This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
A listener in Philadelphia wants to start a matchmaking service between podcasts and potential sponsors. So who should pay for this service? The podcast host, the sponsor, or both? And if it is the podcast host, which we're going to focus on a bit here, how much should they pay and what does that model look like? Welcome to Side Hustle School.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, so glad you're joining me. Every day we have an ongoing conversation about starting an income generating project without quitting your job. How can you do that? Well, the good news is there are people all over the world pursuing this same goal. Some of them hope to eventually quit their jobs.
Some of them are just trying to make some extra money for all kinds of reasons. And that's good. That's a good thing. So here in this situation, our episode today, we've got two parties with needs. You've got the sponsors, you've got the podcast hosts, and both parties already have a primary business.
So the podcasters presumably is working on their podcast. That's what they do best. And the sponsors presumably are operating some other kind of business, and they're looking for good placements for their ad campaigns. So our listener is wondering about how to charge for the service, but perhaps first it's helpful to look at what each party is getting out of the relationship. The question, how to charge for a podcast sponsorship service, and my answer, is coming up in just 30 seconds.
Hi, this is Brad from Philadelphia, and I've been listening to the show for almost a year now after reading 100 Hour Startup. Right now I'm working on starting a side hustle within the podcast space. A lot of podcasts search for sponsors themselves, or sponsors sometimes contact them. When podcasts start growing, they don't want just revenue, but a sponsor that fits their brand perfectly. That's where I plan to come in.
I'm working on contacting new podcasts and asking them what they're looking for and then going out and finding them the perfect brand to join up with. The question I have is, how would I charge the podcast? Would it be a monthly fee for my services, a one-time fee, a percentage of the deal, or even some sort of royalty? How do I make it profitable for my time consulting and also a good price they'll be comfortable paying? Thanks, Chris, for all you do.
Hey, Brad, thank you so much for listening. I'm excited to hear about this podcasting matchmaker service. I totally agree that it's kind of an ad hoc process most of the time, like the new podcast are starting up and they're looking for sponsors. Some people have even found their sponsor by going to their desired brand's LinkedIn page and searching for whoever's in charge of buying ads on podcasts or some other convoluted process. And it's great when that happens.
It's great when it works out. But as I said, that's pretty ad hoc and most podcasters want to just produce their podcast and most brands, they want to go through an agency or they otherwise want to just keep it simple. So there's definitely some room here to do something. And basically, this is the agency model. What Brad is proposing here is essentially to be an agent, to be the go-between.
So I think there's a simple answer for the question of how much to charge or at least what model to charge. I think Brad charges a percentage for sure and think recurring revenue, right? Typically the fee is like between 10% and 20% and the other models don't really work as well because if it's a one-time fee, you're not really building a business. You could do a lot of work and just make money one time or you could do a lot of work and get paid over and over. Whereas if it's a monthly fee for the podcast host, that doesn't really solve their problem.
That might solve your problem because then you're getting paid over and over just like with the royalty, but it's not necessarily solving the podcast host problem so they're not going to pay it or at least they're not going to keep paying it. But if it's a royalty, they're getting paid, you're getting paid, you're incentivized to do the best possible job, you keep everybody happy and then hopefully you get paid month after month. That is the ideal scenario. So I think that's also the ideal pricing model in this case. It's always nice to be able to answer a question definitively, by the way, because I like to present different sides and perspectives that you can make your own choice, of course, but in this case, I think it's pretty straightforward.
And by the way, listeners, if you want to check out Brad's service, that would be at podsider.com, P-O-D-S-I-D-E-R dot com. If you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com slash questions. We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. So glad you're out there. I hope you'll subscribe and come back for more.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
