This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
How can you want to tie a podcast without traditional sponsorships? What if you're going to launch a podcast or you like the idea of having a podcast, but you don't want to sell ads or you're not able to sell ads? Today, we're going to hear from a new podcaster who has a topic that most advertisers don't want to touch, which is the case sometimes if you're doing anything political or anything that might be controversial. Advertisers like shows that are for family friendly audiences or at least aren't doing anything that's going to get them in trouble. They want to stay clear of that. So if you have a podcast that
is not family friendly or as I said, might be doing something controversial and you want to make it economically viable, what are your options? So let's see what we can do to help this listener. If you are in a similar situation, if you're just interested in how these things kind of work, well, I'd like to break it down for you. Every day in a short action packed episode, the detailed question from our listener and my answer coming right up. Hey team, this is Dan calling in with a question. I'm really excited to start a podcast, but
the topic I'm focusing on is a bit controversial and I know most sponsors might shy away from it. How can I make my podcast economically viable without relying on traditional sponsorships? I've heard about things like Patreon and premium content, but I'm not sure where to start. Any advice on how to build a sustainable podcast and a challenging category would be really helpful. Hey Dan, thanks for the question. Congratulations
on the upcoming podcast. So when you launch a podcast, you're often not launching with traditional sponsorships anyway, unless you're going through a network and they've been able to pre-sell it. If you're doing any kind of DIY podcast, most likely you're just launching it and trying to build up download numbers, which you can then take to potential sponsors. So almost everyone's in the same kind of place. So what can you do? Well, you can try to monetize
direct listener support. Lots of podcasts are supported by Patreon or even just buy-me-a-coffee. You might've heard of that. It's a service where people can go and make micropayments to support the show. There's some big shows, actually some big independent shows using Patreon that bring in five to $10,000 a month from those shows. Maybe more, but I've seen
many of them at that level. So that's great. Of course, it may still take time to build traction, but if you've got an audience elsewhere and you're like, "Hey, I'm launching a podcast to my audience," then that could be something that could be helpful. Next, consider offering premium content. So there's often two different feeds for a podcast.
We don't do that with Cidle Soul School because everything's free, but a lot of podcasts will be like, "Okay, here's the main feed and then here's the premium feed where if you support us, we'll give you access to extra episodes, behind the scenes looks, live Q&As, whatever it might be." And so that has actually worked really well for a number of podcasts, maybe exclusive interviews or a deep dive. You could also create merchandise, merch. Some big podcasts have a whole line of merch that people can buy. I tend to think that's something that comes a little bit later, but again, if you have an existing audience, it might work. And then the last idea, and this works for a lot of really small shows, if you have a small targeted show, if it's really specific what you're trying to do, use your podcast as a platform to promote your own products, services, or content, whatever it is. So your
podcast is an extension of your brand. You are selling, hopefully not in a pushy way, but in a gentle, helpful way, you are selling your online course, your consulting service, whatever the case may be. So whatever you do with all these things, and of course you could do more than one of them, you mostly want to focus on building direct listener support so that you have options in the future. And I also wouldn't write off advertisers because even though the topic may be controversial, there are some advertisers that might be into that, and also things change over time. So what's controversial now may not be controversial in the future. The most important thing is to build and nurture the audience. Jason,
thank you again for the question. Listeners, sidehustleschool.com, notes page, I should say for every episode. This was 2,850. You can also send in questions. You can also subscribe or follow wherever you like to listen to podcasts. And we've got a new one out every single day.
My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
