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A Unique Way To Make Money Podcasting

· Time to read: ~4 min

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(By Troy Price) My mother had a phrase she used when she heard something so much that she was sick of it. She would say, “I’ve heard that forty-eleven times.” Now that you know where it comes from, let me say this: I have heard, “How can I make money podcasting?” forty-eleven times! And a quick Google search will give you the most common answers.

I am going to tell you a less common answer. I do not write much about making money with podcasting, so to hark back to something else I heard in my childhood, “You better be sure and listen close the first time.” (Google that if you do not know the reference).

Grant funding, both public and private, are currently the most untapped source of funding for podcasting – mainly because most everyone is searching for the next affiliate program or perfect product to sell to earn podcast cash. Simply, grants are often overlooked.

Here are a few examples of where you can find grants to support your podcasting efforts.

If you are a local or geographic-based podcast, you should schedule a meeting with someone in your local government to see if there are tourism or creative placemaking grants for which you could apply.

If you podcast on a niche historical or political topic, you should research and find regional or national foundations that support your positions and inquire about their grant requirements and grant cycles.

If you have a comedy or artistic show, look into a state, regional, or national arts grant to support your work.

These places have money to give away; it might as well be you!

Here is something else to think about if you have podcasting skills but do not have a current podcast project. Find a non-profit or government agency that you can affiliate yourself with and work with them to write a grant to further their mission through podcasting. They receive the grant to expand their reach and they pay you to produce the podcast. Win-Win!

I have made some money with my podcasts. I have made some money teaching podcasting. I have made much more money working on grant-funded projects promoting other people’s projects.

I know that the thought of writing a grant may feel intimidating to you. However, I have found that using a template or example to write from makes grantwriting less painful. Here is some text of a recent grant that I wrote. Feel free to use it as an example and just start writing. As always, if you have any questions feel free to comment on this article or shoot me an email at the address below. Good Luck!

Grant Pitch Example…

Any new initiative that sees positive results needs to also include an engaging communications strategy to be appropriately perceived as a success. Podcasting and social media yield the greatest short-term and long-term results in regard to current communication efforts. Social media provides an opportunity for a focused message to instantly reach like-minded and interested people in a scalable way. Podcasting is one of the most personal means of communications available today. Podcasts allow like-minded and interested people to consume targeted content that is impactful long after a podcast episode is released.

This project will use podcasting and social media to elevate the discussion around your initiative and provide an opportunity for those interested in this topic to connect with each other in a structured way so that all involved are enriched and the project coordinators are perceived as leaders in the field. This will be achieved in the following ways:

◦ Create and release weekly 20- to 40-minute podcast episodes. ◦ Promote podcast to relevant online communities currently in existence. ◦ Create branded community Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for additional promotion and interaction. ◦ Engage with podcast listeners and page followers for a minimum of 1.5 hours per week. ◦ Research for podcast and social media posts for a minimum of 1.5 hours per week.

Comments:

Dawn Davis -

Great ideas - I think my podcast would fall into the geographic-based podcast. Thanks Troy


#### [James Coleman](http://I%20published%20my%20new%20episode%20Tha%20Beat%20Basement,%20please%20check%20it%20out. "Swisha.man83@yahoo.com") -

Thanks man! Great advice


#### [Fariba Nawa](http://onpec.news "faribanawa@yahoo.com") -

We just started onpsec.news from Istanbul. We’re looking into grants. We do news features, deep dive documentary style radio on big issues like climate change for a global audience. Any grant ideas?


#### [Ena Esco]( "enaesco@ivymultimedia.com") -

Awesome idea! I’m starting the research now. I’ll be in touch! Thank you!


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