By Rachel Puryear

If you want to travel and see the world, and you need a remote means of financially supporting that goal; you have likely considered becoming an influencer online.

Financial and personal success of such ventures varies widely, and they usually take time to build. But if you can invest the time and effort upfront and market yourself well enough to earn a living at it; this online career path offers tremendous flexibility. You can also do it from anywhere, enabling traveling while making money.

Maybe you’ve thought about starting a blog, but you’re and extravert – and therefore more of a talker than a writer. At the same time, maybe you don’t want to constantly be on video.

If that’s the case for you, you might consider starting your own podcast! You can entertain, educate, or otherwise engage your audience with your voice. There are multiple ways of monetizing a podcast, too.

Here’s a guide to getting started with your own podcast:

Choosing a Subject

To start a podcast, the first step is to decide what you want to talk about.

Think about subjects you’re passionate about. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time that you’re not motivated to do just for money or gain? What can you talk about for hours on end, and not get bored?

These are the subjects you should choose from to make your podcast about.

Don’t choose something you don’t care about just because it’s seems hot now, or like a big money maker. If you’re not interested enough to give lots of energy to it, and engage listeners; you will be beat out by the many competing podcasters who are passionate.

Trends come and go, but a podcast with great content that’s delivered with enthusiasm can succeed for the long term.

No matter what you’re interested in, there’s an audience for it – even if the subject seems obscure. If you find it fascinating, other people out there do, too – and they would be grateful to discover your podcast about it. Don’t underestimate the power of a relatively small, but loyal and enthusiastic, audience.

Of course, you want a subject you know something about, too. Don’t worry if you’re not the world’s greatest expert on the subject – you just need to know a little more than most of your audience does, and you will probably be researching your topics anyway before each episode.

The main hard rule around knowledge of your subject, though, is don’t give advice you’re not licensed to give – i.e., if your podcast is about fitness and health, and you’re not a medical professional; make it clear you’re not, so you don’t have someone claim you gave medical advice without a license. Use an appropriate disclaimer.

If the subjects you’re interested in are already the subject of several other popular podcasts (and they likely are), have no fear – there’s room out there for yours, too. Don’t write off a subject just because it’s been done before.

You can make your podcast stand out in the sea of podcasts on a big subject by selecting a narrower niche. Go in-depth rather than broad. Or, direct your podcast to an audience you connect well with, but who may be overlooked by most other influencers.

For example: You might be interested in parenting, and considering starting a podcast on such. No doubt, there’s already plenty of websites and media out there about parenting. However, you could talk about subjects like parenting children with particular special needs, raising children as single fathers, or working on having healthier family dynamics with your kids than the ones you grew up with – as just a few of infinite possibilities.

Getting Started

For a beginner’s guide to getting your podcast up and running, see here for a course available on Udemy. See also here for how you can access Udemy courses for free.

You’ll need a good set of noise canceling headphones with a microphone – check out a great one here.

Monetizing Your Podcast

You don’t have to monetize your podcast, if you don’t want to – let’s make that clear first. If you make a living elsewhere and would prefer to just focus on making great content, rather than the business aspect; that’s totally okay.

That said, if you do want to generate income from your podcast, there are several ways to do that. Here’s how:

Affiliate marketing:

I’ve previously written on this blog about how to monetize a blog through affiliate marketing. Well, the same principles apply to monetizing a podcast with affiliate marketing.

Through your podcast, you promote products and services of companies that agree to pay you a commission for purchases generated by your podcast. Be sure to provide the correct links or codes to your listeners, to get credit for the referrals. Also, be sure to disclose that you are an affiliate, and receive a commission from their purchases.

Use your imagination to come up with possibilities for affiliate marketing; depending upon the subject matter(s) of your podcast, and your audience. Here’s a few ideas for inspiration.

Advertising:

This is another way to make money marketing products and services through your podcast. The main difference between advertising and affiliate marketing is that you are paid (per whatever agreement you make) to promote the product, rather than per sale.

You will likely need at least 5,000 downloads per month in order to attract sponsors (or maybe less with a really strong niche).

(Start with affiliate marketing if you don’t yet have enough of an audience for advertising – there’s no minimum audience required for many affiliate programs, including Amazon.)

Selling Your Own Products and Services:

Maybe you’d rather sell your own goods and services, rather than other companies’. If that’s the case, a podcast is a great way to promote your own business, and let your customers know more about you in a fun and memorable way.

Shopify or Spring are good places to get started with your own online merchandise.

Donations:

If your podcast doesn’t lend itself to the above options, you could request donations from your audience in order to help support it.

You can request one-time, or monthly donations. You can sign up through Patreon, or add a PayPal or Stripe button to your website.

If you go this route, you might consider offering something special for those who contribute – like access to special episodes or gifts. Be sure to thank your benefactors, too.

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Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to making money doing fun things, and at the same time enabling travel.

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Check out my other blog, too – World Class Hugs, at https://worldclasshugs.com. It’s about celebrating the empathic, gifted, and giving people of the world; learning differences between toxic versus supportive friendships and relationships, spirituality through curiosity, and nature trips.

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