This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Here is a fun fact about the history of Side Hustle School, as we begin today. When I first began the podcast, or at least when I first had the idea for it, I didn't imagine having advertisers at all. I thought of it as a completely ad-free model. And it was only after I started talking with my good friend Gretchen Rubin, who was starting a podcast imprint, and came to me and said, "Hey, what do you think about being part of this?" And to do that, you work with a network, which uses this ad-supported model. I was like, "Okay, let's give it a try." And I'm so glad I did that because it's allowed the show to be sustainable in a way that absolutely wouldn't have been possible otherwise.
So it caused me to change my whole thinking about the process of sponsorship and advertisement and partnership with companies and all that kind of stuff. And so I was thinking about that a bit in a context of today's listener question. We're gonna talk about podcast advertising. A listener is frustrated with the low earnings of blog ads. So she has a blog, she'll explain more in her question, but she has a blog frustrated with what she's been making there.
Wants to know if the podcast medium pays more. So we'll talk about it and also kind of examine whether that's an accurate comparison or not, et cetera. Also for anyone starting a podcast, a quick refresher on how to attract advertisers. I continue to hear from people every week with that same question. And so I'm glad you're moving forward.
We'll talk about what you need to know. That question's coming up in 30 seconds after this message from our sponsor. Thank you so much, sponsor, and thank you listeners. [Music]
Hello, Chris, this is Alyssa, and I just recently found your show and loving the stories and puns. I've had a blog for a while and I'll be starting a podcast soon.
My topic is pretty mainstream, so I'm hoping to reach a good-sized audience. So far, however, I've been disappointed with blog ads. I made $80 last month, which is more than $0, but is there hope for something better with a new medium? In short, is podcast advertising more profitable than blog advertising? Thanks for your advice.
[Music]
Thank you, Alyssa, for the question and congratulations on the blog. Congratulations on starting the new podcast, all the things. We have a lot of listeners who haven't started at all, and they'd be happy with making $80. Maybe not forever, but they would love the idea of that as a starting point. So everybody starts somewhere.
Now, when we talk about advertising on a blog versus advertising on a podcast, we have to be careful about this apples-to-apples comparison for all kinds of reasons, 'cause they really are different mediums. But just to answer the question directly and to not split hairs too much, well, podcasting is a unique medium in many ways, and it has historically attracted much higher rates, much higher ad rates than blogs or web advertising in general. Like if you're gonna buy ads on a website or on a podcast, it's gonna cost more on the podcast in terms of the audience that's reached. And this is because of a few reasons, one of which is the intimacy of the medium, the fact that the podcast host usually reads the ads. It all kind of translates to better returns for advertisers.
It's also just how this medium has developed over time. Ads are usually considered to be less intrusive than they are elsewhere, at least as long as they don't go on for too long and there's not too many in any particular episode or whatever, so they do pay more. So yes, apples to apples podcasting is more profitable. But of course, either way you need to have an audience. That's what matters more than anything else.
It's good that Alyssa has a mainstream topic. Advertisers care about audience. Some advice I heard recently was chase the audience, not the money. Like the money will follow if you have the audience. So if you're out there and you're starting a podcast or you want to start a podcast, you're thinking of your long-term plan, couple of things you can do on your website, which you should have some kind of website, even if you just have a podcast, there should also be some sort of website that has info about it.
Have a page just for advertisers. Like make it really clear that you are proactively seeking sponsorship. And list the benefits of why it might be a good idea for someone to be your premier sponsor, your inaugural sponsor, let's say. Reach out directly to advertisers you're interested in. I have heard from a number of people that this has worked.
Like look for the right contact on LinkedIn, especially if you know it's a sponsor that's advertising on other podcasts. There is a contact for that. Even if that's not the case, I think it's still worth trying. And once you attract a good amount of downloads and the estimates kind of vary as to what that means, but 10,000 downloads an episode is a number that I have heard as like a starting point. You may also want to contact advertising networks that serve as basically middlemen, third parties between podcasters and advertisers.
And that's essentially what we do. Like I don't work directly with most of the advertisers or sponsors just because it's a lot to keep up with. Now of course those networks, they take a fee, they take a commission as part of it. So pros and cons to everything. But that's what's worked for us.
So I hope that is helpful to Alyssa and anybody else out there who's considering the same kind of thing. Let me know what's going on with you. What are you working on? What are you thinking about? If you've got a question or comment, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We will continue to feature them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thank you again for joining me today. I hope you'll come back as we begin an all new month. Tomorrow, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
