[jfengel]

Indeed, thank you very much. I listen to a lot of podcasts while commuting and exercising, and I'd wondered about how the business end worked. I receive an extraordinary amount of great content for nothing more than the price of ads (which I skip a lot of; sorry but it's true).

I have gone out of my way to purchase products that advertise on podcasts: I'm typing this as I eat a lunch flavored with hot sauce from FuegoBox.

I don't know how well most podcasters do from that. You had a wonderfully lucrative target audience; most of what I listen to has a larger market but with less money. I don't know how many Casper mattresses and MeUndies they can possibly buy. The impression I get from the IHeartRadio-branded ones hint that by the time the marketers and support get their cut, it's poverty-level wages.

Again, thanks for the look behind the scenes. That was incredibly informative and very well written.

[timoth3y]

I think the same basic strategy could work for any true niche podcast. But "niche" is different than "small."

Two guys talking about the NFL to 3,000 listeners would be very hard to monetize, but a sports podcast that focused on local HS sports teams, or one that talked about MLB from the LGBTQ perspective? Those would be pretty easy to monetize using the same basic strategy I used.

I think the biggest advantage I had was not my specific audience, but the decades I've spent selling new products and starting companies. Of course, that is also my audience, so I can't be completely sure.