25 mins detailed guide about Podcast (Key Stats included)

Lately, I have been hooked on listening to a podcast run by Doug Cunnington during my early morning walk.

IAB and PwC have jointly stated that the forecasted estimate for podcasting revenues is around $4 Billion in 2024 (a growth of almost 2.8 times of revenue of 2021).

Audio form of content (podcast) is forecasted to witness around 10% growth over 2 years beating growth of video and text based content to reach 505 million users worldwide.

Isn’t it mind boggling with what is anticipated in the future…😵

This has more relevance today when around 7.03 billion users consume content in video and text based combined.

So, why do you need to know about podcasting and will it be the right fit as a side hustle for you?

We will answer everything you need to know about podcasting in general and other associated sub topics which includes:

• How much can you earn from a podcast? (with latest available data).
• How do you build a successful podcast as a beginner?
• Is podcasting worth it as a side hustle in the long run and more.

So, shall we start? 

Key Note : I am not a podcaster at present, although I may intend to do so in future🙂. 

As such I have enjoyed every bit of the process of researching for the information and stats published in this piece of content.

I would love to hear your feedback on this in the end.

What exactly is a podcast? (For Complete Beginners)

Have you ever heard anything on the radio before?

If yes, podcasts can be compared as something similar to what people do in radio but with some major differences.

Here’s a simplest definition that I can come up for podcast:

“A podcast is listening to a pre-recorded audio where people (usually 2) are talking on a specific subject, where a conversation is mostly driven by one person (known as podcaster or host)”…🎙

Still confused, let’s look at the following key elements of a podcast to know more.

What are the key elements of a podcast

A podcast can be summed up by looking at these 4 key elements:

• Format of the content
• Type of the content
• Audience for the content
• Longevity of the content

Format of content – Podcasts are mostly audio-based pre-recorded sessions along with video-based podcasts (17%) growing in popularity with time.(2019 data).

Type of content – Podcasts are audio files available digitally which are downloadable anytime at user’s demand.

Audience for the content – Podcasts target a specific niche with a specific age group of the audience who are interested to know about what the podcaster speaks of.

As such the audience becomes defined and is limited.

Longevity of the content – As podcasts are pre-recorded and edited as per the suitability of the podcaster, they have a long life similar to YouTube videos.

Was that helpful in understanding podcasts?

But, what about a radio, isn’t it kind of similar to what we have discussed so far about podcasts?

Hmm, not really, let’s answer this below.

Radio vs Podcast (What’s you need to know)

Here are broadly 4 major differences to know about Radio vs Podcast:

Particulars	Radio	Podcast
Format	Only available in audio	Available both in audio and video
Availability	One has to listen to radio at a set fixed schedule	As podcasts are pre recorded, one can listen to podcast anytime as per own schedule
Audience	Radio appeals to mass audience in general	Podcasts are for a limited audience of specific interest
Longevity	Mostly not available once live stream ends	Can be downloaded anytime and is available long term.

But one more question arises is if podcasts are available in video format, how is it different from YouTube videos?

Good question…👍.

We have talked about how YouTube is not the same as a podcast below.

YouTube vs Podcast (What you must know)

Here’s how podcast is different from YouTube:

Particulars	YouTube	Podcast
Objective	YouTube can be used for so many purposes which includes brand building, sales, entertainment, gaming etc	Podcast is used primarily for sharing information and knowledge about a skill with others by talking to another person about it
Accessibility	Easy to access	Difficult to access
Content	Majorly video form of content	Both audio and video form of content
Cost	Requires more investment and takes time to set up	Requires less investment and easy to setup
Popularity	More popular than podcast at present	Less popular than YouTube at present

These are some of the major differences between YouTube and podcasts.

Okay so now we have kind of a basic understanding as to what a podcast is all about, let’s move onto the most favourite section, MONEY!!! 

BTW, podcast is an acronym which stands for Personal on Demand Broadcast (in case you are wondering).

How much money can you make from a podcast?

On an average, a podcaster can expect to make up to $1000 per episode in affiliate sales that generate beyond 10,000 downloads during lifetime.

But there are other aspects which we haven’t analyzed from above.

Thus, we are going to analyze the earnings based on the following factors:

• Niche of the podcast
• Content duration of the podcast.
• Years of being active.
• Number of episodes published on the podcast.
• Patrons registered on the platform.

Keynote: All the earnings disclosed below are merely estimates obtained from different sites without any source revealing the same.

Niche of the podcast

Certain niches are more rewarding and popular as compared to others.

Niches like comedy, news and true crime account for more than 60% popularity for podcasts.

While other niches like politics, finance combinedly have a popularity of around 44%…(more details below)

But here are some of the podcasters and their earnings as per different niches:

Podcast Channel	Niche of the podcast	Earnings of podcast
The Yard	Comedy and Video Game	$166,770 per month(Ranked 10th in among podcasts)
Workology	HR trends, tools and case studies	$12.2 Million per year
The Speaker Lab	Interviews of experts to develop speaking tactics, tips and strategies	$33,300 per month
Podcast Answer Man	Coaching to others to launch own podcast	$383k per month
The Digital Vibe Podcast and Network	Network of podcast, publishing company and affiliates	$240k per year

As we can see that varying niches have different monetization potential which can’t be pre decided early on.

People are able to make 6 figures per month after a sustained effort over a number of years from their podcast.

Comedy niche certainly remains one of the most popular niches among all that I came across.

This goes to show if you love to entertain others by making them laugh, you can earn in 6 figures and beyond.

Content duration of the podcast

Some podcasts tend to go for long while some podcasts are usually wrapped up under half an hour.

If people stay hooked onto your content for long, then your objective of running a successful podcast is mostly taken care of.

Here we have analysed podcasts on the basis of the duration of the content that they put up to assess their overall earnings:

Podcast Channel	Duration of the each podcast episode	Earnings of the podcast
Last Podcast on the Left	1 – 2 hours	$81,656 per month
Red Scare	2 – 5 minutes	$56,324 per month
RedHanded	30 minutes – 1 hour	$68,121 per month

We can see how there is a deviation in income in relation to change in the duration of each episode of a podcast on different channels.

People publishing upto 5 minutes of podcast episodes are able to make upto $675.8k per annum.

This is around 70% of earnings of podcasters who publish episodes of 2 hours in length.

Years of activity of podcast

It’s evident that podcasts or any side hustle you pick to do is always going to be a long term game.

As such I came across several podcast channels which have seen amazing growth in recent times and are earning really well.

Here’s a quick glimpse of the earnings of such channels given below for your reference:

Podcast Channel	Time period active	Earnings of the podcast
Sarah Hightower	2 years	$1464 per month
Ray Kump	3.5 years	$5845 per month
Jokermen	1 year 8 months	$1963 per month
Bald Move	8 years	$4207 per month
Qanon Anonymous	4 years	$78,598 per month

This is an interesting table comparison between revenue earned and years of activity on the podcast channel.

People are making 4 figures monthly after being active for 8 years while others are making 5 figures monthly after being active for 4 years on Podcast.

This means there is definitely an audience who are listening to the content for long.

Episodes published on the podcast

One interesting aspect to observe is how much content is published onto the platform.

Many people publish content less frequently and make more money than others who publish regularly.

Let’s analyse some of the data:

Podcast Channel	No of episodes published	Earnings of the channel
5-4 Podcast	128 episodes	$35,706 per month
Code Story	Over 88 episodes	$5000 per month
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast	200 episodes	$9000 per month
Content Allies	500+ episodes	$75,000 per month

The above table reflects varying levels of income one can earn publishing content over a period of time.

Some podcasters are earning over 6 figures annually with 200 episodes on their channel while others are getting around 5 figures monthly with 500 episodes on their channel.

Thus there is no fixed certainty as to how much content is good enough for your channel.

Patrons registered on the podcast

Another mode of making money from podcasts is getting patrons to help you out by funding resources for you.

You may wonder how much would you earn if you get help from the patrons eventually?

But you would be surprised to hear that patrons are the lifeline of most of the podcast businesses out there.

Let’s look at some of the datas to understand what I intend to say:

Podcast Channel	No of Patrons	Earnings of the channel
The INVICTUS Stream, Dice Shame & Malevolent	306 patrons	$2,452 per month
Drunken Peasants	416 patrons	$3,336 per month
Out For Smokes	400 patrons	$1,722 per month
Volume One	345 patrons	$1,274 per month

Most of the podcast channels listed above have patron strength in the range of 300 – 400.

These podcast channels generate roughly around $1200 – $3300 per month as seen above.

Here’s a one line conclusion regarding earnings of a podcaster we can draw from the above discussion.

A podcaster can expect to earn around $1500 – $6000 per month for being active for upto 4 years publishing around 90 episodes roughly.

But, why do people get hooked onto listening to podcasts when the same is available in multiple formats across the internet…you might wonder🤔.

Let’s see why podcasts are really interesting for listeners.

What makes listening to podcast super fun for listeners

I listen to the Doug Cunnington podcast for several reasons, so let me speak for myself first…😉.

Here are few reasons why I find listening to the podcast makes it interesting:

• I can easily do anything and not bother to be actively invested onto the podcasting platform to learn things.

• I find the information shared in the podcast to be much more valuable in terms of the time I spend listening to it than other platforms.

• Another factor which I like about the podcast is the length of each episode which is usually under an hour.

• I tend to put more emphasis and have better understanding as the content is primarily audio based.

• I also find many amazing content ideas as a blogger while listening to podcasts in the past…💡

One of the best features about podcasts is I get to listen to the content at any time during the day doing trivial things such as jogging, driving, or maybe cooking at times…😊.

But what about others, let’s dig into some stats that answer why podcasting is interesting for the listeners.

5 primary reasons why people love to listen to podcast

Here are 5 primary reasons why people love listening to podcast more often:

• Majority of people (around 74%) listen to podcasts primarily for learning a new skill besides seeking entertainment or having some relaxation or fun.

• Ease of access to the users makes podcasting a favourite platform for the listeners where the majority of the platforms are free to use for the listeners. 

Note: Infact over 65% of people in the U.S. use their mobiles to tune in to a podcast making it very easy to access on the go (as per 2019 data).

• People find listening to podcasts super friendly and effective while doing their day to day chores such as cooking, cleaning or maybe driving.

Note: Number of weekly podcast listeners of podcasts saw an increase by nearly 43% while driving a car in comparison to a decline of listeners by 7.81% listening at home (in 2021).

• People find it more intuitive and engaging to listen to something over a podcast than reading in the form of text. 

Note: This could be one of the reasons why the engagement rate stands up to 22 hours of podcast in a week for more than 20% of podcast listeners.

• Another major advantage cited by podcast listeners is that there is almost no content scarcity for any topic while listening to podcasts.

Note: Most popular categories of podcasts (as per 2021 data) includes

• Comedy (22%), 
• News (21%),     
• True Crime (18%), 
• Sport (17%), 
• Health / Fitness (17%), 
• Religion and Faith (16%), 
• Politics (16%), 
• Self help and productivity (15%), 
• Finances (13%) and more.

Okay, we have talked upon the monetization aspect and also why podcasts find relevance in today’s world.

But there are still some primary questions left unanswered such as:

• Who is more suited to start a podcast?

• Pros and Cons of a podcast

• How much would it cost to set up a podcast setup and more.

Let’s answer these one by one.

3 things to know to start a podcast as a beginner in 2022

Not every side hustle is ideally meant for anyone to start off as a beginner. 

Podcasts are likewise exceptions to none.

So who would ideally find a podcast being a suitable side hustle or a full time gig?

Let’s try to answer the above question by looking at the following aspects before we reach to a conclusion:

• What are the skills required to start a podcast?

• How much time do you need to invest to expect results from a podcast?

• What would be the expected cost for anyone looking to start a podcast? Etc.

What are the skills necessary to start a podcast

Here’s what you can expect to do before creating an episode of podcast for your audience:

• Finding the category or the niche you want to start creating a podcast about.

• Setting up the space for the podcast and buying the right gear for it.

• Recording and editing the podcast before publishing the content online.

• Marketing the podcast onto the right medium to build an audience around it.

• Finding suitable monetization opportunities to make money online from podcasts.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into each aspect.

Finding the niche for your podcast

This is the first step you need to go through to start a podcast.

There are many things you can talk upon when you think of starting a podcast.

The first thing is what exactly are you going to talk about?

Many popular suggestions that comes up on the internet to find the right niche for your podcast would be:

• Focusing on a topic which you would love to talk about.

• Find where your strength lies in and work around that.

• Figure out if your topic has any relevance with what people want to listen to.

• Don’t start with a broad niche at the beginning and cover the sub niches to get some authority in the beginning.

• Keep your options open to widen your niche to gain more audience with time and make content useful for all.

How do you decide your perfect fit for the niche

I know the above points would sound quite generalistic in nature, and I thought of sharing a podcast idea here.

I have got a friend of mine who is absolutely crazy about business and keeps sharing new business ideas with me quite frequently.

He even has his own start-up which has got through the funding as well…😊

The guy has so much knowledge about the ins and outs of how to start a business, if needed he can create a digital product on how to start a business sell the for the same…😁

He would definitely find a sizable audience who would like to know how to know more about a start-up (especially from someone who has already done this).

What do you think would be the ideal side hustle to get his ideas going?

I believe a podcast would definitely be the right fit for him to start as a beginner.

Ease of listening to the content as a listener would be the first starting point for deciding upon a platform.

Thus, finding your passion for something which is profitable as well and looking for the right platform helps to decide upon the ideal niche as a beginner.

What is your strength as a content creator

As a content creator, we can have many strengths and weaknesses.

As an example, I prefer to put my thoughts and content by writing in the mould of a writer.

So I feel really comfortable while writing content for this blog…😃.

Thus, if I have to choose between writing a content or creating a video for the content, I would opt for writing.

This doesn’t mean I won’t be able to publish videos unless I work upon my weaknesses.

It is thus a key factor when you look to find the right platform to publish content for all.

What is the relevance of the topic

Relevancy and profitability is the central focus always when it comes to deciding upon a niche.

But how do you find relevancy for a subject to talk about?

Let’s say you are a history buff and love to share your thoughts on the subject.

Now how do you see making any money from this subject?

It’s quite unreasonable and unexpected to make money from this subject no matter the platform you go for.

Why so? Because there is not much profitability involved even if it’s relevant for you.

Thus it becomes important to pick a topic which has scope for monetization and is relevant at present time.

Start with a sub niche topic to gain authority quicker

The market is always competitive and one needs time to establish authority in that space.

If you think small and pick a segment of a market to talk about it will be more authoritative.

As an example, if you are picking to talk about automobiles, then there are a lot of things to cover for.

You can talk about several stuff such as:

• Expensive cars owned by celebrities,
• Budget friendly cars for people to buy or 
• How to design your car etc .

If you start building your audience on any of the above specific segments then there are more chances of getting a wider reach.

So starting small will help to scale the business onto a wider audience with time as you start building authority in the space.

Now going too deep into a micro niche segment won’t be good as there should be space to expand later on.

Getting the right gear ready to start a podcast

A podcaster must have the right gear to record good quality podcast episodes for the show.

Although free options are available, they should be avoided as such as they won’t generate value for the users long term.

Here’s a basic list of the equipments that you would need to buy for starting a podcast:

Equipment	Use of the equipment
Microphone	Used for receiving the voice to be recorded during podcast
Digital Recorder	Recording the voice of the podcaster
Audio Interfaces	Sharing the audio file recorded with the computer or the other person in the podcast
Headphone	Listening to the audio voice during the podcast (privately)
Studio Monitor	Used as an application for professional audio production
Stands	Stands are used to provide support to hold things in place
Cables	Used to connect 2 electronic devices together
Microphone preamps	Improves the quality of the sound recorded

Source: jefflarge.com

I find it really difficult to understand the technical stuff that’s involved for anything that would work.

So I have included the above list after referring to an amazing article I found related to setting up a studio if you would like to learn more.

Once all the necessary gear is available for you, the next requirement is getting a silent space to record for the podcast.

So find a suitable space to start recording for the podcast.

Recording and editing the content of the podcast before publishing it

This is where things get technical and one needs to spend time in understanding how to record and edit stuff.

As with any technical stuff it requires time and working on skill sets to get to learn about the technical stuff involved behind putting the content out there.

If you are someone who loves to work around technical stuff it will be a bit easier on your part to get going.

While if you are not someone who loves to work around technical stuff, you can definitely take help of someone to learn these crucial aspects.

I don’t even like to deal with technical stuff involved while blogging about content, but with enough time and knowing about the things involved it has gotten easier with time.

Market the content onto the right medium

The next step is how you decide to market your podcast channel.

You need to think of the ideal medium as to how you would like to put the content available to others.

Along with running a podcast, a YouTube channel or even an Instagram account can help you along.

Deciding on where you feel comfortable to publish content is one of the primary reasons to find success.

Here’s few key insights about social media which I thought to share with you all:

• More than 70% of the users on Facebook check upon their account on a daily basis. Facebook is known to be a great place for marketing videos where over 100 million hours of content is viewed daily.

• Instagram stands to be the second most popular platform after Facebook with over 70% users being millennials.

• YouTube accounts for over 1 billion hours worth of video content viewership each day.

• Twitter accounts for a better possibility of around 31% users remembering something.

• Pinterest has over 80% of viewership of members who are on mobile.

Finding suitable opportunities to make money from podcast

As a beginner one must be aware of what are the options available to make money from a podcast.

As such there are plenty of ways to start from as a podcaster.

Here’s a quick glimpse of how you can make money from a podcast channel:

How to monetize	Podcast Channel	How much do podcasters earn
Running advertisement	The Ringer	More than 15 million
Affiliate Marketing	Pat Flynn	$100000 per month (2 podcasts combined)
Sponsoring with brands	The Unofficial Shopify Podcast	$9000 per month (4 sponsors)
Giving membership to listeners (Patreon support)	The Flagrant Ones	$40767 per month (6564 patreons)

Note: All the above sources are reported incomes as per different websites with no official confirmation from the source.

Besides above options to make money from podcasts one can also sell other complimentary products related to the podcast.

Other complementary products would include merchandise, books, selling courses, consulting and more.

Here’s an interesting trend I observed for podcast creators when it comes to patrons and their associated earnings potentials (source: Graphtreon.com):

• Podcast content creator Ian Senechal witnessed a growth of over 3.4 times in number of patrons and is earning around $1324 per month at an average of $3.75 per patron.

• Trash Taste podcast channel has reached to around $51,484 per month with a patron support of 10,621 earning at $4.85 per patron.

• Podcast creator Recluse is now earning over $1500 per month for a podcast launched on Feb 25, 2022.

Time required to set up a successful podcast

Time is one of the factors that deters a lot of people into starting upon something in life.

We often get demotivated by the fact that something is going to take 3 years or maybe 5 years to see any form of results.

And this can also be a primary cause as to why we don’t want to lose our job and money prospects at all.

But we must remember that nothing is certain in this world and either you play the game all in or don’t play at all.

There can’t be a midway in this at all.

We also need to understand that even a 20 – 25 years of education can’t assure us of getting a good job in the end.

So, we must enter into podcasting with the mindset of putting time into the long term (at least 1 year) to see any results.

But here’s a quick glimpse of how have some podcast channels have fared over time:

Podcast Channel	Time Invested	Accomplishments of the channel
Cars of Carlisle	2 years	Reached over 12000 downloads
Ecom Crew Podcast	Over 3 years	No monetization for the first 3 years. Currently earning $35000 per month in revenue after 3 years
SGPN	Atleast of 10 years	Generated over multi – millions downloads per year. Making revenue of $30000 per month
Counterweight Creative	6 years	Started with 1 client with a rate of $15 per hour  Making over $10000 per month at present (team of 10 people with 30 shows per week)

Source: starterstory.com

How much investment is required to setup a podcast studio

This is a very important question as there is certainly a cost involved in setting up the studio for podcasts before getting started.

This certainly is not one of the low cost or free side hustles to make income online.

Let’s look at some of the expected costs at present to set up a studio for podcast:

Equipment	Expected Cost (as per Amazon’s recommended products)
Microphone	Upto $50
Digital Recorder	$120 – $250
Audio Interfaces	$70 – $180
Headphone	Upto $30
Studio Monitor	$100 – $120
Stands	Uptp $50
Cables	$10
Microphone preamps	$20 – $50

The above costs are merely an estimation for anyone looking to buy the gear to start podcasting.

As a beginner, you can expect to spend upto $500 to buy all the equipment needed to start a podcast in 2022 (as per above estimation).

But if you have some of the equipment already available that would definitely lower the costs involved.

Having your own professional gear and equipment definitely helps, but you can also arrange all for free to get to know on how to start with the entire process.

But we still haven’t answered the original question.

Who should start a podcast?

Based on the above discussions, here would be the ideal answer to the question.

Anyone who is willing to learn key soft skills such as:

• Interpersonal skills,
• Listening skills,
• Networking skills or 
• Technical skills etc

can create a podcast on a subject area of interest which is viable and relevant preferably at a low cost of $500 that has enough monetization opportunities in future.

The next question that comes up is what if the podcast is no longer relevant tomorrow.

Is it really going to happen?

Let’s find out.

Is starting a podcast really worth it?

Huge unseen potential that exists in the podcasting industry is what you need to know if you want to start a podcast today.

But let’s analyse why exactly podcasts hold a lot of potential today and beyond?

We will answer about the potential of podcasting from the following aspects:

• Trend of podcast.
• How do the companies fare in the podcasting segment?
• What form of content can compete against podcasting.
• What are successful podcasters say about building a successful podcast 
• Customer base statistics for the podcast industry right now.
• Scope of monetization from podcasting
• Can I make a living from podcast

What is the trend of podcast for the future 

The first thing that comes to my mind while looking up for trends related to a product is ofcourse Google Trends.

If you aren’t aware, Google Trends is a free to use platform that shows how a particular keyword such as “podcast” is being searched online in Google over a period of time.

So when I searched for “podcasts” in Google Trends, I found the following trend…

Clearly the graph shows enough evidence for podcasts being searched in higher volume over a period of time, especially over the past 7 years.

To put things into perspective as to what exactly does the graph indicate, I compared the term “podcast” (increase) vs “nokia” (decline).

Here’s what I got…

Nokia’s decline in market share and revenue is quite synonymous with the “red line” as seen above which is declining for the search term “nokia”.

While at the same time the search term “podcast” is seeing a steady rise over time.

So, judging by trends we can conclude that podcasting in general has been in demand and is trending over time.

In Fact the trend for podcasts has increased by 1.55 times in the past 7 years since July 2014. (as per Statista).

Side Note: Nokia has seen a decline in their revenue for around 43% over the past decade (as per Statista).

How are the companies doing who are into podcasting business

Okay, so now we know that podcast is something which is trending for sure…😎.

But how exactly are the companies doing (in terms of revenue) who promote podcasting?

Here’s some recent stats related to some of the popular podcasting companies:

• Spotify, one of the top podcasting platforms, has made an investment of around $98 million over a period of 3 years to scale their podcasting services.

• The monthly average users of Spotify reached upto 422 million users in March 2022 (increase of 19% over last quarter).

• Spotify had a growth in the ad revenue for around 31% upto $68 million for the period ended March 2022, primarily driven by podcasting services.

• Finally the total revenue of Spotify had a significant jump of around 24% for March 2022 as compared to the previous quarter.

• Apple had a 12.11% growth over previous quarter and 49% growth for quarter ended 2020. One of the drivers of revenue includes podcasting services (Apple Podcast).

• Stitcher (podcasting company) was acquired for a whopping $325 million dollars which was nearly 4.5x the annual revenue it made in 2019…😮.

• The viewership of Podcasts has grown to nearly 33% recently in America from 17% in a span of 7 years from 2015.

What do these stats say in general? 

Why do you think these companies are investing and looking for more opportunities to grow in the podcasting segment?

The answer is obvious, it’s because they see tremendous growth and hidden potential. 

Podcasting revenue is expected to touch upto $2.2 billion worldwide by 2023 with an expected growth rate of 63.57% over 2 years.

Okay, this seems promising, but how is a podcast going to compete with other forms of content?

Let’s see..

Side Note: I have obtained all the above stats and figures studying the revenues and stats related to the companies 🤓 (in case you are wondering).

What form of content can compete against podcasting

Podcasts can find competition from video based content and written content as well in 2022 and beyond.

Let’s go through some quick stats before we discuss further about this:

Year	How many people watch videos online (worldwide)	How many people read online (worldwide)
2020	3.10 billion users **	3.46 billion users (approx)*
2021	3.26 billion users **	3.77 billion users (approx)*
Change	Increase in 0.16 billion users	Increase in 0.31 billion users
Expected Trend (For 2023)	Expected to increase up by 6.7% to reach 3.48 billion users worldwide.	Expected to increase up by 8.25% to reach 4.08 billion users worldwide.

Sources: 

* – The data is calculated by multiplying the global internet population with 77% (percentage of users reading online).

** – The above stats are pulled in by Statista.com.

Above stats reflect that both video based and text based audiences are expected to increase up by 6.7% and 8.25% approximately in 2023.

But where does audio based content stand here?

How many people listen to audio based content worldwide

Here is how podcast listeners have grown over the period of time.

Year	Podcast Listeners (in millions)	Change (in %)
2019	274.8 million users	–
2020	332.2 million users	21%
2021	383.7 million users	16%
2022	424.2 million users	11%
2023	464.7 million users (expected)	9.6% (expected)

Source: The above stats are as per InsiderIntelligence

The prediction for podcast listeners is around 504.9 million users by the end of 2024 (around 23.5% of internet users).

This is around 19% upward increase in podcast listeners in a span of 2 years.

From the above comparisons we can draw one thing clear.

Does podcast have a better growth than its competitors 

Here’s the 2 conclusions that we can draw from above discussions:

• Podcast listeners are expected to increase by 9.6% which is higher than the expected increase of 6.7% and 8.25% for videos and text form of audience respectively.

• The global user base for the podcast listeners was around 384 million (in 2021) which is almost 9x times lower than video based content users worldwide.

It seems promising looking at the numbers with how many people that can tune into podcasts for any niched content.

But, what is the general consensus related to podcasts on the internet?

A good starting point is checking upon success stories of podcasters on different social media sites as a content creator.

Let’s have a look at it.

Podcast success stories of people

I found an amazing piece of content related to the successful podcasters published at startetstory.

Here’s 5 podcast channels I found interesting:

Podcast Channel	Revenue Earnings	Niche of podcast	Years active
Cars of Carlisle	$419 per month	Expensive Cars	4 years
Code Story	$5000 per month	Interviews with techies	3 years
Cinquanta Cox-Smith	$10000 per month	Print on Demand side hustle	13 years
The Speaker Lab	$33300 per month	Speaking Business content	7 years
Women in Business Podcast	$100000 per month	Women based businesses	2 years

Key insights on what successful podcast creators have to say

Here are some of the key insights that I could find by these content creators:

• Building strong relationships and staying loyal to the customers has converted passion for cars into business (form of podcast) over a period of 3 years that makes 4-figures annually all while still holding a full time job.

• Noah from Code Story tells to never quit and keep putting content to build a successful podcasting side hustle. He makes $60k per year.

• One can develop their identity with time which can match the interests of the audience as they build a community slowly around it.

• Niching down and having a laser focus helped build a podcast around Shopify to 6 figures annually.

• Founder of Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast, host reveals that finding a solution to a deeper issue will help build a sustainable brand in the long run.

Above are some recommendations that one can find to build a successful podcast.

These aspects are really crucial to sustain this side hustle for long.

Scope of monetization from podcast

There are multiple ways of making money from a podcast channel, isn’t it?

We have covered 10 such amazing ways of making good money from running your podcast.

This scope doesn’t seem to be diminishing over time any time soon as it still maintains its relevance even now.

From the monetization stand point, there will always exist an opportunity to scale the business from multiple angles of making money from it.

For example, here’s some key insights into the ad rates for running a podcast.

Advertising Rates of podcast (CPM)

Why is it important to study about advertising rates at all?

Well, podcasting business has seen an amazing growth of over 54% in last 3 years to reach upto 424.2 million users globally today (2022).

This indirectly means businesses are willing to pay more to get eyeballs for their products infront of people tuned in.

As such the advertising rates are expected to go higher.

This also means the publishers (podcasters) are going to earn a share of the advertising cost incurred by these companies…right?

When I looked up for the advertising rates (CPM), here’s what I found online.

• Advertisers are willing to incur up to $25 CPM for a 60 seconds ad on a podcast. This is rate of expenses an advertiser is willing to pay to run a 60 second ad to reach up to 1000 listeners tuned in to podcast channel.
• Similarly a 30 seconds ad CPM on a podcast is around $18.

Here are some interesting numbers related to ad CPM number related to the number of listeners per episode:

Listener Count Base	60 second Ad CPM	Trend of Ad CPM
Upto 10000	$26	7.07% growth over 2 years
More than 10000 and less than 100000	$24	5.24% growth over 4 months
More than 100000	$21	9.75% growth over 2 years

How are the CPM rates relevant for you?

Higher CPM would mean higher RPM or revenue for 1000 impressions for the publisher (podcaster).

As you can see there has been a rising trend in the ad rates depending upon the listeners for running a 60 second ad.

This is an indication of viability of the podcasting business model for long term in terms of monetization potential.

Additional stats related to podcasts

Here are some more additional stats one must know about podcasts:

• Podcast listeners have grown over 30% to reach upto to an estimated 177 million listeners in 2022 (in U.S. alone).

• Number of podcasts all over the world in 2021 had grown 5.8 times in over 4 years since 2018 to reach upto 2.9 million active podcasts.

• Men who listen to podcasts edge past women listeners by a margin of 4 – 5% over the past 2 years (in U.S. alone).

• Around half of the podcast listeners are in the age group of under 34 years of age.

• A study found that almost a quarter of the population listen to podcasts for nearly 22 hours in a week.

• Podcast listeners who listen to podcasts while commuting (driving) had grown over by 43% in 1 year ending 2021.

• Nearly 40% of podcast creators don’t find it challenging to build an audience over a podcast.

• Around 26% tune in to podcasts for entertainment, relaxation or staying up to date with what’s happening around.

• Top 50% of the podcasters get upto 30 downloads in a month.

• Music, arts and health and fitness remain to be top 3 demandable niche segments for podcasts with each having more than 50% popularity among listeners.

• Podcast listeners tend to leave a podcast (upto 35%) if they find the podcast uninteresting in the first 5 minutes.

Can I make a full time income from running a podcast

Yes, you can definitely make a full time income from running a podcast.

However, it depends upon what you consider as a full time income.

Here’s a quick rundown on some of the podcast creators and their associated growth:

Podcast Channel	Earning per month	Trend
Beneath Ceaseless Skies	$945 per month	Over 2 times growth in revenue in 3 years
Volume One	$1284 per month	Growth from $10 per month till $1284 per month in 1.5 years
Nontendo Podcast	$3877 per month	Under 24% growth in a span of 1 month
Ray Kump	$5881 per month	Reached $5862 per month from $5 in Feb 2019

Note: All the above sources are reported incomes as per graphtreon with no official confirmation from the source.

As you can see people are earning varied levels of income depending upon how they perform over a period of time.

So a full time income would change as per each individual’s assessment of what is enough for them.

Some of the key factors for long term success would include:

• Consistency in production of the content would help you achieve long term success.
• Targeting the right niche and audience of your choice.
• Giving valuable content to the end users would help build the brand in the right direction.
• Finding suitable monetization opportunities for the channel and so on.

Let’s conclude what we have discussed so far in the section below.

Conclusion of scope of podcast in the future

I feel that with a growing audience base that’s expected to breach the 500 million mark by the end of 2024, podcasting is really a thriving side hustle today.

Anyone who starts today can get into a specific niche segment targeting defined customers and catch the wave of making digital audio waves early on.

What’s your take on this?

The future looks bright and prominent for anyone who wishes to start a podcast today.

But if you want to look for other options to make money online, we have plenty more covered on this site.

I have included a few out of those for your ready reference below.

Other ways to make money online

Besides making money from creating podcasts, here are some of the side hustles that one can look into to make a full time income from it.

Make money as a bookkeeper

A bookkeeper is essentially the one who gets to keep all the records of a business entity or an individual operating a business.

This is a rising in demand profession where people can work to maintain the books of account and records of a business to make money online.

As a bookkeeper you must be strong in numerical skills, ability to analyse essential data metrics such as: 

• Profitability, 
• Sales analysis,
• Customer Segmentation and more.

This is a lucrative career and high paying job which can pay a lot with time to the bookkeepers.

One can definitely pursue this long term be it men or women and make a good full time income with time.

The amount of money to earn as a bookkeeper can go upto $45,250 per month.

Take work as a virtual assistant

Working as a virtual assistant is another job which has a high paying aspect associated with it.

VA’s (Virtual Assistant) can work as a helping hand for functioning of any businesses out there.

They get to perform any kind of role that you may wish to see, such as:

• Data entry
• Scheduling calls and meetings
• Market research and analysis
• Creation of a presentation
• Booking for travel and accommodation of people etc.

The best thing about being a VA is freedom to work at your own hours and working from home.

The pay rates for Virtual Assistant are also decent which could go up to $4000 per month.

Make money from cleaning houses

Cleanliness and sanitation are key things in today’s world.

This has even become more relevant even during Covid era.

In such a situation hiring a professional cleaner who can take care of cleaning responsibilities is of utmost importance.

This is another decent paying job which pays on hourly basis for the cleaners.

Sometimes the cleaners can even get to earn upto $400 for cleaning houses.

Make money from selling of domain names

Users can also sell domain names or flip domains to make money online.

Domains are a hot commodity in today’s market as they are valued a lot for certain sections of people looking to make a business out of it.

A domain trader who buys and sells domains to book profits can expect to make millions of dollars of business if done correctly.

People can make $100 of dollars to start with or can even make upto $5000 per month as they grow with time.

A key thing is to learn how it is to be done correctly which involves buying a portfolio of domains and selling it for a profit.

We have covered extensively on the topic of making money from selling domains, so feel free to explore about this money making opportunity…😃

Walk dogs and make money walking dogs

Anyone who is friendly with dogs can also make money walking dogs as well.

In today’s fast paced world it’s difficult to give time to others besides ourselves.

This goes true for pets as well who don’t get to see their owners for long.

In such a scenario, walking dogs to make money is something users can start to do today and bring in some handy cash as well.

Anyone who gets to walk dogs can make money upto $15 per hour as an average.

Besides above, there are many more ways to make money in today’s world which we have covered in passiveearningonline.

Sell feet pictures to make money online

Selling feet pics is a weird side hustle and something which won’t fizzle off soon in the future.

Essentially you will be selling stuff online and one that is related to feet in specific…🐾

People are buying foot pictures from others for any reason whatsoever which includes commercial purpose or personal use as well.

What makes it more interesting is that some have quit their day jobs to do this full time.

The market is looking for such pics of people and people are looking all over the internet searching for such photographs.

These are some of the 5 side hustles that you can try today and look forward to besides making money jogging.

Make money from babysitting

Do you love to love and cuddle babies if and when it’s possible.

Well, there’s a rising demand for all of you who want and you can make money from babysitting as well.

So while you are looking to make money jogging babysitting can be another option for you as well.

Babysitters can earn upto $18 per hour depending on their work and experience as well.

That’s all we had to discuss about podcasts in this blog.

I hope you found the content to be worth the read.😊

We will answer some more additional questions which are commonly asked about podcasting in general.

Meanwhile, do share your thoughts below on anything which you want to know about.

FAQs on podcast

How I came up with the title of the blog?

Do you want to know how I came up with the title of the post?

I happened to send this blog over to my friend and assessed for how long it took him to read the entire blog…😄

He took roughly around 25 minutes to cover it at one go and happened to read over the entire content again to understand this properly.

That’s how I calculated how much time it would take for a normal reader to read the entire blog.

How much did you take to read the entire post? I am quite curious to know.

I suggest you read the content for a better understanding and please feel free to ask anything in the comments section for anything uncovered.