#039: How I'm Monetizing My Podcast in 2025

way. You can tell me strategies and concepts all day long. But unless you're gonna hit me with the how, what, when, where, I'm probably not gonna understand what to do in this episode, I'll be walking you through every way I'm monetizing my podcast this year, 2025 and warning, a few of these are kind of a combination of my business and my podcast, but at this point, they're so interconnected that it's hard to differentiate one from the other. So I'll kind of be showing you how I'm using the

podcast to achieve my overall business goals. Hello and welcome to podcast for profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a Podcast Producer, strategist and educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted leader and create another source of revenue for

your business. You're in the right place. Before we get into the episode, I just want to remind you, I know that I said this in last week's episode, but it took me years to make a dime on podcasting that wasn't for me, producing podcasts for other people. I wanted to share that in earnest, because it takes dedication to nurture an audience and to find their pain points and to create products and then create content around those products and to promote the content and products. So I'm

not saying you can't do it. You can. You absolutely can. But if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Remember to take your time. Progress is still growth, no matter how small, and most of the time, small change over time is much more impactful than a big change. Once in a while, we're going to talk about five income sources today, and like I said, these are both directly and indirectly from my podcast. And I'm going to be as transparent as possible on how these work, what I do, and how

I'm doing it. So if you want to copy this same model for your

podcast, you absolutely can. We'll start at the top. So how do I make the most money podcasting and from my podcast Since 2021 when I started podcasting full time, my main source of revenue comes from ongoing yearly contracts with podcasts that I produce, manage and do virtual consultations or production for this will normally bring in anywhere from 60 to 75% of the total revenue of my business, so most of it, and I think that it's worth mentioning that my main source

of advertising and marketing for these services that I just talked about that makes 60 to 75% of my revenue is this podcast, and that's why I say it's Not directly money made from the podcast, but it is in a sense, I'm using my podcast to grow my audience and nurture my audience and pitch my services.

If you're a service based business and you have an industry specific podcast, there is no reason you aren't pitching yourself and your services in every single episode, I'd say, preferably a soft pitch between the beginning and middle of the episode and a hard pitch at the end of the episode. A soft pitch might look like kind of talking about a client that you're currently working with to achieve X, Y and Z, while a hard pitch at the end is telling the listener, like, where can you

buy? What can you buy? And, more importantly, why should you buy it? If you aren't pitching your services on every episode, you are leaving so much money on the table. You know why? Because most of your audience doesn't listen to every single episode. I know that's so sad, but it's true, most of our audience only listens to the episodes that either they want to listen to or they feel like pertains to them. Also, most of your audience is

only retaining about 60% of what you're saying. So keep that in mind. Also, the thing that I bring up every episode, which is that most of your audience needs to hear about a product eight to 12 times before they buy. So let's say that you only bring it up once a month in episodes. That would take you a whole year. If someone was listening to every single episode, which, like we just said, they're probably not, it would take them

a whole year to buy from you. That's a long time. That's a long lead time continuing with products and services of my own that I'm selling. Also I am selling digital products from my podcast and through my podcasting connections. This is again, not directly through the podcast itself, but it is facilitated by bringing awareness from the podcast. I said, is my number one advertising and marketing

source. So I'd say that digital products at this time probably make up five to 10% of my total revenue, and that's partially because I just launched my digital shop in August of this year, and because I only have five products currently. However, that being said, I know people who make half of their yearly revenue from one digital product. So don't let that hold you back. If you only have one digital product, that is okay.

Also, if you're thinking, what is a digital product? In my case, that's my templates that are like, for example, my customizable podcast media kit or Instagram templates. So I have made those from the things that I have posted and have actually worked for me or sent to companies and they've actually worked for me. So I turned it into a template so

that other podcasters could use it. I think that that is something that is really helpful to think about when you're trying to think about what you want your digital products to be. Because, in my opinion, the most important thing for you to think about when you're creating a digital product to sell on your podcast is to think about why your listener is listening to your show. Specifically, what do you bring to them as the

audience they can't get anywhere else. When you think about that, and you have an idea of what that could be, then think about one problem you can solve for them, or, better yet, as I was saying earlier, a problem that you have already solved for yourself. That's exactly what I did when it came to me trying to figure out what products I was gonna sell in my digital shop and what I was gonna make. I thought about what I needed as a podcaster, especially in the beginning, what did I wish that

I had? If you're hearing all this and you're still thinking, I have no idea what kind of digital product I would make,

but I know that I wanna make one. I have a really cool tool for you to use, and if you're thinking about launching a digital product in 2025 all you have to do is fill out a little bit about your podcast and your audience, and it will take all that information and a little bit of magic for me, and it will email you 10 ideas for Digital products that you can create and sell in 2025 that are personalized to you, your

audience and your podcast. It is so incredible. I was using it yesterday, and I was like, I am so excited to give this to them. So yeah, definitely check it out. The form will be in the episode description if you're interested in selling a digital product through your podcast next week's episode is going to be all about digital products. So make sure that you're subscribed to this podcast, if you aren't already, and be on the lookout for that next episode, because it's going to

be all about digital products. How to sell digital products, what you need to know about your audience, what you can expect, basically everything I wish that I had known when I started creating and then selling a digital product through my podcast. My third revenue stream for my podcast in 2025 is

affiliate marketing. And affiliate marketing, for me is kind of tricky, because I'm not really the kind of person who will push just any brand or brands that I don't actually use people who do that make a lot more money than me at affiliate marketing, and if that's something that you're interested in, go for it. But for me, I find that it's really hard to sell something I'm not personally bought into and that

I don't love myself. Because if I'm being honest, there's enough things that I buy and love that it would be really hard for me to then be selling something that I'm just totally not interested in. For my affiliate marketing, the majority of my sales come from Amazon, so that's usually recommending podcasting equipment, podcast software and technologies, and

then also vendor referrals. I'd say, all in all, this makes up less than 5% of my revenue throughout the year, but I will say that it's some of the most exciting money to make, because most of the time I'm not personally doing any work to make that money, other than just recommending things from time to time. So yes, it's a small amount of money, but it's also a small amount of work too, which we really like. So some people make almost their entire yearly revenue off of recommending

products. And you know, that's a whole industry in itself, but if you're a podcaster who is new to podcasting, and you are trying to find a way to monetize your podcast, I think that affiliate marketing is a great place to start, since there's, like, a really low barrier to entry, and the companies that you're working on behalf of don't have to pay you any money unless you make money off a sale. Most of the time, these companies will

give even really small creators a chance. So why not? Why not just try spend some time reaching out to brands that you like, tell them about your audience and your podcast and why you love their. Brand why you love using their products, and ask them if they have any kind of affiliate program. Just tell them honestly, like, Hey, I love your brand. And then just

see where that goes. A small little tip that I'll give here is I usually email instead of DMing, I find that an email is much more formal and put together than a DM they get so many DMS already, so try to find a partnership's email. Try to find someone in PR or sales and send them an email. The fourth way that I'm making money from my podcast in 2025 is speaking

at conferences and live events. And I know that this isn't directly through my podcast again, but the podcast is what opened the door to let me speak at these conferences in the first place. So let me explain now how I make money off of this. Because you're probably thinking, how do people make money doing this? The first way is having a speaking fee. Okay? And it depends if I'm applying to speak for free, or they are

recruiting me to speak for a fee. So honestly, it doesn't really matter, because either way, I'm gonna make money. Obviously, getting paid a speaking fee is one thing, and that's a predetermined amount that I'll establish ahead of time with the conference, and I'll get paid that amount of money. But for a conference that I'm speaking at for free, I'll make money through a sales funnel that I set up when I'm

speaking. So let's say, for example, next year, this is true, I'm going to a conference about podcasting, and I'm going to speak on Pinterest for podcasters. So during the middle to end of that presentation, I'll have a QR code for free Pinterest graphics to use, so templates that people can use on Canva that I've used and got 1000s of clicks on, so great.

The audience is gonna get something for free. After that, I'll add them to my email list, and so that will start an automated welcome sequence that is selling them another product, probably pertaining to Pinterest, as well as hiring me for their consultation services and working with their podcast. So since I just met and worked with all these people face to face, the conversion rate is just so much higher than a normal lead, because we've already met in real life and

I've already created value for them and their podcast. We already know each other, and that is just so powerful, especially in the digital age doing in person events. I know people say this over and over, but doing in person events is

worth it. I meant to say this earlier, but I'd say that revenue from my speaking engagements brings me anywhere from I'd say, 10 to 20% of my yearly revenue, if you are interested in learning more about how to make money from speaking engagements that you leverage through your podcast, listen to episode 17 of this podcast, how to leverage your

podcast for paid speaking opportunities. I will link it in the episode description, but it is a really good one to kind of teach you about how to look for conferences, and also what you need to do to get in touch with these people, to be on their radar to start speaking at conferences. So that's a great episode. Okay, so up to this point, we've only talked about things that I've done in 2024 that I'm also going to be doing in 2025 now I want to talk about the new things that I'm gonna be

doing in 2025 to make money through this podcast. Let's start with course creation. I have three courses currently in progress to be launched in 2025 I am so beyond excited, because these are going to be incredibly valuable to you as a podcaster. They have both video components and downloads for each section, so it will actually be able to walk you through each of these, especially if you're a visual learner like me, so you can really see, okay, this is what I need to do again. They say that

you only retain about 60% of what you hear. So I'm very excited to finally be launching these courses for you to walk you through step by step. How do you do this stuff? I'm gonna keep two of them a surprise for now, but the first one that I'm launching will be about Pinterest and using Pinterest for your podcast. I've had over half a million views on my pins since February on a brand new account. It's the number one lead source, after Google on my website, the average person

spends 23 minutes on my website, if they came from Pinterest. Is that not insane? I want to teach you how to use Pinterest for your podcast so you can stop stressing about posting five times a week on social media and people still not listen to your new episodes. Pinterest is amazing because the pins circulate for two years. I know I have a whole episode about this, but whereas Instagram is usually about two days, I'll take the two years. In addition to courses, I'm also launching

automations for podcasters. So this is gonna look like a. Few different things, but like the digital product tool that I told you about earlier, these tools and systems will be to make your life easier as a podcaster. Podcasting takes so much time, so I just want to help you to figure out how to grow and monetize your podcast and save a little bit of time along the way. Also be working with podcasters to implement these

automations into their podcast. So like we say, AI is not going to replace you, but people who use AI will, and I want you to be the person using AI. I'd love to hear from you on how you are planning to monetize your podcast in 2025 send me a DM, send me an email. It's Morgan at Morgan Franklin dot media, if you need help making a game plan for how to monetize your podcast in 2025 send me a DM, send me an email. I'll have my contact information in the episode description. You can go ahead

and schedule an exploratory call for free on there. And as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast. Hey, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, go ahead and subscribe to the show. New episodes air every Monday morning. And if you've found this episode valuable and you want to help other business owners and podcasters, we leave

me a five star review. It helps the show rank higher in the charts and brings more entrepreneurs the information they need to start making money on their podcast.