This Is How Much Money A Podcast With 50,000 Downloads Makes

So podcasting has been around for a while .

But I feel like within the last two years it went full mainstream in 2019 , it seemed like everyone was starting a podcast from celebrities to youtubers to your mom's friend's cousin .

I mean , it's really become what makes a blog was in 2008 .

I even started listening to a few and really started loving it for mindless tasks , road trips , cleaning and even now for quarantining when I saw how many influencers and almost celebrities like people that have been on The Bachelor have made podcasts .

I thought there's got to be money in this .

And I was right , since I don't have a podcast myself , I called on a few people I know with podcasts to figure out how much people make from these .

So today , we're going to explore the whole podcasting landscape , how much it costs to get started and how much you could expect to make .

So when it comes to monetizing podcasts , I found in my research that there's a couple ways people do this depending on the size of the audience , podcasts that already have a large audience , we usually join a podcast network .

You've probably heard these at the beginning of very popular podcasts ramble .

The following podcast , a lot of these networks require at least 50 3000 downloads per episode .

A podcast network groups together a bunch of popular podcasts and is able to sell the ad space in bulk to advertisers which secures each podcast sponsored ad breaks .

This allows each podcast and a network to have access to more sponsorships .

So a lot of them are able to have four or more ads within a podcast .

So people can of course choose where they want to put in these ad breaks .

For example , if you've ever listened to Tim Ferriss podcast , dude puts like five minutes straight of an ad in the beginning .

I skip through the whole thing .

I don't know who is listening to that , but good for him because I'm sure he's making bank .

In fact , I found a blog post .

He has that pretty much says how much he makes .

And guys , it's a lot and don't worry , we'll go into the specifics of how much people make what we're getting there .

So I'm sure there are some networks that do go below 50,000 .

But in general , podcast networks are going to want people that do have thousands , not hundreds of listeners , but there is a service that will take literally anyone with not even their first listener and let them monetize and it's called , they're not sponsoring this .

I wish they were .

So this website Anchor is really common for people that are in the range of 10,000 downloads or less per episode .

Like I literally just signed up for Anchor and they already are letting me do a sponsored ad read .

Granted it is for Anchor itself .

So this is probably just their way of getting new users to actually use Anchor .

But still , this is a way for people with a smaller following to immediately start monetizing .

So let's take a look at the first podcast .

This is from Jordan Rebecca , a New York based youtuber with a podcast called Bitch Work .

So essentially , I interview all these people in my life who I think are inspirational , give great career advice and have just like really cool jobs that people would describe as dream jobs super quickly out of college and kind of talk with them about how they got their internship advice .

She produces her podcast herself and has been using Anchor to monetize for the past six months .

I started my podcast probably like six months ago and I would say I've made like just under 1000 dollars .

Anchor actually operates pretty similar to youtube ad sense , just like youtube , you have AC PM .

But in this case , it's a cost per 1000 listens .

So I will have one ad at the beginning , one ad and one ad in the middle of the podcast .

So it starts off with an ad and then there's an ad break in the center and nothing at the end .

I'm sure if you had more sponsorships on Anchor , you would add more .

I just have two .

Yeah .

So , but I think if you had four or five , you could probably add more ad breaks in there .

So we can see Anchor offers a $15 C PM for a 32nd ad read .

So two of these in an episode would give a $30 C PM .

So I get um probably like just over 1000 listens per episode .

I can kind of assume that if I upload a podcast episode , I will make probably just over or just under 100 .

So for the amount of listens around a couple 1000 an episode , $100 is really good money compared to how much you would make on youtube for that same amount .

So here's a video of mine that in the last week has earned an extra 2.5000 views and we can see that it's only made $14 .

So not even close to how much a podcast would earn .

It's honestly , I feel like then kind of easier than youtube because I feel like I've spent so many hours on a youtube video .

I think it's way easier to make money on a podcast .

I've been making youtube videos for a really long time .

When I started , it took a while to get youtube to monetize videos .

You have to hit like a certain amount of subscribers or something .

I don't know if it's still that way .

It's been super easy for me and I've made more money with the podcast than I have probably for a lot of youtube .

To be honest , in a much shorter amount of time , I'd make much more money on the podcast .

So , as you can see , Jordan is able to make a nice side hustle out of her podcast .

And I think this is really cool because that 1 to 2000 listens number is pretty realistic for a lot of people to get to .

Now , let's take a look at how much you can make with much more views .

Say 50,000 per episode .

I talked to Gretchen Gerty and Katie Belotti who both have podcasts that get over 30,000 downloads per episode about what it's like to monetize with this size of audience .

So let's start with how much you could make per ad break in the 30 to 50,000 download range .

Like if your podcast gets like 50,000 and I don't know why in my mind , I think that's like $1000 for like one ad for me .

I mean , I typically transparency , I , I mean , I'm open with this , I , I get 1000 a mention for my audience which like I said , it kind of fluctuates between 35 to 60,000 downloads depending on how long it's been up .

We've kind of pitched it as like 33,000 is how many listens I get just because that's the lower end .

So , you know , an advertiser can know that that's the bare minimum of what they'll get , they'll likely get more , but that's what they're gonna get , you know , kind of guaranteed .

So , in the 30 to 50,000 download range , we can see it's somewhere around $1000 per ad break .

Now , to get the full picture , let's take a look at how many ad breaks people typically do in a podcast .

So , in your podcast , how many ads do you do ?

Usually , usually it's like minimum one , every single one in the beginning because they signed for like six months or I don't even know what it was .

And then other ones are kind of just here and there .

So I feel like it usually is between one and three .

I typically do two ad breaks an episode .

You know , as a listener of podcasts , I get pretty irritated when it's like , more than that .

Like throughout the episode , I can't , you know , they won't get away without having another ad break .

So , I don't know , it's a personal thing .

I used to do one .

I recently increased it to two and I find that no one's really had an issue with it .

So you pretty much you decided to do two ad breaks ?

Do you find that you could do more ?

Like , does your network bring you more ?

Yes , for sure .

I think I could definitely do a lot more .

Um , I've even considered doing some at the end .

I mean , I feel like if I did more , I'd have to extend my podcast to be longer , at least because kind of on the shorter end , I feel like most people do kind of over an hour .

Mine are only 45 minutes .

So depending on the amount of ad breaks a podcast in this 30 to 50,000 download range could make anywhere from 1 to $5000 per episode .

So for me , I get about 2000 an episode usually .

So I don't know about you guys , but I've listened to podcasts that range from no ads at all to five ads per episode .

So with the same amount of downloads , two podcasts could be making very different amounts .

With this 30 to 50,000 range , one podcast could make 2000 episode while another makes 4000 an episode .

It really just depends on how many ads you put in .

One other thing to know is that the podcast networks do take a percentage .

Podcast networks primarily are going to bring someone sponsors , but they can also edit the podcast , make cover art , help set up merch , set up a live tour , like hold your hand , but they are going to take a higher percentage for each of those things I've heard on the low end , a podcast network will take 20% and on the high end up to 50% which I just can't imagine being worth it hardly ever .

So , really , if you're getting 30 to 50,000 downloads , you do three ads , you make 3000 an episode , your podcast network takes 30% .

You're left with 2100 per episode .

So that's a more realistic look at what someone is going to be making with that amount of downloads .

So you can really see how these podcasts that are getting half a million to a million downloads can be making quite a lot over the course of a year , half a million downloads could bring in 20,000 an episode with only two ad breaks .

And in 52 weeks , that's a little over a million dollars in a year .

So that's really a look into how much podcasts can make .

I learned a lot in making this video and thought it was super interesting how podcasts for the amount of time you're putting in can be a lot more lucrative than youtube .

They're also a lot less expensive to get started .

Everyone I interviewed in this video used a microphone under $200 .

I use a Blue Yeti USB mic for recording .

So I use a blue Yeti mic .

I use a microphone which again , I feel like all these things , I do like no one else does .

I use like a real , like a singing microphone .

It was $50 I think maybe 40 the blue Yeti mic is actually what I use for my voiceovers .

It's only 100 and $50 .

So if you're starting a podcast , it's a really solid microphone .

I'll link it down below .

If you want to check it out , a less expensive option would be to use a pair of ear buds with a mic .

I feel like almost everyone has a pair of these headphones lying around and they actually have little microphone right here .

So many people do not know this , but it's not bad .

It's a little quiet .

So it's not really like ideal podcasting mic .

But hey , it's better than nothing .

If you don't want to spend any money , you might have a pair of ear buds with a microphone in them .

So give those a shot .

And then this microphone right here is really the state of the art , best of the best microphone that you could get for a podcast .

I just bought it for voiceovers for my videos , but I haven't really figured out how to use it yet , to be honest .

And I think I need to buy an extra thing for it to work .

So this is the sure SM seven B and it's only 400 $100 .

I mean , $400 is still a lot of money still though .

That's so much less than the camera that I'm using to shoot this on .

So even if you want to go all in and buy the nicest stuff , it's still less than like an OK camera .

I don't really think this one's necessary though when you're just starting a podcast .

Like you can definitely get by on a blue Yeti , probably most people don't even notice the sound quality difference from the blue Yeti to this .

It's really only like the people that are in it and like really paying attention to that .

OK .

I hope you guys enjoyed this video .

If you like these breakdowns of how much different , I guess internet um platforms can make .

Uh I , I have a few videos of how much youtubers make .

So I'll link those down below .

You can go ahead and check them out .

You can see exactly how much I've made on adsense .

I also want to say a huge thank you to Jordan Gretchen and Katie for being in this video .

I literally could not make this video without you guys .

Like , what would I do ?

Guess how much people make from podcasts ?

So if you're looking for more podcasts to listen to , definitely go check them out .

I think bitch work is a great one for anyone who's not sure what they want to do as a career .

Gretchen's podcast is just a fun listen , I think really relatable for any girl in their twenties .

And Katie's podcasts is really perfect for anyone that's interested in moving to New York or what it's like to live in New York .

What it's like to date in New York , like anything like that ?

Should I start my own podcast now ?

So we can do a breakdown and see exactly how much like full on analytics and everything , you know , maybe stay tuned .

Let me know if you would listen .

So that's gonna be it for this video .

Comment below if you guys know anything else about how the podcasting world works or if or if you have any questions and I will see you guys next Saturday .

Bye .