Funding: Homework

Claire Waite Brown: 00:00:06

Welcome back to Podcasting 2.0 in Practice. Let's start today's homework by locating the funding feature on your podcast listening app.

As with the previous homework episode on chapters, I will be popping very useful screenshots in the chapters to illustrate what I'm telling you. If you have not listened to the chapter's episodes, well, first, I'm deducting 10 imaginary extra credits from you, and second, go back and listen.

Let's start with Podcast Guru. You need to be in the overall show page where all the episodes are listed, rather than the play screen that we've talked about before.

Click on the three dots at the top of the screen, then choose Support this Podcast. When you click on that link, you will be taken to where the podcaster would like you to go to make your donation.

And I'll talk about how podcasters set this up a bit later in this homework episode.

On TrueFans, again, on the show page, not the episode Play Screen, click on the lovely symbol of an open hand with a heart on top.

Podverse also supports funding, and whether you are in the show screen or the episode screen, you'll see at the top of the screen the dollar symbol in a circle above a rectangle, like a coin being popped into a slot. That's where you go to find the funding feature in Podverse.

So if you would like to give some financial support to a favourite podcaster, click on the relevant symbol in your listening app. If you'd like to practise first, feel free to send some support to this show or to Creativity Found.

If your favourite podcaster has not set up their funding link, then those symbols will likely not be visible in the app you're listening on.

And in this case, you might like to suggest to said podcaster that they listen to this show since they've just missed out on some, possibly much-needed, financial support. Okay,

now the homework for the podcasters, which is of course to set up your funding link with your hosting company.

You might want to start by visiting podcasting2.org or podcastindex.org first to see if your hosting company supports the funding tag. Have a listen to the 101 and 2.0: Podcast Basics homework episode if you need a reminder of how to navigate that.

This show is hosted by Captivate.

And since we've just been chatting with Danny Brown from Captivate, let's start there. Captivate has a number of monetization options that make use of the funding tag so you can choose which you like best in your dashboard.

Scroll down to Monetization and you'll see options for memberships and tips. In the membership settings you can create your own tiers of membership and decide what extras, if any, membership might offer, such as early access or exclusive episodes.

You can also activate tips from the tips settings page, including setting default amounts and changing the wording. For example, I changed mine from 'Tips' to 'Leave a tip, thank you'.

Captivate will set up a support web page for you and use that as the default link for the funding tag. Here's what a sample looks like with a choice of membership and tips.

Now, if you want to use your own link as I talked about with Danny, to perhaps a Patreon, Buy me a Coffee or your own web page that is doable too. Click on Podcast Settings at the top of your dashboard. Then click on RSS Enhancements, scroll down to Podcast Funding and add your link.

As you can see, in this instance I've added a link to my Buy me a Coffee page. Don't forget to scroll down to save changes as well.

Buzzsprout also has its own built in monetization options.

Click on Monetization at the top of the home screen and go to Subscription Settings to set up recurring support and or premium content. To use a different preferred payment site, click on Support Show Link in the Monetization tab and paste your link into the box.

It's good practice to have your payment link listed in your show notes, so use your host's template features to have that link inserted in the notes for every new episode.

As you can see from this screenshot, Buzzsprout automatically does this for you.

With RSS.com click on Monetization and add your link to the Donations and Funding box.

Other hosts will have similar options, I'm sure, so go explore and get ready for the dollars to start rolling in.

As discussed with Danny, don't forget to also tell your listeners that they can support you financially and how to do it.

Visit creativityfound.co.uk podcasting to find out more about my guests and access lots of useful podcast resources.

If you'd like to get in touch, you can send a boost, but if you haven't got to that lesson yet, feel free to reach out to me on my Instagram account at podcasting2.0 in practice.