Should I start a podcast

byTheCatherine

13.9K followers

Updated 4 years ago

Starting a podcast can seem like a great idea because

1. They are hugely popular and can work in any niche.

2. The top podcasters, such as Joe Rogan, earn tens of millions and more moderate players also do exceptionally well. Joe Rogan has nearly 200 million downloads a month.Dave Ramsay, old school practical advice.

3. It looks like a great model, or you have to do is sit around, chat, interview people, and then attract traffic.

But the harsh reality of podcasting tells a slightly different story:–

First, if you look to the success pyramid, it looks just like that. There are thousands of people lounging around on the bottom, and they earn absolutely nothing and a comparative handful on the top-earning a fortune. Granted, you can say this is the same pyramid for affiliate marketing.

Secondly, even if your content is innovative and exciting, publishing your podcast across the various platforms is unlikely to attract many listeners at all.

The podcast graveyard

the reality is that most people start a podcast, launch maybe 10 or 15 episodes, and then give up. Don't even start on the podcast model if you're looking at it as a short-term fix. It's long-term and will be a hard slog at times.

And this is not just beginners. I've seen some really high-end marketers fall down this rabbit hole. It's also important to stay focused on your end goals.

Goal 1: Make Money. This will always be your primary goal.

There are many ways to achieve this. The first one you should start with is affiliate marketing because it's the most straightforward model; you can expand after that.

Build a paid offer, A MICRO product, an online course, a membership site, or a coaching program. You can sell your services online or start your own challenges.

Then sell it using your own audience, paid traffic (e.g., FB ads, YouTube ads), or joint ventures/affiliates.

Goal 2: Email List Building

Selling your paid product (Goal 1 above) will do this and build you the best quality list possible, which is a list of buyers right off the bat.

Or you can build a subscriber list by putting a free offer online. Be aware that this may be a lot of work and not get you very far, especially in the early stages. These people will generally be cold leads, and few of them will actually convert into buyers.

To build a subscriber list, you can use either cheat sheets, case studies, PDFs, a series of videos or even a series of unique interviews.

Goal 3: Build Rapport

This is about fostering the relationship between yourself and your reader. You will read somewhere that the money is in the list. This is part of the story; the money is actually in the relationship you build with your list. Today it's important that you speak to your readers and as many ways as possible. You build a list, you also speak to them on social media platforms.

And this is where podcasts can fit in, but if you do, you want to be clear that it's not about making sales or attracting traffic but instead just building a relationship with your existing audience.

In summary, you could say:

OFFERS for making money/list building

PODCASTS/BLOGGING for trust and rapport building

In summary what I'm trying to say is that a podcast shouldn't be your primary focus or begin a strategy. It should support existing strategies of income. Podcasting equipment can actually be quite expensive. You will probably pay several hundred dollars for the audio equipment. It's not something you just start with poor equipment