Rocketship
At first glance, podcasting might not seem like the most sexy (or profitable) side hustle idea.
After all, launching a podcast requires a fair bit of effort and proper recording equipment. The combination of time and money investment is still I have a regular 9 to 5 job and I'm busy.
But if done right, podcasting can be a very profitable side hustle, giving you an excuse to sit down and work on one of your passions. I recently had the opportunity to meet With co-host of both shows, Michael Sacca Rocketship.fm and the New Economyhe and his co-hosts make their money through two business podcasts that's all His side income is $10,000 a month.
So what's the secret to the success of Sacca's sideline podcast?
In the end, it's all about gaining and building relationships with lifelong listeners who can help you grow your audience on your behalf, opening up new sponsorship opportunities along the way. Here we'll go into more detail on how to successfully gain new listeners and monetize your show.
1. Find your niche
At the end of the day, podcasting is no different from any other side hustle or full-time job. To find an audience, you need to define your niche. “Find a reason people want to listen that doesn't exist today,” advises Sacca. “If you're really good at something, tell your story and get it out there.”
You can't be all things to everyone, and you shouldn't go after a niche you don't know much about just because you think it will bring in some quick profits. While it makes sense to research your potential competitors and audience demographics before choosing a topic, it's your own passion and personal knowledge that will enable you to create quality content.
Additionally, choosing to focus your podcast (or other business offering) on a specific niche will maximize your chances of getting noticed by the listeners you want to reach. They'll read your show title and description and quickly decide that this will suit their tastes.
2. The power of interviews
For Sacca, interviews proved to make a big difference in growing Rocketship's audience: “With interviews, I didn't have to be an expert on the topic I was covering, but I could still convey a lot of value to my listeners.”
But the interviews did more than enable the Rocketship team to produce quality content. For their first show, they were able to feature Ryan Hoover from ProductHunt. As Hoover's company and influence grew, Rocketship was able to leverage his interviews into bigger ones.
Each person you interview will drive their own audience to your podcast and will often share the episode through their own social media channels. Many of the fans who discover your podcast this way are likely to become loyal listeners. This is a strategy I've used to grow listeners for my own podcast over the past year.
3. Don’t worry about monetization yet
The best part about having a side hustle is that your day job helps cover your living expenses, which means you don't have to worry about the cost of living while you're growing your podcast. First, create high-quality, engaging content.
“You can start your podcast for free and not worry about how to monetize it until you figure out how to grow it,” Sacca said. “Then you can figure out how to generate revenue.”
Once you start building meaningful relationships with your early listeners, you can start thinking about monetization avenues, like booking sponsors for your podcast or figuring out the right way to release products to your listeners.
4. Don’t ignore marketing
You don't have to worry about monetization when you start a podcast, but if you want to reach your target audience, you'll probably need to invest a bit in marketing.
Podcast guest and marketing guru Eyal Reich is the co-founder of StoreYa. Traffic Booster I agree, he told me recently: “Word of mouth alone doesn’t drive much traffic to a website. Even if you have a small budget, investing in AdWords and social media marketing is essential to growing your audience, especially if you're still trying to get your name out there.”
The bigger your own audience is, the more potential sponsors will be willing to pay to feature your show. Your early marketing efforts will also contribute to organic growth as more people discover your podcast and share it with their friends.
5. Don't strive for perfection
Producing quality content is important, but as Sacca pointed out in our interview, podcasts are “a lot less permanent than written text.” Every episode doesn't have to be 100% perfect. “When you put something out there, it's okay to have a few mistakes in there. People will keep listening and forget about it,” Sacca said.
Being a writer myself, I completely agree with this advice. Perfectionism can prevent you from launching in the first place. It's important to remember that no one expects perfection from you.
As a podcaster, you have a lot more room for error. Use it to your advantage. You don't have to cut out every single “um” and “ah” when editing your audio. Not obsessing over such nitty-gritty details means you can publish episodes more frequently and reach a wider audience.
Grow your audience
Building a large audience of loyal listeners isn’t something that happens overnight.
It will take time and a lot of trial and error to get used to your podcasting voice, get used to the process of putting a show together, and begin to learn which growth channels are most effective at acquiring new listeners.
But by using these principles to streamline your work, you can create quality content that your listeners and sponsors will want to tune in to again and again.
