Publishing a podcast to the iTunes store?

Typically very few podcasts charge money to listen. There are a few.

Being free and then going pay is always a risky business. You will loose a lot of listeners.  The question is will you keep enough to make money?

Typically, podcasts build up an audience, and then sell advertisements which they insert into the podcast. But you need a big audience to make any real money, or you have to have more ads, which can be annoying to listeners.

Esquire has a list of the their top 55 Podcasts (both paid and free) and maybe what they have done will give you some clues. There are also tons of things to search on the net on how to make money with a Podcast because there are tons of people are doing Podcasts.

But then, that is the problem, tons of people are doing podcasts.

I used to teach iOS programming, and everyone who took the class was going to make a lot of money with their app in the app store. Except, millions of other people have apps too, and they are all there in the store too. It was very disappointing to so many to work so hard on something only to have it disappear into the store and so few people even know about it.

So how do you get yourself above the noise? It is the same with podcasts. You will indeed need to promote it.  Be prepared to spend a lot of money on marketing your product (podcast) to get the word out. Just putting it in the Apple Podcast library will do very little as you share the library with a lot of other people. As of 2013 (yea, back that far), Apple says one billion iTunes podcast subscriptions and counting:

Apple says that those billion subscriptions are spread across 250,000 unique podcasts in more than 100 languages, and that more than 8 million episodes have been published in the iTunes Store to date.

Very easy to get lost in the noise there, and that was back in 2013. I suspect it is double that by now.

I am not trying to be a downer, but it is as difficult to make a successful podcast these days as it is t make a winning iPhone app. It is a very crowded market. You have to differentiate yourself from the others. People need a reason to care. They also need a reason to pay to listen if you want to go that way. Why should they pay for you when there is so much other stuff? When you know that answer, you are ahead of the game. And you need to get the word out far and wide. I know podcasts who hire PR firms to spread the word.

Sorry if I burst that bubble, but I wanted to be realistic.

I also recommend Podcast Insights: https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/

They have more up to date statistics and info.

Thanks for the feedback. I was one of those who created an awesome iPhone app, then watched it die on the vine. Just getting it to the App Store did nothing for sales.

I should not plan on it making money, instead to be a repo for my stunning revelations. Yes, these involve 911 and the Boston, Harvard and Cambridge connection to the attacks that day. I have a book at Amazon that could start to sell if I could get some buzz going...

https://www.amazon.com/Fortress-Harvard-ThinkTank-Royal-Revenge-ebook/dp/B077ZS8XJ7/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513561863&sr=8-2&keywords=fortress+harvard

I have made video and have many more coming...

fortressharvard.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKrFl9oAtEEiavrXEHxU21g

I have a rebranding underway and may call myself EagleEye Vanguard with only the book retaining the name Fortress Harvard.

So, I want a PodCast as a central place for my research, and thought that iPhone distribution would be wise.

Only later, did I imagine it as a source for revenue. I think I may find a small, but very committed audience. It's stunning how easy it has become for me to find Monuments to Murder built throughout Boston, Harvard and Cambridge, once I broke the code and recognized the crown has been waging war on 9/11 against "his subjects" since 9/11/1776!

So, I have explosive information to share and feel people would get hooked into my paradigm, which is 100% unique and 100% verifiable. And that is what is at the heart of my plans to use a PodCast to communicate in a way that is in a format people expect and is immensely scalable. Whether I ever charge money or not, is a decision for much later.

Thanks.

So I see nothing wrong with putting it on iTunes, but I would make it available on other platforms as well, No reason to leave anyone behind as a big audience does not use iOS devices of course.

You can of course create a PodCast page on your website and put the files up there in mp3 or other "universal" format that will play  on almost any devices.

I liked this article on Where you should publish your podcast. Not everything you need to know, but it has a lot of good info.

And you can toss a few ads into the PodCast even up front. Keep them short, and many early PodCasters will actually do the ad themselves, mentioning the product of someone who would be willing to pay. And of course, you want to advertise your book and any other things you have for sale. Show notes should contain Affiliate Links form Amazon as well. Never hurts to get a few bucks from that.

I can answer more specific questions if you like.

Sure, thanks.

I want to create as little of the structure of the PodCast as possible, and need a platform. I want to distribute to iTunes, but also want iHeartRadio.

There are many deployment platforms to choose from, but I suspect my choice may limit my distribution access, too. Right?

What can you suggest for my podcast framework? PodBean? Blubrry? Anchor? Spreaker? Others?

I want it to include audio and video and links and ads, as you suggested. And I hope to be able to easily add some subscriptions mechanism or an advanced list of choices for those who pay some monthly fee, or a fee , pay to play for a special session.

I am all ears.

thanks

Direct Message me if you have questions about what you find. I can make some quick assessments if you like.

Here is a follow-on question:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29123100/Need-to-choose-WordPress-plug-in-for-an-audio-and-video-podcast.html#questionAdd