bad idea: 11 reasons why charging podcast guests is not smart
a case agains't charging pod guests
Hey, so most podcasters start charging podcast guests for these reasons:
they can’t monetize their podcasts through lead-gen
they can’t monetize their podcasts through AdSense
they can’t monetize their podcasts through Sponsors
they get a bad guest and they start being “off” by the idea of enduring another / not having an ROI of their time.
they had a self-promotional guest that ruined the whole experience
they try to over-monetize and aren’t creative / patient enough
they don’t have a system to filter guests: Apollo, Persana and outreach
they don’t have enough guests and the flow of the pod is slow: they’re about to give up
their podcast process is way too complicated and clumsy (it cost them 100-1k to publish an episode)
they don’t have AIs and automation running the show
their niche sucks (say interviewing chiropractors or realtors)
The effects of charging for a podcast:
you will get self-promotional guest and your pod will sort of go in decline (see EOFire)
you will lose the passion for podcasting and eventually close it down: it’s not scaling
you will sound like a sellout
you will stop learning off top minds
you will grow your networks with shmucks that pay for PR instead of the smartest most talented humans on Earth
you will be missing the whole point of what a pod’s about: making money, growing brain cells and having fun.
Does Joe Rogan, All In Pod, or Lex Friedman charge to have guests on? No. Their only goal is to get quality.
Your only aim is to get quality guests and being consistent / keep improving the money will follow
Does charging for guests attract the smartest guests or people paying for PR?
When people ask me for cash to get on their pods i’m like: “You should be the one paying me to be on.” Does Elon have to pay to get on pods?
you will make less money
What you should do instead:
Start a podcast targeting your ideal customer persona. 1 out of 10 will buy your consulting services. this should be plenty to monetize your pod (I charge 5k/month).
Get the right tech stack to automate your pod process:
Opus: Produce YT Shorts out of full podcasts
Harpa.ai: Separate your YouTube videos in chapters
Podup: most complete podcast app in the market. Better quality than zoom.
Streamyard: going live on linkedin, twitter and youtube at the same time
BuzzSprout: publishing on many podcast platforms
PodMatch: get podcast invitations for cheap on this platform.
Get the right cold email outreach stack to get as much as 100 guests / month and scale your skills, leads and exposure:
Namecheap: to buy domains / setup mailboxes on the cPanel
Apollo: best outreach tool period.
Sendgrid: plug it with apollo to send over 50k emails a month.
Kula: 125$ leads
Muraena: AI-data search and up-to-date funded data
Get a consultant like myself to help set that tech stack / automate it :D
Use LinkedIn and GPT to have a list of quality questions in 5 seconds.
Getting better and better guests: this means monetizable insights for you and growing your network like nothing else allows it.
Getting better and better at asking great questions and producing epic content
You will eventually attract AdSense money with this and get addicted to YouTube content growth
You will attract sponsors that will pay you 100$-1k/episode. You can promote affiliate links in the meantime and get this kind of check
And this virtuous cycle will repeat itself forever.
Do 3-5 years of this and you will get Joe Rogan big and then hit the big money.
I am very bullish on podcasting and feel it will be AI-protected for a couple of years, at least.
Further your podcast addiction with my new e-book: https://www.amazon.com/Start-your-AI-Podcast-2025-ebook/dp/B0DDKR1WRL/
Get to Charles-Level with this AI Podcasting Masterclass: https://podpire.com/lead-gen-podcasting-masterclass/