Are you planning to start a podcast and wondering how you can increase your revenues? This article will show you how you can make money podcasting. Luckily, there are free podcasting tools that you can use to start podcasting and make money.
Equipment needed for podcasting include: microphones, headphones, computer, pop filter, recording and mixing software, mobile podcasting gear such as digital recorder, and SD card.
Podcasting Tools
There are tools that you can use to help you make money from podcasting. Some of these tools you can use to record, edit and modify your podcast. They include:
Anchor
Anchor is a podcast editing app you can use it to record, edit and modify your podcast. You can do the recording or editing using the phone app or online. Some of the advantages you gain from Anchor is that you get free hosting; hence you can upload a file of unlimited size. The most successful way to increase your earnings on the platform is through sponsorships and advertisements.
Glow
Glow is a platform that helps podcasters to make money in the media industry. The main goal of Glow is to address three main problems faced by podcasters that include hosting, monetization and distribution. Glow helps podcasters get more listeners, thus growing the overall audience. Glow managed to raise over $2.3 million in 2019 as seed funding.
Supercast
Supercast is a great tool that can help you monetize your podcasts. One of the best ways to earn from the tool is through members’ subscriptions. Listeners pay for exclusive podcasts. You need to set up your podcast and probably create a landing page and choose an option, ad-free podcasts, episodes from subscribers only or the premium option. The next step is to share your content with your listeners. It is advisable to add a link to your show notes. That’s all you need to do and start earning an income.
Descript
Descript is a podcast editing tool used for audio transcription. It can also be used to transform the text or manipulate the audio file to make both text editing and audio record natural. You can use the software for audio transcription. The podcast editing software has a new unique AI feature that will make the whole editing process easy. This way, it can generate new sentences on its own using your voice.
Castbox
Castbox is a powerful podcast creation tool that is used by giant companies such as iTunes. You can get free podcasts and also create your own on different topics. Your listeners can modify podcasts to play one after another by either streaming or downloading them. One of the ways for monetizing on Castbox is through subscriptions. Castbox helps publishers to generate revenues by eliminating user friction.
How to Make Money From Podcasting in Africa
There are several ways one can make money from podcasting in Africa. Some of the proven ways are:
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves referring customers to companies for services they are looking for. When you refer a person, and he purchases a product of a particular company, you earn an income. You can promote products that you are familiar with. Podcasts are a great way to promote products, especially if your podcasts have a broad audience. You can add an ad at the beginning, middle or the end of your podcasts for your listeners. ShareASale and Amazon Associates are among the best companies you can work with for affiliate marketing. Make sure to add a plugin to manage affiliate links like Lasso.
Sponsors and Advertisements
The conventional way to make money from podcasts is through sponsors and adverts. To get adverts, you need to have a large audience of 5k or 10k every month. Once you have the numbers, the next thing is to look for advertisers and then you can agree on the rates. Some of the podcast advertising networks that you need to consider include Midroll and Authentic. If you have a smaller audience, you can reach out to companies that you think are fit for your audience.
Cost per mille (CPM), also called cost per thousand (CPT) is a commonly used measurement in advertising. It is the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand views or clicks of an advertisement. The “cost per thousand advertising impressions” metric is calculated by dividing the cost of an advertising placement by the number of impressions (expressed in thousands) that it generates.
Online Courses
The other way to make revenue is by offering online courses. There is a wide variety of courses that you can teach your audience. For instance, you can create a podcast to educate your audience on how to make money by traveling.
Crowdfunding and Donations
The other way to make money from podcasts is through crowdfunding and donations. You can ask your audience to donate to you to help you with your podcasts. You can also get bonuses depending on the money people support you with. Platforms you can use for crowdfunding and accepting donations include Patreon, Kickstarter and Paypal.
Sell Products
Once you have a significant audience, you can sell products to followers who want to be associated with your brand. You can sell branded products such as mugs, hoodies, t-shirts, bags, stickers, etc. You can use a platform like Printify and others to create and sell your custom products.
Conclusion
Depending on the quality of your content, you can scale up your earnings. Content that have high possibilities of earning you good revenues include interviews, behind the scenes content and question and answer content with hosts. The way out to this is figuring out if your audience is benefiting from your content. You can also seek to get feedback from the audience and hear what they think once they listen to a podcast.
If you are looking for a way to make a regular income, consider podcasting as one of the ways. You can try out any of the above tools to implement different strategies to make money by podcasting. We hope this article has been resourceful.
