Speaker 1: So when should you monetize your podcast? That's the million dollar question, or probably more appropriately, the thousand dollar question. And it's a question that we get a lot at Buzzsprout because monetization is one of those things that you typically think about as a podcaster, especially after you've gotten started, and you just wanna know what kind of options are out there for me as an independent podcaster, and when does it make the most sense to start taking advantage of some of those options? So before we get to our recommendation, our advice on when we think it's a good idea to start exploring monetization, it's helpful to understand the three big things that you will spend your time working on as a podcaster. The first one is content, and that is literally creating the podcast episodes that your listeners get in their podcast playing apps. If you're not creating content, there is nothing to monetize. So that has to be the first piece, launching your first episode, publishing consistently, getting into a groove with how you're editing your episodes, doing the interviews, all of that fits in the bucket of creating the podcast itself. Once you feel like you've got a really good rhythm with that, the next thing you'll wanna focus on is marketing your podcast, because it's not good enough to just create something really cool and really special. If nobody knows about it, then it's gonna be difficult to monetize it because you need an audience first before any monetization strategies really make sense. And so once you have the content dialed in, you'll wanna shift your attention to marketing your podcast. So that means going on other people's podcasts and being a guest. That means having guests on your podcast potentially, if that's the model that makes sense for you. That means using social media, going into Reddit threads and Facebook groups and interacting with people that you think would be a good fit for your podcast. That's the things that you wanna focus on next, because unless you have a podcast that is growing, any monetization strategies that you choose are ultimately gonna not reach the full potential of what you could earn from those opportunities. So if you go straight from creating content to monetization, and you skip the marketing step in the middle, you're gonna be trying to squeeze every single penny out of the audience that you have. But if you had instead focused first on creating the content, second on marketing the show to make sure that every single month you have more listeners you had in the month before, then monetization starts to really make sense. And when you're in that position where you have the content, you've marketed it, and now you're starting to monetize it, it's not as overwhelming either. Because when you're first starting out, trying to balance all three of these things can feel like a lot. And so until you've really mastered the content, really mastered the marketing, monetization is really just gonna be a distraction from what you should be doing to help your podcast be set up for long-term success, and for it to not just be a one-and-done thing, or you do it for a couple months and realize there's a lot of work involved and then decide to quit. We want you to be set up for success. Now, what is the threshold, the ballpark, that we recommend for podcasters to start considering monetization? For me, what I encourage podcasters to do is publish episodes consistently for at least six months. That allows you to really master that first bucket that we talked about. The second threshold is to be getting at least 500 downloads per episode. The reason that number is important, and actually like a really good rule of thumb for when you should start monetizing your podcast is because at that level, every single monetization strategy that's out there starts to make sense. Even the ones that aren't as lucrative like CPM-based ad reads and sponsorships, you can create packages for brands at 500 listeners that start to make financial sense, where you're not just earning $3 for an episode, but you're starting to earn 10, 20, 30, $40 for an episode. That's the rule of thumb that we encourage you to consider is be publishing episodes for at least six months and have 500 downloads per episode before you start thinking about monetizing your show. Now, if you feel like that's where you are, you have been podcasting for six months, you are getting 500 downloads per episode or more, and you're ready to jump into monetization, but you aren't sure really where to start, then you'll wanna check out a previous video that we had here on the channel where we talked about the three monetization strategies and features that are built right into Buzzsprout to help you get started. So if you're interested in watching that, you can click the link in the video description below this video, or you can watch the video that just popped up right on the screen, and that'll take you directly there. You'll learn how Buzzsprout helps you with podcast sponsorships, helps you with affiliate marketing, and also with listener-supported monetization models. Well, I hope you enjoyed this video, and we'll catch you in the next one. Keep podcasting.