I listen to a lot of Podcasts, and many of them have Audible as a sponsor. I overheard two podcasters saying that Audible had “over saturated” the market with advertising. To this I ask you a question?
Who is the number 2 audio book provider?
My answer I have no idea as I have never looked elsewhere. Audible is in my face. I have an account and have listened to some great books.
Why does audible sponsor podcasts?
Really?
Why does Audible reward podcasters for talking about their service to people who like to listen to audio? We have their target market. The question is do podcast listeners like to listen to audio books? My answer?
Yes. No I take that back. Hell Yeah.
For me this is adding up to WAY more than gas money. How did I do that? My podcast on fitness, I mentioned the new Jillian Michaels book (and I mentioned it on my Jillian Michaels fan cast). On my podcast for musicians I mentioned the new Steven Tyler book, the following episode I talked about the new Sammy Hagar book. I explain to the audience that they could get these books for free.You will also see on this post that any time I type the word Audible, it inserts my affiliate link (a little trick from my More Podcast Money book).
When you sign up, you can specify a URL. Mine is www.audibletrial.com/dave which allows me to use it on all my podcasts.
When someone signs up for a 14 day trial using your link, you get $15. I know people who are selling advertising on their podcasts for $5 an episode. You have an audience that likes to listen to audio. If you take a second to find something your audience might enjoy (like The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding), you will see that they will check it out.You will make more than $5 an episode (at least in my travels).
Explain to them that it an Audible subscription is just $15 a month once their 14 day free trial is over. Explain that if they cancel before the 14 days is over, they will not be charged, and they can keep the book. Explain they they can listen on their iPhone, Droid, iPod, and Kindle. Audible even provides banners and such to help you promote the service.
There is no long term contract, and I have my commissions direct deposited into my checking account.
Podcasters! If you're interested in signing up for the referral program go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/audible
Thanks for the tip. I wondered where I could sign up to do this. It might just be exactly what my podcasts (I’m about to do “Podcasting Church” as a podio book) need.
Paul
i am in the process of starting a recorded radio style r&b podcast show on live365.
Thanks for this on your show (I think I heard you mention this) and here on the blog. I think I heard the very podcast you are referring to, and since I have lots of respect for the hosts, I was quite surprised.
Don’t get me wrong, I can sort of understand where they were coming from, as they referenced still *another* podcast from an even bigger podcaster for whom many of us have a lot of respect (hint: he has said podcasting is dead many times, yet also has admitted that 80% of his almost 2 million dollar annual income still comes from his subscription based audio programs, i.e. Podcasts! The wise ones will know to whom I refer). On those shows, they do sometimes go on for a long time on the Audible promos.
However, they are informative, since they are giving their Audible “Picks of the Week”, which aside from the promo aspect, has value as content all by itself.
And then of course, there are the points you have already made so well: we are offering people audio content (in many of our cases). Audible is a premium audio content provider. It is a no-brainer match, and saying it is over-used, is like saying that your car is over used, if it gets you where you are going and you need to go there.
If someone wants to skip ahead, fine. But I really, really love Audible and use their services a lot. They still have hundreds of books in my library in my Audible account and I have not been a paid subscriber for years. My Dad also has an Audible account and he shares his books with me. This is an awesome service and I would be proud to have them as a sponsor and for me, it is providing listeners with a service. In other words, I would be doing it for free anyway, since so much of what I do, is turning people onto great services and other providers of content. Why not get paid for something I would promote anyway?
Thanks again for the 1,2,3 of this and for saying something that, IMHO, needed to be said.
Rabbi Steve
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