What does it take to podcast full-time?
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
I estimate that about 95% of podcasters have at least once dreamed of making their full-time
income from their podcasts.
Come on, be honest.
You probably have too.
But the hard truth is that most podcasters don't actually have what it would take.
Yes, it takes high-quality content, high-quality presentation, high-quality production, and
high-quality promotion in order to get the profit you want.
That's popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles.
But it is actually possible to have all of those high-quality things and not the profit
and not make that living from your podcast that you want.
That's because it comes down to one of these three things that I'll share in this episode.
This isn't about building your own business supported by the podcast, which, by the way,
is how I make my living. The Audacity to Podcast supports my business of products like Podgagement
and a new product coming out very soon. Follow me on social media if you're interested. I'm
pretty much everywhere as the Daniel J. Lewis. This isn't about that, though, for your podcast,
but instead it's about earning your paycheck solely from and because of your podcast.
If you'd like to follow along with the notes for this episode, and there will be some helpful links in those notes, they are a simple tap or swipe away inside your podcast app or at theaudacitytopodcast.com/fulltime.
Let's start it off with option number one, a big audience.
Yep, there's no way around it.
The easiest, and we can put that in massive quotation marks, the easiest way to podcast
full-time is if you have a big enough audience that almost any monetization method will work.
Sponsors, affiliates, audience support, and more.
It is the ultimate equation in podcasting monetization.
big audiences usually lead to bigger income. But don't let that scare you off. The next two options
don't require a big podcast audience. So moving on to option number two, a generous audience.
It is possible to podcast full-time without a big audience, but it means you must have an audience
that's willing to give you more money for exchange for whatever it is that you're giving them back.
Just consider this basic math to get $10,000.
You could have 10,000 people pay you $1, or have 1,000 people pay you $10, or have only
100 people pay you $100.
In a sense, you just have to shift a zero from your audience size to the price for whatever
that is that you're, quote, selling, unquote.
Yes, getting your audience to be generous is another topic altogether.
And I will address that in the future.
And I've addressed it in the past as well.
But this math works whether you're accepting audience support,
offering premium subscriptions, or selling other things.
Just consider this one idea here that you could implement fairly quickly
after you finish listening to this rather short episode.
Make a t-shirt that's available only for your highest supporters.
And sell that shirt for a high price.
Maybe even $100 or more.
I recommend places like Sticker Mule Store,
Dashery by TeePublic, and Redbubble for this.
And they take care of the shipping,
the sales, and everything like that.
You just upload your design,
pick certain things,
you set your price,
and you can set a high price if you want to
so that you get a much larger profit margin.
Then, promote that.
Your generous people who listen to the podcast
and truly love the podcast
might also love the opportunity
to support your show
and get some kind of really exclusive bonus,
like a $100 t-shirt.
Well, that seems pretty special.
Yeah, you might think,
I'm not going to pay $100 for a t-shirt.
Yeah, you might not, but your audience might.
I still have and enjoy multiple pieces of art
and other things I've gotten
for making donations to organizations,
not massive donations,
like tens of thousands of dollars or more than that,
but hundreds of dollars
and certain things that I still cherish
and appreciate. And every time I see them, I remember that's because I supported that organization
and I am happy to have that. I have some original pieces of art too because of this and some really
cool things that I love because I got to support an organization that I wanted to support and I got
something really cool with it that's really exclusive as well. Buy my NFT. No, I'm just kidding.
Although this does mean that you are making a product for sale, the product is simple.
It's purely about your podcast.
It could even be just your podcast logo, not necessarily your cover art like the square,
but the logo aspect of it or something else related to your podcast.
And it's for your podcast audience.
And it even has the potential to promote your podcast to others.
You could apply the same math to recurring support models as well.
So instead of starting with a $5 a month subscription, you could set your base level
much higher. Go ahead and set it at $100 as the minimum base level and see who's willing to pay it.
Of course, a bigger audience does mean more potentially supportive people,
so that numbers game does still come into effect. But it is possible to make this work
with a smaller audience if you deliver enough value to them. And speaking of value,
You could consider the risky route of going full value for value,
where you let your audience decide what your podcast is worth to them,
and they can give back whatever amount that is that they want,
and that they're able to give back, and that they feel the podcast is worth.
Just like Brian Inspinner did from Top Tier Audio
when he streamed 411 Satoshis on my previous episode of The Audacity to Podcast.
As of August 11th, 2025, that's worth about 45 cents.
which doesn't sound like much, but that's 18 times more than a single listener would be worth,
if we want to put that weird label on it, with a $25 CPM. That's cost per thousand downloads.
That's pretty good. Now, of course, that's not everyone giving me 45 cents. If everyone wanted
to give me 45 cents, that would be amazing. But this is one person. And that support from Brian
was automatic through his Podcasting 2.0 app.
You could do that yourself too,
or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/giveback
if you want to give back to the podcast
what you feel the podcast is worth to you.
Especially maybe if this episode helps you make
millions of dollars from your podcast,
maybe, you know, give a little bit of that back.
But moving on to option three,
a company that will pay you.
Lastly, podcasting could be your full-time job
if you are actually hired for exactly that.
My friend who goes by The Real Brian from ProfitCast does exactly this.
He gets hired by multiple companies to host their podcasts for them.
Brian works as a contractor for these companies,
but some companies might have so much content and production
that they need on the podcast
that it could easily be a full-time job
just to run the podcast in all the aspects of the podcast,
as you might feel like your podcast is sometimes.
Especially if you are that indie podcaster
and you feel like you're doing that full-time job yourself right now
where you can do everything in the podcast workflow,
the preparation, the presentation, the production, the publishing, and the promotion.
You could be an indispensable employee or contractor
for some company to hire to do their podcast for them.
So these are the three options.
you could have a big audience, a generous audience, or a company that will pay you to do their podcast
for them. The big thing to take away from this is to grow toward the profit you want. If you want to
earn your entire income from just the podcasting process, then figure out which of these three
different options appeal most and start working toward that goal for the profit, the popularity,
relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles that you want. And the absolute best
place to start is making a better podcast and engaging your audience more. That's one of the
reasons why I made Podgagement over at podgagement.com is to help you engage your audience.
That's why I renamed it Podgagement. It's no longer my podcast reviews because it now does
a whole lot more than just tracking your podcast reviews, but it really helps you to engage your
more, and as you engage your audience more, you can make a better podcast. And as you're doing
both of these things, then you can get a bigger podcast as a result from that. If you love the
Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide, would you
please consider giving back what you feel it's worth to you? You could stream some Podcasting
2.0 payments through your modern Podcasting 2.0 app or send a donation or support of any amount
by giving back at theaudacitytopodcast.com/giveback.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools,
it's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Thanks for listening.