7 Podcast Monetization Strategies

Paul Colligan seems a big fan of over-delivering. Though his presentation at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo was entitled "7 Proven Strategies to Monetize Your Podcast in 30 Days or Less," my notes reached a length of five pages, containing no fewer than 20 websites to consider, and an entire industry compacted into one hour.

This guy has a lot to say, and it's not just a bunch of talk. Colligan whipped up the audience into a steady cadence. "Who da media?" he'd ask. "I'm da media!" the crowd responded, each time he asked. The era of professional distributors, in Colligan's estimation, is nearly over. In the past, a content producer, a musician or writer, needed an agent of some kind to get their message out there. "That's the old game," said Colligan. "The podcaster is the distributor. The website is the distributor. You are also the record store. If you want to sell it, you can. If you want to give it away, you can. Record companies are saying podcasting is no big deal because they're terrified." Colligan encouraged the audience to register at his website Method #1: Benefactor Revenue Colligan is developing a PayPal-based product called TipScript that allows a form of donations for podcasters. For example, an invitation on the website could read "Buy Paul a cup of coffee if you like this podcast." That's a dollar per cup, or $8.00 per pound. The product could be anything - Raman noodles, wine, beer, blank disks. This method works well for popular podcaster Method #3: Merchandizing The wildly popular Askaninja.com t-shirts are $25 each and a DVD is soon on the horizon. Colligan recommended Cafepress.com, where podcasters (or anybody with some sort of web presence) can upload logos and begin selling merchandise. Though the margins there aren't great, he says, it's a good test run to see if people will buy your stuff. He mentioned "Method #4: Premium Podcasting This is a basic subscribe for more model. For an example, Colligan plugged The Method #5: Commissioned Sales Similar to what he mentioned in the newsletter suggestion, Colligan recommends that podcasters and vidcasters direct traffic to affiliate links where products can be bought, and referral commissions are paid. Method #6: Web Clicks This segment follows a previous segment's "Monetization rule #1." Podcasts don't make money. Clicks make money. If you're looking for revenue, drive listeners to a website. Using AdSense and affiliate programs has made lots of money for marketers. But how do you use this keyword-search-based industry with audio or video? Colligan recommends transcripts of content in boards and forums, blogs et cetera. Plus, if it's user-generated, it's better, as comment threads will generate keywords on their own. He directed the audience to a service called FrontPageTalk.com, a forum, in 18 months. It makes money for him because people will write 500-word responses to his podcasts, which become "spider food." He also recommended $80,000 per week to put commercials on the video blog. But the really interesting concept that had everyone buzzing at the Expo, was Baron's new approach. Baron will knock $20,000 off the price, if he likes the commercial, if it matches his audience. But also, as Colligan mentioned in the conference session, Baron can't keep Rocketboom t-shirts in stock. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark murdok: