem.

So, let’s start with all of the ways you can tell someone about your podcast:

I’m going to break this down into Organic vs. Paid:

Let’s start with the low hanging fruit of organic ways to telling others about your podcast:

Put it out on all of your social media channels consistently - and yes, there is a method to doing this effectively. But let’s go for the simpler question to start - are you even putting it out everywhere each time you publish?
Have you asked your current listeners to subscribe to the show? Tell without a crystal ball story.
Send it out to your email list? It sounds so simple, but my guess is that you aren’t actually consistently letting your email list know about each episode. What’s stopping you? What’s stopping me? Well, we get so busy keeping up with producing content, that sending out to your email list gets neglected.
Are you publishing it to your website? I know this seems like a trick question, but you’d be surprised how many podcasters we have taken over production of their podcasts for, only to start with a stack of episodes that have only published to their RSS feed, and not published to their websites.
Are you publishing to every available platform? Again, not a trick question, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t understand how to get their podcast to every free distribution platform, because they only know about Spotify or Apple.
Do you have your podcast listed in your bio of all your social media channels? So many people overlook optimizing your social profiles to show that you have a podcast. You’ll want to take care of this one before tackling the next one. Don’t make it hard for people to find your show.
Are you a member of groups where your target listeners are gathering on social media? If not, go join some groups and become a valuable member. Don’t just spam the group, but get in there and answer enough questions so that people want to go to your profile and check out why you know so much. There they will see your podcast on your recently updated profile.

Mention the delayed commenting strategy and the member value shout out strategies.

8) Have you put your podcast on local bulletin boards and such at businesses in your local area? You’d be surprised at how many listeners you can get locally from this. Just create a business card for your podcast and invite people to listen.

Ok, those are the main ways for you to tell others about your podcast organically, so let’s move on to the ways you can get others to tell people about your podcast.

Again, these are all going to be organic methods, because we will save for a different conversation.

Guesting on other podcasts.
Implement the wingman strategy. Explain.
Asking your current listeners to share the podcast with their friends who they know may be interested in the topic? Reference Without a Crystal Ball
Offering your expertise to group owners who have groups of your listeners gathered? Talk about my relationship with Melvin’s group.
Actively look for people you can partner with to help both of your podcasts. Be each other’s resident expert.
Strategically choose guests for your podcast because you want to build a relationship with them and get in front of their communities. Tell the story of Rock Your Trade Show.
Do something over the top to help out someone at a much higher level than you, in hopes of getting their attention and having them share what you did for them. It could be as simple as Dueting with them on social media, recording a video review of their book, course, product, etc. Write them a story, draw them a picture, (relate Russell’s story of Russian nesting dolls of his family) Help them first, so they can shout you out later.

I’ve given you 8 ways you can completely control to grow your podcast.

I’ve given you 7 things you can do to influence someone else to share your podcast.

What did I miss? What strategies have you found that have worked?

Need some help with your podcast, but don't know where to turn - a podcast audit is a great place to start. Go to https://teampodcast.com/tuneup to learn more!

The Cheat Code to Get You Unstuck

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 03:00:00 -0400

I work full-time helping podcasters monetize their podcasts. As I have strategy calls week after week, I find that I am saying the same things over and over again.

If you are stuck and don't know what will help you attract your ideal clients, today I'm giving you the cheat code to get you unstuck.

If you need help figuring out how to monetize your podcast, a podcast audit may help you. Simply go to https://teampodcast.com/tuneup.

The One Mistake That Will Keep You From Getting Monetized

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 03:00:00 -0400

In this episode, I'm going to tell you about a major mistake that I see so many podcasters make, and I'm going to show you what to do to fix the mistake. It's the same mistake that causes many podcasters to rebrand their podcasts!

Podcaster Beware: Companies Want to Take Advantage of You!

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 03:00:00 -0400

So you're a podcaster looking to monetize, and all of a sudden out of nowhere you get an email offering a sponsorship for your podcast. It seems too good to be true. Is it? We'll talk about it right after this.

Hi there. Welcome to Podcast Monetization Secrets. My name is Christy Haussler and thank you so much for joining me today. I am so glad you're here because that tells me that you are actively looking for ways to monetize your podcast, and I couldn't be happier about that. I feel like podcasters have gotten the short end of the stick and more of

you deserve to be paid for the value that you're providing to the world. And I'm on a mission to help as many of you do that in a way that brings value to your life as possible. You've been giving value, you've been providing content at a pretty high cost to yourself. It's time, it's energy, it's money.

There's plenty of other things that you could be doing with your time, and because you are choosing to serve some community that you've chosen, Then I believe you deserve to get value back, and the more you serve, the more value you should get. So it should be a very natural exchange. And many times as podcasters, we haven't really figured out how to engineer getting that value back out of our podcast.

And that's what I'm here to help you with today. Most of you know if you've been here very long at all. I have a podcast production company called Team Podcast, and that's where I initially started after I started my podcast in 2012. I launched my company end of December, 2013. Really didn't get my first clients till early 2014.

And so I've, during that time worked up with over 360 podcasts and many of them wanted to monetize through various ways and I. Even though I don't tell everyone that's podcast sponsorship is a great way to monetize. Cause it's actually the hardest way to monetize. I do work with podcasters to do sponsorships and I manage ads and relationships and that sort of thing with their sponsors and their ads.

And so I'm pretty well tied into what's going on in the sponsor space. So I wanted to do a. Update for you today, and I'm gonna be naming names because there are some people right now that I feel like are, I'm just gonna call it preying on the ignorance of some podcasters and if you go into this understanding all the facts and you still decide it's the best decision for you, then that is absolutely fine, But what I don't want you to do is get stuck in something that you don't want to do. And so today I'm gonna talk to you about. A situation that's been happening with a certain company where they are targeting podcasters who probably have not yet gotten heavy into the sponsorship space yet. And what's happening is you'll get an email, and I don't know if you're aware, but once you have an RSS feed or you have your podcast on Apple, Apple requires you to have an email, like even a public contact email within your RSS feed.

And so people can use services and software and programs and that sort of thing to pull email addresses in from your RSS feed, and then they can solicit you with cold email. Now, don't get me wrong, you can always. Unsubscribe or block them or whatever. But that's what happens. So it doesn't take long before you, when you're a podcaster, before you start seeing Chartable and other podcast related services begin to send you these emails.

And it's not because they found your podcast and found it interesting, but they've just scraped all of the emails. The api, the directory in Apple, and they're contacting you with the email that you have listed for your RSS feed. So that's what's happening. That's what's going on. And there's a particular company right now, I've had them approach several of my podcast clients and I've watched some of the negotiations go back and forth.

And so I wanted to just clue you into what's going on. There's this number and it's , how much someone's gonna pay per thousand downloads, impressions, views, whatever platform you're on it's whatever it is,

for podcasts, it's downloads, right? So this number is called cpm. It's Latin, It's cost per mille and it basically means how much you're paying per 1000. . Right now with most of the podcast sponsorships I'm seeing go through and the contracts that I'm seeing be signed for fourth quarter 22 and first quarter 2023.

I am seeing ranges anywhere from $25 CPM to $40 cpm and that basically means for every thousand downloads that their ad gets impressions on, they're willing to pay either 25 or $40. So if you think about it as a podcaster, and the average podcaster might not even get a thousand downloads per month,

and so what happens is you're working hard to get these thousand downloads and somebody else is saying, Ah, that's worth 25 or $40 to me. and it's worth a whole lot more to you because you've worked hard to get those thousand listeners, so you don't want to just cheapen your relationship with 'em and put anybody in front of them.

But what's happening right now and what I just quoted you, the 25 to $40 range is mainstream through. Podcast official, like agencies and sponsorships and, companies that would hire, and they're the companies that you always hear whether they're Hello Fresh or what is it, the purple Casper mattresses or whatever.

Like these are the CPMs in the range that they would be paying Now many times from. Cpm, that 25 to $40 range. If you have an ad agency, go and get that contract for you. Then you as a podcaster are giving up anywhere from 30 to 40 to 50% of that. 25 to $40 cpm. If you're able to get that contract on your own and, make the right connections with those companies to get them to sign with you, then you would be able to, get all of the 25 to $40 cpm.

So just wanna make sure you understand like the lay of the land and what we're talking about. So back several months ago, I think it's been at least six months ago. I had a podcast client that normally produces podcasts and they've never had sponsors before, and they suddenly said, Hey, we have this sponsorship of Magic Mind.

And Magic Mind is a. Productivity drink. I've never tried it. They say it's for focus and clarity and that sort of thing, and I'm not knocking the product. this is not a judgment of the product, cuz I don't know, I haven't tried it. Probably could use some focus and could use some, attention, productivity type, enhancing things.

But the product is it's not the issue. Okay? So I'm not throwing off on them as a product, but what's happening is they're going. And targeting a specific type of podcaster and they're offering sponsorships. And many of you might get solicited by Magic Mind for the first sponsorship that you ever get.

And what I don't want you to do is I don't want you to think this is normal. I want you to understand what everyone else is doing and then how far out of bounds magic mind is whenever their. Soliciting podcasters. And so what Magic Mind is doing is they're approaching people that they know probably do not have the use of dynamic ad insertion technology through their host and through the companies that are creating their host.

And how can they know that? Because when your RSS feed is created through your host, you know what's in the RSS feed url. The host name, right? So whenever they go to a certain host and they see the host doesn't have. dynamic ad insertion, they can easily go, ah, this is probably someone that we could easily get a, let's call it baked in ad.

And what a baked in ad is when you as a host, you do what we called a host red baked in ad. And that means that ad is edited into your audio file. And so there, it's inserted as a mid roll ad and it's edited in. And when you have a baked in ad it will stay on that audio file forever unless you physically went in and pulled that audio file and re-edited out that advertisement and then re-uploaded that to your podcast host.

That's a lot of work, right? To change ads every time. So whenever they're asking for host Red baked in ads, they know what they're asking for. They know that host Red Ads are the highest converting ads. Why? Because you, as a host built your podcast audience. You as a host went out and built the relationship with the people that are listening to your podcast.

They. Trust what you're saying. They like what you're doing and they take your instruction and apply it in their lives. So if they can get you to leverage your relationship with your audience, they know host red ads are the best, right? They're the highest converting. They also know that a baked in ad means they are going to pay once for that ad and it is going to stay in your feed.

In perpetuity, and they are continuously month after month, getting free advertising that they are no longer paying for. Now, here's the thing, can you think of any other advertising campaign or advertising method where you could pay for something once and that ad runs forever? Can you do that with radio?

No. Can you do that with Televis? ? No. Can you do that with, let's just call it the streaming services, Netflix or Peacock or Paramount. Can you do that with any of those? No, you can't. Can you do, Could you do it on the internet? On Google banner ads or other types of things? No. You pay for every impression that you get, and once you stop paying, your ad is no longer shown to people.

So the only reason. That people are able to do this and companies are able to do this, is because we as podcasters fall for it and allow it to happen. Okay? And that's one of the reasons I'm doing this show today, because I'm not trying to say Magic Mind is a terrible company. I'm not trying to say that.

But what I am saying is for you as a podcaster, this is a terrible. Okay. What Magic Mind is offering is $10 CPM for a host red baked in ad. So let's do the math and let's just say you are one of the very small percentage of podcasters who get. , 10,000 downloads per month on your podcast. So 10,000 downloads per month.

Again, that puts you in the upper 5% of podcasters. Okay? So you are in rarefied air right there with that amount of downloads. So What you have to look at is go, okay, $10 CPM means $10 per thousand. That means that for one month, Of putting a host Red Baked in ad into your podcast for 10,000 downloads.

Magic Mind is saying, We will pay you $100. Let me just say this. . If you have 10,000 downloads a month, you should be offering them something that you are doing. Pod product services, other things like that, because you can make a lot more than $100 a. From your own products and services. If you had a $97 product, I believe you could sell more than two of them during the month where you're getting 10,000 listens, and that way you would just have doubled the amount that Magic Mind would pay you, and you can make much more money with your own, right?

So what you have to understand is magic Mind is saying, Okay, for this one month, we're paying you a hundred dollars. But that a hundred dollars is not just low balling, current CPM rates for dynamically inserted ads, which would only run during the month and then would turn off and not run any after that,

so that $10 CPM would pay you for the 10,000 downloads they got this month, but $10 CPM is low balling. The current CPM rates for dynamic ad insertion. But here's the thing, as a podcaster, because you've now committed to a baked in ad, that ad needs to sit there in your audio file forever, in perpetuity.

So you have just given away all the future value of your episode. For $100 up front one time, and because you have done that, you probably feel like you might be on the verge of getting more sponsorships. In actuality, companies like this come along very often where they realize there's a whole sub segment and they're not going for top tier podcasters.

You're not gonna hear magic mind. On Joe Rogan or Oprah's SuperSoul Sunday, or any of the other top podcasts that are out there, because they don't wanna pay those CPMs because they, those people know how advertising is done. What Magic Mind is doing is they're going to the independent podcasters, they're going out to people that have probably not been well versed in podcast sponsorship.

So when they offer. Anything, and you'll hear people, I see it in groups all the time on Facebook, and people are like, What should a sponsor's contacted me, What should I tell them my prices are? And people are like, Man, just tell 'em 20 bucks. Just take something. As long as you're getting your first dollar from your podcast.

It's like the road to the next dollar and bottom line is, You are giving away your value. So let me tell you what generally happens whenever this goes on and what happens is you as a podcaster might put these low ball ads into your podcast and bake them in years later. Maybe two years from now, you've continued to grow your podcast and now you're getting 40.

50, 60,000 downloads a month because you've been at it for a while. You've worked hard. You've given years of your life to grow in your podcast. Now you are seriously qualified for regular mainstream sponsorships. The ones I was talking about in the beginning that pay 25 to $40 CPM for. podcast, right to advertise on your podcast.

But here's the thing, when you get to that level, you're not gonna be baking in ads. And if you are, I would implore you to stop. I am finding right now, so many people have done this forever, this way, where they've baked in ads, and now as they understand what dynamic ad insertion is, that it's just them reading an ad.

That is then using technology to dynamically insert that ad as a designated timestamp within their audio file. And each time they have a new ad campaign, nothing changes about that file except the audio technology for dynamic ad insertion inserts the new ad for the new campaign. Campaigns can always stay up to date.

When you start using dynamic ad insertion, you can, instead of just releasing podcasts and say, This ad goes for this episode, or this ad goes, for the next three episodes you can get a sponsorship and you can turn on ads across your entire back catalog. We are making, as a company a decent amount of money, because we have podcasters that have two and three and four and 500, even 600 episodes in their catalog where they've done nothing but baked in ads. And you know what we're having to. We're having to go back into their catalog and we're having to download their file from their host, edit out the baked in ad mark their new ad spots, and re-upload those episodes to the host with timestamps marked in it for their new dynamic ad insertion.

And what happens is you stop giving away all your current and future value. To a sponsor for baked in ads that are gonna stay in there for free and perpetuity because we as podcasters are allowing it to happen. And instead, you're going to start acting like every other. Sponsorship or advertising mechanism out there, whatever channel it is, where you want the impressions, you're going to pay me for the impressions.

And once you stop paying, you no longer get impressions. And until we start doing that and until we start saying no to companies like Magic Mind. And how do I know? I've got an email right now in front of me where Magic Mind comes back and says, We had essentially. Offered them it, it would've worked out to about $40 cpm, so it would've worked out to around $400 per episode that they would've needed to pay to get in front of this particular podcast's audience and, , they've offered this multiple times to multiple podcasters that I work with, and they're always like, What's up with Magic Mind doing $10 cpm?

And they come back and they give you this SOB story. Oh, we're a relatively new startup. We're just two years old, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we just don't have the budget for this right now. So that's what we're looking at. And if. Test this out and it does really well at $10 cpm, then we'll take it before the higher ups and see if we can pay more for your ads.

Why did they need to? They've already got high performing ads that you've baked in and you've given away for the rest of your podcast feeds life for $10 cpm. And that's what I don't want you to do. So the reality is in. Stuff because I was just wondering I wanted to see the press releases from Magic Mind and who the investors were, cuz they call themselves a startup that's just barely two years old.

And it looks like originally they came out in 2014. and they have gone through a couple different website changes, and I'm sure they've got investment funds and all these kind of things that they're working with. But here's the thing, Most podcasters that they're approaching are similar independent startups to two years old or less as well.

And so what they're doing is simply. Trying to get the best deal they can for their advertising. They're tr they're, and they're doing well at it because podcasters that don't have sponsors are taking it and they're advertising magic mind. And I even actually had those clients that. That didn't have sponsorship, that they took it.

Cause they were like, Hey, this is something, they're paying us something. They started recording the ad and when they had to send it to Magic Mind to get approved, like Magic Mind wanted them to say so many more things and they didn't like the way they were doing it. So we were going back and forth with trying to get the wording right on it and it was like a lot of work.

For the little piddly $10 CPM that they were gonna get. Cuz that's the thing. It's like a hundred dollars a month that you would get if you had 10,000 downloads a month. Those 10,000 hard fought downloads that you got, that works out to $25 per episode that they're willing to pay to get in front of your audience.

You need to think better of your audience than that you really do because you should have a higher threshold. I think when john Lee Dumas started. He had a threshold where unless it was gonna make him $500 and net him $500 for a sponsorship, it wasn't worthwhile for him to put somebody in front of his audience.

And he held to that because he protected his audience. So you don't want low ballers like this coming in and ruining your relationship with your audience because they offered you a dollar. All money is not good money. This is worth. To you to do to save that ad space for your own products and services, or even something that you have an affiliate for.

Most of the products and services that you could get affiliate partnerships for and promote on your podcast would pay you more. In a month than a hundred dollars. If you had to sale most of 'em, if you get one sale, you would have a hundred dollars. So that's the whole thing. It's like you, when you look at the value that you as a podcast host are bringing, and the amount that Magic Mind is willing to pay right now they need to step it up.

Now I saw this a couple of years ago. There was a headphone company, and I say headphone, but it was more of an earbud company. That came along. And what they were doing is they were contacting a bunch of podcasters and saying things like, We...

Why You Should Create a Subscription Program

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 03:00:00 -0400

I recently heard someone make a really bold controversial statement.

They said, "If you don't have a continuity program (subscription) in your business, then you don't really have a business."

This is a quote from David Frey that was shared with me and it really caused me to stop in my tracks.

In this episode, I'm sharing my opinion about this statement and how this can be something that any podcaster can create and earn money for.

If you need help with your podcast, you can sign up for a Podcast Audit to get a fresh set of eyeballs on what you are doing and give you a blueprint for monetization. Sign up here.

The Main Reason Your Podcast Isn't Growing

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today, I'm talking about why your podcast growth may be stagnant and what you can do about it.

If you're like most people, 90% of us are stuck in phase 1 and real growth doesn't happen until you get past phase 1.

I'm explaining it all in today's episode and I'll tell you what you can do to fix it.

If you need a podcast tune up, simply click here to get started.

You Are Sitting On Top of a Gold Mine

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 03:00:00 -0400

We spend so much time and energy trying to acquire new leads and get good at paid traffic, that we practically ignore the gold mine that already exists in our business.

In today's episode, I explain your pot of gold and how you can tap into it.

The Most Important Piece of Copy You Will Ever Write

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0400

How to write good copy for your podcast

If you're thinking of monetizing your podcast, here are some tips from a copywriter.

• Know your audience.Your first step is to understand who your audience is and what they want. This will help you create content that is relevant and engaging.

• Create compelling copy.Your content needs to be interesting and engaging enough to compel listeners to keep listening. To do this, make sure your copy is clear, concise, and on point.

• Use social media to promote your podcast.Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are great ways to promote your podcast and connect with potential listeners. Make sure to post relevant information, share interesting stories, and engage with followers.

• Offer exclusive content.Some podcasters offer exclusive content that only subscribers can access. This can be a great way to draw in new listeners and build loyalty among current ones.

• Charge for premium episodes or services.If you have high-quality content that can be sold separately, consider charging for premium episodes or services. This can generate extra income while also providing value to your listeners.

The importance of good copywriting

If you're thinking of monetizing your podcast, you're not alone. In fact, many podcasters are still trying to figure out the best way to make money from their shows.Copywriting is an important part of any monetization strategy, and there are a few things you can do to improve your show's copywriting skills. Here are five tips:

• Use clear, concise languageYour listeners want to understand what you're saying as quickly as possible. Make sure your language is easy to understand and use short, punchy sentences.

• Use strong verbsYour verbs should be strong and action-oriented. This will help draw the listener in and keep them engaged.

• Be personalYour listeners want to feel like they're part of your show. Include personal stories and anecdotes to connect with them on a more personal level.

• Use persuasive languageWhen selling your product or service, use persuasive language to convince your listeners to take action. For example, use phrases like "save time" or "get ahead of the competition."

• Keep it freshYour listeners will be more likely to stick around if you keep your show fresh and new. Try new formats, topics, and voices every once in a while to keep things interesting for your listeners.

The benefits of learning to write your own copy

If you're like most podcasters, you probably think of your show as your own personal creative space. But the truth is, your show is also a business. And like any other business, it needs to be monetized in order to survive.Here are some tips from copywriter and podcast monetization expert, Rachelle Gardner, on how to do just that:

• Find an audience. The first step in monetizing your podcast is finding an audience. This means finding podcasts that interest you and targeting your advertising to those audiences. You can also look for podcasts with similar topics and guest lists to yours to see if there’s overlap in your target market.

• Create a paid subscription service. A popular way to monetize a podcast is through a paid subscription service. This allows you to charge people for access to your content and make money each time someone subscribes. There are several different subscription services available, so it’s important to choose one that will work best for your show and audience.

• Offer exclusive content. Another way to make money from your podcast is by offering exclusive content. This means creating episodes or segments that are only available through subscribing to your channel or through purchasing a product or service related to the episode. This can be a great way to build an audience and generate revenue from them down the road.

• Sell merchandise related to the show. Finally, another way to make money from your podcast is by selling merchandise related to the show. This can include T-shirts, hats, and other items that people can purchase directly from you or through an online store affiliated with your show. By selling merchandise related to your show, you’ll not only generate income but also build brand awareness for your show and increase traffic to your website and online store.

Tips for staying focused on what works for your audience

If you're thinking about monetizing your podcast, here are some tips from a copywriter:

• Keep your focus on what your audience wants and needs.Copywriters know that it's important to keep your audience in mind when creating content. If you're writing about something that's not relevant to them, they'll quickly lose interest. Instead, focus on topics that are of interest to your listeners and cater your content to their needs.

• Use social media to promote your podcast.Social media is an excellent way to promote your podcast and connect with potential listeners. Share interesting blog posts, images, and videos related to your topic on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also create a dedicated podcast page on a website like Patreon or SoundCloud.

• Offer exclusive content for subscribers.One way to keep listeners interested is by offering exclusive content for subscribers. This could include behind-the-scenes footage, early access to episodes, or bonus materials. It's also a great way to build loyalty and encourage people to continue listening.

• Offer discounts for people who subscribe to your podcast.Another way to generate revenue from your podcast is by offering discounts for people who subscribe to it. This could include 50% off all products related to the topic of the episode, free shipping on orders over $50, or free copies of the latest episode for people who sign up for a newsletter or follow you on social media.

• Sell merchandise related to your topic.Finally, you can also sell merchandise related to your topic (like T-shirts, mugs, and stickers). This can help you generate additional income while promoting your podcast at the same time.

How to lower costs and convert more people with a low ticket offer

If you're thinking of monetizing your podcast, there are a few things to keep in mind. One of the most important things to do is to lower costs and convert more people with a low ticket offer. Here are some tips from a copywriter on how to do just that.

• Use social media platforms to drive traffic to your show.One of the best ways to drive traffic to your show is through social media platforms. You can use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to post about your show and connect with potential listeners. This will help you build an audience and convert more people into listeners.

• Offer a free episode or preview episode.Another way to drive traffic and convert more people is to offer a free episode or preview episode. This will give people a chance to sample your show before they decide to subscribe. This can be a great way to get people interested in your show and convert them into listeners.

• Offer exclusive content or bonus episodes.Another way to drive traffic and convert more people is to offer exclusive content or bonus episodes. This will give people a reason to subscribe and keep them engaged with your show. This can be a great way to build an audience and increase your chances of success with monetization efforts.

• Create an interesting podcast title and logo.One of the most important things you can do when monetizing your podcast is to create an interesting title and logo. This will help people find your show when they search for podcasts on Google or other online platforms. It also helps you stand out from the competition, which can lead to more conversions and success with monetization efforts.

Need help monetizing? Sign up for a Podcast Audit here.

Want to join our next challenge? Sign up here.

How to Monetize Your Next Conference

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0400

If you're thinking of hosting a conference, here are some tips on making it revenue positive:

• Set a price for admission. This is key - set a price for admission that is fair and reasonable, and make sure to communicate it clearly to attendees. You don't want people to feel like they're being taken advantage of, so make sure the price is fair and reasonable.

• Offer additional benefits for those who purchase tickets. Some conference organizers offer additional benefits, such as access to exclusive content or discounts on merchandise. Make sure to list these benefits clearly on the conference website and in the ticketing process, so attendees know what they're getting into.

• Charge for extra services or events. If you have extra events or services that attendees can purchase separately, charge for them. This can include things like workshops or presentations that are not included in the ticket price.

• Offer discounts for students or members of certain organizations. If your conference is geared towards students or members of certain organizations, offer discounts to those groups in order to attract more participants.

• Use social media to promote the conference. Use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to promote the conference and get people excited about it. This will help generate interest in advance and encourage people to buy tickets early on in the process.

Difficulties in finding good events to attend

Finding good events to attend when podcasting can be difficult. Here are some tips on how to monetize a podcasting conference:

• Choose an event that is relevant to your audience.

• Research the event before you attend it.

• Make a list of topics that you would like to discuss at the event.

• Plan your talk based on what you learned from research.

• Be prepared to answer questions from attendees after your talk.

Offering a free speaking engagement as an incentive

If you're thinking of hosting a conference, one way to monetize it is to offer a free speaking engagement as an incentive for attendees. This can be a great way to attract new listeners and boost attendance. Plus, it can give you some extra income to put towards the conference itself.To offer this incentive, you'll need to create a speaking engagement page on your conference website. This page will list all of the available speaking engagements and provide information about how to sign up. You'll also want to include a link to your podcast episode or blog post that discusses the speaking engagement. Once you've created the speaking engagement page, you'll need to promote it prominently on your conference website and social media channels. You can also send out email invitations to attendees announcing the free speaking engagement.Offering a free speaking engagement as an incentive is a great way to boost attendance and monetize your conference.

Following up with Contacts

If you attended a podcasting conference and had a great time, it's important to follow up with your new contacts to nurture those relationships. Here are some tips for doing just that:

• Send out an email thanking everyone for coming and sharing their knowledge.

• Share some of the highlights from the conference in a blog post or on your podcast website.

• Ask your guests to share their thoughts on the event in future interviews or podcasts.

• Send out a survey to attendees to get their feedback on the conference and what they would like to see next year.

• Hold a contest or giveaway related to the conference content.

If You Only Run One Type of Ads It Should Be This Kind

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0400

How paid traffic can help a podcaster grow their business

If you're a podcaster looking to increase your downloads and revenue, paid traffic can be a valuable tool. Paid traffic can come from a variety of sources, such as advertising, sponsorships, or paid subscriptions. Here are some tips on how to get started:

• Identify your target audience.Before you start advertising or charging for subscriptions, you first need to identify your target audience. This will help you determine which channels and methods are most effective for reaching them.

• Research the best methods for reaching your target audience.There are a variety of methods available for reaching your target audience, so it's important to research which ones are best suited for your podcast. advertising, sponsored content, and paid subscriptions are all options worth considering.

• Plan your advertising and subscription campaigns carefully.Advertising can be expensive, so it's important to plan your campaigns carefully. Make sure to account for costs like ad placement, targeting, and bidding strategies. And remember to test different ads and subscription offers before launching them into production.

• Charge for subscriptions carefully too.Charging for subscriptions can be a profitable strategy, but you need to be careful not to overcharge your listeners. Charge enough to cover the costs of producing and delivering the content, but don't go overboard! Overcharging can alienate potential listeners and damage your reputation.

The benefits of retargeting ads for podcasters

If you're a podcaster, one of the best ways to increase your downloads and revenue is through paid traffic. Paid traffic can come from retargeting ads, which are ads that are specifically targeted towards people who have already visited your website or podcast. Retargeting ads can be incredibly effective in driving downloads and revenue for podcasters, as they are more likely to be interested in your content if they've already shown an interest in it.

How to maximize profits from paid traffic

If you're looking to increase your podcast downloads and revenue, paid traffic is a great way to do it. Paid traffic can come from a variety of sources, such as advertising, sponsorships, or direct donations. Here are four tips for maximizing profits from paid traffic:

• Choose the right advertising platformThere are a number of different advertising platforms available, so it's important to choose the one that best suits your podcast. Some popular options include Google Adsense, Facebook Ads, and iTunes Ads.

• Choose the right sponsorship or donation packageSponsorship and donation packages can be tailored to fit your podcast's specific needs. For example, you might want to consider a sponsorship package that includes ad space and branding opportunities. Or, you could choose a donation package that includes exclusive content or access to VIP events.

• Create valuable contentYour podcast's content should be valuable enough that people will want to pay for it. This means providing high-quality content that is relevant to your audience. You can also offer bonus content or discounts for people who make donations or purchase sponsorships.

• Promote your podcast on social media and other online platformsSocial media is an important tool for promoting your podcast. You can use social media platforms to reach out to potential listeners and promote upcoming episodes. You can also use social media to build relationships with sponsors and donors.

What To Do When Nobody Wants Your Free Stuff

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today, I'm going to share with you the advice that I give to my clients - and myself - when it comes to our free stuff. The first mistake we often make is taking a product-oriented view of our free content. So we're like "here's my free thing. Here's what it does. Here's how many times a week you can come in here. Here's what type of content you'll get. Here's what you get." But we're not doing any of the things that we know would increase conversion rates: using headlines to capture someone's attention and draw them into the funnel, using call outs, and really selling your freebie.

The simplest framework to use is the PAS framework. It stands for Problem, Agitate, Solution. This is exactly what it sounds like. Call out the problem they are having and then spend some time agitating all of the issues that arise because the problem happened. Make them thirsty and then offer them a drink! Then give them the solution to their problems, which is your freebie!

[00:00 - 05:03] How to Convert on a Free Offer When You Really Want People to Take Action

• There is a myth that people will want something just because it's free. In fact, you actually have to do more to get people to convert on a free offer.

• One of the mistakes we make is not following proven sales frameworks when trying to sell our free content. This can lead to low conversions.

• We often forget about the importance of providing value in order to get people to convert on a free offer.

[05:03 - 09:44] How to Flip Your Free Stuff Into Paid Products

• The first mistake made when offering something for free is taking a product-oriented view, focusing on what the free offer does rather than how it can help the recipient.

• To increase conversion rates, free offers should be treated as a sales pitch, with attention paid to headlines, callouts to the recipient's avatar, and other elements that capture attention and draw people into the funnel.

• Following a framework like the Past P a S framework can help create a more effective sales pitch and increase conversion rates.

[09:45 - 13:40] How to Sell Your Product Even if It's a Free Thing

• The key to successful marketing is to focus on the psychology of the listener, not just the details or features of the product.

• To increase conversions, you need to focus on solving the problem that your product solves for your avatar, and then tell a story or spend time talking about how this problem feels familiar to them.

• If you're offering a free product, you need to focus on selling it in order to make money later on. Getting a podcast audit can help you do this.

How to Get Yourself an Automated Sales Person

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0400

There's a better way to sell your products and services than just having them listed on your website.

Today, I'm sharing how you can get yourself an automated sales person that works for you 24 hours a day for a very low cost.

If you are missing this piece of your sales strategy, it's no wonder your sales may be suffering.

If you need a sales funnel built for your products, simply email me at christy@teampodcast.com and we may be able to get you into our beta program.

One Strategy to Double Your Email Open Rates

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today I'm sharing a strategy that will help you increase your open rates and therefore make more revenue.

In order to increase your open rates, I recommend focusing on creating engaging content and using effective copywriting to attract listeners. By doing this, you can increase the likelihood that your listeners will convert into paying customers.

Now, if you're not familiar with testing, one principle of testing is that even if you're only changing one thing, you still want to collect data to see if it's the change that made the difference.

And so if you're not getting that much of an opening of your email and you still aren't getting conversions then what you want to do is look at what your calls to action are, look at the story that you're telling to drive home the points, look at what you're doing to change their false beliefs, and just look at your whole pitch.

If people are opening your email but then they're not getting through to the conversion part of it, then you have a different problem.

A tool I like to use is subjectline.com. It can help you improve your email open rates. This tool looks at common rules for email headlines and assigns point values to them, with 100 being the best score.

So here's the simple strategy that will more than double your email open rates:

1) Send out your regular email and wait 5 days.

2) Create a new list segment for all the contacts that did not open your previous email.

3) Create a subject line that is the polar opposite of the first one you sent. Use Subjectline.com to help you optimize your subject line.

4) Send the exact same email to this new segment with the only change being the subject line.

How to Monetize Your Podcast Faster and Easier

• The key to increasing open rates for your email marketing is to focus on creating valuable content that your audience will want to read and share.

• Podcast monetization secrets includes strategies such as creating valuable content, building a following, and monetizing early on in your podcasting journey.

• Email marketing is not the only way to monetize your podcast, but it can be a powerful tool if used correctly.

How to Improve Your Email Open Rates

• Testing is important to improve your campaigns and ads.

• One principle of testing is that you should change just one thing with each iteration.

• Testing can be done with different versions of emails, ads, and images.

• Gathering data and testing multiple changes at once is important.

How to Increase Email Open Rates

• If your email open rates are low, look at what your calls to action are, story you're telling, and changes you're making to your beliefs to improve conversions.

• To increase email open rates, send out emails regularly and keep your list nurtured.

Need help figuring out how to monetize your podcast? I help clients do this with a Podcast Audit. Click here to learn more.

3 Ways to Overcome a Growth Plateau

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0400

If your podcast has ever hit a growth plateau, you need to listen to today's episode.

Growth plateaus can happen at any level, so I wanted to give you 3 ways that you can push past these plateaus and achieve a new level of growth.

This is a problem every podcaster will have to deal with at some point as long as you don't quit before you break through the plateau.

If you want help with your podcast, a podcast audit is the best way for you to work with me on your monetization strategy. Simply click here to learn more.

Confidence is Your Secret Weapon for Monetization

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Recently, I was speaking to a group of podcasters who were interested in monetizing their podcasts. The main reason they haven't monetized is because they haven't connected their podcast to their pipeline. I explained that they need to start with a purpose and be confident in their ability to sell their programs and courses. I encouraged them to make an offer to their listeners and to be persistent in pitching their products..

Today, I'm sharing why your audience actually wants you to pitch them on your services, and showing you the consequences of neglecting to make offers.

Need help creating your blueprint for monetization? A Podcast Audit is the best way to start. Click here to learn how you can get your very own Podcast Audit.

How One Client Went from $0 to $10K in Just 6 Weeks

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0400

I was working with a client who was hoping to launch a course in the near future. In our conversations, I discovered that she had a lot going for her. She had been consistent in her publishing, she had been attracting the audience of her ideal customers, and she had been building her email list. Despite all of this, she was still struggling to monetize her podcast.

I introduced her to the concept of a course presale, and we set a goal of selling 25 courses in four weeks. She promoted the presale through her email list, social media, and podcast, and ended up selling 38 courses. She was then able to sell a few more courses after the presale closed, and six weeks later she had made more than $10,000 from her courses.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. A client went from earning nothing from their podcast to earning $10,000 in just six weeks.

2. The client accomplished this by starting a presale for their yet-to-be-completed course.

3. The client was able to make this happen by taking action and being willing to put in the work.

Resources:

Join the Podcast Monetization Challenge. Sign up here.

Follow me on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cahaussler/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGf3vX8ihoVMibG6FdQXb1A

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Team_podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christyhaussler/

Website: https://teampodcast.com

The One Thing Every Business Needs to Survive

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Learn how to get more leads for your business by implementing a simple change to your website. In this episode, Christy Haussler shares how she was able to increase her conversion rate and get more leads by making a small change to her website.

"If you don't have a reliable way to generate leads each month, then I would question whether you might have whether your business is very sound at all."

I was having a conversation with some fellow podcasters about the fact that many of us have a hard time monetizing our podcasts. We all agreed that it's a universal problem and that we need to find a way to fix it. I shared with them an example of how I recently had to go back to the basics in my own business in order to increase my conversion rate. In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How much does it cost to acquire a customer?

2. How can you recapture leads that fall out of your funnel?

3. How to shorten the time between when someone begins planning their podcast and when they're ready to launch?

Resources:

Join the Podcast Monetization Challenge - Sign up here!

Follow me on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cahaussler/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGf3vX8ihoVMibG6FdQXb1A

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Team_podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christyhaussler/

Website: https://teampodcast.com

Transcript:

Alright, so today I'm going to talk to you about something that I have struggled with and still am struggling with. And you are too, probably because almost every person that I talk to and every consultation I do, those people have the same problem too. So it seems to be kind of universal. So why don't we talk about it? I'll tell you what it is and how we can fix it right after this.

Hi there. Welcome to Podcast Monetization Secrets and I am Christy Haussler and in case you haven't met me yet, I'm the founder of Team Podcast. We're a full service podcast production company and for the last four ish years we have just been going deep, deep, deep on Monetization. And I'm glad that it's now on your radar too, because I firmly believe that we need more podcasts making money. And I've just made a decision in my life that I will not start another podcast unless it can be monetized, unless it's going in that direction. And I'm not saying if you aren't starting it for money that you're wrong, it's just that's not where I'm heading.

I think too many people have started podcasts with the hope of making money and they never knew how and they don't know where to go from. I've gotten started and so I don't want to put any more people in that situation where we continue to have podcasts every single month that fade away.

And right now it is a good time for us to sometimes go back to the basics. And part of the reason I say this is because you might have felt a little bit of a crunch with like maybe even your revenue dollars or ad dollars or other campaigns that you're doing and money that you're spending on. And you think, how is it that I'm not getting the value that I once did for the money that you're spending? Right?

I mean, I think we're in a situation where we're feeling that on every aspect of what we're doing. And so many times when we get in a situation where we can't just rely on throwing money at it and throwing money at an ad campaign to get it to convert, many times we have to go back to the basics. And I'm going to tell you about a situation where I've had to go back to the basics on a couple of things and it really has been a lesson that I'm like, I knew this and I just ignored it and it wasn't even on my radar. So putting it out there on your radar today, we're going to talk about it and make sure that you're not missing it too.

But one of the things, if you have a business, if you don't have a reliable way to generate leads each month, then I would sometimes even question whether you might have whether your business is very sound at all. Let me just say it that way. And one of the things that differentiates like a business from a successful business many times is that lead pipeline, the fact that you always have methods out there and channels out there where you're getting new leads every single month. Now, I'm not saying they're free. I'm not saying at all that getting leads are free. In fact, getting leads for your business is probably one of the most costly parts of your business.

That's why in marketing, there is a separate number called cost of acquisition. And so that means how much does it cost you to get a customer? And when I say get a customer, it includes all of it. Like the marketing you did to get somebody into your top of funnel, the sales person that talked to them or the appointments that they scheduled and the closing of that. And just all these things go into acquiring a customer. And it's a very high cost most of the time for most businesses to acquire a customer that has a high lifetime value, if that's what our businesses are. And not just a one off type buy it once, and not just a one off type buy it once product, and you never see or hear from your customers again. So most of us are in the recurring type, customer base, type services and products and that sort of thing.

So you should know as a business owner how much it costs you to acquire a customer. And that is part of the determination of how much you can pay to acquire a customer. I think Dan Kennedy said it best once when he said, whoever can pay the most to acquire customers wins. And that just means it's kind of like, you know, you're buying attention and you're buying influence and you're buying the attention of your ideal customer and getting them into your top of funnel, getting them into your ecosystem, and suddenly they're aware of you and they know about you, and then you begin nurturing them to become customers.

So I did something with my Google Ads. I run Google Ads all the time for our podcast production company. And it's one of the ways that we can constantly have a pipeline of people that are actually looking with search based intent for our services. And so one of the things that I have found is that often whenever people come to our website, the call to action is basically schedule a call with us and let's talk about what your needs are. Let's talk about how we can help you. And I'll give you the whole work up and the pricing and kind of how we'll work together, and we kind of go about it that way. But oftentimes people there's no barrier of entry to going to the website and scheduling a call. And at the same time, when I do get you to schedule that call, I have you fill out. I think it's answer five questions about yourself and your podcast so that I can know and have a little background of who I'm going to be talking to.

So from the end of last year, like, let's just say last quarter of 2021, fourth quarter, I began noticing I was having less conversions on my Google Ads. And it turns out, as we dug deeper, there was a change that I made to our website that I would say is probably responsible for this. Now, it's one of those things where you do something in the moment thinking it's the right thing to do. And for me, the change I made to our website was whenever Facebook shut my account down, and I was in the middle of marketing for challenges and putting out ads and that sort of thing for our challenges, and because I no longer had the Facebook Avenue, which was doing very well for us, I put our challenge information on our website. But where I put it and where it was, it was creating a real disconnect for all the traffic that I was getting from the Google Ads.

So Google people were searching for podcast production companies, how to get your podcast production done, and all that sort of thing. And they were coming to our website, and because of where I put the challenge information, that was the first thing they saw. So there's a real incongruence there with what they were searching for and what they were seeing when they came to the website. So what it did is it bottomed out my Google Ads. And so no longer was I getting consultation scheduled and getting leads from my Google Ads and the same volume I was prior to that.

So then I figured it out, figured out what was going on, and made a bunch of changes to the website. And part of what I wanted to change about the website was that I wanted to make the schedule a call more prominent because we had kind of gotten some other ways. Like we had sort of confused our market with like, oh, you can email us or, oh, you can call us, or you can do all these things. But really what I want is them to schedule a call. And so I went back to that one singular call to action and that focus, and made changes about two weeks ago. Now, made changes about two weeks ago. And since then, our conversion rate, and I'm talking about conversion rate for getting a call scheduled, has exponentially increased over what we were doing after I made that change in first quarter of this year to our website and bottomed out my Google Ads.

So I was talking about this to one of my marketing Mastermind groups that I'm in and one of the things that came up and it was a completely valid point, and I got so busy, like sometimes if you're like me, you grow your business as best you can sort of by yourself, and then you get help and people come in and you know, more, you do better, you learn more. But a lot of times there's some missing fundamentals on the ground level that you never actually circle back and fix. And so what I realized in talking to my Mastermind people is even once people schedule a consultation from me, there's a certain percentage of those that don't show up whenever it's time for our call. Despite text reminders and email reminders and other things, it's still a no show. And we were talking about what I was doing for those people, and most of the time I just reach out to them and try to do a very nonjudgmental and not trying to throw shade or guilt or anything like that, but sort of, hey, I see you missed our call time. I know something must have come up, you're probably very busy, as am I, and if it's not a good time still, and you want to still schedule a call, here you go, you can reschedule, I'd still love to talk to you, kind of thing. So I do that manually a lot of times. And sometimes I get people following up and like, oh no, I just forgot, or something happened or something came up. And people do eventually schedule.

So one of those things that you can count on is that 100% of your free consultations that people schedule are not going to show up. And so we began talking about how I can nurture people back to that same mindset in that same place where they were whenever they were prompted to go to Google and search for podcast production companies. And so I've been working on really honing in my nurture campaigns.

And the thing is that this is an area that I find most of my customers and most of my clients are struggling with as well because it's not an immediate thing on our radar, but we all have not just people that don't show up to our consultations, but we don't close 100% of our calls. And so the real challenge then is how do you segment those people out and make sure that they're properly getting followed up on through email and other ways that you're in touch with them so that they're eventually potentially going to be able to come back and be a customer of yours.

Bottom line is you paid for that lead. I paid for that lead. I paid for it through Google whenever I went out to get an ad that would return search results that they were looking for. And when I paid for it and then it converted and I got the call, there's a whole lot of dropping the ball on my part. That happens if I don't end up getting a sale and a new client from that potential lead, right? And so I've been forced to go back and look and say I'm not ringing out every bit of value on the back end, on the nurture sequences.

I've got clients right now that we're working with that it's the same thing. Like we've got to build out nurture sequences to get people back to that same place where they were motivated to get the help they need. And we've got to get them coming back through and like re-engaging them in our content, reengaging them in what we're talking about.

So that's my focus right now. And that's my focus for several of the clients that we have. Because when you're putting out a certain amount of money on the front end and then you have a certain percentage of those fall through and not even show up now, you also have to remember that not showing up also brings a certain amount of shame and guilt on that person's part that they're sort of afraid to show their face again.

So what can I do to get them back there and bring them back to the fold and say, no, it's okay, I understand something came up or you freaked out or whatever, but let's talk about this because the fact that they eventually might come around to the same place they were when they were in that motivated state and you can get them there, is very high. So how I handle that is one thing, but then how do I handle the people that talk to me and don't take our service?

They might not take our service for a lot of things. In podcasting, there is this very long time between when you start planning things and you're trying to get your ducks in a row and you actually are ready to get off the ground. And what can I do to shorten that time? And can I start helping people by giving them a nurture sequence that will get them there faster? And then if I help them get there, then aren't they going to probably want to talk to me about my service again if I'm the one responsible for helping move them in the direction they want to go?

I wanted to point this out and I wanted to use this as an example today because it's something that I see so it's something that I see just so frequently and so many times our efforts are just all on the front end. And I think when you're in marketing groups and that's where you start, you start with the front end of stuff. But if you really talk and really listen to tried and true marketers, what you will find out is that many times they expect their campaigns to barely break even on the front end so that they can get people in their email list into the funnel, consuming their content, consuming their products even. And then they continue to nurture them and get sales over the lifetime of that client, that lifetime of that contact, I should say.

And so what you begin to think about is that they're sort of doing whatever it takes to get them in the front end of their funnel, knowing they have systems and processes and let's just call it safety nets, to keep recapturing these people that fall out of their funnel and keep putting them back in. And many of us have not built that out. My sole focus this week is to get our nurture campaigns and our sequences and all of our tagging of our email list and all of those things set up. Because if I do that once, then it's forever going to run and it's forever going to be in place and I'm never going to have to think about it again. But I'm also never going to not optimize a lead again. If I'm paying $20 or $30 a pop for a lead, then I need to make sure I'm doing everything in my power. And that means the low hanging fruit of the consultation calls and the low hanging fruit of the follow up emails.

But maybe there needs to be a certain nurture sequence that starts long before my consultation call. Right now I've got calls booked several weeks out. That means weeks of time that I can begin nurturing them, getting them ready for that call. What am I doing? What am I doing to build out ways to move them step by step by step, closer to me, step by step, closer to our services, step by step, closer to being your ideal client. We can do that with our marketing emails. We can do that with how we create content.

I'll give you a scenario the other night, the other day, that scenario that happened. And sometimes just doing something different than everyone else does makes you stand out. And I have clients that many times I get off a consultation with them and they want a lot of different things and they sort of need a lot of different things. But if they already have all these entities going, sometimes I want to take a minute to look at what they're doing already to see if it sort of matches up with what they're telling me or to see if I can even see how they're getting their clients and where their traffic flow is coming from and all that sort of thing.

Because I'm interested in way more than just their podcast. I'm interested in way more than just podcast production for them. I'm interested in strategy and making everything successful. And so I had that happen a couple of weeks with a client. It's now a client, but it was a potential client at that point. They hadn't signed up yet. And one of the things that I noticed was there was just some real low hanging fruit that we could pick off with marketing. So I knew I couldn't convey this in a regular proposal that I would do. So I sat down and I made the proposal. But I also made them a video going through each aspect of it so they could understand what I was looking at and understand what I was saying and understand how it can impact them.

So this is something I don't do that often, but I have done it a few times. And they told me right up front, Christy, we're talking to a bunch of other people. We're talking to you're, one of the masses, sort of, so to speak. And when I showed them what we wanted to do, they realized it was way more than production. And they were immediately I became a category of one immediately. Nobody else existed in their world. And it was just, can we figure out how to work together? Can we figure out how to untangle ourselves from the things that aren't working and move it over to things that are working?

And so one of those high touch things about making videos or making content specifically that you could send out to a very microtargeted person on your list might be a great way to separate yourself. And I could do that with nurture sequences prior to someone's podcast production call. Then that would set me up for also doing it after this free consultation for podcast production, whether they don't show, whether they do show and they don't become a customer, they're not ready yet, they're not making a decision today, whatever it is, we have the opportunity. But until I've gone through all of those, I should not count that lead as let's just call it a dead lead yet, right?

I should do all of those things and continue nurturing them to the point where they're going to have to be the ones to make the decision of unsubscribe. Don't follow. Not interested in podcasting anymore, whatever else they're wanting to do. But I just thought I would share this with you because even as much as I mean, these aren't things that I don't know, but all the time, it's just because I know something doesn't mean I've actually implemented and executed on it. And so it may be that for you too. And so I would encourage you as money gets tight, maybe tighter, or you begin to feel the effects of inflation, or you begin to feel like your add costs are going up and you're getting less qualified leads or less leads altogether, I would encourage you to go back and look at your process like I'm doing and make sure that you're properly filling the holes in your...

3 Secrets of Podcast Success That No One is Talking About

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Most people won't tell you about the three secrets to podcast success. But I'm going to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be successful in this rapidly growing industry.

So, what are the three secrets to podcast success?

1) Keeping a consistent release schedule is one of the keys to success. continue to produce your podcast on a normal schedule. Don’t be tempted to skip weeks or go on hiatus. That’s just a fancy way to podfade. If you can stick to a regular cadence, it will show potential customers that you're reliable and trustworthy. Plus, it makes it easier for them to say yes to your offers!

2) Don’t be afraid of promoting yourself and making offers. Don't be afraid to promote the work you do with clients on your podcast. You're doing great work, and your clients deserve to hear about it! Besides, promoting your work on your podcast is a great way to attract new clients. So go ahead and talk about the amazing work you're doing! Your listeners will appreciate it, and you never know who might be inspired to work with you as a result.

3) Make more offers. You are helping your podcast listeners out by making offers. You're not doing anyone any favors by being shy about your work. Let people know what you can do for them and be proud of what you have to offer.

If you need to make more revenue, then go deep on making your offer as juicy or irresistible as possible. Go crazy with ways you can enhance your offers. The worst thing that can happen is that you end up with too many conversions, and that’s rarely the worst thing that can happen to a business.

Need help monetizing your podcast? Join the Podcast Monetization Challenge here.

4 Steps to Push Forward With Your Monetization

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Here's a news flash - you've already learned enough to monetize your podcast. You're already qualified. You haven't monetized yet, not because you don't have the right ideas or information. You haven't monetized yet because you have not forced yourself to execute.

Today, I'm sharing 4 steps you can take to move yourself closer to monetization. There's never been a better time to get your podcast monetized and develop multiple streams of income with your podcast.

Need help figuring out the best way to monetize your podcast? Join our Podcast Monetization Challenge - it's free and 5 days of intense focus on monetizing your podcast.

Our next Podcast Profit Challenge starts soon! This is the perfect opportunity for you to get the help you need to begin to monetize your podcast. It doesn't take years to monetize your podcast, it can be done in as little as 90 days!

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

When it comes to your podcast, we have a lot of recommendations that can help make your podcast journey easier. We've used almost every tool available and we only recommend the tools that we use, know and love.

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

How to Monetize a Show That Doesn't Solve a Problem for Listeners

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Not every podcast is created for the purpose of solving problems for listeners, so how are those shows supposed to monetize? It's a question I get asked all the time.

Today, I'm showing you the method I would use to monetize this type of show. My recommendation is to focus on building a community...a paid community around the topics and themes that your show discusses.

Want to learn how to build a community? I'll tell you in this episode!

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Which Links Should You Use to Promote Your Podcast

Mon, 23 May 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today I'm talking about Which Links Should You Use to Promote Your Podcast and I really want you to understand why it is important for your podcast.

Sharing the wrong link can lead your followers to a dead end and that doesn't do either of you any good.

There's one place where you should drive our podcast traffic that is most valuable to you. I'll tell you all about it in this episode.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Use Podcast Webinars to Monetize

Tue, 10 May 2022 03:00:00 -0400

When you monetize a podcast, you basically have 3 options:

You can monetize yourself and your content
You can monetize your guest
You can monetize your listeners

If you are playing the numbers game, you have better odds of monetizing your listeners, because there are probably thousands of them. If you try to monetize your guests, you probably have a total addressable market of less than a hundred. And, if you try to monetize yourself and your content, then you really are putting all your eggs in the one basket that is YOU!

So today, I’m focusing on the method of monetization that we talk about the least and that is monetizing yourself and your content.

If you’ve ever just wanted to create content and be paid for your work as a podcaster, then this method is for you.

This method relies heavily on your skills as a podcaster and an interviewer.

So let me paint a picture of what this method of monetization actually looks like.

I like to call this method of monetization the Podcast Webinar.

Now, with this type of monetization:

You’ll still bring on guests that you want to interview
You’ll still talk about topics that will provide value to your listeners
However, you will be more focused on the results you can get for your guests.
You’ll be spending more time ahead of the interview figuring out how you will use your platform to shine a light on the guests' offer, and you’ll want to get as many of your listeners to convert on their offer as possible.
Your success would be measured in how many sales the guest gets after the podcast airs.

Many guests actually may actually need this service that you will be providing with this monetization method.

Remember, you’ve already done the work building your audience for a specific niche or topic, so that’s a highly desirable audience for lots of other businesses in your niche to get in front of.

But, let’s also not forget that you have been creating value since the outset of your podcast, so you deserve to be paid for your hard work.

This type of monetization could be worked out in a couple of ways:

You could charge a flat rate for this service and then do everything in your power to make sure the guest makes anywhere from 3x to 10x what they paid you.
You could handle it like a joint venture and not charge anything up front and then do a 50/50 revenue split of the sales made because of your podcast webinar.

Let me give you an idea of how you could carry out this type of a monetization strategy:

Focus on building your skill set as an amazing podcast host where your only goal is to provide enough value to the audience that you make them extremely thirsty for the solution that your guest will provide.
Find guests that have amazing offers that will benefit your audience and who already have a track record of success in getting the transformation your audience wants.
As a host, your pre interview time should be spent becoming familiar with the guest’s offer. You should go through and read the testimonials you can find for the offer and the transformation it promises.
You would want to guide the guest through this process unlike any podcast interview they have ever prepared for.
Make sure you have a unique url just for this event that is completely trackable by you.
Go through their “funnel” and see what the guest experience is and make sure they do a good job of selling the product. If not, make them fix any deficiencies.
Understand the target audience, the problems they currently have and how the guest can solve them.
Become completely invested in their success pitching their product on your podcast. Remember, their success is directly proportional to the value you provide.
Set up an exclusive discount, offer or package that ONLY your audience can get when they respond to the offer through ONLY the url that you are giving out. Make sure you have something exclusive. This is a deal breaker if they won’t do this. Why? Because if they can get the same deal on their website or anywhere else, you aren’t going to get credit for all the traffic you are creating.
Utilize your team, your social media ads, your email list and any other channels at your disposal to set the guest up for success and to push their products.
Know the exact angles you are going to cover before your Podcast Webinar begins - you map it out - don’t leave it up to the guest.

Think about how Oprah did this for many of her guests. She could bring anyone on her show and turn their book or business into a smashing success.

Now, before you begin poo-pooing this monetization method because of all your head trash, let me remind you of something.

You can tell yourself all day long that your audience doesn’t want to be sold. You can tell yourself that they won’t respond to marketing messages, and all the while you are forgetting something incredibly powerful…

There are websites like AppSumo, Groupon, Woot, One Sale a Day and many many others that were built specifically to sell products, and they get people to buy because they give you a deal you cannot find anywhere else.

It isn’t that your audience doesn’t want to buy, it’s that your audience wants to get a good deal. Give them that and this monetization method will work for you and your guest week after week.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

The Most Effective Way to Break Through Barriers

Tue, 03 May 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Hitting barriers is just a normal part of achieving success, but some barriers are harder to break through than others.

Getting your podcast monetized is one huge barrier to break through, and once you break through it, you'll continually have more barriers to break through.

We can't will the barriers away and we can't just power through them with brute force. Sometimes it takes finesse and some new strategies and tactics in order to power through. In this episode, I'm going to share with you exactly how I pushed through the barriers in my business.

If you want to join my Inner Circle Monetization Mastermind, you can learn more about it here.

Here's another episode that may help you!

Is This Mistake Causing You to Miss Out on 75% of Your Ideal Customers?

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Did you know that within every personality type, you can find your ideal client? The problem is that many times, we only sell to our own personality type and in doing so, only capture a small fraction of our total ideal customers? Why? Because we aren’t communicating with others the way they need to hear your offer in order to buy. I’m about to tell you how to fix that…right after this…

Hi there, welcome to podcast monetization secrets, my name is Christy Haussler and I’m so thankful that you want to learn how to turn your podcast into a revenue stream, because that’s exactly why I’m here too.

In case you haven’t met me yet, I started podcasting almost 10 years ago, by the time 2 years had flown by, I had opened my full service podcast production company, at a time when they didn’t really exist! Team Podcast is my company, and I’ve worked with almost 300 podcasters to launch, grow and monetize their podcasts, and in 2022, my goal is to monetize 100 podcasts.

I’m closing in on the $2 million dollar mark with revenue generated from podcasting, and I want to show you how you can change your life with podcasting.

So lately, I’ve been diving deep sales skills and how to properly pitch an offer, and I’ve been learning from some of the best in the business! And, the more I study what works and the techniques that make people effective at sales, the more I realize that my own mental blocks will keep me stuck faster than anything.

If you have mental blocks when it comes to marketing, I will confess to you that I do too. I don’t want to because I love marketing, but my head trash always gets in the way.

Let me give you some examples of the things that I find myself constantly saying both in my head and out loud…

“I don’t want to come across as salesy”

“I’m not going to insult the intelligence of my audience by doing all the rigamorole that experts teach when you are pitching, I’m just going to tell my audience what the offer is and if they want it, they will take it.”

“My offer is good enough that I don’t have to do a full blown sales pitch to get people to take it.”

“I don’t want to seem like every other marketer on the internet, so I’m not going to do x,y, or z.”

“I don’t want people to think all I care about is sales or money.”

And the list goes on and on.

Have you ever said any of these or something similar?

Well then congratulations my friend, you have your share of head trash too.

As a content creator, we get hung up on the creation process. We go deep and want to create the best content, but without effective marketing, the best content is doomed to the dustbin of history.

With effective marketing, you can actually make a really great living off of a mediocre course or product.

If you have taken the DISC personality profile, you are well aware that there are 4 different personality profiles, and depending which one you are, will affect how you communicate and process information.

These personality types often draw us to one field or another as a career choice. The High C personality type is probably going to gravitate towards engineering or accounting and other very analytical and precise types of work.

A high D personality may be more drawn into entrepreneurship, while a high I may be more interested in social work or nursing.

We have to take these personality types into consideration in our marketing. We have to create marketing systems that can speak directly to a High D and give them the option to go ahead and take action, while we need to slow down and go over every single detail and nuance for the High C.

But once each personality type has their objections answered, then they will be ready to take action.

I tend to only communicate to others in the way that appeals to me, and you probably do to.

Let me give you an example. I was on a mastermind call the other day and a Dr. who deals specifically with aging and trying to mitigate the toll that age takes on our bodies was showing us her funnel for her home page of her website.

The website was full of generalities and buzzwords like “optimal health” and “feel better”, without ever mentioning who she was there to specifically serve.

She laid out her offerings from a “product perspective”, rather than from a “consumer perspective”.

There was a heavy focus on the technical medical procedures and analysis, rather than the results that she could get for someone.

I see this a lot with people in the medical niche. They are so proud of the procedures and how they help people with them, that they overwhelm their audience with the technicalities and medical jargon and in the end, the consumer is just confused because they don’t know where they need to begin and what type of intervention can actually help them.

And a confused buyer is always a “No”!

So my appeal to you today is to think about every aspect of your offer or pitch, and build it so that your offer contains:

All the results or transformation that a results-oriented High D personality needs
All of the analytics and precise systems that a High C personality would need
All of the optimism and enthusiasm that a High I would need
While providing all the support and stability that a High S needs to know, exist within your offer.

Don’t stop when you’ve just covered what is important to you. Other personality types still have questions and reservations, so give them what they need.

There are skeptics that could be your ideal customer, and until you tell them what they need to know about your offer, they aren’t moving towards you.

If you are going to spend the time, effort and money doing any sort of marketing at all, you want to make it the most effective marketing possible.

So, step outside of your comfort zone, and make sure you give every personality type the information they need.

It may feel redundant. It may feel unnatural. It may feel downright silly.

Do it anyway.

The tried and true marketing methods continue to be used for a reason - they are effective.

Don’t think you know more than the marketing experts.

Don’t think your audience is different than every other audience.

Don’t assume you don’t need to go through all of the extra stuff because your audience understands. They don’t.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

There Are No Half Pitches and Other Ways you Sabotage Yourself

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 03:00:00 -0400

The number one reason that podcasters are not making the money they want is because they aren't making enough pitches.

In fact, I have podcasters tell me all the time that they want to make money from their podcasts, and yet, they have not created anything for a listener to buy.

Is it any wonder then that they are failing? We have to be willing to step out an put ourselves out there and make offers if we want to see the monetization roll in!

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

One Monetization Strategy You Can Double Down On

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 03:00:00 -0400

There's something to be said for simplicity when it comes to podcasting and marketing. There is virtually no benefit to building something that is complicated and that creates a lot more work for you.

Today, I'm sharing with you one monetization strategy that I was exposed to recently and I thought it was brilliant! I'll share with you this method and how you can get it off the ground.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Monetized in Just 16 Episodes - A Case Study

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Regardless of what you may have heard, there's no set number of downloads you need before you can monetize your podcast. There's no set number of podcasts you have to have published before you monetize either.

Today, I'm excited to share this case study of a podcast that we launched for my clients at the end of December, and it was monetized within 16 episodes. That means, literally they monetized in exactly 90 days from the date of their launch.

I'll share how they did it, and what you can take away from their experience to propel you towards monetization.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Could You Make a $25K Offer?

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 03:00:00 -0400

The more challenges I hold, the more I realize that we are thinking way to small when it comes to how we will transform our audience and clients.

Today, we're getting real about what it would take to have a $25K high ticket offer. Even if you think it is completely out of the realm of possibility, you should listen and implement my advice as soon as possible.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Do This to Earn Money From Your Podcast In The Next 30 Days

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Monetizing your podcast does not take 3 years. In fact, it doesn't even take 1 year. By the way, did you know that you can monetize any size audience?

Today, I'm going to show you how to set your podcast up to earn money in the next 30 days.

My 3 step formula for fast monetization is:

1) Figure out what your audience's biggest pain point is and create a high ticket offer to solve that problem.

2) Create a live event to teach them one thing they would need to know before they are ready for your high ticket offer. Use Eventbrite for the ticketing/landing page for your live event.

3) At the end of your live event, invite your audience to take the next step with you by inviting them to your high ticket offer.

I'll tell you all about each of these steps in today's episode.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

5 Signs That Your Podcast Is Not Monetizable

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today I'm talking about 5 Signs That Your Podcast Is Not Monetizable and I really want you to understand why it is important for your podcast.

When I talk about 5 Signs That Your Podcast Is Not Monetizable here's what you really need to know:

1.You are creating a podcast that “everyone” should listen to.

When I’m coaching podcasters, I often ask them who their podcast is for. When they explain to me that anyone could listen to their podcast or everyone could get something out of their podcast, I know we’re on the wrong track.

You don’t want to create something for anyone or something for everyone - you want to create something especially for one specific person. The more you can get clear on what that is and who it is, the clearer your path to monetization will be.

And in case you start rationalizing that you don’t want to eliminate potential listeners by narrowing your focus, don’t buy into that line of thinking.

You can get more listeners, better listeners and listeners that you can convert to clients by only focusing on one very specific avatar.

2.You aren’t focused on monetization yet because you just want to get your podcast started, and monetization is something you will focus on later.

In the podcast coaching space, you’ll hear this advice a thousand times over. But just because everyone is saying it doesn’t make it true. In fact, this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If you haven’t engineered your podcast for monetization from the start, then you are destined to be stuck in free content creation mode.

Believe me when I tell you that most podcasts that don’t start with a monetization plan end up podfading long before they ever get around to tackling the making money part.

If you “just start” and begin “putting it out there” without any thought for how you are going to turn it into money, then you will also end your podcast without making any money.

You will quickly find out that if you are new to podcasting and you ask a question even remotely related to wanting to make money from your podcast, someone will quickly “podsplain” that you are wrong for wanting to start a podcast just for the sake of making money.

So, if you’ve ever been “podsplained” about this before, wear it with a badge of honor because you are on the right track. So proudly ignore the “podsplainers” and go turn your podcast into a cash machine.

3.There are a lot of things you would like to do “if your podcast really takes off”, but until then you’ll just focus on creating the podcast content.

When I’m working with clients and they mention their podcast “taking off”, they think they know what they are talking about until I start questioning them.

Can you define “taking off”? I ask them.

Well, if a lot of people listen.

How many is a lot? I probe further.

Well, what’s a good number, I don’t really know?

And the conversation goes from there.

The problem is that you can’t make a tangible goal contingent on an unquantifiable pre-qualification.

You see, podcasters equate success with downloads (or listeners). But they don’t know how many downloads you need to monetize.

The reality is that downloads have absolutely no impact on your ability to monetize. Now, don’t get me wrong, the larger your audience, the more money you can make from your podcast. But you can monetize your podcast with any size audience if you know what you are doing.

So the argument of waiting until your podcast really takes off doesn’t hold water. And if you hold to that fallacy tightly, you will miss the opportunity to monetize that already exists at the level your podcast is today.

4.You believe your audience doesn’t want to be sold to, so that’s why you haven’t really sold them anything.

When a podcaster tells me this, it reveals more to me about them than it does about their podcast audience.

My response to this is “Tell me you have money blocks without telling me you have money blocks.”

A podcaster that believes this is projecting their own money blocks on their audiences and it will doom you to failure when it comes to monetization.

If I ask that same podcaster how much engagement they are getting from their podcast audience, they will tell me very little.

If I ask them how often they hear from their podcast listeners, it ranges from never to rarely.

So if you rarely, if ever, hear from your podcast audience how would you know that they don’t want to be sold? You don’t, but you assume that is the case because you feel insecure about trying to sell your audience anything.

5.You don’t have a regular publishing schedule and you just randomly publish when the mood hits.

You’ve probably seen those podcasts that put out maybe one episode every 3 months and there’s no predictability with their publishing schedule and they just do it willy nilly.

I’ve had some clients like this - I may hear nothing from them for 10 months and all the sudden I get an email telling me they are “back”. They publish one episode and then I don’t hear from them for 4 more months.

It’s simply impossible to monetize a podcast when you don’t publish regularly.

The same way that eating one healthy meal a month won’t be enough for significant weight loss, publishing one episode randomly every quarter won’t bring in the revenue.

You have to consistently publish and nurture your audience if you want them to buy from you.

Anything less is pretty much a waste of time or a vanity project.

What is the perfect consistency? In my experience working with almost 300 podcasts in the last 10 years, a weekly show is the bare minimum you can publish and build consistent revenue from.

As a random fact, the podcasts that I work with who have monetized and lasted more than 5 years all have one thing in common - they publish multiple times a week.

There’s no magic number of podcast episodes to publish for monetization, but the truth is monetization happens because of the actions of the podcaster within the episode, not because they simply publish a podcast.

You can easily publish multiple podcasts a month and never monetize your show.

I hope that none of these describe your podcast. Because if your goal is monetization you will have a hard time doing it if you are making any one of these 5 mistakes.

It takes specific actions to monetize a podcast, so it definitely won’t happen on its own.

If you need help figuring out how to monetize your podcast, you should join my free Podcast Cash Machine Challenge.

In just 5 days, I’ll show you how to monetize your podcast in a big way, so you can live the life you want.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Self-Sabotage is the Enemy of Monetization

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 03:00:00 -0400

It happens every single time! You’re ready to launch something big, roll out a new product or service, or make your first sales pitch–and WHAM! There it is: self-sabotage, and it’s ready to punch you in the face and derail everything. Join me for a closer look at how you can defeat this monster and accomplish everything you want!

Show Highlights:

What have you done that never got past the creation stage?
How the doubts and insecurities creep in and take over
Why you just have to do it! Put it out there!
Stop listening to the negative voices and live in the space of, “This WILL happen.”
Be willing to fail repeatedly and quickly—and listen to the message of the failures
Trace your failure to either the hook, the story, or the offer–and make tweaks
The first thing you try will probably FAIL–just plan on it
What to know before you launch:
Your mind will assault you to derail you with excuses.
ONE tactic won’t work; be willing to tweak and grow.
Fail quickly, expect it, but put yourself out there anyway.
Follow the advice of proven experts and be willing to put in the work and the time

Resources:

Want to do something different and actually MAKE money from your podcast?

Join the Podcast Cash Machine Challenge! www.teampodcast.com/challenge

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Stuck in Free Content Creation Mode? These 2 Steps Get You Unstuck!

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0400

It's so easy to get stuck in free content creation mode, and believe it or not, this can happen even when you have monetized your podcast.

How does it happen and what do you do about it? Well, that's the topic of today's episode. The longer you allow yourself to stay stuck in free content creation mode, the harder it will be to monetize your podcast.

However, if you just make a couple of small changes to your podcast, you can get out of free content creation mode and get you'll be well on your way to monetization.

Listen in to learn what you need to do to break the cycle!

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

The Key to Monetizing Your Podcast in a BIG Way!

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today I'm talking about The Key to Monetizing Your Podcast in a BIG Way! and I really want you to understand why it is important for your podcast.

No matter what stage the podcasters I work with are in, it always seems like we go back to one to get clear on this particular aspect of podcasting.

The reality is that you need to niche down as tight as possible and create specific content to meet a specific need for a very specific avatar, if you want to really monetize in a big way.

Most podcasts are created for a much more generic audience than you can actually monetize in any significant way.

When I talk about The Key to Monetizing Your Podcast in a BIG Way! here's what you really need to know:

Create content for a very specific avatar at a very specific place in their journey.
Niche down to the place where you can give them the biggest transformation because they have the biggest pain points.
Don't spend your time or marketing dollars on a niche that you have to educate in order to get them to take your solution.

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

How Your Podcast Can Play a Bigger Role In Your Business

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Today I'm talking about How Your Podcast Can Play a Bigger Role In Your Business and I really want you to understand why it is important for your podcast.

Because it is important NOT to get stuck in "free content creation mode", you have to understand where your podcast really fits in and how to used it, otherwise you will end up wasting a lot of time.

We are entering the age of business where every company needs to build their own media company. This media company can be used to generate leads for your business.

When I talk about How Your Podcast Can Play a Bigger Role In Your Business here's what you really need to know:

Your listeners need to know how they can hire you and do business with you.
If you aren't mentioning your business and how you work with people on each show, it is a failure.
Your podcast needs to be a priority because it is your main media outlet.
Podcasting cannot be an afterthought for your business, and you can't just set it aside when life or business gets busy.
Treat your podcast like a media company and it will pay dividends in the long run!

Join now!

What tools should you use for your podcast?

Here are our favorite podcast tools:

Hardware:

Best USB Microphone: Shure MV7 USB Microphone

Best XLR Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Microphone

Best Headphones: Apple AirPods Max Headphones

Best Microphone Interface: Scarlet Focusrite 2i2

Software:

Highest Quality Recording Platform for both Audio and Video: Squadcast

Best Podcast Hosting Company: Captivate

Best Software for Email Marketing and List Building: Active Campaign

Best Software for Building Sales Funnels: Clickfunnels

Best Software for Keyword Research and SEO Optimization: SurferSEO

Best Software for AI Generated Writing: Jarvis

Best Software for Creating Captioned Video Snippets for Social Media: Zubtitle

Traffic Sources: Don't Have All Your Eggs in One Basket

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

It's easy to forget how easy we can become lazy in our businesses. It's happened to me and it's probably happened to you.

We think that once we get a funnel live that it's easy to just drive some cold traffic to it from Facebook or other ad sources and we'll have money rolling in quickly. That's not exactly how it works, and today I am sharing a cautionary tale of my FB account suspension.

I've been a model Facebook user and never had any warnings or suspensions. I've never been in Facebook jail, and I work hard to make sure I conform to all of their standards.

However, that all changed on Christmas Day, and in the last month, I've lost thousands of dollars and dozens of hours trying to get my account reinstated.

As if turns out, Facebook has non-existent support. It's super frustration, and I'm sharing my story so you don't get blindsided like I did.

If you'd like to join our Podcast Profit Challenge, February's Challenge is just around the corner. You can join here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

3 Ways to Create a Truly Irresistible Offer

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

It's hard to describe an irresistible offer. I think we all know one when we see one, but it's not easy to quantify or even easy to articulate in a training scenario.

Today, I'm sharing with you 3 steps that you can take with your offer to make it virtually irresistible. Once you put this lens over your offer, it becomes pretty easy to spot where it may fall short.

You will want to take notes and make these 3 steps part of your standard framework for creating an offer.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

How to Create Frameworks to Build Your Offers

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Frameworks are so much more than just a buzzword. They are they system for the success that you can get for your clients. It's very important to have your frameworks documented because it gives you the repeatable pathway that you can then walk each of your clients through and get the predicted outcome.

I talk to so many podcasters each and every week who haven't clearly defined their framework for how they get success for their clients. The better we can articulate what you can do for your clients and how you get them there, the more predictable the outcomes become that you get for your clients.

The best way for you to document your framework is to walk through your processes.

If a client came to you today and said, "I will pay you $10K to get me XYZ desired outcome!" What is the first thing you would do to help them?

Nail that down. Put it in writing. It is now step 1 of your framework.

So what happens after step 1 is achieved or accomplished?

Figure out that next logical step they would need to take in the process. Document that - it is step 2 of your framework.

Now, after your client gets step 2 under their belt, what's next? Figure it out and make that step 3 of your framework.

Keep doing this through each step of the process until you get them successfully to the desired outcome you are working with them to achieve.

Now, you have documented all the steps of your framework and you can begin teaching it. You can begin getting success with your framework. You can begin collecting testimonials for the effectiveness of your framework.

If you need help figuring out what your framework is, you should sign up for the Podcast Profit Challenge. We do it every month and I'm having so much fun helping podcasters get monetized. You can join here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Get Clear On What Your Audience Wants In Order to Monetize

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

I'm on a mission to monetize 100 podcasts in 2022. It's a tall order, but I'm not going to let anyone stop me. Since I work with podcasters on monetizing their podcasts, I'm constantly seeing a deficit in a critical area that needs to be addressed before you even start the process of monetization.

I'm talking about getting crystal clear on who you serve and how you serve them. And, I'm talking about a very specific way you serve them, there is no room for anything generic here!

The more clarity you have about the ONE ideal customer you will serve and WHAT result you will get for them, then everything else becomes a piece of cake!

Listen in to find out how!

If you want to join the Podcast Profit Challenge, you can sign up here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

How To Build Your Framework for Podcast Success

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Before you can even begin to think about monetizing your podcast, you need to figure out what you are going to sell to your audience. The secret to being able to build a program you can sell to your audience is having a framework that you teach.

A framework is your methodology to teach someone a specific thing that will help them get amazing results. Your offer depends on having a great framework.

But how do you come up with a framework?

Believe it or not, you have a framework that you already use for almost everything in life. You just didn't realize that your habits are a framework. Think about the steps you take to brush your teeth. You go through the same steps each day, in the same order and get the same result, but those steps are your framework.

The better you get at recognizing frameworks, the easier it will be for you to create frameworks for your teaching.

Most people begin with a framework that they learned from someone else and they put it into practice. Then they begin to tweak the framework to fit their specific needs. Once they tweak the framework and then validate the results, now you are getting somewhere.

In this episode, Christy will show you how to build your framework for success.

If you are serious about monetizing your podcast, you should join the Podcast Profit Challenge and seriously get your podcast monetized quickly! You can join the challenge here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

The Single Biggest Reason Your Offers May Be Failing

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0400

When I look at people that succeed online and in the podcasting world and those who don't, there is a stark difference in the tactics and execution of those who succeed and those who don't.

This game isn't easy, but it's definitely achievable if you utilize the tried and true tactics for success. If you haven't already grown a thick skin, it will be required on your success journey.

Most podcasters that are failing at monetization are doing so because they have not embraced failing multiple times before success comes.

There is no glory in failing, but it is a necessary part of the process.

When you make any offer, it is just a starting point.

When you officially launch an offer, you begin collecting feedback on the offer and based on that feedback you tweak and change the offer to make it more successful.

You will always fail if you make one offer one time. I can guarantee you there is a 90% chance you will never succeed if that is all you ever do.

To be successful, you have to be committed to the process of making offers. You've got to keep trying until you find the right formula that will make your offer a success.

As podcasters, the simple truth is we aren't making enough offers.

Here's how the typical podcast offer scenario plays out:

1) The podcaster feels insecure and uncomfortable putting out an offer.

2) The podcaster puts out an offer and mentions it one time on their podcast.

3) No one accepts the offer they put out.

4) The podcaster has now confirmed their belief that offers don't work.

5) The podcaster then chases other ways to monetize their podcast.

6) Eventually, the podcaster realizes that it's too hard to monetize a podcast and walks away.

#Podfade complete.

We've gotta be making more offers for so many reasons. This episode covers all the reasons why!

If you need help creating your podcast offer, you'll want to take the Podcast Profit Challenge that starts on January 10th! You can join us here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Here's another episode that may help you!

The 2 Easiest Paths to Monetize Your Podcast

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 03:00:00 -0400

It seems like it should be so easy to monetize a podcast when you are an expert in a certain niche. But, what do you do when you aren't an expert and when you don't have enough downloads to get sponsorships?

There is still a path to monetization with your own products and services. It's not any harder to monetize your podcast if you aren't an expert, but you just have to think about it differently.

Making money takes different forms when you aren't an expert, and you need to know what your options are.

In this episode, Christy breaks down the 2 paths to make money with podcasts, outside of sponsorship.

Want help monetizing your podcast? Then the Podcast Profit Challenge is for you! This FREE 5 day challenge will help you decide what to sell to your audience and help you craft an irresistible offer. You don't want to miss this opportunity! Join now!

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

How I Made $40K+ From My First Live Event

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 03:00:00 -0400

So many people in the podcast world will tell you that you have to have XX number of downloads before you can even think about monetizing your podcast.

I'm here to tell you that if you take the right steps, you can monetize your podcast with a much smaller audience than you could ever imagine.

Today, I'm taking you behind the scenes to share with you the results from my first live event.

I purposely held this event before I was ready. I knew everything would not be perfect.

I wanted my audience for this challenge to be small because I knew it would be less intimidating for me.

I had spent months working on live events for other people and I knew exactly what I had to do.

My months of preparation were well spent, because I was so out of my comfort zone for my challenge.

I followed the process and in the end, I made an irresistible offer to my ideal customers.

My goal for 2022 is to help 100 podcasts get monetized with significant and consistent revenue.

So now, I get to serve these clients at the highest level.

My first event ended with just over $40K in revenue that will come into my business in the next 90 days.

I'd say that was a success.

In this episode, I tell you what lessons you can learn from this.

I'm doing a challenge again in January and every month thereafter in 2022.

If you want to learn how to create high ticket offers for your audience, you can sign up for the challenge:

https://teampodcast.com/challenge

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

If You're Thinking of Creating a Course, Here's Something Better

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 03:00:00 -0400

It seems like almost every podcaster that I come in contact with…when we talk about monetizing it specifically through their own products and services, I start to get a glazed over look because they have no idea what to start with.

So, today I'm going to show you how the level of support you can provide your people to get results for them is going to be a whole lot better if you do something, besides just creating a course for them.

It seems like the first thing whenever I talk to people about actually creating their own products and services, is that people go right to courses and they are like, “well, I was thinking about creating a course for this, that and the other, I was thinking about creating a course for this, I could do another course for that. And I could do all these courses”.

The problem with a course…it's not that the information is the problem - you need the information.

But many times the problem with a course is that people are so used to taking courses, getting free courses, buying courses, whatever it is, and they cannot get through them.

Literally, the completion rate for most courses across the board is well under 10%. And the problem with that if you are someone who, as a podcaster are value based and value driven, because you're also impact motivated, right?

You want to motivate the most people in your niche to take action and do what needs to be done to change their lives and get the results they want.

Then what will happen is, if you only have 10% of the people that are taking your course, how are you even going to be able to judge the results that they're getting?

I mean, it's really hard for you as a course seller, and a course creator, to get testimonials of the incredible changes that people have had in their lives, if only 10% of your people finish your course.

Courses are great courses provide great information, they provide great frameworks. But they also have a huge drawback. And this drawback is the fact that people don't make it through, and if they don't make it through the course, they don't complete the course, that is not going to change their lives, it's not going to have the desired effect that you want it to have.

So if your people aren't meeting their goals, and getting their desired outcomes, you're not either, right? Because you're not changing the lives you set out to take right now in the online space in the digital space, where we all operate as podcasters.

Because we are online, most of us don't have a brick and mortar podcast where people show up and we record it live.

So we're using the online space, which means everything that we do can be digital, what happens is, we have reached a place where we are saturated with courses, we're saturated with information.

Most of it is great information. But we either don't have the motivation, the accountability, the attention span, whatever it is needed to finish the course and actually implement the things that the course taught us.

That's the downfall of most courses. I can go through course after course, after course, after course, and if I never get a chance to implement it, my gosh, it's a waste of my time, it's a waste of my money, it's a waste of every bit of effort I put into that course.

One of the things that I want to impress upon you today is that a lot of people are drawn to courses, because those are the kinds of things where you can create a course, and you can put it out to the world, you can even set up a sales funnel and drive traffic to a course.

Then you can go to bed at night and you can wake up in the morning and have four Stripe notifications that you sold for courses overnight.

That means you've reached the holy grail of passive income, right, you're selling things in your sleep. Who wouldn't love to do that?

So as creators, and as experts in our own niches, a course is very attractive to us.

So much so that we have saturated the marketplace, with course after course, after course, after course.

You can't find a niche that doesn't have a course.

So with courses, while it has an attraction for us as a podcaster, because you can sort of create it once and sell it 100 times.

Where we are in this marketing space is that courses alone are not enough to change lives and get the impact and the results you want.

What we're finding and what we're seeing as being most successful is essentially building communities and programs around getting people the desired outcome that they want.

So what happens is when you build a program, there are multiple components and whenever you're looking at building a program or what you can call it a Community, whatever you want to call it.

When you're building one of these things, part of what you're doing as a creator, is you're evaluating what are the biggest problems that your ideal customer for that community program is.

And what can I do to put in place, maybe things like accountability, or mentoring or other things that can give that ideal customer the highest chance of achieving that desired outcome?

And so you evaluate all these things, and then you look at it and say, what can I create, that will move them from not having this desired outcome to having this desired outcome.

Most of the time, it is by looking at all of the problems and all of the hurdles and all of the obstacles that your ideal person is encountering that or stopping them dead in their tracks from getting to that desired outcome.

That becomes your list of opportunities.

And your list of opportunities, essentially, the problems that that person has become the framework for you building this program, to help them solve their problems.

You also are going to need to build accountability into your program.

In my experience, I pay a lot of money for two huge masterminds right now. And literally like $3,000 a month off right off the top goes into paying for these different masterminds.

But when we have a Wednesday at noon, meeting that I'm going to every single week, suddenly, Tuesday becomes my most productive day of the week, because I have to give an account of myself and my progress on Wednesday at noon.

And I don't know about you, but I'm really not into public humiliation. So I want to come across with the goods for those meetings. The same thing when I have an implementation call with my mastermind.

And I know on Friday, they're going to be asking at 10am in the morning, like where are you on this and let's help you get this whatever it is implemented. If I haven't done the work ahead of time they're going to know and part of the reason I pay so much money is so that I have a high cost and a high probability of following through.

I need to have something on the line that I will lose.

So programs are going to trump courses, right now they are going to be more powerful than courses. But here's the other part. Programs are also something because they have more than just information built into them.

And because they have more than just the tactics and the tools built into them, they have all of the things that help you with the implementation, they have all of the things that help you with a motivation, they have all of the things that help you with the accountability, because they have all those things built in.

Most people today would rather pay $3,000 for a program, that will get them where they want to go in a specified amount of time, that's pretty darn fast, rather than paying $300 for a course, that they may or may not ever finish.

And even if they do finish, they may or may not ever implement. And realistically, for me, as a creator, and me as someone who wants to help people and wants to impact people, I would rather have my people in my sphere, so that I can keep my hands on them.

Then I can get my arms around what's going on with their problems, because that helps me serve the rest of my people even better.

So I don't want someone anonymously consuming my course, or my content or whatever, that I can't know who they are, and that I can't know what they're building and that I can't know what their struggles are.

Because it's going to help me help them if I know that. And so the idea of just creating courses and creating courses, and then going out and trying to sell them like that sort of 1992.

When you're thinking about creating something, you need to think bigger than just a course.

So I hope this has been helpful for you today. I've been having a great time this week, I have been doing a perfect podcast offer challenge.

I am so excited about the people that have been in that and the clarity they've been getting and the breakthroughs they've been having and the things that they're going to be putting out into the world to hopefully help other people in their niches, get the results.

I've got one that's starting again, another challenge, same thing and to start January 10, we're going to be doing it and hopefully, having more people get in there and understand the whole value of creating a high ticket offer so that you can serve your clients at a much higher level, get better results and get paid a whole lot better for it and and feel really good about the results you're getting to.

So if you want to sign up for that challenge, you can go to Teampodcast.com/challenge, and it will be there and you can just sign up.

It starts in January 10. And so it'll be a way to start your new year off, right, and really get your first quarter set for massive, massive results.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

3 Things You Should Do to Prepare for Monetization

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Monetizing your podcast isn't just a switch that you can turn on and off at the drop of a hat. There's a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes just to get you ready to earn that first podcast dollar.

There are 3 important things that you need to do in order to get monetization ready.

1) Niche down as tight as you possibly can

2) Determine the top 4 or 5 problems your niche has.

3) Come up with solutions to those top 4 or 5 problems.

I'll explain more about that in this episode.

By the way, I'm doing a free 5 day challenge to help you build your perfect podcast offer that starts on Dec. 6th. If you're serious about getting monetized, then there's no reason not to jump in there!

The Perfect Podcast Offer Free 5 Day Challenge

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

It Takes More Than Just Information to Make a Successful Podcast

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Have you ever looked at really successful people and wondered, how are they doing it? Well, many times with a podcast, we look at other people that we think are successful, but the problem is we really don't know is success having a podcast that lasts a certain amount of episodes? Is success having a certain amount of status associated with your podcast? Is success actually making money from your podcast?

What is Podcast Success?

One of the things that I see over and over again, is podcasts are starting with the idea that if they just start and start putting out content, that somehow that will draw in the right people, and they can make money from it, and it can completely change their life.

Podcasting Can Change Your Life

And podcasting can change your life. But you've got to have a system and it's got to be set up the right way.

I've made more than more than a million dollars from podcasting. And I'm here to help you do the same thing.

I am just wanting to collapse the time it takes to get from seven figures in a business to eight figures in a business. And my goal is to help you do the same with your podcast on whatever scale you're looking to monetize.

The whole point of this podcast is to go against the conventional wisdom that says, "if you start a podcast plan on spending three years putting out content, and then after about three years, you'll finally have built enough of an audience to monetize".

I say that is complete BS! You can monetize a podcast very, very quickly.

Your Level of Success Depends on Your Level of Preparation

The things that you do to set up your podcast for success will depend on how much money you make in the future.

So there's a lot of things that we can do, and we've got to know how.

One of the things that I've been really, really focused on for 2021, and for even the rest of this year, is getting people results.

The bottom line is information alone is not enough to change people's lives.

And the one thing you have to realize is that if people are going to come to you in your business, and they're going to want to give you their credit card and they're going to say take my money, please, please, please take my money.

It is because you've got to have a solution for them that solves a pressing problem, you've got to be able to get your podcast listener turned client a highly desired result in their life.

If your offer is about making something better...

If your offer is about making someone stronger...

If your offer is making someone healthier...

If your offer is an improvement offer...

You really need to be able to offer transformation.

You Get Results by Getting Results

The way you get transformation is by getting people results.

The results I'm focused on is getting people from having a podcast that is stuck in free content creation mode, to simply giving out content every single week and not getting anything in return - to taking that same effort that they're putting into the podcast and formatting it in a different way and making more offers and getting people money in exchange for the value that they're providing.

Podcast Monetization Happens With a Small Audience

So there's a completely different way of podcasting and it doesn't take huge numbers. I've shared with you my numbers before and the 1000s of dollars that I make a month from this podcast is from a very small audience and the audience is growing every single month.

At the same time, many conventional podcast gurus want to make you feel like you don't have a right to ask for money or to make an offer if you don't have a big enough audience.

How Big Do You Have to Be Before You Can Make Money?

So my question becomes, what is big enough? What is big enough? Every business starts by signing their first customer, right? Every business starts by processing their first credit card.

Podcasting Can Become Your Most Expensive Hobby

If you are not planning on monetizing your podcast, then what you have is a very expensive hobby. Simply put, right, there's no point and you continuing to invest in a lot, and to pay a lot, and to do all these things if you don't have a plan to monetize.

But many times having the plan to monetize and saying yes, I would love to make money...yes, I hope to make money...yes, ultimately, that would be my ideal to make money - is not the same as making money from my podcast.

And there's a big gulf, there's a big, it's almost like you're standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. And on your side is free content creation mode. And on the other side is a fully monetized podcast that's bringing you increasing predictable revenue every single month.

And in order to get there, you've got the big huge gulf between those two sides of the Grand Canyon. And you can try hiking down. And you know, there are books that have been written about all the people that died on the way around the Grand Canyon, or into the Grand Canyon, or somehow hiking or whatever they're doing around the Grand Canyon.

But I can also tell you stories of podcasts that have died from making the trip trying to get to the other side, and they didn't know what they were doing.

The Easiest, Quickest Path to Monetization

All I'm doing is just trying to build a bridge right across the top. So it's the easiest, shortest, quickest, most accessible path to monetization.

You don't need to hike two miles down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and encounter rattlesnakes and rockslides and avalanches, and flooding rivers and all these things just to get there to potentially get to the other side and not be able to make it up the hill.

So we're just trying to get you there as quickly as possible.

Information Isn't Enough to Ensure a Successful Podcast

Unfortunately, information is not enough for me to tell you how to do it, I've got to show you, I've got to help you implement. And I've got to help lay out your path to monetization.

I have a very tried and true method for this that people all over the world use to monetize businesses, month after month and year after a year and grow to multiple seven, eight, whatever 10 figure businesses where they are getting multi million dollar, you know, multi million dollar even months sometimes. That's what people do with this method.

Follow What You Know Works

It's not my method, I didn't come up with an initially. I've just adapted it for podcasters, and for where you are.

Challenge Starts December 6th

So one of the things that we have going on starting next week, December 6, we have the Perfect Podcast Offer Challenge that is coming out - it is a five day free challenge.

It is absolutely for you, if you've just made a few dollars from your podcast, if you've not figured out how to make your first dollar yet or if you have done a few things, but nothing's really worked or you've gotten discouraged or whatever.

The good news is - this is the challenge for you. What we'll do in those five days is -we will show you each day, add another layer on how you can create the perfect podcast offer for your audience.

Your Podcast Audience is Your Ideal Avatar

And then what you can do to get your podcast listeners to move towards you. Because in a lot of ways, you know the problems your audience already has, you know the problems you need to solve for them. And we've just got to get a path laid out so that you know exactly what levers you're pulling; exactly what products you're selling.

Productize Your Offer for Monetization

This offer is the process of us building essentially your first product that you're going to sell to your podcast audience. And so the challenge starts December 6 that runs all the way through December 10. We meet every single day for an hour.

The VIP Access Pass

There is a VIP access where you can get some additional things and there's additional hours of coaching in there. But let me just tell you, I'm so excited. It's going to be one of the most fun things I've ever done in my business because I I do a lot of coaching in my regular business in the course of a month. And so some of my favorite times is actually meeting one on one with my podcast coaching clients that are so excited about what they're doing. And I get to help them customize and help them build their plans and their products and their roadmap to monetization. And so one of the things that you're going to be able to do from this challenge is to get Get with me. And we're going to be able to do that together in just a very, very short amount of time. So if you need the boost, and some of you are going to be able to take the challenge, and honestly have your product out there and launched before January 1 2022, and then you have an entire year to build on it and grow on it and scale it. And that's what we want you to do. So go to teampodcast.com/chellenge, that's all you've got to do. It's, it'll be right there, you can sign up for the challenge.

Join the Perfect Podcast Offer Challenge starting Dec. 6th here.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Here's another episode that may help you!

Big Announcement: There's Still Time to Monetize in 2021

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0400

As crazy as it seems, 2022 is almost here. Let me ask you a question. This time last year, did you think that 2021 would be the year you would monetize your podcast? Are you disappointed with your progress with your podcast this year?

In order to make progress, I have had to set myself up for success.

While I am an independent learner, I’ve realized that I can either go way too far down the rabbit hole of independent learning, or I can get bored with it and never really take action or get results.

I make the most progress when I have instruction, then implementation, and accountability.

Left to my own devices, I’ll overcomplicate things. I’ll let my mental barriers that aren’t real completely derail my progress.

Have you ever set out to accomplish something and at every turn, you found there was another barrier.

Maybe you wanted to film a video. You sit down at your desk, you get out your phone and get ready to record.

Then you realize when you start recording that more of the background is visible than you want.

So now, you clean the house and get the scene right.

Then you record again, and you realize that the lighting is terrible.

So, you set off trying to find the best, but cheapest ring lights for video.

Then 2 days later when you Amazon order some in, you set up your ring light and start recording again.

Now, the light has made every gray hair stand out, and you aren’t going on camera like that. So, you make an appointment with your salon to get that taken care of.

Days later, you return to record your video, and as soon as you get started, your lawn service shows up and there’s so much noise that you’ll never be able to record.

You put it off again, and try to record the next day.

By this time, you’ve read what you wrote for a script and it doesn’t make as much sense to you, so you stop and rework the script.

The next day, you sit down to record again, but now that you are reading the script, it looks weird on video because your eyes are moving like you are reading and you are looking at the words you are reading, not the camera.

So, clearly you need a teleprompter. So you’re not sure how much that costs, so you start researching some options online and eventually purchase a teleprompter.

It comes a few days later, but you don’t really have time to figure out how to use it.

So, you set it aside, and the pattern continues and you never get your video made.

You see, we have a tendency to overcomplicate things.

The reality is that simplicity is always better - for you and for your audience.

I was in an online training session the other day and the instructor said a phrase that stuck with me:

Simplicity sells, and complexity fails.

It’s true.

Even when you are trying to determine WHAT you want to sell to your audience.

There is literally no shortage of things you could create to sell to your audience.

The sky is the limit and our minds run wild.

We think of all the possibilities that exist.

We get carried away with making something big...and COMPLEX.

After all, we’ve got to WOW our audience, or else they won’t buy it, right?

The reality is that we can come up with one simple premise and one big idea that will move the needle for our audiences, and create a product or a program around that.

And launching that one simple program that you get people into will be so much more valuable to you because it was simple enough to actually launch, rather than you spending months of time planning for a BIG program that you can’t even get your arms around to bring to life.

We let comparison cause us to overcomplicate things.

In reality, some of us are so afraid of launching that we do everything right up to that point and never really put it out there.

We walk away and start something else and drive that project all the way up to launch and then walk it back and distract ourselves with something else.

Am I describing anyone else besides myself? I mean come on somebody!

There are people right now who will pay you to help you solve a problem in their lives, but you haven’t figured out how to offer it.

You haven’t figured out how to deliver it.

You haven’t figured out the process to complete the entire sales cycle so you can earn money from your podcast.

I am tired of you spinning out when it comes to monetizing your podcast.

I don’t need you to understand the entire process from start to finish.

I don’t need you to be able to answer every question about the ways you are going to monetize.

I just want you to get one win really quickly that will lead you one step closer to monetization.

Then all you have to do is take the next step right in front of you.

5 day Challenge to Create the Perfect Podcast Offer

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

You’ve Been Sold a Bill of Goods With Your Podcast – It’s Time for the Lying to Stop!

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I think most podcasters have been sold a bill of goods whenever it comes to their podcast. They think that just by creating a podcast once a week, and being consistent over the next however many months, they are going to be able to monetize it and make big money, just from their podcast. And in my experience, that is a lie.

Today, I'm going to give you a little bit of a dose of reality and sort of pull the curtains back, so to speak, on some of the I don't want to say the myths, but some of the lies that people have been fed in order to start a podcast.

I’m just going to call out some of that today, and then talk about what it really takes to monetize your podcast and have significant income coming in through that channel.

Over the last 3 years, my mission has become to get as many podcasts monetized as possible.

Now, that is not an easy task, partly because many podcasters are not “there yet”.

With monetization, it's not about their expertise level, it's not about their skill set. It's not about the quality of their show, it is about the mental piece that they have not been able to come to terms with.

To put it bluntly, they're afraid to monetize their podcasts, they're scared that if they try to do something, to move their listeners to take action in such a way that they will give them money, open up their wallet, give them their credit card, that somehow they will end up offending someone.

They will end up losing a listener - and my goodness, why do we not want to lose listeners that will never be customers anyway?

So I'm here today to talk to you about what I think is just a bill of goods that many people have been sold with podcasting.

Many people come into podcasting, feeling like the only way to monetize a podcast is through sponsors.

And they start asking questions like, “at what point do I have enough downloads that I can start pitching sponsors?”

If I can pitch sponsors, and I can bring in all this money from my podcast, then all I have to do is create content. And the reality is, for those of you that haven't monetized their sponsorships, it is a hard row to hoe - that's an old southern saying, and if you've ever had to work in a garden, and hoe a garden row, you know what a tough road to hoe is.

So it is very difficult number one, to garner enough downloads to even have companies be interested in your platform. And then the flip side of that coin is, if you have people interested in your platform, they are not generally willing to pay what you feel like access to your platform is worth.

How about that?

Once you get there, you find out the grass is not all that green on the other side of sponsorships.

You know, the best thing I can think of to compare it to and back in the days I spent, you know, 20 something years working in other people's businesses before I started my own. And I can remember, every time I would start a new job, there's this euphoria.

There's this honeymoon phase, that you just think this is the job I have been waiting for all my life.

I am so thankful for this job. I am going to love getting up and coming to work and doing this. I can see myself doing this, like this is going to be my last job until I retire. And then very quickly, within generally three weeks to a month the facade starts to fade and some cracks begin to appear. And you find out there's this one coworker that's just living to make your life miserable. And there's this one manager that is just difficult to work with. And then things happen within the company and you begin to realize that you don't really mean as much to the company as the company means to you.

And before you know it the job that you thought was awesome and perfect, and that you finally felt a sense of relief about has turned into the same thing that you have been running from from every other job that you've had.

And that is kind of what happens with sponsorships.

People push, try to get downloads, try to grow their audience, try to do all these things. They spend hours building a media kit and they try to make themselves look attractive to sponsors that have the same target audience that they do.

They spend hours reaching out and the minute they get that little glimmer of hope enough of a response that makes them think maybe this is it, maybe I'm finally landing the sponsorship.

Then they come back around to find that the sponsor is only going to pay them less than $100 per ad.

And you think well, how many ads can I have each month? How many ads can I have per episode.

If I could get one of those to do $100 an episode, then maybe I could get more than one sponsor to do $100 an episode. And you begin to do the math. And you begin to realize that you need $5000, $6000, whatever your number is, every single month in order for your podcast, to be worthwhile to be sustainable, to actually bring value back to your life.

And once you do the math, you realize, that means I need 50 ad spots that I can get buyers for every single month. And maybe you've gotten one.

And they're willing to do one ad on each show each week.

Okay, so now you've got four ads out of that 50 that are sold, where are you going to find the other 46?

Your time. And your effort and your energy that you're putting into your podcast are worth way more than that.

I'm not saying this podcasting route is not an easy route to riches.

Because here's the thing about making money with your podcast - very few people get to the point where they are completely monetizing through sponsorships. And if they are, and they're able to make decent money, let me tell you the few things that they have in common, and most of them are approaching companies and getting ads themselves.

To be honest, most podcasters are not experts at selling. And I really resonate with this because I will say I am not an expert at selling, what I can be an expert in is really coming from a place of value.

if all you want to do is interview people, and all you want to do is put out one episode a month, and then you want to be able to walk away and you don't want anyone to bother you in between those episodes. And you don't want to make yourself available at all for anything else. Then please walk away from podcasting because ultimately you're going to pod fade anyway.

I can just save you 1000s of dollars by having you go ahead and stop now 1000s of dollars and or hundreds of hours of your time by having you stop now before you go down the road any further.

It's going to take a lot more effort on your part to get it monetized. Unless you are willing to build a community around what you're doing with your podcast, and the people that are your ideal customers and ideal listeners from your podcast, then you will end up failing.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

What to Expect From Your Podcast - How Many Downloads? How Much Money?

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0400

So many times when you start your podcast, you really have no idea what to expect. And the only way you can gauge your success is by what you've seen on Facebook groups, or what you're hearing from other podcasters.

And you think, "Wow, that's a huge amount of success. If I only have a fraction of that, I'll be doing awesome."

What I see very often is that people have a skewed view of reality of being a podcaster.

Today, I want to give you a little bit of a reality check. It's tough love, but you're going to need it because it will help you not feel quite so bad about yourself whenever you think things might be going wrong.

Podcast Launched, Now What?

One of the things that I find a big letdown whenever podcasters, you know, they go through all the hype of starting a podcast, and they launched the podcast, and not many people listen, and they don't really know what to expect.

And they're like, was this good? Or is this bad?

And I've literally had people launch three episodes and never come back to podcasting. And it's like, what were they expecting? Did they think like, automatically, they were gonna get 10,000 people downloading their show overnight for no apparent reason?

Downloads Aren't The Only Thing

Many podcasters don't realize it is a long slog for a lot of people. What I want to tell you today is just a reality check to make sure that you don't give up on something too soon.

But at the same time, this has no bearing on whether you can earn money or not with your podcast.

Hack Podcast Success

You need to know these things, so if anything, you can then shortcut success, right? So it's a way to tell you what averages are and what I'm seeing with clients. And over the years, I've worked with almost close to 300 podcasts, and there is a lot of commonalities.

One of the things that people always struggle with is how many downloads is normal? Like, is 100 good? Is 100 bad? I have this many downloads, Christy. Is it good?

Podcast Download Thresholds

So for most people, most podcasters, the first barrier is getting to that 1000 download/month mark. When you get to 1000 downloads a month, then from 1000 to 5000 will come much quicker often, then the from zero to 1000 a month.

The median number of podcast downloads in a month is something like 127. Think about that, when you see people talking about getting 20, 30,40, 100,000 or 150,000 downloads in a month, they are truly in the upper 1% of podcasters.

Realistic Milestones

So to be realistic, understand that that zero to 1000 downloads will be your first milestone. So the quicker you can hit 1000 downloads in a single month. Then the quicker you can keep pushing on to that 5000 And then that 10,000 download mark a month. That's what you want to be focused on.

Downloads alone don't mean anything. I've told you stories of podcasters that I've worked with, and they had 700 downloads in a month, and then they kept working, they eventually had 7000. Then they had more than 10,000 downloads, and they still weren't making any money. So it's not downloads alone. They don't mean anything alone in a vacuum, other than it's a vanity metric that people are listening.

Opt Ins to Your Email List Don't Come Easy

I had a podcast launch one time, and this podcaster wanted me to put an opt in on their homepage on their website. I told them that we just need a lead magnet. We were going put this opt in on their homepage. They didn't get us the lead magnet in time, and there were some technical issues behind the scenes.

So their podcast launched and it was literally like three days after their podcast launched, that their opt in was up and ready to go. I can remember getting sort of a hostile email from this client saying they wonder how many opt ins they missed out on from the launch of their podcast, because the opt in wasn't ready until three days after they launched. And granted, if they had gotten us everything on time, and there weren't problems on their back end, we could have had it all set up.

Opt In Reality Check

I had to chuckle to myself, because the idea that you as a podcaster will come out with a podcast episode and number one will have a juicy enough anything lead magnet to get someone listening to your podcast and right away to go to your website, to download something that you have or just opt in for something is just really unheard of.

It can literally take months for the average listener to begin going to your website to opt in to something. So you could literally have an opt in up for an entire year, and unless you are doing some special offers, and you are really selling it hard, I would say an average podcaster may get 100 opt ins a year. Does that surprise you?

Think about it, podcasts are one of the things that you can do while you're multitasking. You can be cooking dinner, you can be mowing grass, you can be at the gym, you can be babysitting, you can do all kinds of things, while you're listening to a podcast. You can be in the car, and it's not always convenient for somebody to go to your website.

By that same token, people many times are on their smartphone while they're listening to a podcast, and many of them are not going to go from their podcast app, toggle over to their web browser, and remember a URL that you gave them to go and put in an opt in to your lead magnet.

Email Opt Ins, The True Measure of Success

But what you have to realize is in true measure of statistics, and what your success really is as a podcaster is more to do with how many opt ins you have for your email list versus how many downloads you have.

Both tell you something, but downloads are definitely a vanity metric, but opt ins are for real.

Opt ins are people wanting your content. What you have to realize is if you want listeners to go to your website and do something, opt in to something, download something, whatever it is, you have got to give them a very, very juicy reason to go to your website.

It's All About Your Bait

You've got to give your podcast listeners something that is highly, highly desired and it's highly valued. Otherwise, they're not going to be motivated enough to act. It's not worth it to them.

What happens many times is podcasters will create one lead magnet, and it's like the 10 ways to do something. And they use the same lead magnet constantly, and they never get anyone to opt in to it, but they never change the opt in.

Don't Ignore Reality

Having only one lead magnet that you promote for every podcast episode would be the equivalent of me going out fishing and having one rod and one type of bait, and only going to one spot.

If you ever come fishing with me, there's going to be 18 rods on the boat. There's going to be six different types of bait. There's going to be artificial jigs, there's there's going to be skirted lures, there's going to be all kinds of bait - rigged ballyhoo -I mean it's just gonna be crazy.

The Goal is to Fill Up the Fish Box

We have a smorgasbord out there. You know why? Because my goal when I go fishing is to come back with the fish box full and if I go out with one type of rod or one rod and one type of bait, I might not run into anything that's interested in that that day.

But if I take all my equipment, and I have 18 rods and some of them are trolling rods and some of them are jigging rods and some of them are reef fishing rods, those are also each going to have a special kind of bait that I'm going to use.

If I'm going out fishing, and if you're going out on your podcast, and you want to get results, you want to come back with your fish box full, you've got to be prepared.

Test, Test, and Then Test Again

If one type of bait isn't working, I will switch to another type. And if the spot where I am, isn't working, I'll move to another spot. It just makes sense. It's logical, right?

So if you put out a lead magnet, and you make a legitimate effort to test it, and see if it's highly desired, and it doesn't get any opt ins, then think about it, you probably need to change what you're doing.

Put Your Money Where Your Lead Magnet Is

I'm gonna give you a quick shortcut here, if you have a lead magnet, and it's highly desirable, why not take $20 - a nice crispy $20 Bill - and head on over to your Facebook business manager and set up an ad sequence where you're running ads targeted to your ideal person for the niche you're in with that lead magnet as a free download.

So there's nothing they have to pay for, you're just going to spend $20, to go out there on Facebook and see if people are interested in this. If you spend $20, $30, $40, whatever it is, and you get people that click through and don't download your free thing, then your free thing isn't right.

If your ideal audience don't even want it for free, then you've learned a lesson, so go try something different. And keep doing that until you get one that people are opting into.

This why people say give away more value than you feel like you should for free. It takes that in this day and age to get people to move to get people to get to your website to get people to opt in to what you're doing.

Realistic Expectations for Affiliate Income

I see this happen very often with many podcast hosts - when they start out, they go out and they sign up as an affiliate for Audible or Amazon. They think the main goal for monetization to start out with is to monetize through affiliates.

It Takes A Lot of Work to Get Results

It's very likely that most podcasters will never get any conversions from these affiliate partnerships. You have to be very careful, or choosy with what affiliates you choose.

You Should Be An Amazon Affiliate

I recommend my clients become Amazon affiliates, because Amazon is a little bit different, it's not going to make you a lot of money immediately. With Amazon, you're building out links over time. It's sort of like SEO, where you're building a web of affiliate links, page by page and post by post on your website.

If you don't do it, two years from now, you're going to have 350 posts on your website that have zero affiliate links and have the ability to bring you in $0 a month because they're not affiliated with Amazon.

Truly Passive Income

But if you start now and you become an Amazon affiliate, you know, you might get 86 cents this month of Amazon commission, and 86 cents isn't that much but you're just starting out. So maybe you know six months from now you get $1.87 affiliate commission, and then you keep building and you keep doing it you keep doing it and you keep linking up books and things that are on Amazon that are talked about in your podcast, and eventually, you might get to a point where you're making $10 or $15, or $20.

If you do a post about your morning ritual or what you do during the day and you link up all the products that you use and your Amazon account, then you're putting out blog posts that promote Amazon affiliate links, you might have a big month, especially around Christmas, where you earn $70 or $80.

It's Not Beans and 'Tater Money

Now, no one is going to live full time off their Amazon affiliate commission, especially after Amazon cut affiliate commission on during pandemic. It's a small amount that can build over time. But what it can be is truly passive income.

I'm not doing anything every week to get Amazon affiliate commission. But I have 1000s of links out there on my website that I have put out there with each podcast, we link up our you know, books and anything else that we do, I've got them on post all around on different websites that I have, where the links are there.

Consistently Cover Your Podcast Hosting Fees

The reason I take the time to use Amazon affiliate links is because at some point in time, those pages are probably going to get traffic. And if I'm sending traffic to Amazon, I want to get credit for it. It's not going to be something you can live off of, you may in a couple of years, get to the point where you can kind of count on your podcast hosting fees to be paid for. Realistically, but it'll take you a while earn any significant commissions from Amazon.

Make Better Money With Better Affiliates

So, understand what you're looking at if you really want affiliate income. You really want to find affiliates that are going to work for your audience. Figure out the products that you and your audience use, and then make it a point to pitch them and sell them on every podcast episode.

In my regular business, my Team Podcast business, every single month, I'm setting up new podcasts, I'm launching new podcasts for clients. So it makes sense for me to be an affiliate of the podcast hosting companies that my clients depend on me to recommend to them.

Use and Love Your Affiliates

Now, I don't recommend clients to a podcast hosting service because I'm and affiliate - I recommend them to the podcast hosting service that I use, and the hosts that I love and the hosts that I love working with. And because of my relationship with them, I went ahead and became an affiliate. But even then, I had two podcast hosting companies that I recommended based on, what the client needed. And with one of them, I get paid 50% of the first month's billing one time. So I might make $10 for an affiliate referral. And they pay out quarterly, and I would get $40, $50, $60 in affiliate commission.

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) Is My Jam

At the same time, I began using a new hosting company for my podcast for this podcast that you're listening to, and I love it. I love what they're doing. I love the innovation that they're doing. They keep adding new features all the time, they let you have multiple podcasts without charging you a separate fee, which I had, four accounts set up with my other podcast host because I was having to pay a monthly fee for each one.

So again, using them, and I love them. And when I found out that their affiliate program pays 25% recurring commission for the life of my referrals, obviously, it makes sense for me to refer someone to one podcast host over another. So I want you to look for affiliates that give you recurring commission. Everything that I am an affiliate for all fall into what a podcaster would need - things like Squadcast, or Riverside or using Amazon affiliates for the microphones that I recommend and the audio interfaces and the headphones and things like that, that people are always asking me about. Why would I not link those up with my Amazon link? If people are asking me what mic do you recommend, I'm selling that mic and tell him to go to Amazon and get it. Why should I not get commission for that?

If I'm having to tell people where to go to record their podcast, and sharing my tools that we use for Click Funnels and Surfer SEO these are products that I use, I love and they helped my business; they helped me grow. Why would I not want other people to use them as well? And if I'm recommending them, why would I not be an affiliate for them?

Recurring Income Builds Your Foundation

When I build an affiliate relationship, I'm going to be looking for companies that have a monthly recurring commission. I don't want just a one time payout.

Practicing What I Preach

I wanted to make my company, Team Podcast's affiliate program the same type of recurring model that I want you to have - monthly recurring commission. If you refer someone to me, I'm going to give you 10% of the lifetime billing of every single month of service of that customer that you sent me.

I want to be the good affiliate that you could recommend. But you have to be realistic about the amount of money you can make and it's never wrong to try to set yourself up to have multiple streams of income from your podcast.

Multiple Streams of Income

You want to have multiple streams of income, but understand putting all your faith in affiliate marketing, unless you are really good and have a system for affiliate marketing, which you could but the average podcaster doesn't - you don't have an email list, you don't have, a built in audience base to sell affiliate products to, so you're trying to sell them to strangers that are listening to your podcast episodes for the content, and not really looking for the tools or other things that you're recommending.

Just One Piece of the Podcast Pie

You want things like affiliate marketing and affiliate products to be part of your revenue portfolio. I'm like 10 years into this game of being in business for myself, and I would say, five to six years into affiliate marketing. And every year, I can probably track back, maybe around $10,000 of total revenue from affiliates.

Just Part of My Workflow

Now, here's the thing, I'm not doing a lot. It's all stuff that I'm doing incidentally; I'm not building marketing campaigns. I could do a lot more for affiliate marketing, but I am not pushing it as my main source of income, because it's not going to be that for me. But at the same time, I don't want to leave $10,000 on the table every year? It doesn't make sense to do that.

Look for Opportunities to Affiliate and Partner

You should take advantage of every single opportunity if there is something that you can be an affiliate for - whether it's a joint venture that you can partner with somebody and pitch it to your podcast or whatever - I'm all for doing that.

Pat Flynn Used to Be Mainly an Affiliate Marketer

Pat Flynn was great at affiliate marketing when he first started. Whenever John Lee Dumas started his podcast, and that was back in the time whenever Pat Flynn hadn't really taken on podcasting to the fullest extent. So Pat might put out one podcast a month. But he was the original one that started publishing income reports, you would see his income reports and he was making, $30,000 a month, and $40,000 a month. It was literally all from affiliate income.

Even Pat Flynn Wanted More

Pat Flynn made a ton of money from affiliate marketing . He was thrilled with that until he saw John Lee Dumas come along. John started doing sponsorships for his podcast, and then he started doing Podcasters Paradise. And he started creating courses and all these different things. And Pat realized his affiliate income is only scratching the surface of what he could be making, so he changed his model and began creating courses and other programs and communities and things like that.

Begin Building Today for Future Payouts

it might take you six months or a year to get your first commission from an affiliate, and you might even find that your affiliates have what do you call it payout thresholds. If an affiliate has a payout threshold of $250, unless your earning total $250, that commission doesn't get paid out to you. So it's gonna sit there until you push it over the $250 threshold and then they pay out.

So understand that it's part of it. It needs to be something about...

How to Promote a Podcast Without Social Media or a Marketing Strategy

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0400

What are the best ways to promote a podcast? This is a question every podcaster has asked at least once and a problem that you come back to again and again after trying and failing with different promotional strategies.

Stop Focusing on Sharing Episodes

Today, I'm going to flip podcast promotion on its head and show you how you are trying way too hard.

In podcasting, we have a lot of things backwards and this idea of podcast promotion is one that we completely mess up on an ongoing basis.

Don't promote a podcast the average way

You see, once you have your own show the average podcaster goes on the hunt looking for someone to interview on their podcast. Then the podcast host schedules an interview and sends the guest their list of questions. Then the day of the interview rolls around and you connect with your podcast guests, ask your questions and then have what you feel like is an awesome discussion with the guest and you feel like you've made a great podcast.

Eventually, the podcast gets published to your own audience, and then you go on a hunt across the internet looking for more podcast listeners and places to promote this interview to. You feel like if you can just get the interview in front of enough people, that surely some of them will be interested in the topic and listen to the show. Then your will have a successful podcast.

Podcast Audience Pattern Interrupt

Have you ever been out an about in your daily life of running errands and taking care of your household, and have a mundane task like pumping gas at the gas station turn into a weird encounter when a sketchy character walks up to you while you are pumping gas, and they have a gold chain or a watch or something else that they perceive as valuable, and the want to unload it to you because they need the money?

Well, this is kind of how the rest of the internet views your efforts to promote your podcast on your social channels. Your target audience isn't looking for or wanting your content, but yet you show up in the least likely of places, trying to shove your podcast content in the face of potential listeners, and promising them they will love it if they just listen to it.

You Don't Create Traffic

Here's what you have to realize about the internet. Everyday there are thousands of people online who are searching for specific types of content and they would love to come across some of the topics you talk about in your podcast.

You are not a traffic creator

Traffic on the internet already exists. There are a few things you need to know to capture this existing traffic.

It isn't your job to create traffic to your podcast episodes. Podcast directories already get all the traffic you could ever need. It's like pulling teeth to get people who are uninterested in your podcast topic to become new listeners based on your promotional efforts with social media posts.

You will continue to fall flat on your face if you think that sort of podcast marketing and promotion will get you new listeners.

Spamming Your Podcast Links Isn't Cool

It's time consuming to cross promote your episode links on all the social media channels where you could possibly find podcast listeners.

It won't and it will only leave you frustrated and exhausted to go about podcast discovery this way.

A better way to create content is to realize that there is already tons of traffic for your niche that is on the internet everyday. You just have to get your podcast in front of that traffic and it's not always to promote a podcast with spammy links.

You just have to focus on podcast SEO instead of social media ads or other podcast growth methods.

Jumping In Front of an Existing Audience

What is that traffic looking for?

There are SEO tools that can give you this information.

This information can become a goldmine for you and it will increase your current listeners.

If you start creating content by looking for what a majority of the people in your niche are searching for each and everyday, then your job becomes to create content that will be found by them when they are searching in the podcast apps.

Again, you aren't trying to create traffic, you are just wanting to jump in front of as much existing traffic in your niche of the podcasting community as possible.

This relieves you of the burden of having to spam your podcast links all over social media platforms to people who aren't the least bit interested in your podcast content and may not even be podcast listeners in the first place.

Episode Titles and Content Creation Framework

So, the framework I want to show you is:

1) Use a trustworthy SEO (search engine optimization) tool to determine what podcast listeners in your podcast niche are searching for. (If they are looking for you, then you don't have do podcast promotion, right?)

2) Rank the top things your podcast audience is searching for based on the number of monthly searches.

3) Create a podcast episode about that topic and use the exact search phrase as the title of your new episode.

4) Rinse and repeat every time you create a new episode published to your RSS feed and podcast website.

Tools of Podcast Discoverability

The best tools for keyword research for your podcasts are:

- Free - ubersuggest.com for a couple of free searches per day.

- Cheap - paid chrome extension called Keywords Everywhere

- Best - SurferSEO - I use and love this tool so much that I am an affiliate for it. Surfer gives you every tool you need to do keyword research for your podcast, content planning for each podcast episode, do an SEO audit of your podcast website, and also write your podcast content that can rank on Google.

Don't Cheap Out on SEO

It's the easiest SEO tool I have ever used, and I have used a bunch of them. I have paid for SEM Rush previously, and this is hands down a much better tool. Surfer is also constantly adding new features to the tool, so it just gets better and better over time.

To help you get a better feel for what Surfer can do for you, I have created a video on my youtube channel that I have linked in the show notes, and I've also shared that video with my private Facebook group called, Podcast Monetization Secrets.

If you want the special benefits of signing up through my affiliate link, just go to TeamPodcast.com/surfer.

I can use the Content Planner in Surfer and find out all of the keywords and keyword phrases that my podcast audience is looking for. The results tell me how many online searches there are just in the US each month for those keywords.

So, I could easily take the top searched keywords and phrases and make those my next several podcast episodes.

Mining Data from Online Communities and Searches

By doing this process, all you are doing is identifying WHAT solutions your podcast listening audience is searching for. Then, using the real data, you are playing the odds of SEO, you are creating content that is highly searched for, in the hopes that you can siphon off some of that existing internet traffic for your podcasts.

Then, I can use the Surfer content editor to create SEO optimized content for my podcast website that will have a high statistical probability of ranking on Google.

Never Spend a Dime on Pro SEO Help Again

I can do this because Surfer gives me all of the keywords to use in the correct saturation levels to outrank other podcasters and the existing ranking Google content.

It will tell me how many H1 headings I need to use. It will tell me how many paragraphs I need to have in my podcast content. It will also tell me how many images I need to have in the other podcasts to outrank exiting ranked pages.

Armed with all of this, I can create the first episode and post it to my website.

Social Media Links Don't Hold a Candle to This

THEN, I can grab the url for the blog post and put it into Surfer to do an audit on that page for the exact keywords I am trying to rank for. This keyword phrase then becomes my podcast title.

If you follow this process, you will get more organic traffic to your podcast, from all channels - Google podcasts, Apple Podcasts, etc.

The best part is, that traffic won't be disinterested people on social media that really don't care what you are talking about. They will be people who are searching a podcast directory for your solutions.

Podcast Growth Through Targeted Traffic

The traffic you will get will be the people who are actively searching for the type of content you are providing in your podcast feed. Other podcasts can randomly pick topics and hit or miss with the traffic game.

Then they are left to open the rest of their week on podcast promotion.

Traffic the easy way or the hard way?

Now, which type of podcast traffic would you rather have finding your podcast?

The traffic for which you have had to do a massive pattern interrupt to get their attention on social media because the weren't already looking for your solutions?

Or the person who is desperately searching Apple Podcasts for solutions to the problems you can solve and they stumble upon your podcast content because - hello SEO - and they immediately feel grateful that they have discovered your show and they binge listen to all of your podcasts and become podcast subscribers?

Targeted Traffic, Lifelong Customers

I know which one will ultimately make a better customer and that should be the one you want coming into your funnel and becoming raving fans of your own podcast.

If you do this, you will be doing almost the exact opposite of what other podcasters in your niche are doing.

Getting the Upper Hand on the Competition

It will give you an unfair advantage over your competitor's podcast promotion efforts and you will never again have to promote a podcast into every Facebook group you can find.

You'll also never again have to run Facebook ads just to try to find your target audience who listen to podcasts. Better yet, your target audience will find you!

So again, the framework is:

1) Use a trustworthy SEO tool to determine what people in your niche are searching for. I recommend Surfer SEO.

2) Rank the top things your podcast audience is searching for based on the number of monthly searches.

3) Create a podcast episode about that topic and use the exact search phrase as the title of your podcast episode.

Again, If you want the special benefits of signing up through my affiliate link, just go to TeamPodcast.com/surfer.

Never Struggle to Promote a Podcast Again

Let's face it...

Apple Podcasts will never promote a podcast for you. They will let you drive podcast traffic to their platform all day long without any reward.

Unless you want to spend 80% of your time doing podcast promotion and only 20% of your time creating content, then you should follow this framework to create highly desirable podcast content.

Defy the Podcast Gurus

Some podcast gurus will tell you that the 80/20 rule for content creation vs. promotion makes sense, but what they fail to realize is that you are an expert in your niche and creating content is your passion.

You didn't set out to become a marketer with a special expertise in podcast promotion.

Granted, podcast promotion will always go hand in hand with podcast content creation, but it doesn't have to be nearly as painful.

Play the Odds for Search Traffic and Go All in on YouTube Video

By now you are aware that Google is the largest search engine.

The second largest search engine is YouTube.

The third biggest search engine is Apple Podcasts.

If you only play in the podcast audio space, you have #1 and #2 search engines covered.

Play Full Out With Video

It only makes sense that you would take advantage of the 2nd largest search engine by getting your content on YouTube as well.

Plus, since Google now owns YouTube, guess what types of content Google pushes higher in the rankings - podcasts or YouTube video?

You guessed it - video for the win!

SEO is Playing the Long Game for the Big Win

When you put out content week after week, it only makes sense that you would use an SEO tool like Surfer SEO to help set you up for success.

If you put all the effort into your podcast and miss the most important piece of discoverability, it is no wonder that you will struggle to find listeners and eventually get frustrated and walk away from your podcast.

SEO the Smart Way

You don't want to ignore these SEO tactics and be left spending all your money on Facebook ads to try to find your audience.

If you follow these SEO tactics from your first episode to your next episode, then you are building an SEO traffic powerhouse over time.

My Mother always said, "Anything that is worth doing is worth doing right!". And SEO is exactly that - worth doing right.

From podcast episode titles, to formatting your content, to keyword saturation, it ALL matters!

Paying attention to all of these things will make your podcast marketing efforts pay off in a big way. In fact, your podcast marketing could be turned into SEO tactics and you'd probably have just as big of an impact on your audience growth.

Social Media Shouldn't Be Your Crutch

Don't just promote your podcast on social media. Sure, you'll need to be on social media for your podcast launch to try and build buzz and build a following.

Then after your podcast launch, you can let your social media followers know that you release episodes each week.

Unburden Your Podcast Marketing Efforts

Wouldn't it be a relief if you didn't feel like you had to be on ALL the social media channels ALL the time?

After all, social media can be as exhausting as it is toxic.

Podcast marketing isn't just about social media though. In fact, there are so many better ways to promote your podcast. I've literally seen podcast producers who only know to tell clients to promote on social media.

If social media is the main way you promote your podcast, then it is no wonder you are exhausted, overwhelmed, tired and cranky.

Use SEO to your advantage and unburden yourself fo the obligation to be all over social media. Social media is a noisy place to be and your audience will get more if they can find you when they are searching for you!Again, If you want the special benefits of signing up through my affiliate link, just go to TeamPodcast.com/surfer.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

The BIG Idea You Are Probably Missing

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I see a lot of sales pitches and read a ton of marketing messages in my line of work and I feel like so often there is one main reason that our offers are not converting. So, it doesn’t matter whether your offer is for a free lead magnet or a paid product, if you fix this one issue then you will be so much more successful. I’ll tell you what that is, right after this.

So, in one of my masterminds recently, we’ve been discussing our offers. People have been throwing their offers and offer ideas out to the group for feedback, and very often it seems like the offer is sort of a word salad.

I get that it’s sometimes hard to articulate what you do and how you help people. It’s something I hear often with my clients. Many times they have had a business going for several years and it’s been ok, but they still talk in really generic terms about how they help people.

The more I immerse myself in marketing, marketing language, marketing copy, and surround myself with world class marketers, the easier this flaw is to spot.

So what is this falw I’m referring to?

In business and in marketing, you need to build around one BIG idea.

And to be honest, when you first start your business, you may have a BIG idea at the time, but soon the marketplace is flooded with everyone else doing the same thing and you have to change your BIG idea.

When I started Team Podcast, I started it because I could not find the company that I wanted to hire to work on my podcast.

At that time, in 2012, there were no one-stop-shops where you could get all the post production done on your podcast for one price.

There was a company, called Podfly, that was sort of working in that direction, but I couldn’t stand the parameters they put around the length of your audio files and how many “um” removals would be included in your package before you got an extra charge.

So when I started, my one BIG idea was doing all the post production on a podcast for one price per episode, and not nickel and dime-ing my customers with every little thing that other companies were doing.

Fast forward to nearly 10 years later and almost every podcast production company has that model now. So, even though I was ahead of the curve at the time, my BIG idea from 10 years ago is no longer a BIG idea.

I’ve told you about how I got a virtual punch in the gut from a client that led me down the path of marketing and monetizing podcasts, so now my BIG idea isn’t just that we will produce podcasts like everyone else is doing, but we will also work with podcasters to help monetize their podcasts.

It takes a completely different skill set to learn the marketing skills to monetize a podcast, and I’ve spent the last almost 4 years now investing heavily in earning my marketing chops.

The result is that now I won’t launch another podcast that isn’t going to be monetized. And I know how and when I will pull the levers of monetization.

Why is it so important to have a BIG idea?

There are several reasons, but let me highlight the most important ones:

The marketplace is more crowded than ever! With social media, online access and 24 hour TV consumption, your ideal customers are bombarded with more ads per day than ever before. Your BIG idea will help you stand out in the crowded marketplace.
Your customers have a shorter attention span than ever. Face it, we live in an instant gratification age. Consumers no longer have the attention span to make it through a long sales cycle, or for it to take months for them to get their problems solved.
Improvement offers no longer capture your customers. Your customers are looking for transformation and if you can’t provide it, someone else will.
Generalists are out and specialists are in. You’ve heard that “riches are in the niches” and every business has to niche down to survive in this market. Pick one sub-niche of your niche and find an area where you provide transformation. When you have an offer that works, go all in on that one offer.

In some of the training I am going through in Russell Brunson’s mastermind, we’ve talked extensively about creating a tight niche.

One of my coaches says to “carve out a niche so tight that only you fit in it!”

One of the things carving out a niche that only you fit in requires on our part is to really understand who we serve inside and out.

I’m not just talking about who the person you serve is. I’m talking way deeper than that.

I’m talking about their needs and desires, what have they already tried and failed at, who are they currently turning to for help and tons of other really specific knowledge you need to have about your “who”.

The reality is that you have to really love the “who” you are serving in order to create a real transformation.

Let me give you an idea of some questions you should get clear on about your “who” that will enable you to come up with your BIG idea.

I’m going to assume that you already have a pretty good idea of who your “who” is, so I’ll pick up there.

What are their problems?

What are their concerns?

What do they want? I’m not talking about what do they think they want, I’m talking about what do they really want.

You’ve probably heard about the guy who walks into the hardware store needing to purchase a ¾ inch drill bit. It might seem obvious that this guy WANTS a ¾ inch drill bit. I mean, hello, Captain Obvious, right?

But actually, a ¾ inch drill bit is not at all what that guy wants. What he really wants is a ¾ inch hole.

See what I mean about getting below the surface? And the more you do this and know your who intimately, the better you can come up with your BIG Idea.

What does your who want to avoid at all costs? Part of your BIG idea could be helping them avoid that!

What fears are already present in your who?

What do they love?

What do they hate or despise?

What are they already spending their money on?

Where are they currently spending their money?

What do they do for fun? Where do they hang out in real life?

What books are they reading?

What are some of their core beliefs?

What are their blind spots?

Where are they stuck?

Who is presently letting them down?

What industries or companies are currently failing them?

What old models, methods or systems are failing them?

What lies are they believing?

Who else is loving your who well?

How aware is your who of the problem you want to solve for them?

Is your who already looking for solutions?

What else has my who already tried?

This is literally just a short list of questions that you need to be able to answer about your who. There are so many more that can be answered to help you get inside the mind of your who.

It may seem overwhelming to think about all of these things, but it can be catastrophic to your business to ignore them.

Your who is looking for a transformation in one specific area and it is up to you to carve out a niche just small enough that you are the only one that fits in it.

Don’t try to model what you are doing after what your competitors are doing. Most of the time they are just winging it anyway. They are so entrenched in what has always been done that they probably aren’t willing to change even if their customers ask them to.

In creating your BIG idea, you are in effect creating a movement. In creating transformation for your audience, you are giving them a new identity to embrace. The more you can get your audience to embrace their new identity and the transformation you are offering them, the more successful your business will be.

Most of us don’t think BIG enough when we are creating our BIG idea.

But my friends, we are the entrepreneurs, we are the change makers. We are the ones who don’t settle for the status quo.

We are the ones who break the rules, because we know the rules only exist to serve other people and not our who.

We are the ones who can bring transformation to the lives of our who if we can only get our heads around our BIG idea.

It’s not enough to educate people. Yes, education is good, but it isn’t motivating enough to cause your who to take action.

Helping people with a problem isn’t enough. Your who could go broke trying to get “help” from every gurus who can only get them a little further down the line.

In order to be successful, you must be willing to think big enough and implement fast enough to create a transformational journey that your who will go on with you.

And let me be real with you about this. Most of the time when we as entrepreneurs and problem solvers don’t think BIG enough to create a transformational experience for our who, it is because we are afraid!

We fear calling our shot and having to live up to the transformational standard we promised our who.

We don’t believe in ourselves enough to make waves in our industry.

We are scared to put ourselves out there and open ourselves up to scrutiny and ridicule.

We don’t want to be disruptive because we are worried about our competition coming after us.

Let me tell you this:

If you create enough transformations, no one will listen to the naysayers.

If you change enough lives, you’ll create so many evangelists for your program that you won’t have to fend off attacks because they will do it for you.

If you truly love your who enough, you will be willing to transform your own life so that you can keep transforming theirs.

And this is the point at which you stop chasing money and you start chasing impact.

And the more impact you achieve, the more money you will receive.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Why Social Media Marketing is a Waste for 90% of Podcasters

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I hear it over and over again - the first “real marketing” that a podcaster does is social media marketing. Then after spending a whole lot of money, they look around and start scrutinizing their stats and then scratch their heads because they aren’t sure whether it made any difference at all in their podcast.

I am asked about this often and I see questions in the podcast Facebook groups about it, so I wanted to take some time today and explain to you why I am so against social media marketing for the majority of podcasters.

So first, let’s define what social media marketing is:

This is where you run paid ads on social media platforms in order to try to get people to listen to your podcast.

Facebook has made it so easy to “boost a post” that almost every podcaster I’ve ever talked to has fallen for it at least once.

I am NOT talking about posting on social media platforms or sharing your episodes with followers. I always think that’s a good idea, but I also think it is not impactful enough for most podcasters to justify hiring a social media manager to manage this.

So the bottom line I am trying to help you avoid today is spending money on ads and social media management that will yield very little ROI, so that you can put your money into things that can actually bring you a legitimate return on your investment.

So, let me explain why this is an activity that most of you shouldn’t participate in, and then I’ll tackle the real question of what you should do instead of social media marketing.

In strict marketing terms, the vast majority of ad campaigns that a podcaster would run would be considered an AWARENESS Campaign.

This means that there isn’t really something an audience member can buy from the ad, and the ad is just being run to make you aware of a podcast.

Let me just explain to you quickly why awareness campaigns are not something you should aspire to:

They are incredibly expensive to run, since all your ad spend is going into educating the marketplace that you exist, and not to buy your products or services.
Most of the time awareness campaigns are exclusively done by huge multi-national corporations who want to be remembered favorably by the audience.
You can never really determine the ROI from an awareness campaign, so you are most often lighting your money on fire.
Awareness campaigns are not targeted, so of all the people you have the potential to reach, only a fraction of them will be your target avatar.

Ok, so now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, this is where we start getting real about this conversation.

WHY are you really wanting to run social media ads?

I mean what is the real end goal?

To get more downloads, right?

And what does getting more downloads mean for most podcasters?

Well, of course it means you have more listeners, but what do you as a podcaster get out of having 1000 downloads rather than 200 downloads?

I mean, how much more money will you make when you have 1000 downloads vs. 200 downloads?

For the vast majority of podcasters, and maybe even you, it means absolutely nothing. There is a zero dollar difference in those 2 numbers.

Why?

Because the average podcaster does not have an offer that their podcast listeners can buy.

So this means that most podcasters aren’t selling anything.

And yet, when I talk to those podcasters, almost all of them will tell me that one of their goals is to earn some income from their podcast.

So why the disconnect?

Podcasters turn to social media marketing when they don’t know what else to do instead.
Podcasters see other podcasters who also don’t know what they are doing and also aren’t making any money, do it, so they follow suit. I’ll let you think about that, but why would you mimic that person anyway? If you’re looking for someone to emulate, at least pick someone who is earning money from their podcast, right?

Now, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but if you don’t currently have an offer - and I’m talking about a paid offer, not just a free lead magnet - then you AREN’T ready for ANY sort of paid advertising.

And that includes spending money on a “marketing” person.

But Christy, why?

Because you have no way in the world to get ANY ROI on either your paid activities or your marketing person! Do you hate money that much?

It is my opinion that if you don’t have an offer that you can sell to your podcast audience, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!

You can stop all your other peripheral activities until you have an offer.

That means you don’t need a new logo…

That means you don’t need to upgrade your microphone…

That means you don’t need to rebrand your website…

That means you don’t need a new pair of headphones…

Literally, nothing else that you can do for your podcast matters until you have an offer.

Your house is on fire if you don’t have an offer!

All of your efforts are in vain if you don’t have something to sell to your audience.

You have the cart before the horse if you don’t have an offer!

A couple of years ago, I learned a very expensive lesson.

I spent about $30K to bring on a Fractional CMO for my business. In case you aren’t familiar with the concept, it’s a way for businesses like mine, who don’t need a full time Chief Marketing, of Finance or whatever, Officer, to pay for one that just works for you part time, and then that person probably has 5-10 companies that they provide this service for and that equals more than a full time income for them.

We created a lot of activity to try and build a local podcast network here in the Florida Keys.

We were first to the marketplace.

He came up with a catchy brand.

He built a cool looking website.

He made us fancy business cards.

He made t-shirts.

We had a movie premier for The Messengers: A Podcast Documentary that I was featured in and invited the community.

We started building an app.

We started recruiting and training advertising and sales reps.

We started holding monthly meetings in the community.

We did all of these “activities” without ever once having a product to sell to anyone.

In fact, even for all the activities we did, the timing was off on each and every one of them because we were trying to bring together an audience and we had NOTHING to gather them around!

The longer this relationship lasted, the more I started scratching my head and wondering what in the world we were doing.

After some consultations with my attorney, I ended up firing this CMO and cutting all ties with him.

Of course, then I began to scrutinize all the red flags over the course of our relationship and I realized…

I was trusting him to build our website and he didn’t have a website of his own.

I was trusting him to figure out our marketing campaigns and he didn’t have a track record of marketing campaigns he had run that I could look at.

Eventually, I realized that this person was really a “branding” person and not really a marketer. What I wouldn’t give to have known that at the time!

Now, I’m not saying that branding is bad, but what I am saying is “there is a time and a place for everything.” And we didn’t need marketing, branding, advertising, or community involvement until we actually had a product/offer to bring to those channels!

The same thing is true for you.

Again, this is my opinion, so take it for what it is worth, but your offer should be the first thing that you create.

Then once you have an offer, then you can reverse engineer your lead magnet.

Once you have an offer, you can even reverse engineer your podcast!

Because most podcasters don’t have an offer, they aren’t ready for any type of advertising yet.

Then once you do have an offer, all your ads, all your podcasts and everything else you do should lead back to your offer!

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Marketing Trends You Should Know About

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Marketing trends are changing in today’s world, and you’ll be left behind if you aren’t willing to make adjustments. I’m filling you in today on what I’m noticing in the marketing world and what you need to know to skyrocket your success in monetizing your podcast. Join me to learn more!

Show Highlights:

Why marketing is a big, confusing world if you’re taking a blind stab in the dark
Why I pay big bucks every month to learn from the best minds in marketing and get the help I need
Trend #1: Consumers have shorter attention spans than in the past.
Tip: Productize your offering to get to the point in a short amount of time.
Trend #2: Consumers want results as quickly as possible.
Tip: Go for the quicker win to keep people motivated.
A specific example of a client who wasn’t ready to take bold steps to monetize
Why you need to change things up if your lead magnet isn’t working
How to find out what your clients want (don’t just assume or try to guess!)
Trend #3: Consumers want community and collaboration over autonomy.
Tip: Get creative and find out how you can offer what your clients want.
My advice: ”Educate yourself in your space to see what’s working.”

Resources:

Let me help tweak your podcast to reach your goals with value-adding techniques: www.teampodcast.com/tuneup

Join our Facebook group! Podcast Monetization Secrets

Email me: christy@teampodcast.com

The 5 Biggest Mistakes We Make When Selling

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 03:00:00 -0400

We all can use a boost in the skills that can help us become more comfortable with selling. I attended workshops at Funnel Hacking Live last week, and I soaked up some big secrets to share with you today. Most of these come from Myron Golden, a highly esteemed sales expert who will help reframe your mindset around sales. Let’s take a closer look at mistakes most of us are making--and how we can change!

Show Highlights:

Why our #1 mistake in selling is thinking sales is something we do TO people rather than FOR people
Why the “I can’t afford it” excuse comes from a place of scarcity and money blocks
Why you should make your offer with a higher threshold in the beginning to filter out those who don’t value you
Why our #2 mistake is not making enough offers
Why our #3 mistake is not selling what the market wants
Why our #4 mistake is trying to find people to sell your stuff instead of making yourself findable for people who want to buy what you’re selling
Why our #5 mistake is trying to get people to buy instead of creating an environment in which they want to buy
What you can do THIS WEEK to get on the path to making more offers:
Gather your “group” (Mastermind, Brain Trust, etc.).
Find out what their problems are and what they are willing to pay for solutions.
Create the solution for them.

Resources:

Let me help tweak your podcast to reach your goals with value-adding techniques: www.teampodcast.com/tuneup

Join our Facebook group! Podcast Monetization Secrets

Email me: christy@teampodcast.com

How I Make Thousands of Dollars Each Month From a Podcast With Less Than 500 Downloads

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I asked my private FB group what the one thing that was holding them back from monetizing their podcasts. 100% of the answers came back with some form of "I don't have enough downloads!"

So how many downloads do you need in order to monetize? Well, not nearly as many as you think!

I currently earn a minimum of $2000 each month from my podcast, and my podcast never gets over 500 downloads each month. Some months, I earn more than that.

Today, I'm sharing the 4 step framework for how I have monetized my small podcast.

The first thing you need to understand is that the #1 myth of podcast monetization is that monetization means sponsorships!

Getting sponsors for your podcast is a long process and it takes you getting a lot of downloads, and then when you do monetize that way, you realize that sponsors aren't paying very much money for advertising on your show.

There are much better (and more lucrative) ways to monetize your podcast and I'm going to show you how I do it with this little show.

My 4 step framework for monetizing a podcast is:

Provide great content - I know my audience well, because I have lived the same life as my audience, so I try to create relevant content that will help them solve their problems.
Teach, don’t interview - If you give your entire platform over to your guests, you will have a very hard time convincing your listeners that you have the answers to solve their problems.
You can incorporate more solo shows where you teach your frameworks
You can make room at the beginning and the end of your interview show to create space for you as the facilitator of learning.
Make offers - Your listeners have to know how they take the next steps with you. You have to make offers in your podcast. Make twice as many offers as you think you should.
Let your sales funnel do all the work - When I make an offer, I don't get hung up on the details of the offer. I focus on the results that I can give and then direct listeners to the url, and then let my sales funnel do all the work.

If you implement this framework for your podcast, it will help you get on the path to monetization too.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Your Problem Is Probably Your Offer

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I frequently hear questions from podcasters about why monetization isn’t working for them. They are making offers but not getting conversions. I can help! Join me for this episode as I tell you what your most likely problem is---and how to fix it.

Show Highlights:

Your three options if you’re stuck in free content creation mode
Why your podcast is NOT your product--and will never make you millions by itself
What you need to know about getting conversions:
An offer is NOT having a course for sale.
An offer comes from stacking value into one cohesive, compelling blend.
An offer that is a no-brainer for your audience will generally be the same thing you would be drawn to.
An offer needs to be tested and tweaked in a constant process of refinement.
An offer needs to take your client by the hand, lead them in, and show them what they need and what the results will be.
Why you have to give people “wins” right away--or they will leave you
Why it’s OK to make your offer seem almost “too compelling” to bombard your clients with value
A breakdown of the basics of podcast monetization:
Your podcast content is an outgrowth of the problems you solve for people.
If people are willing to pay to solve their problems, all you have to do is productize the solution and offer it to them.

Resources:

Let me help tweak your podcast to reach your goals with value-adding techniques: www.teampodcast.com/tuneup

Join our Facebook group! Podcast Monetization Secrets

Email me: christy@teampodcast.com

The Real Purpose of a Sales Funnel

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 03:00:00 -0400

I want to focus on the two most misunderstood words in podcasting. You probably hear a lot about a sales funnel, but most people don’t know what it is, how it works, and what it can do for your business. I’m breaking it down and sharing how your sales funnel can do the selling for you and get you off the hook in your weakest moments.

Show Highlights:

Why you need a sales funnel and shouldn’t feel guilty about it
How our blocks around money can hold us back and why you deserve to profit from the value you provide
Sales funnel basics: A sales funnel starts with a landing page that is carefully based on psychology to handle objections and do the selling for you.
How a podcast tuneup can help turn around your value exchange
Three ways your sales funnel can work and do multiple closes:
Emotional close--how someone’s life will suck without this product or service
Logical close--how the ROI will benefit someone
Fear of missing out close--how limited time, space, or capacity is available
Why your product or service ads should NEVER be in the intro or outro of your podcast--move them to the middle!
Why you might be giving too much info in your midroll ads that shortchanges your sales funnel
How you unknowingly handicap your sales funnel and telegraph your money blocks
Why I’ve structured my sales funnel to eliminate sales calls that cost me time and money
Why a sales funnel is NOT a website page that lists your courses, services, or products
Why your sales pitch on your podcast should be a teaser (appetizer) that points people to your landing page (main course)
Two things that a great sales funnel will do:
Line up the highest converting data points in your favor
Eliminate personal weaknesses and insecurities
How a sales funnel protects your time, handles objections, and closes sales for you without letting you sabotage your own efforts
How a sales funnel provides valuable sales and marketing data
How to get authentic feedback on your landing page

Resources:

Let me help tweak your podcast to reach your goals with value-adding techniques: www.teampodcast.com/tuneup

Join our Facebook group! Podcast Monetization Secrets

Email me: christy@teampodcast.com

How to Make Sure Your Prospects Know They Can Hire You

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Disconnect and congruence: do you know how to recognize them? More importantly, do you know how to fix the disconnect and achieve congruence? I’ve got the answers! Join me to learn more about how these terms apply to your podcast and why congruence is your goal on your podcast monetization journey.

Show Highlights:

How a fresh set of eyes can bring a needed perspective to your podcast, website, etc.
Where the disconnect happens between what you want to accomplish with your podcast and what people actually think you are accomplishing
Why you must clearly share what you do and why you do it
Why any listener to any episode should know and understand who you serve and how you serve them
How to fix the disconnect:
Don’t be afraid to mention things repeatedly; listeners are not going to hear it all the first time.
Have congruence across your podcast and website to make sure every listener and visitor knows who you are, what you do, and how you can serve them.
Be sure that your social media platforms echo who you are and who you serve, and always include links to your podcast and website
Focus more on the solutions you provide for people than the products you offer.
Identify the elements that need to be added to your podcast, website, and social media platforms to show people who you serve and how you serve them.
Change what you need to change to serve the client you serve today!

Resources:

Let me help tweak your podcast to reach your goals with value-adding techniques: www.teampodcast.com/tuneup

Join our Facebook group! Podcast Monetization Secrets

How NOT to Monetize Your Podcast Guests

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Monetizing your podcast guests: good, bad, ethical, or a big no-no? The truth is that there’s nothing wrong with charging guests to be on your podcast or paying a fee to be a guest on another podcast. The key is the value provided to that guest through increased exposure, website traffic, potential client conversions, etc. I’m here to blow the lid off this topic by sharing a real-life example of shady monetization that should warn you in the RIGHT direction on your podcast monetization journey.

Show Highlights:

My story that began in May with a cold-call Facebook message
The funnel:
Cold outreach from an admin person
Introduction to the “podcast” host
An extended offer that routed me to his landing/scheduling page
An interview booking that routed me to his webinar
Daily marketing emails and Facebook messages over several weeks
The interview cancellation (the day before my interview) blamed on “interview backlog”
Why I had red flags resulting from the cold outreach on Fb from someone who worked for someone I had never heard of in the podcasting world
Why his tactics are bogus, BS, and just plain icky
How this is a perfect example of a bad-faith effort to monetize podcast clients by dangling the carrot, canceling the schedule, and pretending that there is a legitimate reason--other than the fact that he couldn’t convert me as a client
The problem with this shady, unethical model? It completely overlooks the relationship-building process
How a podcast audit can tune up your podcast and make a huge difference, even with simple steps you can implement right away
There is a better way!
What to look for if you’re asked to pay to be on someone’s podcast

Resources:

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Should Your Podcast Have Seasons If You Desperately Need a Break?

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Back when I started podcasting, there was no such thing as a break. And so you just created a podcast. And it was like having another mouth to feed around your house because you always had to constantly feed it. And you never really took time off, because it was so hard to build it and get a following anyway, if you took time off, you knew you would be walking away from that.

The Origins of Podcast Seasons

As podcasts have evolved, and more people have gotten into it. And the barrier to entry is so low with podcasting that a lot of people that are podcasting, maybe haven't really thought it through all that well. And there's a lot of people that want to once they get started, this thing called seasons comes up, and people want to make a season because they want to take a break. It’s a way for them to give themselves permission to take a break..

Doing Podcast Seasons Is a Big Tell

I've seen so many of my clients go away for a season and never come back. And their podcast is just sitting out there in the Apple podcast directory dead as a doornail. And so it's very interesting how that first sign of wanting to have seasons or wanting to take a break is always a red flag for me as a Podcast Producer that that podcast is probably going to pod fade.

And so when I see that happen, it's like triggers all the podcast rescue techniques inside of me and I'm like, What do we need to do to get this podcast on life support, to give it a jolt of energy by throwing some extra coaching sessions and you do some things to try to get the podcaster back on track their mind in the game, and ready to go.

It's not always something I can win on. And I really try hard though, because you've worked so hard to build a podcast, you put time effort and everything into it. I can’t stand to watch your audience slip away.

Plan Ahead for Break Time for Yourself

Life does get in the way sometimes, and you have to do what you have to do. But I think if you plan for breaks, and you plan for ways to not stress yourself out with your podcast, that it can continue functioning even if you need a break from it. And that's what I want to show you how to do today.

Consistency is Key - Says Every Guru Ever

If you have an A listening audience that expects you to put out shows every week and the gurus will tell you that if you want to put out a podcast and gain a big following and have a successful show, what do you have to do? The number one rule they say is to be consistent. Well, not trying to debunk all the experts, but I have seen a few inconsistent shows be successful. But it's sort of an outlier. It's more of an anomaly than a cause and effect kind of thing.

Taking a Break Means You Haven’t Monetized

If I see a podcast wanting to take a break, that is the number one red flag to me that that podcast is not generating any revenue for that podcaster. I understand it can take a while for you to begin generating revenue from your podcast. But if you're not generating revenue, and your podcast is something you're only putting out into the world, it's hard to keep doing it when times get tough, and when your schedule gets pressed, and whenever your life gets chaotic, when it's not bringing you any value.

So it is one of the first things that go in your life, because it gives you a little bit of relief and a little bit of pressure off of your shoulders and all the things you have responsibilities for.

But that being said, you'll never be able to get consistent revenue from a podcast, if you keep taking breaks. And it's just like anything you have to be there, you have to put out the content, and you have to do the work.

Better Options Than Taking a Break

There are many ways you can take a break, but still feed your podcast audience too.

Batch record solo shows that can be dripped out over the course of your break.
Air shows that you have been a guest on in your feed with an intro and outro by you.
Release “encore” episodes of the most popular past shows with a new intro and outro explaining the re-airing of the show.

The Logistics of Pulling It Off

Some podcasters that are used to doing interview shows really struggle with the idea of putting out solo shows. So, I wanted to give you a few ideas of some things you can talk about in solo shows.

Share lessons you have learned from your first XX number of podcast interviews.
Share case studies of how you have helped your clients get results.
Share little pieces of micro-content from the frameworks that you teach your clients.
Share lessons learned from books you have been reading that can benefit your niche.

You don’t have to be the expert, even to do solo shows. Just share content your audience will find valuable.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Traffic: Without It Your Funnel Is Dead

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0400

A funnel without traffic is like…

a river with no bridge

a fire with no wood

a house with no walls

a car with no gas

You don’t create traffic.

Traffic is already out there and you have nothing to do with that.

All you are trying to do is jump in front of enough traffic to get the attention of your target audience.

Your only goal with traffic is to get attention in the marketplace.

The best writers aren’t the ones with bestselling books. The people with best selling books are just the people that keep showing up over and over and over again anytime there is an event for authors.

If you are already podcasting, you are building your largest traffic source that is free in exchange for creating great content.

So if you started your podcast and you have listeners, you have successfully jumped in front of traffic that would otherwise be listening to other content and they are now listening to your content.

What most podcasters miss is that the game is not over when you successfully pick up enough traffic for your podcast.

The traffic you pick up for your podcast is most valuable to you and only you.

The traffic that you have is only valuable to other people at scale. So in other words, it’s only valuable to other companies, sponsors, authors, etc. in large volumes.

Since your traffic is most valuable to you from the moment you acquire it, you need to have a way to capture that traffic and KEEP it consuming your stuff.

This is why we recommend creating products and services to your audience so that you can teach them what you know and get paid for it.

I see over and over again that podcasters only ever gain enough traffic that is valuable to them, but yet they never monetize that traffic.

That’s like thinking that you won’t start a business unless you can just go straight to the franchise model.

Almost every franchise starts with a single location.

Before a podcast has enough traffic to become valuable to other companies, you already have enough traffic to make it valuable to your company.

So at the time when ONLY YOU qualify to benefit from your audience, you aren’t taking any steps to monetize that audience. That’s crazy!

I can tell you all day long how to get traffic, but if you don’t have any way to capitalize on that traffic, then there is no mechanism to convert your traffic into customers.

What have you created to ascend your traffic to the next level to convert them to customers?

You may be thinking that eventually, when you have enough traffic, you will create something to monetize. Create it now and then go capture more traffic!

Don’t get tons of traffic and have no way for them to become a customer.

You can pour jet fuel on your traffic by taking some very specific actions...

Once you have a funnel built, it’s time to ramp up your traffic acquisition methods.

Depending on whether you have more time or money, you will be taking completely different actions.

In fact, the larger you can build your organic traffic, the less money you will have to pay for traffic.

So where can you jump in front of traffic if you have more time than money?

Other podcasts
Conferences
Professional organizations
Trade organizations
Local groups
Facebook groups
Online communities
Being an affiliate for a bigger name or company
Creating affiliates for your products and services

If you have money for paid traffic, I have 2 recommendations:

Advertise inside the podcast apps to get more subscribers and downloads.
If you are advertising on social media or google, only drive traffic to your offers, not your podcast.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Secrets of High Converting Offers

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Sometimes it seems like selling is easy for everyone else but us! If you're new to the online marketing world, you may be making offers that aren't converting very well.

There's a very logical reason that some offers convert better than others, and if you are making this mistake, it's because it's just a natural tendency when you are new to making offers.

The first type of offer that many people make is an improvement offer. It's a very safe offer to make and it feels better than just trying to stick our necks out with some other type of offer.

After all, you really are trying to improve the lives of your audience members!

You want to help them manage their money better...

You want to help them have better relationships...

You want to help them be better parents...

In any niche it makes sense to want to improve whatever situation your ideal clients are in right now.

However, if you make an improvement offer, in almost every situation you will have lower conversions than if you made a different kind of offer.

The problems with Improvement offers are:

1) They aren't compelling enough to prompt your audience to take action.

2) The improvements you are offering will be much harder to measure.

3) It's hard to develop raving fans by only marginally improving their lives.

So what's the alternative to improvement offers?

Offers that will convert much better than improvement offers are transformation offers.

I'm not suggesting that you go out and make all sorts of outlandish promises that you can't possibly deliver.

However, when you focus on the transformation that you can bring to others' lives, you can probably articulate very well what that looks like.

Going back to who you serve and how you serve them with give you the lens through which to view the transformative impacts of your offer.

When you highlight the transformation in your offers, it becomes all the more compelling.

The more compelling and irresistible that you can make your offers, the higher converting they can be.

There's so many ways you can make your offer compelling, but in order for them to be high converting, they have to be so irresistible that your audience is compelled to action.

Then, you can only hope that the irresistibility of the offer will also compel them to take action on all of the content in your offer.

Because when you can truly be the catalyst for a transformational change in your audience, then you will develop a loyal audience!

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Your Podcast Success Hinges on Your Money Mindset

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Today, I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room. So, you can have everything perfect on your podcast, but if you don’t get this one thing right, you will still struggle to have success. That’s right, today I’m getting all up in your business about your money mindset!

Hi there, welcome to Podcast Monetization Secrets, my name is Christy Haussler and I appreciate you joining me today.

In case you haven’t met me yet, I am the Founder and CEO of Team Podcast, a full service podcast production company. I’ve worked with over 250 podcasts and I’ve made more than a million dollars podcasting. I’m on a mission to help as many podcasters monetize as possible, and that’s why we are here today.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about something that I have struggled with over the years, and no matter how much I achieve, it always seems to come back at every level.

I’m referring to having money blocks!

My money blocks manifest through extreme anxiety.

I can hear my money blocks in my language.

When I tell myself “I can’t afford” something.

Then my thoughts are consumed with panic about things that aren’t even real.

This causes me to want to cheap out on things, and then it always derails me and sets me back from achieving my goals.

Does any of this ever happen to you?

If so, I’m going to tell you my 3 step framework to overcome my money blocks.

Change my internal dialog.
Change my external dialog.
Do things that scare me.

Listen to this episode as I share my personal journey with overcoming my money blocks.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Need more help? Here's another episode that may help you.

How To (& Not To) Market Your Podcast

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 03:00:00 -0400

You know, marketing a podcast isn’t easy. Some of the most basic things about marketing a podcast, like what link do you even share? - aren’t as cut and dried as it is for other industries. So today, I’m going to talk you through it all, so you’ll know what your next steps are.

Today, I want to address some of the common knowledge that we hear and have been given by many well meaning podcasters or gurus that may not be the best advice for you.

You should always share the link to your website on social media.
You should post your show on every possible social media site so you can get more listeners.
Run Facebook ads to get more listeners.

Beware of anyone who uses ALWAYS and NEVER when giving you advice. So many times the right answer depends on the situation.

Let’s zoom out and really face reality here.

Of course you need to always be looking to grow your audience.

But let me ask you this - if you haven’t monetized your podcast, what is the difference between getting 300 downloads per episode and 700 downloads per episode?

Sure, it’s an ego boost to know you have more listeners, but tangibly for you there is no difference. Has it put more money in your pocket? Has it grown your email list? Has it done anything for your business?

Let’s break this down in funnel speak.

Getting people to listen to your podcast is at the very top of your funnel. This is the wide part of the funnel.

So, the more people you put in at the top, ultimately the more people you will have that drop out the bottom end of your funnel as customers.

Many, many podcasters only have the top of a funnel in place and there is nothing else after listening to the show.

If this is you, then you have to put some other funnel steps into place. Don’t worry about marketing your podcast until you at least get a compelling lead magnet in place.

The second step of your funnel is to get listeners on your email list.

People may have to listen to your podcast 10, 15, 20 times before they follow your call to action. And even then, you have to give them a reason to visit your website.

Visiting the website to sign up for your newsletter is NOT a reason to visit your website. That’s you asking a favor of your audience.

Give them a compelling reason to visit your website. What do you have waiting there for them? Give them an irresistible reason and give them value from it.

So my recommendations are that you use social media to get as many LISTENERS to your podcast as possible.

That means putting out links that give people a way to listen to the podcast with the least amount of friction.

Why not put out just the link to your website?:

Links taking social media users off platform always throttles the reach of your posts on social media.
Your website isn’t the easiest way for people to click and listen.

Do anything you can to keep people inside the SM platform and listening to the show.

Eventually, they will like the show well enough to move your show off social media and into their podcast listening app.

If they keep listening long enough and you make them a compelling enough offer, you can get them on your email list.

If they are on your email list, you can continue marketing to them and convert them to customers.

Need some help with your podcast? Christy has a special offer for a Podcast Tune Up that will help you:

1) Get more downloads to your podcast.

2) Get more opt ins to your email list.

3) Know your next monetization steps.

If that's something you need help with, learn more here.

The Missed Opportunity in Your Outro

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll address the issue of calls to action and ads in podcast episodes, something that a lot of podcasters don’t like because they feel like it may make them seem salesy, greedy, or money-hungry to their listeners. The fact is, producing a podcast is a costly affair. And so to avoid getting financially overwhelmed which may lead to podfading, a podcaster has to find ways to monetize their show. One way to achieve that is by having calls to action that direct listeners to products or services that you offer or to include sponsor ads at some points in your episodes.

Podcasters have been predominantly incorporating those calls to action and ads in their outros, but it has come to my attention that some podcasting apps are now cutting out the intros and outros on podcasts so that listeners are directly listening to the main episodes. That means if your call to action or ad is in your outro then your listeners may not even get to listen to them. Your call to action is meant to compel your audience to do something that can help you in your efforts to grow your show and make it profitable, and in this episode, I’ll teach you how to strategically place your call to action (Or ads) in your episodes so you can achieve just that. Stay tuned!

Show Highlights

One major thing that podcasters are doing wrong (01:40)
Being conversant with the podcasting industry trends so you can continuously get your listeners to take action (03:37)
The best way to pitch your call to action within your episodes (06:26)
Tuning up your podcast with a great product that helps in optimizing a podcast’s discoverability and increase its downloads (09:26)
Reinforcing what you do for people all through your show while also naturally bringing in what you offer your clients (13:02)
Strategically pitching what you do during an interview episode (15:06)
Claiming your space to always make sure your listeners know everything about you and what you have to offer (19:41)
Getting something back from the time and energy you spend producing your podcast (25:27)
Staying up to date with new technologies to get the most out of your content (28:04)

Resources Mentioned

Grow Your Podcast at TeamPodcast.com/TuneUp

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Should You Jump on the Bandwagon for Facebook Podcasts and Other Network Opportunities

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll share my wisdom on the viability of numerous opportunities that are thrust at podcasters from new networks, distribution platforms, and monetization services. Podcasting can feel like a solitary medium at times. It often is. Most podcasters are alone when they get behind the mic, or plug in and listen to someone else's content. You can do a lot on your own in podcasting. But, one thing you can't do is grow your show to its fullest potential.

When it comes to podcast networks, there’s a lot to unpack there. Joining one isn’t all roses and sunshine so I’ll explain exactly how they work and tell you some of the pros and cons of joining one. I’ll also dive into the factors to consider before joining a network and the benefits and drawbacks you should expect. Then there’s social media and the question of just how effective it is in growing a podcast audience. Tune in to this episode to tap into my wisdom on all those areas and I know it will launch towards your podcast growth and monetization goals.

Show Highlights

Is Facebook Podcasts going to be a game-changer? (02:32)
Why using free tools to manage your podcast may not the best way to go (05:08)
Knowing what to expect if you go with Facebook Podcasts and the various podcast networks (09:21)
How to navigate through the podcast network conundrum (12:14)
You can’t change your potential audience’s listening behavior (15:37)
What to look at before deciding where to put your show (19:26)
Understanding that networks may not be a monetization solution for you (22:35)
The potential nightmare you might find yourself in and how to avoid it (25:19)
Promo Swaps: The best way to grow your podcast listenership (28:54)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

3 Biggest Mistakes Podcasters Make When Trying to Monetize

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing some of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen podcasters make when they’re trying to monetize their podcasts. Are you guilty of making one of the three mistakes? I see podcasters making these mistakes repeatedly, but you don’t have to be one of them. I’ve been in the industry long enough to witness some big monetization wins and losses so you can rest assured that my insights will help you monetize your podcast successfully. Many podcasters around the world are now making a living from their passion, and are encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.

It’s important to mention that commitment is very important for podcasts; it is dangerous to release episodes and see what happens. It’s better to commit to a well-crafted plan. Don’t just start a podcast to get rich in 2 months. If you would like to share your passion for a particular subject with a community of people who also want to improve themselves on that subject, then you have the right intentions. The goal is to bring value to your community while building your own reputation as a podcaster, and monetization will help you sustain that and generate revenue in the long term. And this episode will help you achieve exactly that. So don’t miss out.

Show Highlights

Busting the myth that there are only three ways to monetize a podcast (02:03)
It’s not your content that people feel like is good enough, it’s your platform (05:06)
The factors that determine how many downloads you get (07:08)
Why holding out for sponsors is an uphill task that may not be worth it (09:56)
You can’t start your podcast and expect to figure out monetization after you’ve built a following (11:54)
Working on both the strategic and tactical simultaneously (17:52)
Building a podcast doesn’t mean you’re going to monetize at some point in time (20:12)
The value of getting a podcast tune-up/audit and where to get it (26:10)
Taking action fast enough to fix the overwhelm that hinders monetization efforts (29:40)
Start taking accountability seriously and get help from people who know what they’re doing (31:27)
How to avoid getting overwhelmed as a podcaster (35:24)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Everything Is Intentional; There Are No Accidents

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’m going to share one major thing that I have been doing that has enabled me to succeed in podcasting and make more than a million dollars from it. There’s a lot of factors a podcaster can’t control that influence the success of a podcast. But the one thing you can control is your intent. And you can learn to apply that intent with purpose across your podcasting efforts. If you ever feel like you’re just going through the flow, not knowing where your podcast is headed, or what you’re meant to do with it, then you need to start being intentional in everything you do to run it. The fact is, every rational podcaster intends on making a great podcast.

And that’s good because I can assure you that every rational listener intends to only listen to great podcasts. No one intends to listen to a podcast that's just “okay”. Every listener’s intent is to listen to shows they think are going to be great. Unfortunately, some of the shows they wind up listening to (that podcasters make) fall short of that goal. The idea of intent in podcasting is actually not new, but it was brought home to me when I was starting out in podcasting by one of my biggest inspirations, John Lee Dumas. Do it without intent and proper planning, and you’ll see no benefit. But with intent and the necessary effort, comes the benefits. It’s that simple.

You need to break out of your habit of going through the motions and really focus on what it is you’re doing when you’re doing podcast-y things and I guarantee you that you’ll thrive not only in sustaining it but also in monetizing it. For more on that, don’t miss out on this inspirational 29-minute episode. See you on the inside!

Show Highlights

How I transitioned from managing call centers to making a million dollars from podcasting (01:53)
Getting inspired by John Lee Dumas (04:26)
The podcasting success that comes with being intentional (07:21)
How to go about guest interviews to make sure they deliver the greatest value to your listeners (11:25)
Strategic planning and making the necessary investments to make sure your podcast will thrive (13:35)
Moving towards sustainability and monetization and the lifestyle freedom that comes with it (16:23)
Becoming intentional about every operational activity of your podcast is a must (18:05)
Sales is a skill you have to continuously build on (21:18)
Figuring out the systems so you can build life-changing wealth (23:12)
Striking out as an entrepreneur and being able to work from anywhere in the world (25:31)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Failure Isn’t Final – It’s Just Feedback

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll be talking about the fear of failure, how it keeps podcasters from achieving their monetization goals, what to do with it, and what you can learn from it. Podcasters often ask me, how can I grow my podcast? How can I monetize it? And the first thing that I want to establish is that growth takes time. Podcasting is a long-term play, specifically podcast marketing. Don’t release episodes and expect to be on the top charts with thousands of listeners flowing in and sales spiking the first week. Too often, when podcasters try out a marketing technique, they expect amazing results right away and when they don’t see it, the motivation to continue their podcast pours out of them.

This is actually so common that the industry has developed a term for it called “podfade” which is when podcasts start strong with releasing episodes and marketing efforts on a regular cadence, then subsequently realize the amount of effort and patience they need to get the results and fade away. When it comes to how to grow a podcast, it takes dedication, patience, and strategy. And when it comes to marketing your show it’s really no different. There are so many tactics you can explore to grow it and whichever one you try out, you have to rid yourself of the fear of failure and give it time to yield results. Join me as I share more from my knowledge and experience with that and I promise it will help you keep moving towards growing and monetizing your podcast.

Show Highlights

Why podcasters are missing the marketing aspect of things (01:44)
Learning not to give up when the first trial of a marketing method doesn’t work and looking at marketing as a game of trying things (02:26)
What to do when a lead magnet or Facebook ad doesn't yield the expected results (06:38)
Legitimate things that lead to success in marketing and podcasting in general (08:30)
Self-sabotaging behaviors and how to go about your target audience rejecting what you put out (12:05)
Going through the building process instead of expecting to achieve your goal quickly (16:11)
The 90 days it takes to test something before you can determine if it’s a success or failure (20:57)
Changing the way we have a relationship with failure (22:59)
Focusing on the podcast listeners who will become your buyers (26:07)
Looking at failure as the feedback you need to make the necessary changes and tweaks (27:39)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Don’t Have a Product Yet? Group Coaching Can Help You Launch

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’m going to highlight the power of group coaching as a way of monetizing a podcast. Group coaching is a unique way to monetize a podcast because you get more value from it than just money. A small group of people dedicated to supporting one another toward the common goal that the podcast will offer education, brainstorming, and accountability to help you stay on track with whatever you’re trying to learn or accomplish. You as the host of the podcast will be a member of the group too, which means you have to limit it to a small group of people who can add value to your business as well.

You should not be a teacher, but you can still charge for slots because you’re the organizer. If you build your podcast around a niche topic, It’s likely that most of your listeners will be interested in similar types of growth opportunities and can learn a lot from each other which is what will enable you to charge them. How much you can charge will depend mostly on how niche of a topic it is and the number of people who will be interested, but either way group coaching will be a great way to start monetizing your podcast. Stay tuned and be keen as I share more.

Show Highlights

The challenge podcasters have when they wanna start a podcast that they can monetize (01:38)
How group coaching can help you get unstuck from creating free content (03:36)
Learning how to further help your ideal listeners and clients (04:58)
Why making a formalized product is the best way to go (08:15)
Not giving your time away for free and providing value to people at different price points (11:25)
Offering something at lower ticket with a lower barrier to entry to get more clients (14:02)
Using group coaching as the first step towards creating a course or book (15:35)
A group coaching (Private Facebook Group) success story (19:46)
Starting with the safer route towards earning your first dollars from your podcast (23:12)

Resources Mentioned

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You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Don’t Let Your Interviews Rob You of Revenue

Mon, 31 May 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll be addressing something that comes up a lot when I’m coaching my clients about their podcast and how to monetize it. And it can all be summarized into one short question; Are your interviews robbing you of revenue? I know. You’re wondering how your interviews can rob you of revenue. Well, the episode format you apply first of all is critical. You can’t just focus on bringing on different guests who talk about their expertise and use your podcast to market what they do. You need to mix up those interviews with your own solo shows where you talk about what you’re an expert on in a way that creates value for your audience.

It’s also necessary to control the content that your guests share on your podcast. An episode shouldn’t be just about delivering content and going about the rest of your day. I mean, it could be just that, but don’t expect to see an audience growth with that strategy. Prepare your podcast script up ahead with the intention of quickly grabbing your listeners’ attention and delivering answers. Then come up with a production schedule that will enable you to release at least two episodes a week, one interview, and one solo, because multiple-episode releases are a sure bet towards growing your podcast in the direction of successful monetization. There’s so much more about podcast monetization strategy that I'll be sharing in this episode, and it’s all for you, so make sure you tune in and apply what you learn.

Show Highlights

Making a million dollars and having the best of lifestyle freedom, thanks to podcasting (01:23)
The role that an interview should play in helping you monetize and the framework you should use when bringing on guests (02:27)
Being the core expert on your podcast even when interviewing people (06:36)
Why hosting a guest with a huge following won’t necessarily translate into loads of listeners (07:50)
Applying strategy in how you name your show, interview people, and generally produce and promote it (11:09)
Feeding your audience with content that you’re an expert on (12:59)
The power of consistency and multiple mixed-format shows (13:41)
Improving things for your show by standing in your power and authority (17:30)
How to leverage your podcast the right way to bring in thousands of dollars into your business (21:15)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Should You Be Charging Your Guests to Be On Your Show?

Mon, 24 May 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’ll want you to have an open mind and look at what I’ll talk to you about from a business perspective. So far, I’ve taught you about a few ways that you can monetize your podcast, and today I want to highlight the fact that you can charge guests for their interviews. I know. It’s a controversial method, but remember, you’re spending time and money so your podcast can succeed. And it’s only right that you get a return on that investment, but only if charging your guests is a viable option for your show.

A lot of people in the industry are against charging guests. But if your audience is to the point where guests are willing to pay for the exposure, by all means, charge them for a spot on the show. People willing to pay to be on a podcast, or people who are trying to get their name out, likely already have a brand of their own to promote. Dive into this value-packed 23-minute episode and learn all about the strategies you can use to implement this monetization model in your podcast.

Show Highlights

Why you should not solicit people to be guests on your show and then charge them for it (02:43)
Pitching it as a paid traffic opportunity (04:20)
Demonstrating return on ad spend to potential guests before they pay to come on (06:04)
The value exchange that should be the podcast host-guest relationship (11:09)
Knowing more about your audience and what converts (13:11)
Monetization idea: Getting people to sponsor your newsletter if it’s going to offer any value to your listeners (15:41)
Being strategic and ethical about how you monetize your guest bookings (18:22)
It’s okay to borrow from other podcasters’ monetization models if they will work for your podcast (20:20)
Creating more than one monetization stream to have a hedge against any problems that may come up with any of them (22:13)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

How to Start Monetizing Your Podcast If You’re Stuck in Free Content Creation Mode

Mon, 17 May 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’m going to tell you how you can monetize your podcast so you can move away from offering free content and start making some money from it. For a lot of podcasters, podcasting is just something they do on the side and not a money-making endeavor. But there are several ways you can make money from your podcast. From asking your listeners for donations to getting sponsors or utilizing affiliate marketing, there are many viable options when it comes to podcast monetization.

And today, I’ll dive into another equally viable option of monetizing your podcast; selling your own products. Now, you may be thinking, “Wait a minute. I don’t have any products or services to sell” But I wanna tell you that indeed you do. And I’m not talking about merch (although that could be something to consider down the line!). I want to focus more on products that require minimal or one-time input and effort on your part with regards to time and money, but which can generate and yield continual income, essentially giving you more bucks for your bang. Listen in for more on that!

Show Highlights

Are you ready to put in the necessary work to monetize your podcast (02:23)
Building a back end to direct your listeners to so they can buy your digital products (04:40)
Creating ads to throw out hooks that will draw people in (08:00)
Being salesy in your episodes is not bad (10:54)
You can halt releasing new episodes to focus on putting together your minimum viable product (13:37)
Overcoming the challenges that come with creating a suitable product (17:11)
Go out and start making your podcast listeners your customers (18:53)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

How to Grow Your Podcast Listenership Without Spending Time or Money on Promotion

Mon, 10 May 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about a little hack for how to grow your audience through your content that most podcasters don’t take advantage of or even don’t know about. How can I grow my podcast audience? That’s one of the most frequently asked questions in the space. A lot of podcasters ask me whether it’s worth it to invest in social media and other platforms to increase their number of listeners, but the truth is, those platforms don’t have much to do with it.

You love the thought of reaching more people with your podcast. Right? There's real satisfaction in seeing a steady increase in download numbers when you're checking your stats. But there's no one-size-fits-all answer here. It depends on a lot of different factors, and in this episode, I’ll tell you one of the things that you can do to grow your podcast in the most highly targeted way. So take your pen and paper, and stay tuned for more!

Show Highlights

Is it worth it to invest in social media and other platforms to grow your audience? (01:34)
Creating content that your audience wants to hear (02:04)
Know who your audience is, what they want to hear, and why SEO is the best podcast audience growth tactic (03:29)
Being the answer to the questions people are asking (05:00)
Why you need to make sure that you’re in the search-based realm all day every day and how to do it (08:30)
Using keywords to figure out the kind of content your target listeners are always looking for (11:00)
The real power of using SEO to grow a podcast (14:00)
Titling your podcast episodes based on what people are looking for (21:35)
Content marketing: The ease of growing a podcast from organic content (23:01)
Tools you can use to learn what content to create (26:00)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

The Moral Imperative to Monetize – Especially If You Have a Mission Driven Podcast

Mon, 03 May 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about why monetizing your podcast is a great idea. I get it if the thought of it makes you uncomfortable because it makes you feel like you will be a sellout or inauthentic especially if your podcast is more purpose-driven. But one of the biggest problems that podcasters face is the high cost of sustaining their shows in the long term and monetizing not only creates revenue streams but also adds value to a show’s audience in different ways.

It enables a podcaster to consistently bring their A-game to their show every day and they can infuse the revenue streams back into the show’s production to create a better listening experience. Now, don’t get me wrong. Focusing too much on creating a monetary stream might cause you to make decisions that don’t serve your audience so you have to be careful how you go about it all. Tune in as I share some tricks, benefits, considerations and best practices that will help you monetize your podcast while still achieving your core mission.

Show Highlights

Successfully implementing your podcast ideas one at a time (01:57)
The sales mentality that some podcasters struggle with especially when they have a value proposition point of view (02:34)
There is no shame in monetizing your podcast (04:57)
Your podcast generating revenue = Being able to continuously release content and scale your impact (06:20)
There’s no perceived value from giving free content all the time (07:30)
How I came into podcasting (08:23)
Eliminating everything in your life that you don’t like due to monetization (13:11)
Putting money behind the content to put out there (17:50)
Getting over your money blocks and resistance to sales (21:38)
Developing a lifestyle that you can maintain and live your best life (25:12)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

How to Turn Your Podcast Into a Lead Generation Funnel

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about what funnels and how you can turn your podcast into one. Are you familiar with funnels? You’ve probably been funneled plenty of times online even without realizing it. Podcast marketing has really grown over the years and I wanna teach you how you can exploit that growth, attract more listeners, and generate revenue. A lot of podcasters launch their podcasts with tons of momentum at the beginning, but after months and months of putting out free content and spending a huge chunk of money keeping their podcasts afloat, they realize that they can’t keep going because they can’t afford it.

That’s because they don’t figure out one crucial thing before they launch their podcast. And that’s what I’m gonna share with you in this episode. So if you want to start a podcast, or you already have one and you’re trying to figure out how to increase your listeners, monetize, or drive revenue directly to your business, this episode is perfect for you. Stay tuned for more!

Show Highlights

What funnels really are and the value they can create for you as a podcaster (02:08)
Turning your organic traffic of listeners into leads or customers (03:47)
Why it’s important to know exactly what you want to do with your audience and how to serve them (05:31)
Your podcast as the vehicle and the funnel as the road (10:39)
Using your podcast to give samples of your product or service and how you can start charging for that product or service (13:21)
Are 700 downloads a month good enough? (19:12)
Figuring out what product or service you want to offer so you can build your podcast around it (25:20)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Speed of Implementation: A Podcaster’s Secret Weapon

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 03:00:00 -0400

In this episode, I’ll talk about why it’s so important for you to take action immediately in implementing that podcast idea that you’ve had for a while now. As I’m sure you know, podcast listenership keeps growing tremendously with roughly 90 million Americans listening to a podcast each month. This is really enticing for you as a business owner. Right? And you’ve been learning to start a podcast so you can reach this growing audience and expand your business through content marketing, but you just can’t seem to be able to do whatever’s necessary to launch that podcast.

Well, the problem is slowness in implementation because you’re stuck in analysis paralysis. One of the biggest hindrances to success in podcasting is the fact that some podcasts don’t even get to launch in the first place because the podcasting idea is stuck in someone’s mind. That’s a problem that so many potential podcasters fall prey to. They will have the idea and even seek help from an expert like me, but once they have the relevant information, they shelf the idea and take months or years before they start implementing things.

The problem with that is that the podcasting industry keeps evolving constantly and what works in the space today might be totally irrelevant tomorrow. One even ends up finding that someone else took action faster to launch a podcast in the niche that they were interested in. What a bummer! This is what I wanna address today so listen in to the episode to get the tips and tricks that will help you take the drastic and uncomfortable measures to kick yourself into the implementation mode that will launch you towards success in podcasting. Enjoy!

Show Highlights

Helping over 300 podcasters produce and monetize their podcasts over the last six years (00:28)
One of the biggest no-no’s if you are looking to start a podcast (02:04)
Why you need to take action and keep moving to determine where you’re going (03:36)
Avoid over-analyzing, overthinking, and over perfecting, and instead start ugly, implement, and iterate (06:33)
The harm of trying to do everything for your podcast (07:29)
Doing what you need to do to kick your own butt (10:19)
Investing in a team to help you produce and manage your podcast to avoid the costs associated with podfading (11:43)
Getting out of your comfort zone in order to implement and maintaining focus and accountability (15:42)
How I set big goals and build systems and structures around them to ensure that I achieve them (22:40)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

I’ve Made Thousands of Dollars Fixing This Common Mistake Podcasters Make

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 03:00:00 -0400

This is the second episode on podcast sponsorship. Everyone assumes that sponsorship is the default way to make money with a podcast, and the truth is that it's one of the hardest ways to monetize.

Podcasters who don't know any better start making mistakes with their sponsorships and I've made thousands of dollars fixing their mistakes. The alternative means that you give up the future value of your podcast.

I'd rather tell you about this mistake so you can avoid it now, rather than having to charge you a pile of money later to fix the mistakes!

You'll have to listen to the episode to get the full run down, but today I'm explaining why you need to use a podcast hosting company that has dynamic ad insertion technology before you ever begin to accept sponsors - even if you have a non-traditional podcast sponsor relationship.

Dynamic Ad Insertion technology can be an expensive option to get through your hosting company. I always recommend Captivate as a podcast host because I use it and love it, and they have the dynamic ad insertion technology in beta testing right now.

However, you can also use AdBarker with virtually any podcast hosting company and it will cost you around $50 to have access to this technology. Trust me, if you understand what this episode is about, paying $50 to preserve your future value is well worth it.

Listen to the full episode to understand exactly how you can squeeze the most value out of any sponsorship.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

What You Need to Know Before You Consider Podcast Sponsorships

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 03:00:00 -0400

It seems like the first question any podcaster asks after they get started is "When can I get sponsors?" or "How many downloads do I need to approach sponsors?".

The answer really is "it depends..."

Before you even begin to think about sponsors, you need to understand the eco-system.

Like many other industries, there are plenty of people willing to take advantage of new podcasters and the game is already tilted in favor of the big money, so you need to know the field you are playing in first.

There are 3 Basic types of podcast sponsors:

1) Traditional Sponsors

2) Non-traditional Sponsors

3) Dynamically inserted ads

All of these are valid ways for podcasters to make money, but they key is to align the sponsorship models with the type of podcast that it best serves.

Listen to the episode as I break down the pros and cons of each type as well as who each model works best for.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Avoid This Mistake If You Want to Get Clients From Your Podcast

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Forget the traditional elevator pitch, we've moved on to something even more important!

If you can't boil who you serve and how you serve them to into one sentence, then you're always going to be missing the mark when it comes to landing clients from your podcast audience.

The framework I use for creating this statement is:

I help _________ (who), __________________ (do what) by using _________________(the vehicle), so they can ____________. (end result)

So, my mission statement is:

I help podcasters create multiple streams of income by using their podcast to create evergreen marketing funnels, so that they can enjoy lifestyle freedom.

It's so powerful when you can sum up everything you do for your ideal customer is one sentence that is easily understandable and that your ideal client will understand.

In this episode, I share a powerful example of how easy it is for podcasters to get out of alignment from their podcast avatar, to their value ladder mission statement, to their first offer.

Listen to the show to hear how I break it down and pass along tips that can help you get clear so that you aren't confusing your audience!

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

What Comes First? The Audience or The Offer?

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 03:00:00 -0400

Most of the podcast gurus (I’m not one of them!) will tell you that if you want to have a successful podcast, you should just start. Just get yourself a mic and start recording.

It sounds so simple and to be honest, this kind of terrible advice is exactly why so many podcasts end up podfading.

One of the most basic frameworks for selling anything is:

Create an offer
Drive traffic to the offer
Rinse and repeat

When you just jump in and start creating a podcast without figuring out who you serve and how you serve them, before you’ve created an offer, this is what actually happens:

Gather audience
Gather audience
Gather audience

That is exactly how a podcaster gets stuck with the creator’s curse - free content creation mode!

A podcaster could take that framework and:

Gather audience
Ask them what they need
Create what they need
Sell them what they need

However, most podcasters never make it beyond step 1.

Picture this…

You see an ad in your local newspaper for a new restaurant.

You turn on the TV and you see a commercial for that same restaurant.

Then you pull up your social media accounts and everywhere you turn, you are seeing that local restaurant announcing their grand opening.

You and your friends decide to give it a try.

You go into the restaurant and all they are doing today is giving out samples.

So take a sample or 3 and see which one you like best.

In fact, they invite you to come back tomorrow for another sample.

There’s no menu.

There’s no cash register.

You can’t place an order.

All you can do is get a sample.

But why should anyone be mad about that because the samples are free?

How long will this restaurant stay in business?

This is exactly the model that most podcasts are built on.

They are perpetually creating samples and never going all the way to solve their audience’s problems.

If you are truly serious about monetizing your podcast, you have to begin selling something.

Before you bristle at the word sell, let me just remind you that nothing in this world happened today until somebody sold something.

Do you have a roof over your head? It’s because someone sold something.

Did you eat today? It happened because someone somewhere sold something.

Do you have a job? That is because someone sold something.

If no one sells anything, the world as we know it ceases to exist.

The economy crashes. Governments shut down. People starve.

I can surely say that selling can save the world!

Don’t be afraid to sell something. All commerce in the world starts and ends with a sale.

There’s no shame in it - especially if you are providing value.

There must be a value exchange in order for a podcast to survive.

No one wants to build a huge audience of people who only want free stuff.

Freebie seekers are never anyone’s ideal customer.

If you don’t already have an offer, put one together. Figure out how to serve your audience and charge for it.

You can learn more about monetizing your podcast by joining our private Facebook group called Podcast Monetization Secrets.

If you need help creating your offers, you can contact me at www.teampodcast.com.

The Deepest Dive You’ve Ever Taken Into Creating Your Avatar

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 03:00:00 -0400

In this episode, Christy deep dives with you into an amazing Avatar building exercise. This really gets inside your avatar's head and their thinking process.

Creating this avatar goes way deeper that most podcasting courses show you, but I'm giving away this information for free!

Here's the amazing thing - once you nail this critical part of creating your show, you basically have a road map to monetizing your podcast.

I've created this worksheet for you and you can download it here - no opt-in required!

I'm even going a step further. If you fill this out and email it back to me at christy@teampodcast.com, I'll send you a Concise Avatar for your show and I'll also send you your Avatar as a Story that has all the copy in it to create your first sales page for monetization!

So fill out your worksheet and do the work required to lay the foundation for your path to monetization!

https://teampodcast.com

The Fortune is in the Follow Up

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 03:00:00 -0400

You know the money is in the list, but did you also know that the real fortune is in the follow up?

Today, Christy breaks down a 6 step framework to get your new email list warmed up for you and ready to buy your next product.

This 6 step framework can be dripped out over a week, a month or longer, but it's important to begin implementing follow up funnels now, so that in the future, all you need to do is keep adding to them.

Join Christy to learn this sequence, and other aspects of keeping your list warmed up and ready to buy from you!

https://teampodcast.com

Nurturing Your New Email List to Keep Them Warm

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 03:00:00 -0400

This is the second in a series of podcasts that I'm doing about what happens once you get people on your email list. And this is something that I think across the board universally we struggle with if we are podcasters and didn't come to this game from a marketing paradigm.

Marketers tend to have this stuff down pat, and podcasters, we tend to provide value value, value, value, value, value value value, wait for someone to tap us on the shoulder and say, “Oh, okay, you can monetize now. You're good enough or big enough or worthy enough.” And it's actually not how it works at all.

So you know, also, if you've listened to any of my podcasts that we are not focused on download numbers. We recognize that download numbers are largely a vanity metric.

Now, I don't mean that they're not important. They can be important in some situations if you're trying to monetize through sponsorships, which is probably one of the hardest ways to monetize if you ask me.

But you also have to realize that if a podcast has 40,000 downloads and they haven't monetized and they haven't collected email addresses, simply moving the bar from 40,000 downloads and now they have 60,000 downloads, but they're still not collecting email addresses. They're still not selling anything to that additional 20,000 people you gained on your platform got you nothing.

So that's what we're wanting to avoid. We're wanting to avoid building a big platform where we have lots of traffic. Those are listeners, those are downloads, those are email opt ins, and then having nowhere to send them means basically, you're not selling anything and you're not giving your listeners a way to follow up with you.

So when you start a podcast, the very first thing you want to do is focus on collecting those email addresses. That should be more important than “how many downloads I got today”.

How many email opt-ins did I get today? I'm averaging right now about one a day which is fairly slow growth. And there are days there, there might be days I get five or 10. But if you average it all out, I can count on at least one or two email opt-ins a day.

I know a lot of the podcasts that I've worked with, many times it takes them months to get their first email opt-in. And part of it's because the way they've set up their podcast and they don't really have a focus on collecting email addresses.

But the bigger issue becomes, what do you do once you get people on your email list? I talk to people all the time, who have hundreds or even thousands of people on their email list, and they don't really do anything with them. They don't know what to do with them.

So today, I am going to give you some ideas about how to begin talking to your email list - how to begin nurturing that email list. Different people call these types of funnels or these types of nurturing sequences - they call them different things. They accomplish different purposes.

When somebody first comes into your world, and gets on your email list, and because they've taken an opt-in, or they've taken a bribe, they've taken a gift that you've offered in exchange for their email.

Many times, what happens is they get a thank you email for subscribing, along with the delivery of whatever that lead magnet was. And then it's crickets.

They hear nothing from you. And then somehow, you know, maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe even further than that later, when you finally have your stuff together, and you finally have a product you finally have an offer, if you just go back to that email list and suddenly try to re-engage them around an offer, you're going to find that you really sort of wasted your time and didn't capitalize on the opportunity that that email is created.

Now, why are we creating an email list? We are creating an email list because it is the only thing you own out of your podcast. I mean, you own your content, but you don't own your Facebook group. You don't own your Twitter stream or whatever you want to call it - your Twitter feed. If you don't own your Instagram, any of those platforms can kick you off at any time. And in a lot of ways, you don't even own your website.

Sometimes if Google decides you're too spammy, or you're too suspicious, they shut you down. And they basically begin hiding you from all the search engines. And so in a lot of ways, the only thing you can have, the only way you can have as a lifeline to your actual customers is through that email list.

And the email list becomes sort of your most valuable asset. You hear people say “the money is in the list”. And the thing that's hot today is not going to be hot tomorrow. But if you have these people on your email list that begins to add value to your business assets, so you want to acquire an email list, it's the only way you can truly get in touch with your customers.

Listen to the full episode to learn what the first nurture sequence you should be planning is.

Resources:

Active Campaign

Clickfunnels

You’ve Got Email Opt-Ins, Now What?

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 03:00:00 -0400

You know I always say that email opt-ins are way more important than downloads in the podcast world, but what should you be doing once you get an email address? The answer to that question is a real problem for most podcasters.

Hey Everyone! This is Christy Haussler, CEO and owner of Team Podcast and I’m your host here at Podcast Monetization Secrets. I just want to welcome you to the podcast and let you know I’m glad you found your way here because this is exactly where you need to be to get access to all of the BEST ways YOU can monetize your podcast.

In case you don’t know me, I teach podcasters just like you to monetize their podcasts and how to break free from giving away their content or getting stuck in what I call “free content creation mode”.

So be sure to subscribe to the Monetization Secrets Podcast from on the platform from which you listen. AND be sure to join us at TEAMPODCAST.com to keep up with the latest podcast monetization secrets, trends, and to sign up for our superb podcast production and podcast monetization services. My team, hundreds of satisfied clients, and I guarantee you will be glad you did!

So whether you’re looking for podcast editing, show notes, marketing funnels for your podcast, or any other thing podcast-related, Team Podcast will meet your needs and EXCEED your expectations! So, once again, check us out at www.TEAMPODCAST.com.

Lately, as I’ve been pivoting Team Podcast more towards helping podcasters monetize through evergreen sales funnels, I’m coming across a glaring problem.

To be honest, I know exactly why it’s a problem, because I have also been plagued by this problem.

The problem is not knowing what to do with your email list once you begin building one.

Now, for the die-hard marketers, this is really an unbelievable problem, but to the average business owner, and the average podcaster, it’s a huge gaping hole in our strategy.

So first of all, let me tell you the things I think are the root causes of this problem.

#1 - First of all, it feels like it’s a place where you should be creating more content. In other words, we aren’t emailing our lists because we either don’t have the time to create more content to send out. I mean, you’re probably already behind on creating content for your podcast and adding something else is just not possible.

#2 - Many of us have a technology barrier to making this happen. So, either you’ve got your systems duct taped together trying to function as a cohesive machine and it just doesn’t work. You don’t know what to switch to that will solve this problem without creating a new learning curve for you.

#3 - Another reason we aren’t engaging with our email list is because we have a resource issue. Whether that resource is that we don’t have a team member to take over the tasks of email marketing for you, or maybe because you have not made the financial investment in the systems to help automate this process and make it easier.

Investing in keeping your email list engaged and ready to hear from you is one of the best investments you will make.

If you are subscribed to an email list, where the list owner is active and sending out interesting content and compelling offers regularly, I can guarantee you they have help in making this happen.

This is a problem that we all need to get a handle on asap because the more you grow your list, the bigger the problem becomes.

I’ve got several new clients that we are doing podcast production for and building marketing funnels for. In consulting with them to assess where they currently were in their marketing journey, they universally knew that their level of engagement with their lists was lacking.

They had no process in place to regularly email their list interesting content. And you know what? It didn’t matter the size of their list - some had lists of tens of thousands of people that had basically heard nothing from them since they signed up. Others had lists of thousands that were basically dormant.

If we want to be successful in marketing, we have to solve this problem. It will be worth it to throw whatever time or money you have at this problem to work it out now, before you focus on growing your email list any further.

So, in these next few episodes, I am going to work along with you to solve this problem. I’m going to solve the problem for myself and I will show you how you can solve it too!

So, just to make sure we start at square one, let me be very clear about it - you need to have multiple ways to capture email addresses of your ideal clients.

Do you realize that right now, all across the world, there are events - now mainly virtual events that are being planned and produced for the sole purpose of data acquisition? So, what I am saying to you is that companies are spending months of time and thousands of dollars to put on an event so that they can get email addresses from the attendees.

If you and I spent months of our lives and tens of thousands of dollars to put on these events just for the sake of growing our email lists, don’t you think we would also make sure we had an airtight plan for what happens once they get on the list?

We absolutely would. So this week, my plea to you is to figure out how you can get more people opting in to your email list. Create a juicer, sexier giveaway to get them there. What’s the biggest thing you can give away for free to get folks on your email list?

You want to have multiple ways people can get on your list. The more places you have to send this traffic to capture an email address, the more you can see which channels are the most effective.

So, this week’s framework for growing your email list is:

Create at least 3 viable ways people can get on your email list. For me, I have a free lead magnet that I run ads for opt-ins, I have people going on my list that schedule a free consultation with me about their podcast production and I set up my private FB group to capture as many emails as possible from the people who want to join.
Create multiple lead magnets to see which offers convert better. I have a client that created a free lead magnet and got a few sign ups from his podcast, but it wasn’t until he created a free mini-webinar for his niche and began running ads to the webinar that his email list exploded. Obviously, his niche has spoken and the more educational content he can provide, the bigger his email list will grow.
Begin thinking outside the box about ways to make some of your normally free content a way to capture even more emails.
Could you record a podcast episode with a big person in your niche and only offer it as a download when people opt in with an email address?
Could you give access to something you are already doing behind the scenes to those who give you their email?
Are there resource lists or how-to videos that you have for the tools of the trade for you niche that you could begin leveraging to grow your email list?

Next week, we will begin laying down a tried and true framework for establishing regular contact with your email list.

In the meantime, I’m happy to announce the first ever Podcast Monetization Summit will be held Oct. 15-17 - it’s an all virtual event, completely focused on monetization that will allow you to hear exactly how other successful podcasters are making a living from their podcast. It will be 3 days packed with monetization plans and ideas that you can implement for your own podcast. Most podcasting events focus on all aspects of podcasting, but this is one entire even focused specifically on the monetization aspect.

Let’s face it, if we as podcasters don’t get better at monetizing our shows, if we don’t turn monetization from an art into a science, then podcasting will be reduced to the status of the next get-rich-quick-scheme. So, that’s why we are creating this event, and I can’t wait to see how many podcasts we can get monetized after the summit.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we begin to announce speakers because it’s going to be amazing!

So, until then, if you want to connect with me, you can join our private Facebook Group called Podcast Monetization Secrets over on Facebook, and if you need help with the production or monetization of your podcast, go to Teampodcast.com and schedule some time to chat with me.

The Podcasting Model is Broken

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 03:00:00 -0400

The podcasting model is broken...

There I said it. We've got everyone and their Mother thinking that starting a podcast is a great idea.

Everyone says just start...just do it...just put it out there.

I've seen the end result of just putting it out there and I'm here to tell you it isn't pretty. Podcasters come to me overwhelmed, exhausted, frazzled, out of money and completely battered and broken because their podcast has become their most expensive hobby and it's consumed their lives.

Their families are suffering. Their relationships are suffering. Their own mental health is suffering.

It doesn't have to be that way.

"If you build it, they will come" is one of the worst lies we have ever told ourselves.

No, they won't come.

I'm here to put a stake in the ground and say ENOUGH! We don't have to settle for this.

There is a better way!

Listen to this episode to find out what the better way is.

You can also join us in our private Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/PodcastMonetizationSecrets

Dream 100: A Fundamental Mistake Most of Us Make With Our Podcasts

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 03:00:00 -0400

Hindsight is 20/20 they always say. I've had a huge does of hindsight over the last month and I have realized that I made a fundamental mistake when I set up my podcast and my business.

The good news is that now I have the opportunity to fix my mistake and when I fix it, it will dramatically change the results that I am getting in my business.

The lessons I share today will also apply to your business.

Listen in today as Christy shares her fundamental mistake she made when she started her podcast and her business.

Join her in the Podcast Monetization Secrets Facebook Group tomorrow, where she will walk you through her Trello board to show you exactly how she's correcting her mistakes!

A Secret Tip to Grow Your Podcast

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 03:00:00 -0400

After you launch a podcast, the next question always becomes, "How can I grow my audience?" It seems like this question gets asked in a lot of Facebook groups and I get it weekly it seems from clients and others.

Most people start by trying to grow their audience on social media. The average podcaster comes into podcasting with only a small social media following. So, when we start ramping up promotional efforts on social media, our reach is limited by our following.

It should also be said that if you are getting zero traction on social media, the best thing to do is NOT to double down on the things that aren't working.

I mean, 2x0 is still 0, right? So, if everyone connected to you on social media are ignoring your podcast posts, doubling the amount of posts you make won't help the situation, it only makes it worse.

Join Christy today as she shares this little known tip about advertising your podcast in the one place where you already know everyone listens to podcasts!

If you'd like to discuss more about monetizing your podcast, please come join our private Facebook group at https://facebook.com/groups/PodcastMonetizationSecrets

The Most Common Reasons Many Podcasters Have Not Monetized & How to Fix It!

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 03:00:00 -0400

"Ye have not because ye ask not!" This Bible verse was one I learned as a child. It relates to today's topic perfectly. The majority of podcasts in the Apple Podcast directory are NOT monetized.

Why are podcasters not monetizing their show? Well, to say it's complicated is an understatement, but the most glaring reason is that most podcasters aren't selling anything - not their services, not products, not their ideas, not their time, nothing. There is no opportunity for many podcast listeners to take the next step with the podcast host.

In order to monetize you MUST sell something. Figuring out what to sell is a matter of trying to productize as many offerings as you can to serve your audience.

Listen in to today's episode as Christy shares ideas to get your offerings productized and ready to sell to your audience.

If you'd like to join our private Facebook group, join us at https://facebook.com/group/PodcastMonetizationSecrets

Turns Out You May Not Be Ready to Monetize Your Podcast – How to Know!

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 03:00:00 -0400

Whether you have engineered your podcast for monetization or not, there are other factors that could sideline you from the monetization game.

Besides having a monetizable niche and podcast, you could the biggest factor holding back your revenue growth. How can you know?

In today's episode, Christy discusses the 4 Stages of Value and what the characteristics are for each stage. Only 2 of the 4 stages are perfect for monetizing a podcast.

Listen in today to find out where you are on the 4 Stages of Value and what you need to do to get to the next level and prepare your show for monetization!

You can always join our private Facebook group at https://facebook.com/group/PodcastMonetizationSecrets

Frameworks: Your Secrets Weapon for Monetization

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 03:00:00 -0400

By now, you should have realized that I live and die by frameworks! When you understand the power of frameworks, you can easily map out a course or develop a new product.

Developing your own frameworks is the key to establishing yourself as an expert in any niche.

Today, Christy gives you the framework for developing your own frameworks. This framework is one that I've learned from my mentor, Russell Brunson, and every time I implement it, it keeps me on track.

Tune in today to learn how to develop your own frameworks, which is the key to unlocking the monetization of your podcast!

If you'd like to learn more about monetizing your podcast, you can join our private Facebook group, Podcast Monetization Secrets.

Are You Sabotaging Your Podcast By Making This One Mistake

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 03:00:00 -0400

If you want to monetize your podcast, it is important that you set it up to win from the beginning.

Many podcasters unknowingly sabotage their own efforts by making a simple mistake when they start their podcast.

Christy reveals this mistake and shows you how to avoid it by using her framework for creating your podcast.

Understand exactly who you serve and how you serve them?
Identify the key words that your ideal listener would use to find help for their problems.
Create a message to market match to ensure the widest exposure at the top of your funnel.

Listen in today to learn more!

Audience Growth Comes Down to This One Thing for Everyone

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 03:00:00 -0400

Traffic, traffic, traffic...the success of failure of any business really boils down to traffic. There are a lot of ways you can get traffic to your podcast and to your business.

Audience growth comes down to traffic, too. To increase your audience growth, you really have to know and understand the types of traffic you drive to your podcast.

There are 3 basic types of traffic for ANY business:

Traffic You Control - paid ads
Traffic You Don’t Control - organic traffic
Traffic that you Own - your email list

In this episode, Christy dives into the 3 traffic types and how they apply to your podcast.

If you want to drive deep into every aspect of traffic, the new book Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson is the best evergreen traffic content anywhere. I'd highly recommend this book and you can get it here.

This One Tip Will Ensure That Your Audience Will Buy What You Are Selling!

Mon, 25 May 2020 03:00:00 -0400

As a member of the online marketing world, you can spend tons of time and money creating digital products for your business that will NEVER sell!

Put you next product or idea through this litmus test to determine whether or not your audience will actually want to buy what you are selling.

A few things to remember:

Don't sell to broke people!
Don't get stuck spending money educating vs. marketing

Listen to the full episode to get the exact tip that will keep you from spending time, money and effort creating a dud of a product!

Also, if you'd like to join our private Facebook Group to talk more about monetizing your show, join us at https://Facebook.com/groups/podcastmonetizationsecrets

The First Step to Begin Monetizing Your Podcast

Mon, 18 May 2020 03:00:00 -0400

It's a rare event when someone actually monetizes something they are doing as a hobby or creative endeavor. The reality is that most successful efforts to monetize a podcast aren't a result of a huge lucky streak - it's the culmination of a lot of thought and planning. But thinking and planning don't get you there either.

Actually, the only thing that does get you closer to your goal is taking action - that's where the hard work starts. This implementation phase is where most people get stuck. There are so many ways to screw it up or to just blow it completely, so this episode gives you a framework to use to prepare your podcast to earn its first dollar!

And, don't forget, if you are wanting to dive deeper into the world of monetizing your podcast, join our private Facebook Group - Podcast Monetization Secrets!

How to Get Out of “Free Content Creation” Mode

Thu, 14 May 2020 03:00:00 -0400

There is nothing worse that realizing your podcast is stuck in "free content creation" mode with no foreseeable way out. You aren't greedy, but you thought by now you would have made at least some money with your show.

This episode teaches you the exact framework to implement to begin engineering your podcast to become your sales machine. Each episode gives you the opportunity to practice this framework of hook-story-offer!

Don't forget to join our private FB Group - Podcast Monetization Secrets!

How to Create Your First Lead Magnet

Tue, 05 May 2020 03:00:00 -0400

In this episode, Christy shares her framework for creating better bait to attract opt-ins for your email list.

This framework is called the R.E.D.C.O. process, so listen to the episode to learn how to use it effectively!

If you want to dive deeper into all the strategies to monetize your podcast, join our free Facebook group!

Focus on This One Metric If You Really Want to Monetize Your Podcast

Tue, 05 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

The first metric any podcaster learns is downloads. Then the push is to get more and more downloads. But what do downloads really mean for monetization? Is this number what you should be looking at to determine whether your show is growing?

Today, we answer that question and tell you where to really focus if you are looking to monetize.

Also, if you want to dive deeper into the monetization strategies of podcasting, you can join our free Facebook group.

What Should You Be Doing With Your Podcast During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 03:00:00 -0400

In my experience producing over 300 podcast episodes each month, people are either fleeing the space and shutting down because they are scare (these are the folks who haven’t monetized, or whose monetization was for a now virtually defunct industry) or they are doubling down and stepping up in a huge way to serve their audiences - so that means extra shows and bonus episodes.

Have you already monetized your show? If yes, figure out ways to get your most impactful content to your audience any way possible. Maybe it’s reducing the price a bit, or maybe it’s making a more automated and low touch version of your high ticket items.
If you haven’t monetized your show yet - it’s time to get on the fast track. What can you easily create that will serve your clients the most?
For many it may be a group coaching programs
For some it could be starting an online support group
Maybe it’s creating courses or webinars

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room:

Should you really be selling things to people during a global pandemic when so many people are out of work?

Many podcasters have legitimate money blocks. This affected you before Coronavirus. It will affect you after corona virus. Now is the time to deal with it.

You can now see in hindsight, that having a good portion of your business online will help “crisis proof your business”.
You have to realize that because of the shift in circumstances, everyone is re-evaluating their lives, their jobs, their finances and what’s truly important. It’s almost like an automatic recalibration of our values.
Excuses that your community members may have had before have now vanished as they have a new perspective.
If you truly believe that you can impact the world, then you must charge for your services and products in order to be sustainable enough to make a ding in the universe. You can’t do that by flaming out and getting stuck in free content creation mode.

Yes, it’s ok to sell during this crisis. But, it’s also ok to provide unprecedented value!

Want to learn more about monetizing your podcast and following along as I show you how to do the same? Join our Facebook group - Podcast Monetization Secrets!