A funnel without traffic is like…

a river with no bridge

a fire with no wood

a house with no walls

a car with no gas

Traffic is already out there and you have nothing to do with that.

All you are trying to do is jump in front of enough traffic to get the attention of your target audience.

The best writers aren’t the ones with bestselling books. The people with best selling books are just the people that keep showing up over and over and over again anytime there is an event for authors.

If you are already podcasting, you are building your largest traffic source that is free in exchange for creating great content.

So if you started your podcast and you have listeners, you have successfully jumped in front of traffic that would otherwise be listening to other content and they are now listening to your content.

What most podcasters miss is that the game is not over when you successfully pick up enough traffic for your podcast. 

The traffic that you have is only valuable to other people at scale. So in other words, it’s only valuable to other companies, sponsors, authors, etc. in large volumes.

Since your traffic is most valuable to you from the moment you acquire it, you need to have a way to capture that traffic and KEEP it consuming your stuff.

This is why we recommend creating products and services to your audience so that you can teach them what you know and get paid for it.

I see over and over again that podcasters only ever gain enough traffic that is valuable to them, but yet they never monetize that traffic.

That’s like thinking that you won’t start a business unless you can just go straight to the franchise model.

Almost every franchise starts with a single location. 

Before a podcast has enough traffic to become valuable to other companies, you already have enough traffic to make it valuable to your company.

So at the time when ONLY YOU qualify to benefit from your audience, you aren’t taking any steps to monetize that audience. That’s crazy!

I can tell you all day long how to get traffic, but if you don’t have any way to capitalize on that traffic, then there is no mechanism to convert your traffic into customers.

What have you created to ascend your traffic to the next level to convert them to customers?

You may be thinking that eventually, when you have enough traffic, you will create something to monetize. Create it now and then go capture more traffic!

Don’t get tons of traffic and have no way for them to become a customer.

You can pour jet fuel on your traffic by taking some very specific actions...

Once you have a funnel built, it’s time to ramp up your traffic acquisition methods. 

Depending on whether you have more time or money, you will be taking completely different actions.

In fact, the larger you can build your organic traffic, the less money you will have to pay for traffic.

So where can you jump in front of traffic if you have more time than money?

• Other podcasts
• Conferences
• Professional organizations
• Trade organizations
• Local groups
• Facebook groups
• Online communities
• Being an affiliate for a bigger name or company
• Creating affiliates for your products and services

If you have money for paid traffic, I have 2 recommendations:

1. Advertise inside the podcast apps to get more subscribers and downloads.
2. If you are advertising on social media or google, only drive traffic to your offers, not your podcast.

Want to learn more?

Sometimes it seems like selling is easy for everyone else but us! If you're new to the online marketing world, you may be making offers that aren't converting very well.

There's a very logical reason that some offers convert better than others, and if you are making this mistake, it's because it's just a natural tendency when you are new to making offers.

The first type of offer that many people make is an improvement offer. It's a very safe offer to make and it feels better than just trying to stick our necks out with some other type of offer.

After all, you really are trying to improve the lives of your audience members!

You want to help them manage their money better...

You want to help them have better relationships...

You want to help them be better parents...

In any niche it makes sense to want to improve whatever situation your ideal clients are in right now.

However, if you make an improvement offer, in almost every situation you will have lower conversions than if you made a different kind of offer.

The problems with Improvement offers are:

1) They aren't compelling enough to prompt your audience to take action.

2) The improvements you are offering will be much harder to measure.

3) It's hard to develop raving fans by only marginally improving their lives.

So what's the alternative to improvement offers?

Offers that will convert much better than improvement offers are transformation offers.

I'm not suggesting that you go out and make all sorts of outlandish promises that you can't possibly deliver.

However, when you focus on the transformation that you can bring to others' lives, you can probably articulate very well what that looks like.

Going back to who you serve and how you serve them with give you the lens through which to view the transformative impacts of your offer.

When you highlight the transformation in your offers, it becomes all the more compelling.

The more compelling and irresistible that you can make your offers, the higher converting they can be.

There's so many ways you can make your offer compelling, but in order for them to be high converting, they have to be so irresistible that your audience is compelled to action.

Then, you can only hope that the irresistibility of the offer will also compel them to take action on all of the content in your offer.

Because when you can truly be the catalyst for a transformational change in your audience, then you will develop a loyal audience!

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

Today, I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room. So, you can have everything perfect on your podcast, but if you don’t get this one thing right, you will still struggle to have success. That’s right, today I’m getting all up in your business about your money mindset!

Hi there, welcome to Podcast Monetization Secrets, my name is Christy Haussler and I appreciate you joining me today.

In case you haven’t met me yet, I am the Founder and CEO of Team Podcast, a full service podcast production company. I’ve worked with over 250 podcasts and I’ve made more than a million dollars podcasting. I’m on a mission to help as many podcasters monetize as possible, and that’s why we are here today.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about something that I have struggled with over the years, and no matter how much I achieve, it always seems to come back at every level.

I’m referring to having money blocks!

My money blocks manifest through extreme anxiety. 

I can hear my money blocks in my language. 

When I tell myself “I can’t afford” something. 

Then my thoughts are consumed with panic about things that aren’t even real.

This causes me to want to cheap out on things, and then it always derails me and sets me back from achieving my goals.

Does any of this ever happen to you?

If so, I’m going to tell you my 3 step framework to overcome my money blocks.

1. Change my internal dialog.
2. Change my external dialog.
3. Do things that scare me.

Listen to this episode as I share my personal journey with overcoming my money blocks.

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

Need help getting your podcast optimized and ready for monetization? Learn more about the Podcast Tune Up here.

You know, marketing a podcast isn’t easy. Some of the most basic things about marketing a podcast, like what link do you even share? - aren’t as cut and dried as it is for other industries. So today, I’m going to talk you through it all, so you’ll know what your next steps are.

Today, I want to address some of the common knowledge that we hear and have been given by many well meaning podcasters or gurus that may not be the best advice for you.

1. You should always share the link to your website on social media. 
2. You should post your show on every possible social media site so you can get more listeners.
3. Run Facebook ads to get more listeners.

Beware of anyone who uses ALWAYS and NEVER when giving you advice. So many times the right answer depends on the situation. 

Let’s zoom out and really face reality here.

 Of course you need to always be looking to grow your audience. 

But let me ask you this - if you haven’t monetized your podcast, what is the difference between getting 300 downloads per episode and 700 downloads per episode?

Sure, it’s an ego boost to know you have more listeners, but tangibly for you there is no difference. Has it put more money in your pocket? Has it grown your email list? Has it done anything for your business?

Let’s break this down in funnel speak.

Getting people to listen to your podcast is at the very top of your funnel. This is the wide part of the funnel.

So, the more people you put in at the top, ultimately the more people you will have that drop out the bottom end of your funnel as customers.

Many, many podcasters only have the top of a funnel in place and there is nothing else after listening to the show.

If this is you, then you have to put some other funnel steps into place. Don’t worry about marketing your podcast until you at least get a compelling lead magnet in place.

The second step of your funnel is to get listeners on your email list.

People may have to listen to your podcast 10, 15, 20 times before they follow your call to action. And even then, you have to give them a reason to visit your website. 

Visiting the website to sign up for your newsletter is NOT a reason to visit your website. That’s you asking a favor of your audience.

Give them a compelling reason to visit your website. What do you have waiting there for them? Give them an irresistible reason and give them value from it.

So my recommendations are that you use social media to get as many LISTENERS to your podcast as possible.

That means putting out links that give people a way to listen to the podcast with the least amount of friction.

Why not put out just the link to your website?:

1. Links taking social media users off platform always throttles the reach of your posts on social media.
2. Your website isn’t the easiest way for people to click and listen.

Do anything you can to keep people inside the SM platform and listening to the show.

Eventually, they will like the show well enough to move your show off social media and into their podcast listening app.

If they keep listening long enough and you make them a compelling enough offer, you can get them on your email list.

If they are on your email list, you can continue marketing to them and convert them to customers.

Need some help with your podcast? Christy has a special offer for a Podcast Tune Up that will help you:

1) Get more downloads to your podcast.

2) Get more opt ins to your email list.

3) Know your next monetization steps.

If that's something you need help with, learn more here.

In today’s episode, I’ll address the issue of calls to action and ads in podcast episodes, something that a lot of podcasters don’t like because they feel like it may make them seem salesy, greedy, or money-hungry to their listeners. The fact is, producing a podcast is a costly affair. And so to avoid getting financially overwhelmed which may lead to podfading, a podcaster has to find ways to monetize their show. One way to achieve that is by having calls to action that direct listeners to products or services that you offer or to include sponsor ads at some points in your episodes.

Podcasters have been predominantly incorporating those calls to action and ads in their outros, but it has come to my attention that some podcasting apps are now cutting out the intros and outros on podcasts so that listeners are directly listening to the main episodes. That means if your call to action or ad is in your outro then your listeners may not even get to listen to them. Your call to action is meant to compel your audience to do something that can help you in your efforts to grow your show and make it profitable, and in this episode, I’ll teach you how to strategically place your call to action (Or ads) in your episodes so you can achieve just that. Stay tuned!

Show Highlights

• One major thing that podcasters are doing wrong (01:40)
• Being conversant with the podcasting industry trends so you can continuously get your listeners to take action (03:37)
• The best way to pitch your call to action within your episodes (06:26)
• Tuning up your podcast with a great product that helps in optimizing a podcast’s discoverability and increase its downloads (09:26)
• Reinforcing what you do for people all through your show while also naturally bringing in what you offer your clients (13:02)
• Strategically pitching what you do during an interview episode (15:06)
• Claiming your space to always make sure your listeners know everything about you and what you have to offer (19:41)
• Getting something back from the time and energy you spend producing your podcast (25:27)
• Staying up to date with new technologies to get the most out of your content (28:04)

Resources Mentioned

• Grow Your Podcast at TeamPodcast.com/TuneUp

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

In today’s episode, I’ll share my wisdom on the viability of numerous opportunities that are thrust at podcasters from new networks, distribution platforms, and monetization services. Podcasting can feel like a solitary medium at times. It often is. Most podcasters are alone when they get behind the mic, or plug in and listen to someone else's content. You can do a lot on your own in podcasting. But, one thing you can't do is grow your show to its fullest potential.

When it comes to podcast networks, there’s a lot to unpack there. Joining one isn’t all roses and sunshine so I’ll explain exactly how they work and tell you some of the pros and cons of joining one. I’ll also dive into the factors to consider before joining a network and the benefits and drawbacks you should expect. Then there’s social media and the question of just how effective it is in growing a podcast audience. Tune in to this episode to tap into my wisdom on all those areas and I know it will launch towards your podcast growth and monetization goals.

Show Highlights

• Is Facebook Podcasts going to be a game-changer? (02:32)
• Why using free tools to manage your podcast may not the best way to go (05:08)
• Knowing what to expect if you go with Facebook Podcasts and the various podcast networks (09:21)
• How to navigate through the podcast network conundrum (12:14)
• You can’t change your potential audience’s listening behavior (15:37)
• What to look at before deciding where to put your show (19:26)
• Understanding that networks may not be a monetization solution for you (22:35)
• The potential nightmare you might find yourself in and how to avoid it (25:19)
• Promo Swaps: The best way to grow your podcast listenership (28:54)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing some of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen podcasters make when they’re trying to monetize their podcasts. Are you guilty of making one of the three mistakes? I see podcasters making these mistakes repeatedly, but you don’t have to be one of them. I’ve been in the industry long enough to witness some big monetization wins and losses so you can rest assured that my insights will help you monetize your podcast successfully. Many podcasters around the world are now making a living from their passion, and are encouraging others to follow in their footsteps. 

It’s important to mention that commitment is very important for podcasts; it is dangerous to release episodes and see what happens. It’s better to commit to a well-crafted plan. Don’t just start a podcast to get rich in 2 months. If you would like to share your passion for a particular subject with a community of people who also want to improve themselves on that subject, then you have the right intentions. The goal is to bring value to your community while building your own reputation as a podcaster, and monetization will help you sustain that and generate revenue in the long term. And this episode will help you achieve exactly that. So don’t miss out.

Show Highlights

• Busting the myth that there are only three ways to monetize a podcast (02:03)
• It’s not your content that people feel like is good enough, it’s your platform (05:06)
• The factors that determine how many downloads you get (07:08)
• Why holding out for sponsors is an uphill task that may not be worth it (09:56)
• You can’t start your podcast and expect to figure out monetization after you’ve built a following (11:54)
• Working on both the strategic and tactical simultaneously (17:52)
• Building a podcast doesn’t mean you’re going to monetize at some point in time (20:12)
• The value of getting a podcast tune-up/audit and where to get it (26:10)
• Taking action fast enough to fix the overwhelm that hinders monetization efforts (29:40)
• Start taking accountability seriously and get help from people who know what they’re doing (31:27)
• How to avoid getting overwhelmed as a podcaster (35:24)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!

In today’s episode, I’m going to share one major thing that I have been doing that has enabled me to succeed in podcasting and make more than a million dollars from it. There’s a lot of factors a podcaster can’t control that influence the success of a podcast. But the one thing you can control is your intent. And you can learn to apply that intent with purpose across your podcasting efforts. If you ever feel like you’re just going through the flow, not knowing where your podcast is headed, or what you’re meant to do with it, then you need to start being intentional in everything you do to run it. The fact is, every rational podcaster intends on making a great podcast. 

And that’s good because I can assure you that every rational listener intends to only listen to great podcasts. No one intends to listen to a podcast that's just “okay”. Every listener’s intent is to listen to shows they think are going to be great. Unfortunately, some of the shows they wind up listening to (that podcasters make) fall short of that goal. The idea of intent in podcasting is actually not new, but it was brought home to me when I was starting out in podcasting by one of my biggest inspirations, John Lee Dumas. Do it without intent and proper planning, and you’ll see no benefit. But with intent and the necessary effort, comes the benefits. It’s that simple. 

You need to break out of your habit of going through the motions and really focus on what it is you’re doing when you’re doing podcast-y things and I guarantee you that you’ll thrive not only in sustaining it but also in monetizing it. For more on that, don’t miss out on this inspirational 29-minute episode. See you on the inside!

Show Highlights

• How I transitioned from managing call centers to making a million dollars from podcasting (01:53)
• Getting inspired by John Lee Dumas (04:26)
• The podcasting success that comes with being intentional (07:21)
• How to go about guest interviews to make sure they deliver the greatest value to your listeners (11:25)
• Strategic planning and making the necessary investments to make sure your podcast will thrive (13:35)
• Moving towards sustainability and monetization and the lifestyle freedom that comes with it (16:23)
• Becoming intentional about every operational activity of your podcast is a must (18:05)
• Sales is a skill you have to continuously build on (21:18)
• Figuring out the systems so you can build life-changing wealth (23:12)
• Striking out as an entrepreneur and being able to work from anywhere in the world (25:31)

Want to learn more? Join our private Facebook group here!

You can also find Christy and her team at www.teampodcast.com!