Podcast Monetization: Tipping, Gifting, and Other Lucrative Options

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:00

Welcome to the circle sessions featuring the circle of experts. Each week, one of the circle of experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. The circle of experts are Yasmin Robles and Izzy Dodosky from Rebel Marketing, Tanisha English Amamu of TJE Communications, and Don the Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson, my podcast guy from Circle two seventy Media podcast consultants. This week, Don the Idea Guy is here. He possesses creative powers beyond those of mere mortals. Don the Idea Guy rescues those in need of innovative ideas through his brainstorming sessions. You can find out more at dontheideaguy.com.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:39

Don, thanks for joining me today.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:00:41

Thank you, sir. That was a wonderful introduction.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:44

It wasn't it exactly. Just it's professional at its finest. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:00:47

Damn fine. It's I mean, just off the cuff like that. Man, no no mess ups.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:52

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:00:53

No errors.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:53

Damn. Yeah. None error. No errors. Exactly. You know, I wasn't sure. When I post that, we you know, inside baseball here, you know, Don and I have a shared doc. We just put stories up.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:04

And I threw this story up there a couple of days ago thinking, you know, we'll let it sit up there. It could sit up there for a couple of months and maybe not touch it, but but you saw it and kinda realized, like, you know, let's let's dig into this. And it's from, Oxford Road, and, the the the article is podcasting's identity crisis. A report warns lack of clear definitions are stalling growth. Now, of course

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:29

because podcasting is having such a problem with growth right now.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:32

Exactly. Now their definition of growth, of course, is dollars growth, and that's been a sticky point in the industry

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:40

for a while. Those that are focused on wanting more dollar

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:40

advertising dollars to come in to this space. And, you know, ultimately, that really only affects about twenty percent of podcasters.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:01:52

Well, I also you said the source was Oxford Road, but I think it's also important to note that Oxford Road is an agency.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:58

Correct. Thank you for even going deeper on that one. So everything they're aligning to this is to read between the lines that they want more definitions of what podcasting could do so they can make the buy easier. Yeah. That's that the bottom line because they don't wanna have to work. They don't wanna have to figure out, okay. Wait a minute. We usually buy cost per thousand CPMs, but we can't do this here.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:23

I mean, I can't put it in the software because podcasting buys do not exist in ad buying software. It just doesn't exist.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:30

And there is podcast creep right now. And one, update your software. There should be a podcast button at this point.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:36

You'd think. You'd think. Or at least, figure it out because the the numbers are

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:42

build is podcasting. It's a it's an audio ad. What do you or or it's a video ad depending on where you're running this thing. So the fact that you don't have a button to put a specific button to push is ridiculous. It should just be ad. If you want a podcast button, great. Put a podcast button in. But I don't think you need it, and it's not stalling growth.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:02:59

I think that they're getting demand from their advertisers going, hey. I hear these podcast ads are getting great results. Give me some podcast ads. And they're getting the invoice back, and it just says ads. And the but where's the podcast ad? Just add a line item yourself, you lazy mofo.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:15

Oh, right. That's all there is to it. Ex exactly. Well and and I think that the smart podcasters, they're they're they're touching all these different points of video and and newsletters or, you know, email contacts and such. And they're combining it all together, and that's frustrating them as well too because you can't, justify a buy going, well, we bought this podcast, but, yeah, it's x amount of video exposures, and they have a newsletter of 15,000

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:40

a sec. There you went.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:41

And the open rate is this. And and and and the advertiser will get it. It's Well, in the audio do it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:03:48

Yeah. The audio is one thing. So many podcasters are putting their episodes on on YouTube. That's another part of the the issue. So you mean I'm buying an ad in the audio thing and I have to pay this other thing to be in the video part? Yeah. Maybe. Depending on the way the podcaster has it structured, you might.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:04

Yeah. Exactly. And but the the advertiser needs to realize, but if you value the the the followers of that podcast or the podcasting group, whatever it might be, or the network of podcasters possibly, this is what you have to play with. This is it. And, to me, the reverse of this is if agencies when agencies start to train their clients, this is how we need to do it to make your business even better or sell more products, whatever. Yep. Let's do it. And and we'll help you we'll help you get there.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:34

Think about it in our radio days, we're bundling together a sponsorship package.

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:39

Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:04:39

That includes a lot more than radio ads. Right? You know, it's a Yeah. It's an event. So you're gonna have a booth at the event. We're gonna hang banners at the event, and we've got social posts leading up to it. And we have the email blast that's going to go out and, oh, we're going to be doing a contest every day. And you're going to be mentioned in the contest for the event. The ads are probably the smallest component of value, but when we send the invoice out, it was for it, it was for a sponsorship or for ads and everything fell under that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:06

So when you're putting together a campaign for an advertiser, mr. Agency called a campaign and all the elements are part of the campaign. The Mhmm. The I don't get their problem of being fixated on the label to the point of their calling an identity crisis. It's not an identity crisis. It's a laziness crisis.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:28

Right. Exactly. And, again, they even quote here something that podcast ad revenue growth dropped from 26% to 8% in 02/2023, highlighting advertiser uncertainty regarding podcast formats and performance comparison. I call BS on that one.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:44

It's self manufactured issue.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:46

It's self manufactured issue. It's it's an agency it's it's an agency highlighting agency uncertainty regarding podcast formats and performance comparison. That's what they should do. They're just inserting advertisers, and they should say agency. They just don't know what to do.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:05:59

And are they having a crisis because they don't wanna count their YouTube video feed ads as part of the podcast sponsorship? Right. It's part of the podcast sponsorship.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:10

Yeah. You know? And there are a lot of, YouTube doesn't play well with podcasters, of course. You know? So if you're if you're buying the audio form of the podcast, that RSS stream is you know, you you digitally inserted an ad in that podcast. It's not gonna show up in the YouTube version because YouTube doesn't absorb an RSS feed. You have to upload it differently. So it's it's

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:32

But if it if the ad is recorded as part of the show,

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:35

it gets up as part

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:36

of the show audio.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:37

There it is.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:38

Be that should be your podcast ad. Your video pre roll on that, If you can control that at all, because YouTube wants to put their pre roll on there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:46

Yeah. Yeah. So it's so, you know, podcasts are podcasters are actually getting dinged for all the outlet format. That is, you know, the YouTube or Spotify or whatever. We can't control this stuff.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:06:57

Not when there's that many places to play your podcast, and you want there's an audience at every single one of them.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:02

Right. And there is a valuable audience in every single one of them. Exactly. So, yeah, it it just interesting, who's defining what, and then I've heard other rumblings about this article as well too. It's just that, I guess I'm getting smarter and smarter as I see this article too. It's like, okay. Who wrote it? It's like, I didn't realize that was happening. It's interesting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:22

They Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:23

They're gonna need to better define their problems with the stalling growth before I consider it a crisis of a podcast identity. That's an agency crisis, but what isn't? Mhmm.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:34

Yeah. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:35

You want me to pay what?

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:38

Ultimately. Exactly. It is. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:42

Speaking of ads transferring to YouTube

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:44

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:07:45

Kind of a cool thing going on with YouTube now. I've I've long held this debate with you that videos are not podcasts. It's fine. You've want to put your podcast on YouTube. That's fine. You want to have a video content you're producing and it goes on YouTube. That's fine too. I don't have a problem with that, but audio to me is podcasting is audio.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:08:07

Be that as it may podcasters are putting their audio on YouTube, either with, Repetitive animated video or with true filmed at the desk, talking to each other, video going up there and YouTube slaps their video, their, their video pre roll ads on it. And if you want an ad from your podcast to be in there, it kind of needs to be a read inside that you recorded with your feed. And you can't change that YouTube. Apparently understanding that there is a podcast identity crisis has introduced this new ad test. It's not for everybody yet. It's just testing, but they're going to allow the dynamic insertion of host red ads from a podcast. You and I have talked before about the value of a host read ad is way beyond any kind of placed ad. And the fact that they're going to be able to go back and dynamically insert a host read ad on a show that's, you know, six months old that you can have an updated live read in essentially a live read, host red, host red.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:16

That's amazing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:17

Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:09:18

I'm good for this.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:19

Yeah. I it it it it, I don't know whether you could classify as a game changer or not, but it certainly puts a different spin on working with our previous, you know, the piece here just talking about, you know, the ad agencies. It's like, yeah. You can now can insert your host reading an ad that mister agency, you told them that you want them to read. You know? So now there's the formula. Just get your software updated. You know? That's how we're gonna do this, that it's gonna be seen. However, the place whatever the report is coming from YouTube in regards to if it was seen, is it nonskippable? Is it skippable? I mean, there are some nuances that we don't know what's going on, but I'm assuming if YouTube's controlling it, it's probably nonskippable.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:02

Probably not. Especially the if the podcaster's controlling it. Yeah. If the pot and it looks like this tool's in the podcaster's hands.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:10

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:10

Because the dynamic insertion of ads in general was a game changer for podcast. Somebody discovers a podcast. The first thing they do, if they like it is they go back and listen to older episodes. But, you know, what if you had an old sponsor in that one, you're not getting credit for playing that or it's old information. It's an old ad for a special offer. That's not available anymore or the something happened to the brand in the media. I mean, you're, you were pimping Teslas, two years ago in your podcast. Do you really want that Tesla ad running in your podcast right now?

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:40

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:10:41

So ad insertion was amazing, but it was really predicated on the podcast host that you were using. If that tool allowed you to update your RSS feed and the pod catchers, depending on where you were listening to a podcast, would it update the RS feed, the RSS feed whenever it came through? So that show was updated. Count on a ton of people going to. You know they are.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:17

Yeah. Yeah. And and looking at a generation to generation, I think we have a a piece here we're not gonna really go into, but it's, you know, stating that, Gen z is now becoming more of a more of a focus of what, media they're consuming is video is a big amount of their consumption, and it is on YouTube. You know, kinda going off on a tangent, that's where, you know, traditional TV, the ABCs, the NBCs, the CBSs of the world have gotta be shaking in their shoes. They have to be taking looks like, wait a minute. We can't even we're not putting anything up there that they're watching. Our average age is 60 Yeah. On all you know? Well They're just they're they're way behind the times.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:56

Yes. That's where it is, and YouTube is recognizing that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:11:59

I do think that you're seeing more as we're the battle of the headlines. I do think we're seeing some headlines that are also saying that people are leaning towards audio version of podcast now too. That Yeah. More of them are are

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:12

Oh, sure.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:12:12

Understanding that there's there's value in the audio, but the people who love videos are always going to watch videos. That's just correct. You're not going to train them to be audio listeners. They love the video aspect to be able to control for the podcaster, to be able to control a, a, host red ad as they wish gives them greater opportunity to package their, their sponsorships in different ways to offer additional value to existing advertisers. It's a fun new toy for people to play with. And I think it will make a difference in the kinds of ads that you'll hear.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:49

Yeah, it will. You're right. It's not going to be the, direct marketing kind of stuff, which is, I think, kind of played away a little bit, that you're now seeing. I think you're gonna see brands coming into it a little bit more going, oh, I can be on this on YouTube. That's interesting. Okay. Let's give that a shot. I think yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:06

Yeah. I mean, McDonald's

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:08

will be able to advertise

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:09

Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:10

Their their new 99¢ menu that's on sale right now or their new menu item that got added this week in all your old shows too.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:19

Yeah. And think of so the next step of this, how do I just dawned on me? It's like, okay. So when you brought up McDonald's, So let's say that the the the, the the host read ads are time sensitive on when the video is played.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:35

I don't know why it wouldn't be if it was You know? If it was dynamic insertion.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:38

So let's say

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:39

that Promote the breakfast menu, promote the dinner menu.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:42

Exactly. Exactly. So if the video is played at ten or 11:00 at night on YouTube, it's actually permanent, but promoting McDonald's breakfast.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:13:49

I mean, the dynamic ad insertion tools that we're familiar with on on a couple of the hosts that we've dealt with, they allow the time breaks.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:57

Right? I not in regards to when it's played, but when within the you you can pick whenever you want it to play within your podcast. What I'm saying is that let's say the video is played at 10:00 at night. It activates a certain ad to play in the YouTube video.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:14

And YouTube makes sense because it doesn't function like a typical podcast where you're downloading it to listen to it, and they don't know when you're gonna actually play it back. It doesn't know what ad to download. But with YouTube, you're streaming live.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:26

Yeah. Or a choice.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:27

In real time. Real time.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:28

Yeah. Yeah. Or you or you or you pick a choice like you're seeing now. But which which of three ads do you wanna watch kinda thing? Okay. Maybe it's that, you know, ultimately. Yeah. Which is which is interesting. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:38

YouTube does some good stuff. I think that I'm safe I'm safely putting this in the game changer category

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:46

Oh, okay, ma'am. No.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:47

In a way that I'm not putting the podcast identity into a crisis category.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:52

Correct. Correct. Yeah. I

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:14:53

guess Your mileage may vary.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:54

Yeah. I to me, I like I'd like to categorize the game changer that the content creator's actually making some decent money from, if that's what they're wanting to do.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:04

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:04

That that to me and this has the potential. It just comes down to how well are and and will be, creators paid.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:13

Will make a difference on whether these Yep. These dynamic insertions are controlled entirely by the creator Yeah. Or you have to be part of YouTube's podcast network so that they can insert your ads at the price they wanna insert them in.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:27

Yeah. Right. And and I've I know I've commented on on episodes before. I mean, I I kinda got I got pulled into podcasting because of audio drama podcast. And then, you know, just it just blew up from there for me, but it's that going on to our next story, Netflix considering adding podcast because they're cheaper than quality films.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:46

It's crazy. Right?

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:47

I I yeah. It makes sense. I I mean, why not? I don't know. Why not?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:15:53

But, you know, Netflix is such I, Net Netflix is a visual medium. There's not not even, like, some people use YouTube to listen to music, so some people use it to listen to podcasts. It's Video. My way up. Has been video.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:08

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:09

So to introduce this audio centric content,

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:16

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:16

Are they gonna have audio only? You know? Will will it will there be no Netflix podcast player? Is are they only gonna take the video versions? It's too much as in the air to understand if it's gonna work or not, but they've certainly developed programming that has been based on podcast shows. But this article seems like they're gonna carry the podcast.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:37

The podcast. And and, yeah, that doesn't lead toward full full quality films or a a short film or something like that. That's true. Again, it's that video of talking heads. I don't personally, I don't see the intrigue of that, but that's me. I can't say that there aren't people that, like, yep.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:55

Yeah. But he's I

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:56

love watching it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:16:57

Who's your guy that Spotify paid a billion dollars to for his show?

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:02

Oh oh, Rogan. Rogan. Rogan. Rogan. Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:04

So Netflix could put Rogan on there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:07

That's true. I mean, that's Think about Howard Stern early. Yeah. That's that's a prime example.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:12

Howard Stern radio show, Howard Stern TV show, plenty of viewers that maybe weren't listening to him on the radio at all, because now you could get him in other markets.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:22

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:23

And Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:23

And and Howard Stern

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:25

on Netflix would be huge. Howard Stern on on Hulu would be huge. Same with Roku.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:29

Yeah. Because of the guest power that they bring on. A lot of it's that. You know? Ultimately ultimately. Yeah. So I mean So you're talking another another level of podcast, though.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:39

Think about Bill Maher's TV show.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:41

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:42

That's a podcast. I mean, he's got his own podcast, but he's got his his TV show.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:47

Yeah. I don't

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:48

even know what the new one's called. I'll I'm always gonna call it politically incorrect, but that Yeah. That's a podcast. Right? So we're watching those talking heads.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:56

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:17:56

Oprah?

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:57

Well, you know, and then you know what? Netflix has the bandwidth, I think, they should experiment. Why not? It so it's a if it doesn't work, it's a failed experiment. So what?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:18:06

And it costs them a fraction of what it would be to develop a a blockbuster.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:10

Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:18:11

So I'd be very surprised if you don't see Hulu jump on this headline and follow suit.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:16

Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think I think even with the streaming sticks, you you see a certain channel. Like, one popped up the other day. I cannot remember for the life of me what the name of it was that they're they're it's all they're doing is focusing on podcast, but it's a but it's an app you gotta put on, you know, the the dashboard and such like that. But it it's programming, cheap programming, where most podcasts was like, you have it for access point. Okay. Cool.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:40

Let's do it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:18:41

And I'll I'll be surprised if Amazon doesn't follow suit. Amazon has not done well with Amazon Music. You know? People prefer Spotify. Yeah. So for them to go, why aren't we adding podcasts to our music player? And now all of a sudden it's Amazon podcast. Well, you know, Amazon prime video, Amazon prime podcast.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:03

Yeah. Yeah. But Prime

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:04

but Prime Music's not doing it, but you'd be using the exact same player to add the podcast just like Spotify does.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:09

Right. Yeah. They're they're all primed to be able to do this, quite frankly. It's just how they package it, how they what quality that they bring in. I mean, it's not it's not gonna be for everyone, to put some stuff up there, but it's that it's another aspect. To be exclusive.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:23

It doesn't have to be exclusive.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:24

Yeah. Or it would be.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:25

It could be, but it doesn't have to be. Right. Gavin Newsom just started a new podcast. Somebody needs to bring his on there because he's gonna make a run at the presidency in a few years. Mhmm. He he will want that exposure, so just carry him.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:41

Brand awareness for what he needs to do or anybody that's in that. I I think we've touched upon this around election times that this this medium is totally underused. I think Trump, with this last cycle, showed what the power of this this medium can do.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:19:59

Well, the other is we discussed, I don't know how many shows back. I was complaining that I was watching max, the former HBO max. I was watching a show on max and they have basically all the DC superhero stuff on there. And I saw a new show, a new Batman show, and I clicked on it to watch what I thought was going to be an animated movie. And it was a podcast. A player screen came up and it was a podcast like radio drama. And they did it without any kind of announcement saying, Hey, we offer podcasts. Now there's just random audio only shows up there.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:20:34

Spotify has featured a lot of DCS and Marvel, radio dramas based on their superhero characters.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:42

So

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:20:43

it's kind of out there already shining the spotlight on it could draw in a different kind of Netflix audience. And, Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:53

And that might be the avenue to go is like you said, under the DC or the Marvel or the, some label that people are somewhat familiar. It could be a Star Wars field or some world that exists that you bring in.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:21:05

But Max still doesn't even promote it as a podcast. They're not calling it it's it's more annoying that it's unlabeled because when you click on it, you don't know what you're getting. And then it is a letdown when you're expecting video and you get audio. But if they gave it its own audio drama category, you'd seek out content there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:21:22

Mhmm. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:21:22

And think about all the things that oh my god. Think about all the things Prime has has, licensed Lord of the rings. How much money do they spend on the mini series? Audio would cost them a fraction. The Reacher series, it takes a long time to produce those, eight to 11 episode dramas. Man, you could do a cross between an audiobook and a podcast. And now you're selling the hell out of more Reacher stuff while the show's being produced.

Brett Johnson [: 00:21:52

Well, look at the, the success of Office Ladies podcast. I mean, that's been going that's been going

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:21:59

School me. I don't know Office Ladies.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:00

Well, it's it's, the the the two of the women that were on The Office doing it, and they were breaking breaking down every episode. I think they've gone through every episode. Alright. Because it was a launch up to them being on, being released on NBC Yeah. Cheech cock.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:22:15

I didn't I wasn't aware of that one.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:17

But They're still they're still doing it beyond they they're done with the episodes, and they're still doing it. So it's that take off on popular shows.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:22:25

Yeah. There have been several that have been rewatching. MASH did one. Igor, the cook from MASH. Igor did a, a re a MASH rewatch, and he did it as a podcast. He had different guests on that were still around from the TV series. It was very cool.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:41

And anybody that's totally into inside information or didn't know this, didn't know that, don't have the bonus extra stuff. I think it's prime for it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:22:49

Yeah. The characters from Buffy were doing a Buffy rewatch. Mhmm. Yeah. That's If you

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:54

pick if you pick the right lane and you know the the base that's excited to get more and more in the office, I think the office kind of really started that. You know, there may have been a few before that, but the office ladies really put a shine on that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:06

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:06

That was just a big big popular. Yeah. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:09

Yep. It definitely go with the content you've already got viewership for and do a podcast around it. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:14

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:15

Think about how many shows promote themselves. I've seen a lot of streaming series now that invite people to tune in to the the the after show podcast. The, the George r r Martin, dragons and naked dragon ladies show. That always had a podcast after it. Dexter, the the new Dexter series at the as the show credits are opening for the episode, it says listen to the podcast. Every episode has its own podcast. Another popular rewatch series was West Wing where they had the the actors on that doing it. So

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:55

That might be worth it. What's that going back?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:23:57

People to watch the podcast, you could say you can watch it right here after it's over. Bill Maher, again, does that with his show because on the show when it originally launched, he was sending people to YouTube to watch the after show. And now on Max, at the end of the show, they roll the credits for the show, and they go right into the after show right there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:17

Yeah. Yeah. That may be where Netflix is going with it. And that makes perfect sense because it keeps the time spent watching. You don't have to go anywhere. It leads into the next pro program and and the after show of the podcast, especially if the podcast has it could even be a lesser known character in the pod in the show. It doesn't matter.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:36

Or just the host.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:37

Yeah. It

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:37

doesn't matter. There's a host. They did that for Walking Dead. They they did Talking Dead as a show right after Walking Dead. Talking dead was a podcast, but they broadcast it immediately after the TV show, and they would bring, it was hosted by, Chris the nerd guy.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:55

Okay. I yeah. I can tell you.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:24:57

So I Chris Hardwick. Okay. Hardwick. So he was the host, but every episode would have one or two actors who were in the episode as his as his guest. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:08

And and you don't you take the next step of this. So you take the the post show podcast, and you take that on the road Yeah. And do audiences with that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:25:18

Which they've done with Walking Dead easily. They

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:21

Oh my god.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:25:21

Absolutely do I they may have done it with, that Real Housewives because there was always Mhmm. There was always an after show for those, not a show I watched. So I don't but I think they went on tour.

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:31

Yeah. So the potential's there. Yeah. And you just brought it in the contract for the actors, especially the maybe the second tier actors that that they want more money. They they just didn't get enough camera time. You know?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:25:43

Walking dead, you always worried when they said who the guests were because frequently, one of the guests was somebody who got killed off.

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:50

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:25:51

They're like, oh, man. Did they kill him off this episode?

Brett Johnson [: 00:25:53

There's there's the bonus money that you're now gonna be on the on the show after and on the road.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:25:58

Yep. And that's a good way to let people know you're looking for work now. Just get eaten by zombies. They need another gig.

Brett Johnson [: 00:26:04

No. That's that's an exciting thread of of really Alright. Tapping tapping into your base. That's that that that why not? Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:26:16

So we've so we've talked about TV streamer video streamers adding audio podcasts. Let's talk about the audio platforms adding video now.

Brett Johnson [: 00:26:26

You're right. Exactly.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:26:27

Let's flip that coin and look at the other side because I haven't seen it yet. I guess it's still in testing. You shared this article that Spotify is adding what is essentially, YouTube YouTube Shorts.

Brett Johnson [: 00:26:41

Yeah. Exact and it's brand new. Yeah. It's a, I I have not and I know it's been in test because I went to the Spotify creator's page. And, of course, you see the big name, and you see a few examples. And, of course, it's it's the it's the pretty people that are doing this, you know, sort of thing. So it's, but it it it basically it's in your show page where potential fans can browse your episodes. In the home and podcast feed where Spotify users discover new content, it's in the browse tab to help you reach audiences interested in your genre and in the now playing view so you can catch users when they're already engaged with content.

Brett Johnson [: 00:27:18

So it's short short, video, short clip, short form content is king right now. It it it just is.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:27:26

Different reasons too. Like, I was never like, I'm not a Instagram stories person. Like, I don't create them. I don't really watch them unless Instagram forces me down a rabbit hole. I looked at one video post and then all of a sudden I'm getting the, the, Tik TOK feed, like one after another. I'm like, nah, you're not catching me on this loop. I came here for this, but then YouTube has gotten me now where they will show me a short that is based on a longer piece of content that I'm absolutely interested in either by the creator or there's a game show that I really love. That I'm drawing a blank on right now, but it's a spinoff of the College Humor site.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:28:07

These guys started their own business and they do some interesting game shows. And they'll show me a clip of a, of a game show question. And I'm like, oh, I haven't seen that one yet. I gotta search out the, the actual full episode of it because they do a lousy job of saying, if you like this clip, click here to watch the full show because they're sucking you down the shorts rabbit hole.

Brett Johnson [: 00:28:25

Okay.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:28:26

But with with Spotify, to me, the goal would be, oh, you like this clip? Watch the full episode of the podcast. And I saw you talked about the pretty people and I'm gonna do a shout out to, Columbus or Columbus boy. Louis Howes was one of the people that they're showing. Yeah. Lewis has done a fantastic job of monetizing his podcast, expanding and extending his content every place because he's got a, event, an annual event that he holds here in Columbus, where he brings in a dozen speakers and it's multi days and he's got book deals and he's got his, his podcast. And now he's, he's going to have these clips to help promote the podcast on Spotify. It's yeah, it is a cool feature, especially with Spotify getting into the video. They keep promising me courses.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:29:16

They keep promising me courses on Spotify, and I keep waiting for the courses I think would be really interested, but I've not seen those yet.

Brett Johnson [: 00:29:24

Yeah. So, yeah, once this rolls out and it what the dynamics of it is, you know, how can you the limitations, or is it just or it had does it have to be created on their platform so that the consistency of of quality is there versus, like, no. You can't repurpose what you do on on YouTube and bring it along. I could see where Spotify may be very picky about what how they how they allow you to produce, what what's going on up there that just can't be maybe. I don't know. I I

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:29:54

The article is interesting. In that, you know, again, I've said it three times in this episode, but I love the purest audio only podcast. The cool thing about this thing for Spotify is even if you have an audio only podcast on Spotify, you can still create these promotional video clips to lead people back to your audio only show. The fact that even if it is a video podcast, you don't, you're not restricted to using a clip from the episode. You can create a brand new clip. Maybe you're introducing the guest, man. I had a great, I had a great guest this week. Make sure you tune in.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:30:30

It is, a pre roll, basically a pre roll video, or it's a quick ad for your podcast that is content. I I think it's there's a lot of potential here, I feel. Oh, I

Brett Johnson [: 00:30:40

think so too. No. No. I think it's it's great. It's been just, again, devil in the details how they're going to do it, but it's that I think it's that looking at it from a different standpoints. Like, yes, you could be audio only, but it it, now get in the video piece of it because it's it's important. Just get get the phone up or how again, depending on how you can create the video and what they're gonna allow to come up there, let's look at the the rules and regs, of when it happens. I think it can be really, really good.

Brett Johnson [: 00:31:06

And it it it you know, Spotify is already number two as a podcast player. This could shoot them this is a this is a different piece than Apple is even close to offering.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:31:16

And think about the other utility that podcasts op one of the things I like about Spotify is their daily playlist that they put together for me because I can count on, oh yeah. I went down a rabbit hole listening to Hawaiian music. I've got a playlist now that I can listen to Hawaiian steel guitar or surfer rock, or, and they're pulling it together. So I don't have to now connect that to the podcast clips. They certainly recommend podcasts, but I've, I've still never really been a convert for Spotify as my podcast player, but for, with their skill at pulling the music content I want into custom playlist, I think they're gonna be able to do that with the podcast clips, the video shorts that they're gonna entice me into going, oh man, I I do love that, that speaker. I I wanna watch the full episode because I saw the teaser that you put together for me, I think.

Brett Johnson [: 00:32:12

Yeah. Yeah. The teaser is the short for the clips can, DNA can be generated from that much easier than a long form podcast sometimes because it's it's like ours. We're just doing right now. We're we're all over the board. This is our DNA is very difficult for for Spotify to say, okay. This is what Brett and Don are talking about. But where

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:32:32

you to be able to pull the content out and feature just that ninety second clip, that that's a huge benefit.

Brett Johnson [: 00:32:38

And and then they can figure out the DNA on that. Yes. The recommendations could be that may be where exactly where they're going with this, which is super, a super discoverability piece to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:32:48

I'm pumped I'm pumped for this.

Brett Johnson [: 00:32:49

It's good.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:32:50

I wanna see it I wanna see it working, though. I wanna see some examples. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:32:54

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And finally, I love this thing you found from eMarketer, I believe. Yeah. EMarketer about, creators increasing their income from alternative revenue streams, which has been our hill that we've still on from day one that they've broken it down into the many alternative creator revenue streams that are outpacing sponsored content revenue

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:17

growth. I love when we say something, and then six months to a year later, we find Right. Some sort of proof in a study that somebody ran and went That we knew. I told you.

Brett Johnson [: 00:33:28

Right. Exact go over it, please. Because you posted it. I Oh, wait. This.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:33:32

You know, it's it's eMarketer, so they love communicating in charts. And their chart of the day talked about, that creators were increasing their income from alternative revenue streams, not just ads placed in the podcast. And we've always talked about that. It's you have to build up your audience to the point where an agency would be interested in buying ads in it, and then you're getting pennies for the ads, or you can have a smaller audience that you haven't built up, but then you got to go out and pound the pavement to get in advertisers at a at a higher rate. As those as those agencies struggle with the crisis that is identifying exactly what a podcast is, that the end of that argument is they're gonna knock down pricing again. They're, they're going to sell it pennies by the pound and the creators are going to get hurt by that because they're not getting all that revenue, but they're going to want to be included because the big money's there, the big advertisers are there. We would still agree. You're better off going out and finding a small advertiser locally, but this thing lays it out to say, Hey, start your podcast, grow your audience by all means, latch on to the teat that is mass advertising and let them sell you for pennies a pound, but treat that as found money.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:34:45

Just go out and do that. But while that's going on, build up these other categories. One of them, the top one was tipping, tipping and gifting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:34:54

That surprised me, honestly. And but but there are some nuances to tip tipping and gifting too. There is. It's that probably there's content tied to that as well too. That is maybe Yeah. But I guess bonus is just a

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:06

tip jar. That's that's web

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:08

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:08

That that's, worldwide web one zero one. You put a tip jar on there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:11

Right. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:12

How many things do we still see buy me a coffee?

Brett Johnson [: 00:35:14

Buy me a coffee. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:16

Exactly. The tip jar is huge. Gifting, I think that's connecting it to your wish list on different if you are a if you're doing a cooking podcast Yep. And you go, hey. You wanna support the show, You can click on my wishlist and you could buy ingredients or you can buy cooking materials, that kind of thing. Merchandise. I think I'm surprised that that's in second place because it's so easy to produce merchandise on demand. Now I think it's only in second place because podcasters aren't doing enough of it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:35:46

Pick out the funny, quick, quippy kind of pithy thing that you said in your podcast, turn it into a t shirt, turn it into a backpack. It's so turn it into a mug. It's so easy to produce that stuff with zero upfront cost. You you gotta get on the board here. And I'd I'm gonna be very surprised if we don't see merchandise surpass tipping and giving. I mean, it's

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:09

you know it's only

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:36:10

a few percentage points apart.

Brett Johnson [: 00:36:12

Right. Yeah. To your point, I I forgotten. I hadn't watched Park and Recs for so long, and I was there's a article I was I you have yet to read about Rob Lowe. And it is breaking down his shows in the Park and Rex piece that he had. And and his one word that he brought to the forefront, literally, literally. I mean, you could if you do something like that in your podcast that you have a guy one of your cohosts always says a phrase or one word literally, you make a T shirt out of it Yep. And and and then quote name or whatever, people buy that stuff.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:36:43

And it it doesn't even have to carry your branding or low I mean, we talk about the importance of brand, but it doesn't need to carry it. If it's a cool saying or stupid or funny or targeted to the right like, it's you do a podcasting on, on aging. Right? The the fact the things people go through with aging. There's gotta be a bunch of stuff about when I was growing up, I didn't have this, or I'm too old for this shit. You know what I mean? You could have all kinds of aging shirt jokes about growing older. Yeah. And you don't have to have them branded for your podcast, but there's a built in audience that might like it, but other people find it appealing too.

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:16

Yeah. Exactly. Anyway. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:17

The, so merchandise, oh, and just a throwback to one of the best merchandising outcomes ever, George Lucas. When George Lucas struck his deal to get Star Wars made and he could not get the money from the studio that he wanted, he asked for, a % of the merch rights. And the studio went, we don't care. Well, merch. Yeah. Alright. Whatever. We sell movie tickets, dude.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:44

And that has made him way more money than any of his movies have made him.

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:48

Genius. Genius. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:50

That's old school, man.

Brett Johnson [: 00:37:51

Mhmm.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:37:52

Third on the list was subscriptions. 20 almost, 30% are making their money off of subscriptions. So that's the behind the scenes stuff. You know, it's the unreleased podcast. We're subscribed that you can get it every day. It's interesting that they didn't make that fall under tipping.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:09

But Yeah. But but there is a difference between the two.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:12

There is.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:12

There is. Yeah. Because tipping, like you said, could be just, hey. I appreciate that episode. I'll give you $5. Where a subscription, I think and that's where I I should qualify what I said tipping and gifting at the beginning. The subscription is the probably the bonus stuff. That's where the bonus stuff is coming in.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:27

Yes. That's where you'd because there has to be value there.

Brett Johnson [: 00:38:29

Yeah. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:38:30

It's the it's the one to one, it's the after show. It's the questions that you get to ask, I guess. But the the interesting thing about subscription being on there is the fact that this article deals with the fact that the podcast creators are coming up with these other revenue sources because podcasting revenue advertising is so unreliable. It's really hard to predict that kind of stuff. You can't predict tip tipping and gifting either merchandise. If you've got that ongoing, you can kind of count on after you've had it going for a while, you can predict what your sales of a new shirt might be, but subscription. I mean, you can say month over month, we're going to get this, you'll have some attrition, but you're going to know what your recovery rate is on that. The, the revenue month over month is, is becomes predictable.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:19

Sponsored content is on there. You know, that's, that's that sweet spot advertising of sponsored features that you and I talk about how it is important, how important it is. It's the, the sponsored question of the day or the it's the sponsored, movie review that is beyond the ads that might run-in your show that is way more, profitable and predictable if you're out there tracking it down.

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:44

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:45

Platform payouts, were you clear on that one?

Brett Johnson [: 00:39:48

I don't know. I don't exact I'm not sure exactly. I'd have to I mean, the way I looked at

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:39:56

it as I'm thinking that might be, like, Medium.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:00

Maybe. Yeah. That possibly, which still is a subscription to a certain degree.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:05

Not really. So Medium, you subscribe to Medium. Yeah. But me as a writer, if you read my article, I get a couple of cents, and that's a payout I get from there. You're not subscribing to me on Medium.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:15

And there is a, I can't think of the name of the podcast player that does that to pays a penny per play, something like that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:22

So it could be something like that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:23

So something to that effect. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:25

Probably They could also be considering Spotify that if there's a rev share on ads or running in your or YouTube. That could be YouTube payout. Right. Platform

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:32

payout. Yeah. Which, again, it's fifth on the list, folks, just what we just talked about in this whole podcast. It's that

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:40:40

Merchandise is bringing in 32 almost 33%. Yeah. Platform payout, 12%.

Brett Johnson [: 00:40:46

Yeah. It's all of this is based on, to me, the amount that you of work you put into promoting that you do have. You do have a subscription. Yeah. So there's gonna be work for paid content, sponsored content.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:41:02

Oh, Patreon Patreon subscription. Right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:41:05

There you go. That it's that sponsored content. Yeah. What we talk about in that segmented art of your podcast that every week we review a movie or something like that, there's a little bit of work to find that sponsor. But guess what? It could be more than 16% down the road if you just put effort into that.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:41:20

Well, it's more engaging content. It's not people will remember people remember advertisers who sponsor content they enjoy.

Brett Johnson [: 00:41:27

Right. And I but I I think it's great, though, to see tipping and gifting at such a high percentage on top of the pitch because well, it's it's easy to do. About unreliable. Unpredictable. But it's easy to do, so just do it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:41:41

Oh, it's easy. Sure. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:41:42

It's easy. So find the find the avenue to do it and ask for if you like the episode, buy us a great point of $5. It's so easy to do. You again, it it may only pay for dinner once a month, in regards to the total payout, but it it then leads to, wait a minute. We're asking for a tip when we sell merchandise. Oh, wait a minute. We do merchandise. Why don't we do subscription? It all it all falls in line.

Brett Johnson [: 00:42:06

You need to get more and more courage to do it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:42:09

I'm encouraged to see the tipping up there to know that the audience that's proof the audience is willing to support you.

Brett Johnson [: 00:42:14

Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:42:14

And I think that anybody who supports you with a tip is somebody you follow-up with and invite them to subscribe, or if you don't have a subscription, but you're only having tips. Maybe you need to consider a subscription because if those people are willing to tip you on a regular basis, they're probably willing

Brett Johnson [: 00:42:32

to subscribe to you. And if they're willing to tip, they're willing to buy merchandise. Oh, merchandise is totally unrelated.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:42:37

It doesn't have to be connect. They could hate your podcast, but love your stupid t shirt.

Brett Johnson [: 00:42:42

Right. It's it's a sales funnel if you look at this. It's a true true sales funnel that it's like, you're willing to pay $5 a month. They're it's keep it's keep promoting it. We've got a subscription level that do this or whatever the case might be. I I Next

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:42:58

time next time you're doing your laundry, as you're pulling the shirts out of the dryer to fold them, just look at how many you have with stupid saying something.

Brett Johnson [: 00:43:05

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. No. I think I I I think these percentages are they make perfect sense, and they're totally promising that you do not have to rely on sponsored content, which falls on a 16%. I I think that's it it should be a breath of fresh air that you don't have to if you hear all the the con the the the comments and discussions about how we're way behind on

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:43:27

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:43:28

Sponsored content. Maybe we should be in the trillions of dollars versus billions, but we have we haven't got it set up right that you can't buy a podcast, blah blah blah. There is a way around it. If you want to monetize around your podcast, if that's what you wanna do, there's a way to do it. It.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:43:41

If you're interested in earning more revenue, I'm sure you're gonna have a link to this in the show notes. Right?

Brett Johnson [: 00:43:46

Mhmm. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:43:47

Click the link to to read the article on eMarketer. It's free. Yeah. You don't have to subscribe. Print out a copy or do a screen grab of this chart, and I print out a copy of it. Draw little check boxes next to each one of those levels and put that on your wall in your recording studio or or next to your computer. And if you don't, if you're not able to check that box off to say that you you are going after revenue in that category, you're crazy.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:15

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:15

Make that your to do list.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:17

Yeah. Yeah. Because the tipping and gifting, we've told them I've been sure we set it aside to it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:21

Five minutes and buy buy me a coffee.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:23

But it's it's a four basically 40%. So four out of 10 of those polled are getting money from tipping and gifting.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:32

It costs you nothing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:34

Costs nothing to do. Exactly. Other than if they donate, you you're gonna have to pay a per certain percentage to

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:40

Yeah. But they take that out of the donation. You don't

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:42

have to

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:42

you're not getting an invoice for that. They take their cut off the top, and that's perfectly fair.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:47

A buck, you get 85¢ of or whatever the percentage is and is anymore. That sort thing. Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:44:52

And then So And that you know, that's why merchandise is second. The you have work is set associated with it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:44:57

Yeah. Yeah. Each piece second. Each piece is a little bit more work, a little bit more work, a little bit more work. Honestly, I more work

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:45:03

or it's more reliance on another platform is what that is. So tipping and gifting, there's a dozen platforms you can use to get a tip. You just need to put a link on your site for it. Merchandise, you gotta design it, set up an account on CafePress or Zazzle or whatever and get it printed. Subscription, you gotta be on a platform to, you know, a, Substack or something like that where you or or, a Patreon. You're gonna have to set that up. Affiliate marketing, definitely relying on somebody else having a product or service that you can resell. Sponsored content, that's a lot of work for you.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:45:37

You're gonna have to create the content, then you gotta go find a sponsor for it. Platform payout, it there's a lot of people doing it, but your payout is a fraction of what you get on those other efforts because your ROI is terrible on a platform payout.

Brett Johnson [: 00:45:52

Yeah. I would love to and see, you know, the other the last, category is other, and it's 15%. I wish they would have broken that out because that 15% is actually bigger than a platform payout. Would have been interesting to see what the what other ideas are out there just for the sake of being creative.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:46:07

That's where you end up with a problem of how was the survey handled. You know, was it a I can write in anything I want? Like, for example, for tipping and gifting. What if somebody wrote in buy me a coffee and that didn't get that didn't fall under tipping and gifting? It depends on how they executed the survey and you never know.

Brett Johnson [: 00:46:29

Yeah. But but I but but but overall, I I my gut tells me this survey was done very well. I I I I'm not surprised by any of this stuff.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:46:39

Except the fact that 15% is other. Either you didn't make them define other or they didn't understand how it fell into a category. Mhmm. Like, if somebody typed in CafePress, were they going through the results and saying, oh, that's merchandise?

Brett Johnson [: 00:46:52

Yeah. Well well and and you know what? I just read the the the first line under here too. The US Social Media Creators saw nearly a 40% year over year increase in tipping and gifting revenue.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:05

That's interesting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:47:06

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:06

It's interesting it went up through the through the, you know, the COVID stuff. It's interesting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:47:11

So it probably if we saw this breakdown in the same categories we're shown a year ago, merchandise might have been number one

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:20

That's a

Brett Johnson [: 00:47:20

great deal. Percent increase. Got it. So the mechanisms to get tipping and gifting and the creativity around tipping and gifting and creators asking for a tipping gift. That's key. You've gotta ask consistently.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:35

The others, you get to keep a higher percentage of your tip too. Merchandise, you're taking basically a commission on a shirt you're sold. So

Brett Johnson [: 00:47:42

Right. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:43

There's there's probably more direct to you revenue that comes from something like that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:47:46

Yeah. This is exciting. I I when something comes home and it shows exactly what we've been talking about over the last couple of years, we we probably exactly what we've been talking about over the last couple of years, we we probably spend more time on this than anything in this in this episode. I'm I'm I'm excited.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:47:59

It's important. It's money for the it's money for the listeners. Money's important.

Brett Johnson [: 00:48:02

It is. It is. And it's and podcasting is designed to do everything on this list. Other other than do it really well. It's do it really well.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:48:16

It's waste to monetize the audience besides just Exactly. Jumping ads in front of them.

Brett Johnson [: 00:48:20

And then worrying about your downloads and your uniques and all this other stuff that's thrown at you by the big money. There's big money to make be made elsewhere. Because, again, if you'd if you do the math, let's let's just say you have 500 people that listen to your podcast. And if you ask and get 50% of them to give you a buck a month, Right. That's $250 a month, folks.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:48:46

But, again, I'd I'd argue that's a subscription instead of just a tip. Because somebody might get a $50 tip once, but I'd rather have 50 people subscribe to me for a dollar a month.

Brett Johnson [: 00:48:56

Correct. Yeah. I I I it's that what do you want and what can you ask from your your audit? Yeah. What kind of consistency? And and it's that, yes, you're not gonna pay off the house with this kind of money. But who's to say you can't pay off the house with this kind of money if you do it right? If you do it right. And you

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:49:10

and you're in total control of it. You're not gonna send that money back. It it ain't gonna hurt.

Brett Johnson [: 00:49:14

Right. And it and you're an you're in total control of it. Total control. You're not praying to YouTube that you get a $50 check for views that didn't happen or did happen, that sort of thing. Thing. So Although

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:49:24

I did figure out a way as a parting comment because I know we need to wrap it up.

Brett Johnson [: 00:49:28

Yeah.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:49:28

I did figure out a way we could get some more money as, content creators from agencies.

Brett Johnson [: 00:49:35

Okay.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:49:35

I think we just need to tell the agencies that tariffs now apply. There's a podcasting tariff for your chart. There's a tariff for the uploads.

Brett Johnson [: 00:49:46

Oh, man.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:49:47

Because tariff's gonna be a line item on shit now.

Brett Johnson [: 00:49:49

Yeah. Yeah. So, hopefully, yeah, that if anybody list so if anyone's listening in The UK, you got a 20% tariff on free.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:50:00

Yeah. But not for advertisers.

Brett Johnson [: 00:50:04

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:50:06

The advertisers are paying for the tariffs, not the listeners.

Brett Johnson [: 00:50:08

That's true. They're not. You're right. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:50:12

Wow. Okay. Jeez. Well, yeah, listener, we if there's no way if there's any way that you're not excited about what we just talked about today, you need to relisten the last fifteen minutes. But if if you wanna, brainstorm or, you know, come up with some, some alternatives, you like what we just talked about, tipping in the merchandise and subscription. We gave a lot of great examples, but if you want to know more and to explore some more, get ahold of Don. Don, how did they get ahold of you?

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:50:40

Oh, the easiest place to find me is Don the Idea Guy dot com. I'm on all the platforms as Idea Guy or DontheIdea Guy. But, if you go to Dontheideaguy.com, there's a brainstorm link. Click that book your time, give me your credit card number, and, we'll schedule a time to come up with some ideas just for you and ideas for generating revenue for your content that you're.

Brett Johnson [: 00:51:02

Right. And then once you get those ideas, you wanna implement them with your podcast, you can contact me, go to mypodcastguy.com, get a time on the booking calendar, and say, Brett, I got these ideas from Don. He says how to do it, how to implement, but at the long run, I need help with. You got it. Let's do this. So, Don, thanks again. This is this is, I think, one of the better episodes we've done. I really It's such positive

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:51:27

things we're recovering aside from the whiny agencies at the front. That's why we got it out of the way quick. We got it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:51:32

We got it. Potential. Yeah. Exactly. So I I that was a good choice. We were gonna do this last listener, and and Don says, you know what? Let's put the let's put the controversial stuff up first because we wanna end on a high note and going, I love that idea. Good idea. Good idea.

Brett Johnson [: 00:51:46

Man. Hey. Thanks for joining me. Appreciate it.

Don The Idea Guy [: 00:51:48

Thank you. Talk to you next time.