There comes a point in many content creator’s journeys when they begin to ask themselves should I monetize? Then, they struggle with the idea of how to monetize. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that you can use to monetize your different projects. For podcasters, there’s a new tool that they can check out called Podcorn. It’s basically a portal that connects podcasters with would be show sponsors. If you’re looking for a way to dip your toe into pitching for sponsors this may be a tool for you to consider. Read the following Podcorn review before you get started.
*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*
Thinking about starting a blog?
It’s pretty simple to do and cheap! Start with Siteground and WordPress.org. With this winning combination you’ll own your own website by the end of the day. And, Siteground has easy to follow tutorials to help you with setting up your site. Also, don’t forget to grab 120 Awesome Blog Ideas from Ruth Soukup’s Elite Blog Academy today.
What is Podcorn?
Put simply, Podcorn is a portal that connects podcasters with businesses, entities, or people who are looking to advertise their product/good/or service via targeted podcast communities.
Podcasters are able to browse through a list of sponsors looking for podcasts to advertise on. The cool thing about Podcorn is that they are able to continuously share opportunities on their platform.
I’ve seen the following types of sponsors looking to connect with shows:
- Romance Authors looking to launch their books
- Podcasts looking to expand their reach
- Financial platforms looking to expand awareness of their products
There are numerous organizations and entities that are advertising on the platform. Organizations that podcasters may not have considered pitching if they hadn’t encountered them on the Podcorn Platform.
Podcast Sponsorships
Podcasting is still in its infancy, but both hosts and sponsors are now beginning to understand that podcasts are a fantastic place to advertise because of the following:
- Targeted communities-Back in the day when people advertised in newspapers or magazines they were hoping that their product would get in front of they right people. Podcasting enables hyper targeted advertising in front of the right people for your products. Think about it, if you’re a cosplay costume designer and you advertise on a cosplay podcast, that’s a home run. Or, if you’re a women’s business coach and you advertise on women’s business focused podcasts-that’s a home run. Podcasts eliminate a lot of the guess work that advertisers deal with in trying to get in front of the right people.
- Better return for your advertising dollars-For advertisers this is a huge win and something that podcasters MUST communicate when pitching for sponsorships. Again, when someone advertises via a newspaper, once that edition is published (unless it’s digital) your ad is gone. With podcasting, as long as the show is “live” your ad lives on. My current shows “Make Money with Ebooks” and “Square State” have existed for 3 years. That means anyone who has advertised on my show has three years of advertising of their product.
- Verbal testimonials on behalf of the host who has decided to share your product/good/or service. These verbal testimonials are huge for building the important “know, like, and trust” energies needed for sales.
Podcasters who are looking to monetize their shows should absolutely give a second look at platforms such as Podcorn and any other similar platforms that might be created in the future.
Podcorn’s Strengths
It’s a relatively straightforward platform for hosts to use. You can check in on sponsorships opportunities once or twice a week or have your virtual assistant check on opportunities for you.
- Sponsorship Diversity-I really like the diversity in organizations/etc. looking to work with hosts. So, even if you have what you feel is a random show about a random topic, it’s worth checking out Podcorn.
- The number of opportunities-Currently, there are 86 sponsorship opportunities listed on the portal.
- Ease of use-It’s easy to connect your podcast analytics to your Podcorn portal.
- Podcorn makes the idea of podcast sponsorships a lot more accessible to podcasters who may be nervous about reaching out to sponsors.
Many aspects of using the Podcorn platform make it a tool that podcasters with a clear show topic and consistent publishing to embrace.
What Podcorn Could Improve
I’m very excited about Podcorn and believe that overtime it will become a much more robust and thought out platform to use. However, at the time that I’m writing this review there are a few weaknesses with the portal that I think people need to think about.
- Lack of Clarity-When podcasters are inside the portal looking at sponsorship opportunities, there is a “How to” area or guide that can be easily found. I think that many users would benefit from a series of videos walking them through the following:
- How to craft a successful pitch
- What to consider when pitching a sponsor-What need will you be able to help them with via your community?
- A best practices video-Many podcasters might not know some of the best practices to consider when working on sponsorships with an organization.
- The platform used to share what the budget was that each sponsor was working with. I liked this because it gave me better insight into who and what I would pitch. Now, that’s no longer the case. While I do understand why that information was pulled, this does mean that podcasters need to be clear about the following:
- How much they are willing and wanting to be paid for sponsorships.
- The dashboard is confusing: What does this mean? If there are 86 opportunities available why does it say that there is just 1 sponsorship/host-read opportunity available. I’m thinking that this means these are timing out because the host most complete the scope of work by a certain date. This could be taken off the portal. It’s unnecessary.
- Slots available? This is confusing because there is an assumption that those slots are relevant to every person looking at the portal. It’s not. I think this also should be removed.
- Sponsors who decide not to work with you should be required to shut off communication. I had one who left me hanging, and that left me with a bad impression of that business. That was unfortunate because I was a fan of what they were selling.
- I would love to see more about the team behind the platform. Right now Podcorn feels very sterile and it’s hard to know how quickly my questions will answered. Also, I like to know why Podcorn (or other products) were created.
These issues are pretty easy to fix and I hope that they spend some time doing user testing and get some feedback on the user experience.
Podcorn Negatives
There are a number of positives that come with using Podcorn, however, there are a few negatives that I would like to point out.
- Low paying sponsorships-Before Podcorn changed their portal users were able to see the sponsors’ advertising budgets. Many of those budgets were incredibly low, think $1,000, which meant that it was highly likely each sponsorship was lower paying. It’s up to the host to decide what their time is worth. I will continue to pitch based on what I’m bringing to the sponsor.
- Minimum Sponsorship mandate-They don’t have one and I wish they did. Basically, I would like all users of the platform to know the absolute minimum that they would be paid for a sponsorship on the platform. If everyone knows that the lowest a sponsor could pay you is $50, that changes pitches/expectations and scope of work.
- Lacks Thoughtful Organization-Users have to scroll through the entire feed in order to figure out if there are sponsors that fit their show. It would be nice to have sponsorships organized by topics such as the following:
- Products-Sponsors looking for shows to share their actual physical/digital products.
- Podcasts-There are a surprising number of podcasters on the platform trying to advertise their shows.
- Services-Examples of this would be: apps, financial services, etc.
- Miscellaneous-Anything that doesn’t clearly fit in the other interest areas.
I do think that this negatives are pretty easy to fix and by fixing them would make the platform stronger.
Should You Use Podcorn?
It’s my view that over time, Podcorn will hopefully address several of the issues that I brought up in this post. I do think it’s a great way for podcasters who are nervous about the process of pitching for sponsorships, to get in the habit of pitching their shows.
While I wouldn’t recommend only using Podcorn to monetize your shows, I think it’s a great low stress way to connect with brands, learn about what they’re looking for, and for podcasters to understand wha they bring to the table as a sponsor.
Latest posts by Michelle (see all)
- How Work Policies Against Black Women Birthed a Love of the Soft Life - 20 March, 2024
- How Taylor Swift’s IP Victory Could Change the Business of Music - 28 February, 2024
- Why Don’t More Personal Finance Content Creators Talk About Policy - 16 January, 2024
Leave a Reply