For many podcasters, monetizing is an important part of their podcasting plan, which is why Captivate provides a bunch of tools to help with that.
Questions about podcast monetization and how we can help? We've got you covered!
What is podcast monetization?
Simply put, this enables you to make money from your podcast, and that can be just enough to cover your hosting costs, to being a second or full-time income.
How can I monetize my podcast?
There are a bunch of different ways, including:
Premium content
Sponsorship
Advertising
Online courses
Consulting/coaching
Affiliate marketing
and many, many more!
Check out our awesome tutorial on 15 ways to make money podcasting!
What's the difference between advertising and sponsorship?
Advertising can usually be done by yourself. Find an advertising network who are looking for shows like yours to run ads on, and then either add these in post-production before uploading your episode to Captivate, or dynamically with AMIE.
Sponsorship is more along the lines of a partnership, where a brand or business will pay you a set amount (one-off, or monthly) to have their name be associated with your podcast. This may be something like, "Hi, and welcome to The Podcast Show, and thanks to our sponsors Brand X who help make this show possible. If you're looking for Solution Y, check out Brand X today, and use my code to get a 15% discount."
Does Captivate offer advertising and sponsorships?
We have our own in-house dynamic content platform AMIE! We also provide a super cool Sponsor Kit for you to create and send to potential sponsors and advertisers.
Do you limit the countries monetization is available in?
No. Unlike some podcast hosts, if a country allows for monetization from podcasters, we will support that through our third party monetization partners.
Does Captivate take any money I make from advertising or sponsors?
Nope! We're here to help you make money as a podcaster - any fees you pay will be whatever that agreement is with the 3rd party sponsor or advertiser platform you use. We only take a fee if you use our Membership or Tips features - more information here.
What are Memberships and Tips?
Memberships lets your podcast supporters pay you a monthly fee for exclusive content, early access, and more. Tips allow your listeners to give you a one-off donation - check out our help article for more info!
So how does Captivate help me monetize my podcast?
We offer a full Promotion section to help you optimize your show to be as effective as it can be when it comes to monetizing your podcast.
Direct calls to action in the embeddable player for donation links like Patreon and PayPal.
Give sponsors and advertisers the analytics data they want to see with your very own Sponsor Kit.
Create mini audio courses with Playlists that you can sell to your audience.
Short links to create and track memorable marketing links
And, obviously, there’s our awesome Membership and Tips features that allow your most loyal listeners to support your show!
For more cool tips, check out our YouTube tutorial playlist on how to make money podcasting, with 28 videos and counting!
What should be in my Sponsor Kit?
Think of what you can offer potential sponsors - who's their audience, what is their product, how is your podcast relevant to that? Then provide that data for them.
Use your Captivate Analytics to advise of engagement - sponsors prefer a highly engaged audience over a large but non-engaged one
Capture your audience demographic from Google Analytics (either connected to your Captivate Site or your own website)
Create a listener avatar for your podcast audience ("fans of X, buyers of Y, enjoy Activity Z") to correlate how your audience is relevant to a potential sponsor
The main thing with your Sponsor Kit is to show you and your show's value, so make sure to tailor it to the sponsor you're looking to connect with.
Recommended Reading: Captivate Growth Labs