Monetizing Nerd Pride

[Mike]

Something Kyle said a couple weeks ago got me to thinking about things I could do to actually make a little money off of Nerd Pride Radio. It costs me a little money each year to keep this site up and running, but mostly it's about my time. But really, I put my time into it because I enjoy this a lot. But still... if you can get paid, then why wouldn't you? I'm looking for people's thoughts.

Things I've thought of so far:

1) Merch: Making t-shirts or mugs or whatever. It's a good idea, but not a big money-maker. I would only get a small cut of whatever products were sold, and my listener base is not huge. I'd sell a handful of items... and then everyone would have one. And half of my share of the profits would go to buying three or four t-shirts for my own family.

I think Merch is a good idea and something I want to do, but if and when I do it, it will be so that I can have a t-shirt... not to make any money.

2) Google Ads (AdSense): I've looked at it, and with the level of traffic I have I'd probably make somewhere around $50-80 a month. The cost to me would be having an ad banner across the top or bottom or whatever of every page of Nerd Pride Radio. Hmmm. Maybe if it was just at the bottom? I don't know. I don't like the idea of having ads on the site. I think it cheapens the whole thing and could turn off some new people. This is a tough one.

3) Amazon Affiliate: this one is easy and less obtrusive. I provide an Amazon Shopping link from my home page. Then I encourage all my listeners to use that link whenever they want to shop on Amazon. I then get a tiny commission off of everything people buy when they go to Amazon through my link. This one is hard to gauge as far as how much it makes, but it's something that is unobtrusive and voluntary, and doesn't cost my listeners anything except for the extra click it takes to get to Amazon to start shopping. I'm thinking of pursuing this option regardless. There's an application process. I have no idea what their criteria is.

4) Patreon: I like the concept of Patreon. It's completely voluntary. But like Public Radio, it requires that the 10% who can be motivated to give money pay the full cost of supporting the other 90% who can't be bothered. And again... not a huge listener base yet. If I could convince 10-20% of my listeners to give $1 per episode on Patreon, then maybe I make $100 a month or more. But I can already tell right now just talking about it that I'd feel guilty taking that money. I'll get over this eventually, but for right now it makes me a little queasy. Probably because I'd feel like such a hypocrite, because I've never given money to public radio, even back when I was an avid listener. Their pledge drives always made me feel guilty. I don't want to do that to my listeners.

Anyway, what would you guys think about any of these? Do you have other thoughts to add to these, or other ideas I haven't considered? Again, a lot of this is me seeing ways to make a little money off of doing what I'm already doing.

[Elle]

Yes, do these things. The Google Ads wouldn't bother me a bit. It would be interesting and creepy to compare notes about whether we get different sorts of ads. I see them on all kinds of sites I visit and it's not the slightest problem, and you deserve whatever payback you can get for all your clicks and whatever. I doubt I would purchase the Amazon stuff through this site because I already have a local charity I try to do that for. Some other mechanism for donation, however? Sure. Why would you feel bad about this? You're performing a public service. You get nothing for it; you lose money on the deal; you aren't basking in luxury. Absolutely yes, find ways to monetize it.

[Ronster]

Are you an American or not? Monetize this thing!!!

Seriously do it. I would even go for the in podcast ads like stamps.com, but Dungeon Crate or something nerd-related would go well too.

Google Ads? Amazon thingymabob? Why ever not?

Besides, I am an addict to your NPR and this will help me get a fix...for a long time.

Another possibility is a yearly kickstarter if you don't like Patreon, but I believe you can do something similar through PAypal on a monthly donation basis.

Done right we can fund Eli and Noah's college!

This is on you, Mike. Make it happen!


Oh, and the first thing you buy needs to be a swing-arm microphone like you always wanted!

[Kyle]

Try all of them and see what works. I've used the Amazon affiliates program for a nonprofit I was involved with. Unless you're moving a lot of products through the link, you won't make much. The reality of it is that when people come to your site or listen to your podcast, they aren't thinking about buying stuff. Thus, your click throughs are going to be significantly lower than you think.

I support google ads. Go for it. That's where you'll make the most money.

[Mike]

You've convinced me. I'm going to give Google Ads (technically AdSense) a shot and we'll see how it pans out for a few months.

[Bluedevyl]

I've thought about doing a Patreon for MLT just to see if we could get enough money in during a year to pay for the site, with maybe some left over for a new mike or something.

I hadn't talked to the guys about it, mostly because its been hard for us to get together lately.

[Mike]

Yeah, I'm actually hoping the Google Ads work out, and then if I ever do a Patreon account, I'll work it out that even the lowest level of Patreon (like 50 cents per episode) will get you an ad-free site.

[Elle]

Tell us how it works - like if we click all over the place and then follow links in the ads, does that make you more money? Because I can tell you this: judging from past experience they're going to Joss & Main this bitch up for me with every cute entry rug and ottoman and embroidered curtain in the world, and I'm not going to be able to concentrate for 2 seconds. I think I have adult ADHD, I'm totally serious.

But by that I mean: I should be a great generator of clicks.

[Mike]

If I understand correctly, I get paid for ad-views, probably close to $1 per thousand views. But I also get paid more if people actually follow those ads. Although it is against AdSense's terms of service for me to do anything that encourages extra clicking simply for the purposes of increasing my own revenue. So I won't do any of that.

Honestly, it makes me money just to have the ad show up on the page where you can see it. If you're truly interested in something in an ad, go ahead and follow it, but otherwise, don't worry about it.

[Cazmonster]