This is where it gets interesting!
Have you ever wanted to know why celebrities like Leo Laporte dedicate 5 mins to talk about a certain product. This is what everyone would call Word of Mouth Advertising. If you have not read my other two articles this would be a very good time to review them:
As you can see there is a lot to talk about and not very much time to talk about each and everyone. This tutorial is more or less going to be the outline for those of you who would want to monetize your podcasts and bring in even more revenue. It isn’t easy making money but you have to consider the impact of the recommending a product or service and how your audience will take it.
Making Money from your Podcast!
Like I was talking about you don’t have to be approached by any company. You can make money just by asking readers to go to a special URL. These URL are quite easy to do and can be done using a .htaccess file on the domain of your choice. Some ideas about making easy URL redirection links are:
- [yourdomain]/[something easy to say on your domain] (How to make a URL REDIRECT http://webmaster.iu.edu/tool_guide_info/redirect.shtml)
- Make an PHP redirect (example /go/glassusa.php)
There is some debate whether this is moral or not. I can not say because I even know that your aren’t trying to hide it just make it easier for the listeners to go to a site through your affiliate link. I am sure someone out there will remind me that this has been abused in the past. I would argue just because of it being used wrongly in the past doesn’t mean every site or podcast is doing it maliciously. I will say that it is far easier to say a simple URL then to have a complicated URL for podcast listeners to remember.
You don’t need paid sponsors!
When I say that I mean it, if you already have accounts with affiliates like Amazon or Hostgator then you can star making money. This is essential a free way to make without having to find sponsors to pay. You do however have to be careful which ones you recommend and advertise on your podcast. Some important things to consider is:
- The length of the podcast
- No more than1 affiliate per 30 mins
- Recommend products you use all the time
- Always do research on your product or service before hand
In my final tutorial we will discuss the pro’s and cons of Paid versus Free podcast hosting and which one fits you and why. These are all hard questions that you will need to answer before you can actually start to podcast. Until then . . .
Paul Sylvester
Related articles
- Should you write a podcast script? (trafcom.typepad.com)
- Open Thread with The Professional Left Weekly Podcast: An (almost) Birther-Free Podcast (crooksandliars.com)
- Weekly Podcast Roundup: April 25 – May 1, 2011 (wow.joystiq.com)
- My First Podcast Interview! (thelonebeader.com)
- Why I Don’t Listen to Your Podcast (blogworld.com)
- Podcasters on the groove (spiffy25.wordpress.com)