“How Do I Monetize My Blogs & Podcasts?”

It's a question asked more and more. Businesses and individuals are putting more time into blogs, podcasts and other digital media. And they want to know how this is going to make them money. You know it's something you should be doing in this digital age, but you wonder just how are you going to monetize it.

The short answer: you don't. At least not in the traditional media/marketing model. Sure you can add Google Ad Words to your blog and when you get big enough, have sponsors and paid ads on your digital material. But that's not going to get you the value you put into your company's blog or podcasts. The real value is in increasing your company's and your personal standing as an expert – the kind of people that other companies want to do business with.

In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel says, "Anyone who creates content is creating media. That is the advertising. Everyone keeps searching for the ad model in blogs and podcasts, not realizing that the content and the individual producing it are the media. People see you as an expert and want to work with that expert."

That's the point. How you monetized your digital content is through the business that results from people knowing you, your expertise and wanting to work with you as a result. There are countless examples of companies getting business through this method. We ourselves had two potential clients call us wanting to know more after listening to a recent podcast by the head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin.

You don't ignore ROI. To the contrary, you need to think about it – a lot. You just need to look at it differently. In her blog post "10 Crucial Roles of a Social Media Director" Liz Strauss puts "be about ROI" fourth on her list. She goes on to say, "ROI is so important. If we don’t sell things, no one has a job. For years, we’ve known the value of conferences and trade shows, yet no one knows exactly how to measure their return. I’m thinking a certain similarity applies."

The long and short of it is this: you need to be out there in the digital space building your expertise. You just need to look at the value of doing it differently. What do you think? Have a success story of your own? I'd love to hear it.

Mike McClure, Yaffe ECD & Social Media Guy