Could your dormant podcast make you money?

Not every podcast will be made forever. For some, the plan was to release a limited series, for others, time, money, ideas or enthusiasm run out and the show comes to an end. But what should you do with a dormant show? Does it have to cost you money if you want it to still be available? Can it instead, make you money?

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

If you have a dormant podcast that you’re not intending to revive anytime soon, the first thing to do is to ensure that it remains available to listeners, without costing you money.

If your podcast host charges a monthly fee, consider moving to a new host with a free plan, such as Acast. Transferring an RSS feed is quite straightforward, with many hosts offering step by step instructions, but don’t forget to capture as many of your show’s statistics as possible before you move it. Your show can stay on this new feed as long as you like, without costing you anything and any existing links to the show will remain active.

Why should you keep your show available, if you’re no longer making new episodes? 

It’s natural to think that novelty is key to the value of your podcast - we spend so much effort on making and promoting new content. But the smart creator knows that for most shows, the value is not in ‘newly made’ but in ‘new to me’. If a show remains available after production ends, it can still be found by new listeners, who can be just as enthusiastic as those who found it on release day. If one of the goals for your show as reputation building, or short-cutting the ‘getting to know you’ stage with new customers, then your show can continue to do that long after you finish making it.

Your show can continue to make you money, long after you finish production, with a few easy steps.

• Talk about your show! If you’re no longer making new episodes, it’s natural to stop talking about it, but your show is still a valuable resource to your listeners. Tell people about it - ‘I have a whole show for you to binge available here!’

• Refer back to specific episodes. If you have episodes that explore topics you speak about regularly, refer to them as useful context, send out links. Your show can become a shortcut for new audience members to understand your offering, saving you time and money. ‘You can hear more from me about this topic on my podcast’
  Bonus tip - make sure you claim your show on www.podfollow.com for easy links to each one of your episodes.

• Revisit your content. By interrogating your podcast stats you have a great resource for seeing which topics were popular with your audience, to help guide your future creations. 

If you’d like help with your dormant podcast, don’t forget you can book a free chat with me here.