How to Make Money Podcasting (Even With a Small Audience)

You don't need thousands of podcast listeners, sponsorships, or brand deals to make money podcasting.

I've been podcasting since 2019 and have published more than 700 episodes. But for the first few years, I made virtually nothing from my podcast because I was focused almost entirely on growing the audience.

That changed when I realized there was another way to monetize a podcast: focus on the person on the other side of the microphone.

After interviewing a leadership consultant on my show, we continued talking after the recording. During that conversation, I discovered he needed help with something I was uniquely qualified to solve. I offered to help, and one week later he became a $4,000 client. After becoming more intentional about who I invited onto the podcast, I generated roughly $12,000 within a month. Pasted text

Use Your Podcast to Build Relationships

Think of podcasting as networking at scale.

Instead of cold messaging potential clients and immediately trying to sell them something, invite interesting people in your target market onto your show.

Have a great conversation. Get curious about their business. Build an actual relationship.

Then, if you discover a problem you can genuinely help them solve, you can naturally offer to continue the conversation.

The goal isn't to invite people onto your podcast just so you can pitch them. Your guests should first and foremost add value to your audience.

I use three criteria when evaluating potential podcast guests:

• Contributor: Will they add value to my audience?
• Client: Could they potentially benefit from what I offer?
• Collaborator: Could we potentially help each other grow?

The contributor piece is non-negotiable. The other two create additional opportunities for the podcast to grow your business.

You Don't Need a Huge Podcast Audience

Building a large podcast audience can take years.

But you can start building valuable relationships from your very first episode.

Create a show your ideal clients would genuinely want to appear on, invite the right people, have great conversations, and look for natural opportunities to help.

That's how your podcast can become more than another content platform.

It can become a client acquisition system.

Watch the video above for the complete strategy, including how I find guests and decide who to invite onto my podcast.