Podcasting has exploded in popularity, with over 4 million podcasts and nearly 600 million listeners worldwide. But can you actually make money podcasting?

I have been podcasting with my Your Digital Marketing Coach podcast (which originated as Social Business Unplugged and then became Maximize Your Social and then Maximize Your Social Influence before its current iteration) since 2013. While I can’t say it is my biggest money maker, it is a small money-making asset that has additional benefits beyond just monetization that I talk about in the video below.

I believe there are many podcasters like me. While most podcasts don’t generate huge revenue overnight, the right monetization strategy can turn your podcast into a profitable business or side income. Whether you have a small but loyal audience or are aiming for big sponsorships, there’s a monetization method that can work for you.

In this guide, I’ll share proven ways to make money podcasting, including strategies for beginners and established hosts. You’ll learn how to monetize even a small podcast, what methods work best, and how top podcasters are earning six- and seven-figure incomes.

How Much Money Can Podcasters Make?

Let’s begin with some general numbers that are often talked about in the industry. I have included the numbers below to demonstrate that in order to become a successful podcast in terms of monetization, a large podcast audience is preferable and potentially even necessary.

• Beginners (under 1,000 downloads per episode): $0 – $500/month
• Mid-tier podcasters (1,000 – 10,000 downloads): $500 – $5,000/month
• Top podcasters (10,000+ downloads): $5,000 – $50,000+/month
• Biggest earners (100,000+ downloads): Six to seven figures annually (e.g., Joe Rogan’s $250M Spotify deal)

Key Takeaway: You don’t need millions of downloads to make money—but you do need the right strategy for your audience and niche.

13 Ways to Make Money Podcasting (Even with a Small Audience)

Making money podcasting does require some back-end work that you may not initially notice when you take in your favorite podcasts, from BBC programming to Joe Rogan. All of these podcasts adhere to some basic steps before developing exclusive content, and those steps can be used to help you make your own break into the industry. To effectively monetize the target audiences listening to your podcast, I recommend the following:

1. Sponsorships: Building Long-Term Brand Partnerships

Although plenty of podcasts are interrupted by a quick ad, not unlike the ads you might have heard on the radio, sponsorships differ. Sponsorships are partnerships between you and a brand. These sponsorships involve personalized recommendations from the podcaster, and typically extend over the long-term (3-6 months, traditionally, though they can last beyond this time period).

There are several key components of sponsorship deals, including the frequency of mentions embedded within your exclusive content, custom integrations for your platform, and exclusivity agreements. Sponsorships can seem difficult to attain, but securing sponsorship deals can seem relatively straightforward: deliver a pitch, negotiate your deal, and provide your media kit, detailing your audience demographics and your platform.

There are notably successful podcast sponsorships, including Totino’s sponsorship of the My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast, wherein the brothers hosted a podcast that was entirely pizza-themed to promote the brand.

2. Podcast Ads: CPM vs. CPA Models

Your target audiences can play an important role in determining which model best fits your podcast content. When you place ads in your podcast episodes, there are typically two different options available: CPM (Cost Per Mille) and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). A CPM podcast ad model pays per 1,000 downloads, according to standard industry rates. A CPA-based podcast ad pays only when a listener of your podcast content completes a purchase, or signs up for an email list or other service.

Your audience engagement is going to determine which of these models best suits your needs. An engaged audience may be more likely to support CPA models, while a less engaged audience may be better off with a CPM ad model.

From here, you can look further into dynamically inserted ads, versus host-read ads. Because you want to establish trust with your audience on your podcast episodes, you want to make sure your podcast monetization strategy best reflects what your audience expects of your ad content. A dynamically inserted ad is pre-recorded by the podcast host or another individual, and can be placed anywhere within the episode. Host-read ads are not as flexible in positioning, and require a live read by the host, but a dedicated audience may be more likely to trust their contents.

3. Sell Merchandise (Print-on-Demand)

When you have a larger audience, you may consider selling merchandise. This monetization strategy is best reserved for a broader audience to maximize revenue, but can be a great option for podcasters looking to build trust and loyalty with listeners. Physical products like T-shirts, hoodies, stickers, and mugs can all bear your logo or your catchphrase. Successful podcasters can use platforms like Printful, Teespring, and Shopify to effectively automate this process, and provide an additional podcast monetization method without a great deal of extra effort (i.e. passive income).

Pro Tip: Offer limited-edition drops to increase demand.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting products and services, and earning a commission when your affiliate link is utilized by your readers. It is a common podcast monetization method, and is also frequently found in blogging and social media profiles. When your affiliate link is clicked on, you earn a commission. This is a great option for small to mid-sized podcasts with an engaged audience. Some of the highest-paying affiliate programs include the following:

Pro Tip: Integrate naturally into your podcast topics instead of doing a hard sell. Building an email list will help amplify your efforts and help this become a reliable source of passive income.

5. Sell Premium Content

Many podcast networks (Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, Spotify Subscriptions, and Patreon, to name a few) will allow you to offer premium content, including ad-free episodes, virtual events, extended episodes, and bonus episodes. These can be held beyond a paywall of a one-time purchase or a subscription, and can even allow online communities to flourish. Premium content can help monetize superfans of your work while making it possible to keep your main podcast free to increase your reach.

Further Reading: The 27 Leading Podcasting Tools to Help You Launch or Grow Your Podcast

6. Offer Paid Memberships

Paid memberships can also help support the development of online communities that receive exclusive perks beyond your average podcast content. Private Facebook groups can help you establish interest in an on-demand service for your podcast listeners, and paid memberships can be used to deliver weekly live Q&A calls, direct access to the podcast host, and more. This is another option ideal for podcasters with engaged communities.

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7. Crowdfunding & Asking for Listener Donations

While it might not initially seem to be the best or most effective option, many podcast listeners are happy to help support their favorite podcasts, from a favorite murder podcast to a parenting podcast. This is best used by podcasts with both loyal and engaged audiences. Podcast listeners are more likely to participate in this particular way when they are highly invested in a podcast. Platforms to crowdfund include Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, PayPal, and Patreon.

Example? Chapo Trap House reportedly earns nearly $180,000 per month from Patreon.

8. Join Podcast Advertising Networks

Podcast advertising networks offer different methods to post ads, including mid-way ads and post-roll ads. Podcast advertising networks are great for niche podcasts and mainstream podcasts alike, provided that they see 10,000+ downloads per month, as this is the standard requirement for podcast hosting platforms and advertising networks to begin offering ad placements. Popular networks include Podcorn, AdvertiseCast, and SXM Media.

Further Reading: 21 Marketing Podcasts to Inspire You in 2025

9. YouTube Monetization (Podcast Videos)

Offering a video podcast alongside your standard audio podcasts can also provide a source of income. Podcasters can take advantage of YouTube monetization by uploading podcast episodes as videos on YouTube to boost your annual income. This is a great option to increase your income for podcasters who are looking to encourage a loyal community. YouTube ads, memberships, and super chats can all be used to increase your revenue streams on YouTube. Monetization on YouTube requires at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.

Monetization on YouTube is clearly not an option for beginner podcasters; instead, it is a great option for podcasters who have already developed a strong sense of community and a dedicated set of followers. If you are interested in going this route, be sure to record videos of your podcasts to build up your watch time.

10. Sell Online Courses, E-Books, or Digital Products

Online courses, e-books, and other digital products can help contribute to a sustainable income for people who are experts in a given niche. Business, fitness, self-improvement–these are all potential niches with great potential. Making money through podcasting alone is not always easy, and adding some consumables like digital products can help increase the likelihood of developing revenue streams for content creators like podcasters. Podcasters can expect to make anywhere from $99-$499 per sale.

Consider this: a business podcaster can sell a LinkedIn marketing course. A personal finance podcast can offer an investment guide. Someone in lifestyle content production can create a course for organizing, optimizing daily routines, and far more.

11. Coaching & Consulting

Coaching and consulting is similar to creating digital products, but instead of creating consumable digital products that can be sent out, podcasters can coach others or offer consulting services to help others within their niche. This, too, is going to benefit podcasters with a strong community, and will require the podcaster in question to boast expertise in their given field. Career coaching, business consulting, and podcast coaching are all options to help people in your niche launch their own ventures or grow existing platforms.

Further Reading: How to Launch a Social Media Consultant Business in 10 Steps

12. Public Speaking & Live Events

Public speaking and live events can be a great option for business owners to draw more people in. This particular monetization strategy is great for podcasters who want to leverage their brand beyond the audio platform of strict podcasting. Those with merchandise can support merchandise sales during the public speaking or live event, and can even partner with others to bring in a wide variety of listeners and improve engagement rates leading up to the event.

If you are unsure how to proceed with this strategy, consider hosting or taking part in a live podcast recording followed by an audience Q&A, speaking at industry events, and joining in local or regional meet-and-greets.

13. Repurpose Your Content into a Book

Whether you offer expert advice on finances, or you host a podcast discussing the latest in health and wellness, there may be a way to repurpose your content into a book, a blog post, audiobooks, or social media content. All of these platforms offer a useful and potentially lucrative means of repurposing your audio content and expanding your reach. If you do not want to shift to other platforms, you can also sell podcast transcripts or use AI tools to turn your audio content into books.

Further Reading: How to Never Run Out of Social Media Content Ideas: The Ultimate Guide

How to Monetize a Podcast with a Small Audience

If you are just starting out, it can be hard as a new podcast host to generate the number of downloads it takes to become an easy-to-monetize popular podcast. With that in mind, here is my recommended podcast monetization strategy for beginners to get started:

1. Affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing has a lower entry barrier and can be a great way to get started.
2. Listener support (Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee). Smaller podcasts may have more engaged audiences due to the intimate nature of speaking to a smaller group of people, so listener support can offer a small way to break into monetization.
3. Digital products and courses. These options have high margins, so can be ideal for anyone looking to start with a bang.
4. Coaching and consulting. Coaching and consulting are premium services that you can offer even when you are starting out, provided that you quickly establish yourself as a thought leader or expert in your field.
5. YouTube ads. If you are a video-based podcaster, you can somewhat quickly generate revenue with YouTube ads, pre-recorded ads automatically placed with your videos.

Key takeaway: Focus on high-value, low-volume monetization first (e.g., $500 worth of consulting services vs. $20 CPM ads).

Further Reading: A Complete Guide to Creating a Great Podcast Website

Final Thoughts: Is Podcasting Profitable?

Yes! Podcasting can be profitable, but monetization requires strategy. The biggest mistake new podcasters make is waiting too long to start making money or trying to focus on lower-producing methods first. While there are never any guarantees, beginning with the end in mind will help accelerate your earning potential.

Start early, test different revenue streams, and focus on engagement over downloads. Whether you have 100 listeners or 100,000, there’s a way to make podcasting profitable. Using the guide I have put together here, you can develop your monetization strategy to suit your needs and adapt to your journey.