So you have a podcast. That's great, but don't quit your day job just yet. Sadly, if you're not Ricky Gervais, it might be more than a little hard to make money from podcasts. If you're Ricky Gervais: A.) Can I get some money from you? B.) Can I appear on the new video podcast as a guest?
So why aren't there more podcasters who make a lot of money? Most podcasts don't have enough listeners to make a lot of money from ads. The other issue is that as podcasting becomes more popular, more and more shows are made for the same audience. The bigger and more popular podcasts can make money by charging for subscriptions to their shows or even by selling back episodes. Even among the larger companies, with the exception of The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports, most haven't been able to sell enough subscriptions to their web-based content to be even close to profitable. It seems that a well-known brand alone isn't enough to sell subscriptions.
The key is to figure out how to make podcasts interesting and useful. At the moment, businesses use podcasts as a way to attract customers, just like other businesses use blogs to get their name out there. There's no reason podcasts can't bring in money. For instance, if you host a show about herding llamas, it's possible (but not likely) that 2,000 llama herding fans will sign up. Advertising might work for you if you have a large niche market. Who's to say that if an enterprising podcaster found 7,000 people interested in basket weaving, a company that makes baskets wouldn't want to advertise to that group? The key is to find a podcast with good content and advertisers who want to reach that specific audience. What's really needed is a kind of matchmaker who can help the shows and advertisers find each other.
The other problem is getting people who use the web to find podcasts and sign up for them. Even though it may seem like almost everyone has heard of podcasts, the truth is that most people still haven't. Geoff Ralston, who is in charge of products at Yahoo, brought this problem up in an interview last year. "...the truth is that at Yahoo, what we really want to do is make podcasting popular, and for that to happen, people need to know about it. So we made a site that makes it easy to learn about it, and like I said, you'll eventually be able to find podcasts everywhere on Yahoo. So, as you read the news on Yahoo, which millions of people do every day, week, and month, you will start to learn about podcasts and how they work on the site. This will bring you into the community of podcasters. And it's a neighborhood! One of the most important things about Yahoo Podcasts is that the community is what gives the site its strength and feel. People can also rate podcasts on the site, which helps other people find the podcasts that matter."
Podcasts are still a new form of media, so there is a lot of room for them to grow and change. The real key to making money with podcasts is to find a way to combine old ways of making money with new ones. In a young industry like podcasting, the key is to try out different ways of doing things and not be afraid to use new business models or even come up with your own.
