“How can I monetize my podcast?”
Ever found yourself asking this question? Or, will I find this question in your internet search history?
No, I’m not going to do that. But here’s what happens with most podcasters:
You spend many months thinking about starting a podcast. And then you spend a lot of time reading blogs and watching videos, hoping to find a podcast idea.
Then one day magic happens!
You get hit by a lightning bolt. Tada!
You find the inspiration, nail your podcast idea, buy that fancy microphone on your Amazon wishlist, and launch your show!
Weeks and months pass by, and your listeners are loving your show. But you have this voice inside your head that’s starting to get louder by the day…
“How long are you going to keep doing all of this? You need to work on improving your show quality, do some marketing…”
The chatter continues to grow.
I know that chatter. That loud voice haunted me too, for a long time. But I’ve come a long way since then, thanks to creating digital products.
Podcasting is a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work too.
In order to continue enjoying any process, it’s important to see progress. This applies to podcasting too.
Money Creates Opportunities.
Monetizing your podcast opens door to a lot of opportunities to make progress:
- Invest more time to improve the quality of your show.
- Outsource editing to expert editors.
- Pay the bills for hosting and other tools including both hardware and software.
- Invest in renting a good studio or build your own home studio.
- Hire a good producer to improve your show’s quality.
- Build more products or focus on other areas of your business.
These are just some ways monetizing your podcast can help you.
In this article, I’m going to help you with straightforward ways to monetize your podcast with simple digital products.
Monetize Your Podcast with Digital Products
What are ‘Simple’ Digital Products?
Digital products come in various levels of complexity – the simplest ones to the most complicated ones. Some can literally be created in the next 30 minutes, while some others might take you the next 30 days.
Simple = Quick
But when I say ‘simple’ digital products, I’m particularly referring to products you can create in 60 minutes or less. Here are some specific digital products we’ll cover in this article:
- Ebooks and How-To Guides
- How-To Training
- How-To Scripts
- Behind The Scene Video
- Audio Course
“But there are so many other digital products!”
Why These 5 Digital Products?
You’re right. But there’s a reason why I suggest the above 5 digital products:
- You can create them in under ~30 minutes.
- They are hyper-focused to solve a specific problem.
- High perceived value. You can sell them for anywhere from $1 to$50 (and cover your production costs!).
So if that’s convincing enough, let’s jump right into creating your first simple digital product.
Please Do This First
An underlying assumption in this article is that when creating these digital products is that you know your audience really well. If you have doubts, please read this article where I share a step-by-step approach to understanding your podcast topic and your audience.
1. Ebooks and How-To Guides
Ebooks are one of my favorites simply because they are a great relationship-building tool. And of course, they meet all the three criteria I described earlier. If you’re someone that loves to serve your audience through your writing, this is the best option.
How to Write a How-To Guide and Ebook In Under 30 Minutes?
- Pick a focused How-To topic. Something one can learn and see results fast.
- Breakdown the topic into subtopics.
- Write down the sequence of actions one will need to take to achieve the result.
- Record yourself explaining these steps into a voice transcription app. Imagine you’re explaining this to someone over the phone.
- While recording, make sure you cover all the subtopics you listed before.
- Export your recording transcript into Google Docs.
- Sort the sections by subtopics, check the flow and export your final doc as a PDF.
2. How-To Video Training
A video training has an even higher perceived value as compared to an Ebook. If you are someone that’s comfortable recording yourself using your phone camera, this one is for you.
How to Create a How-To Training In Under 30 Minutes?
- Pick a focused How-To topic. Something one can learn and see results fast.
- Breakdown the topic into subtopics.
- Write down the sequence of actions one will need to take to achieve the result.
- Turn on your phone camera’s video and start to record yourself explaining the exact steps.
- Don’t aim for perfection, but clarity. Instead of trying to create a video like a professional video from a DSLR, try to record a video that looks like you are training your friend over a Facetime or Whatsapp, or Zoom video.
- Pause to explain, look up your notes, use a whiteboard if needed.
- Export your final video that is anywhere between 15-20 minutes long.
3. How-To Scripts
These are really effective when you have to teach something like a sales call, upsell email, or even a phone negotiation that you’ve mastered. Ramit Sethi’s credit card interest rate lowering script is a good example here.
How to Create How-To Scripts In Under 30 Minutes?
Just type your script in a Google Doc and export the PDF. If you have email scripts, copy your last email into a Google Doc and export that as a PDF.
Always remember one thing, the script should save time or money.
4. Behind The Scene Video
It’s one thing to teach others to cook, but a whole different experience to show them how you cook. BTS (Behind the Scene) videos are about doing the latter. These products can be extremely valuable when the ‘process’ is your ‘secret sauce’.
Examples here could be fitness routine, logo making, hand-printing clothes, to name a few.
How to Create Behind The Scene Video In Under 30 Minutes?
- Define the process you want to share. Identify the beginning and the end.
- Put a camera in the appropriate place – over the head, webcam with screen recording, camera by the side or from a distance. It depends on what your process is.
- Hit the record button and start doing what you’re about to share as a BTS video.
- Finish recording and export. Content over quality is what you’re looking for.
5. Audio Course
As podcasters, you understand how much value just audio can be. And I’m sure your podcast listeners do that too. Simply put, an audio course is one or more audio files that teach the listener something valuable.
Examples here are courses on blog writing, mindset training, breathing techniques, to name a few.
How to Create an Audio Course In Under 30 Minutes?
- Pick a focused How-To topic. Something one can learn and see results fast.
- Breakdown the topic into subtopics.
- Write down the sequence of actions one will need to take to achieve the result.
- Turn on the recorder in your phone, or one like the Zoom H5, and start to record the following as separate audio files:
- Introduction
- Each subtopic
- Conclusion
- Best Practices
- Next steps
- Export the audio files and bundle them together.
At this point, you have created your digital product. It’s simple, focused, and drives instant results. What next?
It’s time to ask for the sale! But how?
We’ll discuss this in detail in the below section.
How to Sell Your Simple Digital Product?
It’s great that you took the time to create your digital product. In this section, I’ll show you how to turn these digital assets into cash.
Specifically, we’ll look at the tools and process to sell your digital product. Let’s start with the tools.
Tools to Sell Digital Products
When it comes to tools, I recommend you use a simple inexpensive one. There are two I strongly recommend:
- ConvertKit (they just launched Commerce, and it’s free up to 1000 users!)
- Gumroad (here’s my invitation to join for free).
- e-Junkie (try e-Junkie for a month)
Just signup for one of these tools, and follow the instructions to do the setup. If you are not tech-savvy, I recommend using ConvertKit as it has everything you need to sell digital products PLUS it bundles email marketing, all for free up to 1000 users.
How to Sell Digital Products to Podcast Listeners
The trickiest part of selling digital products to podcast listeners is the medium switch. Podcast listeners are often busy doing something else, like walking their dog, or going for a run, driving, etc.
There is a high likelihood of them not remembering your digital product URL when they get to their computer or phone later. Given this background, there are a couple of ways you can sell your digital product to your podcast listeners:
- Get your listeners to sign up for your email list.
- Pixel a link to your podcast and retarget them with your product Ad.
Build an Email List
The first strategy is straight forward. It works really well if your listener has already listened to one of your episodes. What I like with emails is the very step of committing to share an email address. It tells you that the listener is psychologically committed to learning from you.
If you signed up for ConverKit to sell your digital products, you don’t need anything else to start your email list!
Retarget From Anywhere
The second strategy works really well even when you’re sharing something about your episodes on social media. Pixelme is a great tool that allows you to embed your Facebook, Twitter, or Google Adwords pixel in just about any link you share on the internet.
Start Monetizing Your Podcast
Remember to pick something very focused, something you can teach quickly, and one that listeners can try really fast.
I hope this article was useful to you. Please share this article and leave a comment below to let us know if you have any questions as I respond to your questions personally.
