We also talk about my blog post about advertising revenue on the Internet continues to go up.

The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from web sites, commercial online services, free email providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.

The following chart highlights quarterly ad revenue since 1999; dollar figures are rounded.

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. Past reports are available at www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport.

This shows what we’ve known, the advertisers are coming.

Full article

1. Type in your topic into Google. Look at the sidebar and see who is paying for ads. Go to their website and call them.

2. Be ready to explain the power of the niche, and how you have their target audience.

For more tips on monetizing your podcast check out my book More podcast Money

In looking at their media kit, I see a few things that stand out. In February 2011 they had almost 200 live listeners. In March 2011 that went to 86 and continued downward. Likewise their download numbers have fallen off from 10,000 to 239. I’m not sure this is going to inspire people to sponsor your podcast.

Quite Possibly the Worst Audio I’ve Ever Heard

If you can make it to 2:12 you will be amazed at the quality of the call.

Their website is a disorganized mess where you can tell what part of their website they are selling.  Here is a great video about how keeping your website SIMPLE can make you more money with an improved cal to action.

Final Points

• Make sure your media kit shows your podcast in a positive light.
• Make sure you are delivering the best quality you can.
• Make sure your content and advertising don’t blend too much together.

Affiliate income
Amazon $24.33 (Total)
Jillian Michaels Podcast $2.42 (amazon)
Jillian Michaels Website $31.76
Audible $210

Logical Weight Loss
$9.24 (Amazon)
Fitbit $11.89

School of Podcasting
$12.40 (amazon)
Thesis $82.83
Unaccounted $.27
Consulting $451
Weekly Web Tools
Scribe $8.91
SEO Pressor $62.10
More Podcast Money Book 11.16
Membership Sites $228.81

Total Income: $1122.79

Expenses: $363
Web Hosting $30
Domain names $80
Book Writing Tools $101
Digital Access Pass Support $120
Music Radio Creative $20
Advertising $12

Net Income: $759.79
Previous Month $1622

“Donate $amount to @username for reason

They get a notification that the message was sent and an email message of the receipt.

You can even sell digital products. Once the tweet/payment is sent, the download link is provided.

The audience can buy something by simply replying to a tweet with the word “buy.”

With Chirpify you can sell both physical and digital items. Set shipping rates and receive shipping info when someone purchases your physical item. Upload and sell digital content, we’ll send a secure download link to the buyer when they purchase.

How Much Does Chirpify Cost?

It’s free for the person purchasing the items. For the person selling the item, it’s 4% (keep in mind that paypal will take their fees as well). With this in mind if someone donates $1 the breakdown will be.

Chirpify .04
Paypal .33

Net income: .63

If someone donates $5 the breakdown would be:

Chirpify: .2
Paypal: .45

Net Income $4.35

Automated Tweeting of Reminders

You can have Chirpify send out reminders to your followers. I see this as a good tool, but could become very obnoxious if your twitter stream becomes nothing more than “send me money..”

Summary

Again, I like any system that makes it easier to receive money. This requires the audience signing up for Chirpify, but it does make it easy to send money via your phone. There are other systems that allow you to send money via text message, and now via twitter. The question is will your audience jump through this hoop to setup a chirpify account to send you a payment.

It’s going to be a chicken or the egg situation. After all, for people to sign up there needs to be a lot of people saying “Just use Chirpify.” For people to jump on the Chirpify bandwagon, there needs to be examples of people who are benefiting from it. There are a few examples now (a musician earned, $19,000 in a month selling t-shirts). Its going to come down to the amount of influence you have with your audience. If you can move them to sign up, then these could be a fun way to earn some income, sell some products, and more.

For more information go to www.chirpify.com

Ever since I’ve launched my book, I’ve had a steady stream of income. It’s been two and three digits each month. You have to promote your book, but it’s nice to have a product of your own to sell. If you’ve been entering show notes you could even take those and add a bit more to it and turn it into a book.

The best thing is all you need to do is get an editor (don’t try to edit your book) and a cover. This means you’ll probably put out around $300 (depending on the length of your book) which you can make back over time. I broke even after three months.

You Have What Authors Want

The one thing that authors don’t have is a promotional channel. They hope to get interviewed on a radio show or some other venue. The beautiful thing is you already have a promotional channel filled with people who know and trust you. Why not give them an easy to consume product. Instead of having to listen to all of your podcasts again, you can provide a summary in a Kindle format.

Why Kindle?

While it’s good to be at the top of search engines, it would be better to be on top of Amazon.com who has hundreds of thousands of credit cards on file (if not millions). You can read a Kindle book on a Kindle, iPod, iPad, Android, or even in a browser. It is compatible as a pdf file.

KD Publishing Pro Software

While I used Word for my first book, I will be using KD Publishing Pro for my future books. The software is only $27 and its super easy to use and takes all the guesswork out of publishing on a Kindle. The reason the product is so inexpensive is they are going to try and upsell you on another publishing tool. It’s a useful tool, and you can purchase it later if you’re on a tight budget.

There are training videos for each product that make it easy to start creating your first book.

Check it out at kdpublishingpro.com

This article is meant for musicians, but it can be used by podcasters.

Here’s a general outline/template that you can adapt to be more effective in your sponsorship packet. You should design your packet specifically for print as well as a digital file. The most important thing to keep in mind is the perspective of the sponsor: How does the proposal benefit them/their customers/their employees? What can you offer that is different than the other sponsorship proposals being sent to them? Is it easy to take action?

The Format:

1. Cover - Make it distinctive. You might consider adding something like “2012 Sponsorship Proposal Prepared Especially For [the company]” with their logo on it. Give them plenty of opportunities to visualize working with you.
2. The Call Out (optional): The second page can be for a large dramatic image/photo or some of the major “bragging rights” stats. Artists can typically use this page as the “one sheet” – a one page descriptor of who you are, major stats or accomplishments, or press excerpts/testimonials from other sponsors.
3. The Partnership: This is where you want to focus on the main benefits for working with your organization. What are the main ways you and the sponsor are a good fit?
4. The Fact Sheet: The nitty-gritty details of your event, tour, or organization that they are sponsoring. Cover all of the major who/what/when/where/why questions, such as as “What is the event?,” “Where does the event take place?,” “Who is involved?,” “Why should I be sponsoring this event,” etc.
5. Key Marketing Information: This is where your research into your industry pays off. You’ll want to talk about your niche market, the demographics of your audience (and who you are targeting), how you will be messaging your brand/event along with their company, and talk about successes with past sponsorship campaigns.
6. Co-Branded Marketing Opportunities: You’ll want to send 3-6 custom, creative pitches to the company that allows for them to visualize working with you. This should play directly off of your niche market/their target audience. The more custom the idea, the higher the asking price that you can fetch. It also helps you stand out from other sponsorship opportunities that only offer logo placement. Marketing folks love creative ways to showcase their brand, especially to an interested audience who they might never be able to reach in any other way. If there is also a “viral” component to one of the ideas, that’s even better.
7. The Benefit List: List all of the benefits that the company gets from sponsoring you. Put your emphasis on the more custom, creative options and less on the generic commodities that typical sponsorship packages offer (such as logo placement). This is your formal offer so make it as clear as possible on what they can be expecting in return from their sponsorship dollars or in-kind gifts. If you’ll accept a payment schedule, include that as well.
8. The Sponsorship Agreement: The sponsorship agreement should be easy to complete and return. Details such as a self-addressed and stamped envelope are good. Add an extra bit of professionalism by having this portion printed on NCR (carbonless copy) paper where they can tear off a copy for themselves and send one to you. You can also do things such as adding a QR code or link to a digital version of the agreement.

Simon Tam is owner of Last Stop Booking and author of How to Get Sponsorships and Endorsements. Simon’s writing on music and marketing can be found at www.laststopbooking.com. He is on Twitter @SimonTheTam