Podcaster Training: Monetizing Your Blog or Podcast

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This is a subject that is talked about quite often in the New Media World and we are going to go over a few ways that you can monetize or make a little money with your blog or podcast. This discussion is by no means a complete list. I will cover some highlights that will enable you to have a starting point to your monetization.

Now, there are many ways to monetize, such as advertising, sponsorships, donations and affiliate programs. The easiest of these aforementioned methods is donations. You don’t have to do much of anything except to put a Donation Button on your blog or web site and if someone is inclined to help you out, they can easily click this and give you some money! Sounds easy, right?

Setting up a Donation Button will require you to have a merchant account (to accept credit cards) or a PayPal Account. There are other “PayPal type” places around that may offer this feature as well. Make sure to place your Donation Button in a prominent place so that it can be seen (and hopefully used) and then make sure to tell your listeners (of your show or podcast) or readers of your blog, that this button is there and then ASK them to make a donation! That’s all you need to do for this type of monetization structure.

The next type of monetization is sponsorships. These are a little harder to obtain, but well worth getting. To get a sponsor for your blog or podcast, you will need to approach several companies that you would like to “push their wares” in exchange for an advertising spot on your blog or podcast. There are places that will help you get sponsorships, such as BluBrry, a Rawvoice Company, that you can signup with, it’s free to do this, fill out an advertising survey and complete their requirements and then they will match you with advertisers (sometimes more than one) that you can place on your sites, blogs and use as host read ads in your podcasts. One such example of this is the GoToMyPC ad I read at the beginning of every show and have a banner ad on my blog for. Of course, once you get a sponsor, it is important that you do your part by reading the ad and/or placing the advertising your site or blog to insure that you will get paid!

Speaking of advertising, our next structure is actually two fold. Advertising can be from businesses or companies that you approach and signup with yourself or you can sign up with an affiliate program and place ads from different companies easily on your sites or blogs and use these advertisers as possible sponsors of your podcasts. You can go to places like Commission Junction, ShareASale or LinkShare to signup for a free affiliate account and start placing ads today! Affiliate sales usually get you anywhere from 5 to 75 percent commission on each sale. This is also an easy way to place ads for companies you like to shop with on your sites or blogs too.

The last way we will discuss in our monetization structure is selling your own product or service. You may be involved in a Network Marketing or MLM company and have such a product or service already, or you may have developed an eBook or piece of software that you can sell, however, which ever case it is, you can begin to use this as a sponsor of your podcast and run your own ads on your site or blog and you would have a built in sponsor. Now, keep in mind when doing this method, that you keep within the guidelines of the MLM company for advertising their products and services in this fashion. Some MLM companies do not like Web 2.0 strategies and may drop you as a representative, so be sure to double check with your MLM company before doing this.

If the product or service is your own, meaning you own the copyright, rights, etc. then by all means, this is a great method to promoting your product and your self!

Here’s one more idea that isn’t real popular, however, it does work for most people. Joint Ventures or JV Affiliate Opportunities, are a way to make commissions by selling someone else’s products on your site or blog. In most cases, you can even sell them on your podcast as a sponsored deal and direct them to your site or blog to click on the affiliate link (so you will make the commission and not someone else!). You can find JV opportunities in most eBook and software sales. Sometimes these opportunities are presented as Master Resell Rights or Resell Rights and you buy the product one time and have the opportunity to resell it as many times as you like and keep 100% of the sales as your commission. There are lots of these type of eBooks and software out there and you can find more than 200 products right now at The Personal Publisher for only $2.00 each! That’s a small price to pay to be able to resell these products for whatever price you like!

Concluding this topic, I know that there are plenty of other ways to monetize your blogs and podcasts. I have only presented just a few to get you started. If you would like to leave a comment to this post with other ways that you know of, I know my readers and listeners would like to hear from you!

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Traveling with GoToMyPC

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Every week on Podcaster Training you hear me talk about GoToMyPC and the many benefits you can get from using this great service. As many of you already know, I am on vacation in Rhode Island this week and I am about 1,000 miles from home. Of course, my PC and all my files are at home and even though I have my laptop with me, I still have external drives chocked full of information that I use on a daily basis.

As I prepared to leave on my trip, I started copying files to a flash drive and during this process it occurred to me that I had never signed up for the 30 day free trial for GoToMyPC. I have used other Citrix products over time and so, I went to the web site at http://www.gotomypc.com/podcast and it took less than 2 minutes to signup for my free trial account and download the software to my home PC.

I went to another PC and tried the connection and within about a minute, I was connected to my home PC and had full access to e-mail and my files. This was a MUCH better way to travel than to rely on copying files and forgetting something important.

Now, on my third day of my vacation, I am transferring the Friday Night files from Podcaster Training to process them on my laptop. I will then be able to upload them to my server and complete my blog post, all thanks to GoToMyPC!

Not only that, but I have several e-mail accounts that I use Thunderbird to keep track of, and with GoToMyPC, I can easily access my e-mail and even reply to e-mails, all from the comfort of my laptop while in Rhode Island.

If you travel, even just a little, try GoToMyPC and give the 30 day free trial a run for it’s money! You’ll be glad you did! I’m glad I did!

This blog post is not an advertisement. Just another reason that I endorse GoToMyPC as a sponsored advertiser on my shows. I will not endorse any company or product unless I have used them BEFORE I endorse them.

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New Wordpress Plugin from BluBrry

Blubrry Powerpress Podcast Plugin from RawVoice

Wordpress in it’s default install configuration does not support podcasting at a level that most people need. The Powerpress Podcast Plugin has all of the elements needed to have you podcast RSS feed in complete compliance in order to obtain a iTunes listing, and is optimized for listings in podcast directories and the Zune Marketplace.

The Powerpress Podcast plugin also includes a player that you can configure to appear on your blog posts so guests can listen/view your podcast episodes straight from your website. It should be noted that nearly 50% of people listen to podcast online versus through their portable media player.

Features Include:

Easily add/modify/remove podcast episodes from blog posts

Integrated media player

iTunes RSS tags

iTunes album/cover art

Standard RSS Feed album/cover art

Ability to upload new cover art

Ping iTunes

Media size detection

Duration length detection (mp3 only)

3rd party statistics integration

The Powerpress Podcast Plugin has had a high level of Quality Assurance to ensure that all RSS Specification and Apple iTunes standards are met with flawless integration with Wordpress Version 2.5 and greater.

I think you will find that this Podcast Plugin for Wordpress to have all of the required element needed without impacting the performance of your website and system databases. This plugin has been designed by podcasters with 4 plus years of experience in the space.

Find out more at http://www.blubrry.com/powerpress

I have already installed this and it is working great! If you are a BluBrry Account holder, then this is perfect for integrating into your current stats program.

Popularity: 20% [?]