Libsyn + YouTube, Making Money, Trailer Swaps (3 Things)
Joe Casabona (00:00)
Hello, hello and welcome to another three things in podcasting. This is for the week of, you know, I say the day it's released, which is today is June, well let's do that. Today is June 21st, 2024. And these are the three things in podcasting I want to talk about this week. So the first is pretty big news here.
I think, and it's that Libsyn adds YouTube API support. Now I'll just say, let me, I'll bring up the story here so that you can see it. Now they say in an industry first, I'm gonna, this is like, depending on how you wanna pick this, it's like a little bit of an embellishment because there are several hosts that will publish an audio.
a video version of your audio over to YouTube. RSS .com does this, Transistor does this, and then YouTube has its own RSS ingestion. But what makes this newsworthy is they have integrated with YouTube's newly announced podcast API features announced by YouTube at the podcast show in London earlier this year, just like a few months ago, I think. And...
The most interesting thing here is the ability to publish video files, right? And so if we scroll down to this announcement, audio podcasters with a separate video podcast. So I'll read directly from this creators who host an audio podcast on Lipson and also publish a video version directly through the YouTube platform for YouTube audience only. By the way, this this.
podcast this episode qualifies as that this is a video first type of episode I'm doing that I'm also publishing the audio to so anyway Creators who host an audio podcast on Libsyn and also publish a video version directly through the YouTube platform for your YouTube audience only You can continue to maintain that workflow if you would like your video only version available everywhere video podcasts are available
you can create a new podcast on Lipson and use the new integration. Lipson will also distribute your new video podcast to YouTube and other video compatible podcast platforms. Yes, Lipson supports video podcast hosting and distribution. Now I'm not the biggest fan of Lipson. I think that they were more or less first to market and they did a lot for the podcasting industry, but in years,
in the intervening years, they've kind of fallen behind in my opinion. But this is huge. I think that this is great. I am essentially publishing this on my main YouTube channel. And then the audio only version of the podcast goes to the dedicated podcast workflows to YouTube channel. So I think that there's a lot of good here. If you're a Lipson user and you do a video podcast is great.
And as the announcement says, these are the newly announced podcast API features. So I definitely hope to see more hosts roll that out in the future. But that's it. Libsyn adds YouTube support. OK, so next thing on the list is from friends of the show, Mark Asquith and Danny Brown from In and Around Podcasting and from Captivate.
But they in this week's episode, the one that came out on June 19th, that's episode 13. They have a segment on the show called Stupid Stuff and Podcasting. And Danny came across a Reddit post that I didn't track down because Reddit scares and confuses me. So I'm just going to link to the in and around podcasting episode page. But the gist of it was a Redditor basically said, like, don't even think about trying to make money podcasting 99 percent of.
Podcasters don't make money. You don't make money unless you have a hundred thousand downloads per episode or whatever. And that's just crazy to me. So I just wanted to take a minute and wax poetic about this because I have pretty strong opinions about it. When should you think about making money with your podcast? I think with the caveat that like if you're just doing it for funsies to try stuff out and, you know, not really commit to it, like you just want to.
see if you like it or it's like a hobby and it will only ever be a hobby and you don't care about downloads and all that. Assuming that's not the case, you should start thinking about making money for your podcast before you launch your podcast. I'm really bullish about this because this commenter is basically taking the stance that the only way to make money is by selling ads through CPM.
or cost per melee, or a set price per thousand downloads, which is usually between, I don't know, $15 and $20 maybe per thousand downloads. So if you get a thousand downloads for your episode of your podcast, you'd get paid between $15 and $20. This is flawed because CPM is not the only way to make money, as I said in an argument I got with a very popular podcaster.
a few months ago. I don't think CPM is a good way for podcasters, especially independent podcasters, to make money. And I think if there are people who are staking their claim on helping people, helping podcasters making money, and they're pushing that narrative, it's a disservice to them. It's a disservice to podcasters. And I would say they probably have an ulterior motive if I'm being completely honest.
So if you want to make money with your podcast or you want to start a podcast that generates income, know that there are a few ways to do it. It doesn't just have to be sponsorships, A. It could be selling your product or service. It could be affiliate links. It could be memberships. And if you want sponsorships, you don't have to sell by the industry standard CPM.
You don't have to say, I get 5 ,000 downloads per episode. So I'll just sell this to you at $125. You can create value with a small audience and not sell based on those numbers. And when I got into an argument with this popular podcaster, you know, he and another person basically made the argument that no matter what price you get for your podcasts,
or for your sponsorship spot, it's always going to be based on downloads. So it's always going to come down to a CPM. And that is true if you say, well, yes, if I take the number that you paid me and divide it by the number of downloads that I got, there is a CPM, but you don't have to sell that way. You don't have to say, well, I get a thousand downloads on my podcast. This is how much I'll charge. Or this is how many downloads I think I'll get. So this is how much I'll charge. You can say,
I have a niche podcast and I have an audience and maybe that's a thousand or maybe that's a hundred, but that doesn't factor into the price. I have an engaged audience and you can reach them and I'll talk about you in my newsletter and I'll mention you on my live stream. And now you're creating value for the sponsor, whether or not you get hundreds of thousands of downloads.
But again, that's only one way to make money. So when should you think about making money for your podcast? Before you launch. You don't think about how many rooms a house is going to have after you build the house. You don't think about what you're going to make for dinner after you start putting a bunch of ingredients in a pot. You don't think about where you're going to drive until after you get in the car.
Right? In each of those cases, you have an idea of the outcome. You've thought about it. Right? I want to have chicken cutlets for dinner. I need to go to the store. I'm going to have four bedrooms in this house. And then you plan accordingly. That's the point here. If you're launching a podcast and you want it to make money, you need to plan for it to make money. This is not Field of Dreams.
If you build it, they won't come. You have to be intentional. Okay. That was a really long time on this one screen. I'll link to the episode where they talk about it in and around podcasting. The last thing I want to talk about, this is just a quick friendly thing. I guess this is going to be an episode on the shorter side. That's okay though. We're covering three things. That's the main goal of this show. So however long it takes us to cover three things is fine.
It's just some good advice from Kieran McRae. I hope I'm saying that right, Kieran. I don't think I've ever actually heard you say your name. But over on Twitter, he offers some really good advice on trailer swaps. So he says, create a trailer swap with other pod. Creating a trailer swap with other podcasts is easy. Number one, who you are. Number two, what you do. Number three, why they should listen. Number four, how to find you.
Get those four things into a 30 to 60 second trailer and swap it with another show. Podcast swaps are the best way to grow a podcast. I know some people feel differently about that. Some people think it's just like easy advice to give that doesn't yield results. But borrowing other people's audiences is a tried and true method of getting people to listen to your show.
or for growing an audience rather. Borrowing other people's audience is a tried and true method for growing your audience, right? This is why TV shows have crossover events. This is why similar shows get cross promoted on competing shows. This is why when you're watching one sporting event, a network will promote other sporting events.
because the people watching this thing probably fit the bill for another thing. This is why people do joint webinars. This is why people do collab YouTube videos. This is why people do guest blog posts. And it's the same for podcasting. So if you want to grow your show, definitely do some trailer swaps or podcast swaps. I've done guest swaps with people. But Kieran's advice here for a trailer swap, 60 seconds max. Try to make it 30.
and talk about who you are, what you do, why they should listen and how to find you. If I were to do it, I haven't thought about this. I'm doing this off the dome, I guess. If I were to do that for this show, I would say, let's see, I should probably just hit record on this. This will be my podcast swap audio. Do you feel like you spend way too much time on your podcast? Like you spend more time in the pre and post production than you actually spend?
creating great content. My podcast, Podcast Workflows, can help you. Hey everybody, my name's Joe Casabona. I am a podcast systems coach who has been automating things and podcasting for over a decade. And on my show, I will walk you through the best ways to improve your podcast processes, automate and delegate more, and save up to 12 hours a week in your show.
you can find me over at podcastworkflows .com. So there you go. I opened up with why, like I opened up with the pain, right? Don't just start off with, hey everybody, my name is Joe Casabona and this is Podcast Workflows. Hook them. Why they should listen should be number one. Always answer what's in it for me first. Always answer that question first, because if you don't tell them what's in it for them, they're not going to care.
They don't care who Joe Casabona is if they've never heard of Joe Casabona. What they want to know is how can Joe Casabona help me? So we want to start off with that. But thanks, Kieran, for that great advice. I am going to like and retweet now as I record. OK, so that's been three things in podcasting. Today is June 21st, 2024. Libsyn adds YouTube support, which is great to see. When should you make money?
What should you think about making money with your podcast and some great trailer swap advice? If you liked this episode, head on over to podcastworkflows .com. Geez, podcastworkflows .com slash join and join them the newsletter because I send out helpful advice every week for you to save 12 hours per week on your podcast. Improve your workflow. Make it easier so you can focus on great content.
Thanks so much for listening. My name is Joe Casabona and until next time, I'll see you out there.
