There’s a whole new world of opportunity out there, gang. Agents, managers, studios, and networks are looking for new talent in places they never would have considered before.
No longer do you have to scrimp and save and borrow and – ulp – steal to shoot your own indie film and hope for the best. You don’t even have to scrimp, save, borrow and steal slightly less and make your own web series.
Instead – it’s time to start podcasting. With minimal equipment and moolah, you can record your own audio dramas (which we’ll be talking about a lot more on TVWriter™ in weeks to come). And with even less than that you can go straight into the podcasting business and earn some income while you wait for lightning to strike.
Or so Forbes tells us. And those rich bidness-type folks over there wouldn’t lie, would they? Gotta be honest to work as closely as they do with, you know, bankers, right? Anyway:
How Aaron Mahnke Makes A Living Podcasting (And How You Can, Too)
by Sarah Rhea Werner
Confession time: I don’t know how to feel about the whole “podcast monetization” conversation.
On the one hand, I think creators should be paid fairly for their work. And if you’re a podcaster, you know: podcasting is a ton of hard work.
On the other hand, there’s supply and demand. I didn’t create any of my podcasts because people were clamoring for them. I created them because I wanted to share a positive message and learn about audio production. I’m not sure it’s reasonable to enter a market with a product no one has asked for (and which is being given away for free en masse) and feel entitled to payment for it.
So I’m torn. I’m well aware that this is Forbes (a business and finance magazine), but I also know that money doesn’t always make things better. In fact, it can easily distract, consume, and corrupt us, and get us into a clickbait-y, content-factory mindset—where the need for revenue-driving clicks outweighs the need to say something important.
That being said, many podcasters dream of leaving their day job(s) and podcasting full-time. So I chatted with Lore‘s Aaron Mahnkeabout how he managed to do it. Turns out it takes (brace yourself) a lot of careful planning and a ton of hard work….