“Big Dinosaur Podcast” Generates Dino-mite Profits

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

A podcast about dinosaurs that provides a full-time income for the couple who runs it. That's what we're talking about today. This couple is composed of two avid dinosaur fans. In fact, they are so committed to dinosaurs. They had a dino themed wedding. Every year,

they take a trip to Jurassic Park. I just made up that last part. But they do in fact, take a dinosaur adventure of some kind, including to Australia, where they spent a month-long road trip across the Outback. They are committed. They are putting on this podcast more than 350 episodes in. How does it work? How does it work? How do they get paid? Where do they find

those sources of revenue? This is such a cool story. Among other things, I learned that we are in the golden age of dinosaur discovery, which is why a weekly podcast about dinosaurs sometimes has the problem of too much news to cover in one episode. As I said, very interesting. Big dinosaur podcast generates dynamite profits. That's the story. It's coming up after this quick shout out

to our sponsor. Years before Sabrina and Garrett Ricci had ever met, they spent separate childhoods being completely enamored by dinosaurs. When they fell in love and moved to the East Coast, their passion project traveled with them. Exploring the new area, they took field trips to museums and historic sites. They especially loved the American Museum of Natural History.

Time and time again, they found themselves drawn to the dinosaur halls. Now as adults, their love for the ancient reptiles was anything but prehistoric. The couple started a website called I Know Dino, which included a map of dinosaur exhibits around the world. Their goal was to visit as many of them as they could. When they got married, they even had a dinosaur themed wedding. Soon after, the newlyweds realized they wish there was a podcast on dinosaur news,

but it didn't exist. So Sabrina and Garrett decided to start it. Jurassic times call for Jurassic measures. They had no experience with making a podcast, but they were avid podcast listeners. They knew what they liked and disliked about other people's shows. They made sure to

use that knowledge when outlining theirs. Format-wise, they decided on a few different segments. First, the introduction would contain all the recent breaking dinosaur news. Then they would take a deep dive into their dinosaur of the day. And finally, they'd have an interview with a dinosaur expert. They also decided that I Know Dino would feature weekly episodes.

Although this podcast was mainly for fun, they also knew there was a chance they could make money from it. From the beginning, they wanted to get in Apple's new and noteworthy section. This was originally iTunes, now Apple Podcasts, and they knew that Apple favored shows that released frequent episodes. Plus, they learned that a new dinosaur is discovered roughly once a week, so the schedule would fit well with the pace of discoveries. Side note, I had no idea new dinosaurs were being discovered so often. I'm going to have to subscribe to the podcast to learn

more. To get started, they spent $100 on a microphone and paid $5 a month to host the podcast. They also continued paying $5 a month to host their website, iknowdino.com. Six months after the initial idea, the couple officially launched I Know Dino the Podcast in January 2015. Ironically, this was just six months before the movie Jurassic World would be released.

This wasn't really planned, but it turned out to be a perfect marketing technique for their new business. They got about 500 downloads that first month, and it grew from there. With their consistent posting schedule and star-class interviewees, I Know Dino was off to a great start. A few months later, Sabrina and Garrett set up a Patreon and got their first listener donation. In the next episode, they gave that listener a shout-out, which is a practice they've continued to this day. From there, the couple focused on remaining consistent and increasing

their marketing. They tried buying paid ads, but found that they didn't produce a positive return on investment. So instead, they turned their efforts towards collaboration. Sabrina and Garrett reached out to other podcasters for interview swaps and cross-promotions. Rather than advertising to the general public, they knew that the people listening would most likely already be interested. And not only that, but they wouldn't have to sell the idea

of podcasts to them. Because believe it or not, there's still a lot of people out there who don't listen to podcasts or don't even really know how they work. So this collaboration has been the greatest marketing technique they could have imagined. Since using it, their listenership has increased dramatically. And through that success, they were even able to start selling ad space. That first advertiser was a dinosaur museum,

a perfect fit. But since then, they've attracted many others. And six years in, Sabrina and Garrett have grown I Know Dino to 50,000 downloads every month. They've interviewed all kinds of fellow dino enthusiasts, from paleontologists to paleo artists, including some who worked on Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, to writers and even dinosaur dancers, over the course of more than 350 episodes. They make about $5,000 a month from ads, in addition to selling merchandise, donations, and books. The overall income fluctuates, but Sabrina was recently

able to quit her job as a product manager to commit to I Know Dino full time. The couple has also added another side hustle to the mix, an online class called the Complete Podcasting Course. They want to teach others how to create, grow, launch, and monetize a podcast, just as they've done to great success. Well, you definitely want to check out the I Know Dino podcast. I know I'm going to subscribe, download a few episodes from the archives to catch up on my dinosaur history because there's so much that I don't know. And I think it's pretty amazing that there is a new dinosaur

discovered like all the time, once a week. Sabrina actually mentioned in our conversation with her that we're in this golden age of dinosaur discovery. And some weeks they have too much to cover, just because so much is happening. So in the beginning, they were worried about running out of stories, running out of content, just like I was worried about for the show. But that worry turned out to be unfounded. What worry might you have that

could be unfounded as well. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, including links to the podcast, anything else I mentioned, just go to sidehustleschool.com slash 1725. If you've got a comment or question, just come to sidehustleschool.com slash questions. Thank you for joining in today. I hope you'll subscribe or follow. Come back tomorrow. And also of course, check

out I know Dino. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is side hustle school. From the Onward Project.