Before You Chase Sponsors to Monetize Your Podcast, Listen to This | Jordan Blair, Buzzsprout

Sponsorships aren't the revenue dream most podcasters think they are. In fact, they can be one of the least reliable forms of income from your podcast, and Jordan Blair, Buzzsprout's Podcast Producer and host of Dreamful Bedtime Stories (13M+ downloads), is here to expose why.

After landing major sponsors like BetterHelp and HelloFresh, Jordan found a more reliable way to monetize your podcast that doesn't require a massive audience, constant sponsor outreach, or waiting until your show is "big enough" to start generating revenue. She shares how to make money before you launch, why your first episode may be your most valuable asset, and one underutilized podcast monetization strategy you can use today with fewer than 100 downloads per episode.

Want to monetize your podcast sooner rather than later? Hit play and let’s dive in.

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0:30 – Why Sponsors Aren't the Dream Most Podcasters Think They Are

5:44 – How to Get a Sponsor Before You Launch Your Podcast (or with Fewer Than 100 Downloads per Episode)

12:07 – Why Your First Episode May Be Your Most Valuable Asset

18:53 – The Revenue Stream That Survives When Sponsorships Don't

20:19 – The Monetization Strategy That Lets Creators Take a Break

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Episode Links:

Meet Jordan Blair: Buzzsprout | LinkedIn

Listen to Jordan’s Podcast: Dreamful Bedtime Stories

Listen to Buzzsprout’s Podcast: Buzzcast

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Other Episodes You’ll Love: 

Why Your Next Dollar Should Come From Your Last Episode

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©Ⓟ 2018–2026 by Courtney Elmer. All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I gotta let you in on a little secret. Sponsorships are not the revenue dream that most podcasters think they are. In fact, they can be one of the least reliable forms of income for your podcast. And Jordan Blair, BuzzProt's podcast producer and host of the Dreamful Bedtime Stories Podcast with over 13 million downloads, is here to expose why. She's about to share why your first episode might actually be your most valuable asset and an underutilized podcast monetization strategy that you can use starting today, even if you have fewer than 100 downloads an episode. So if you want to monetize your podcast sooner rather than later, this one's for you. Welcome to Insider's Secrets to a Top 100 podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Elmer. Let's make your podcast binge-worthy. I am sitting here in the studio with the one, the only Jordan Blair. She is the podcast producer at Buzz Sprout. She's the brilliant mind behind the Dreamful Bedtime Stories podcast that has over 13 million downloads and counting. And she is gracing us with her presence here today. Jordan, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Thank you so much, Courtney. Gracing you with your presence. Wow. That feels really good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

I mean it. I'm so excited to have you here. This has been in the works for I don't, I can't even count what eight months now, maybe? It's like six months at least, eight months probably that we've been trying to align our schedules to get you here. And I'm just, I'm glad it's finally happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Finally, yeah. I I looked through our email threads and I was like, oh my gosh, first time we talked was September and we're just now aligning. But you know, we're busy ladies, so it's okay. We have to give ourselves permission to just say, you know what? Good things take time.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yes, we were out there helping to better the podcasting industry one day at a time. So, you know, you can't fault us for that. Jordan, it's funny because in that email thread, you were telling me how you have landed some huge sponsors for your show with big brands, like brands we all know and love, BetterHelp, HelloFresh, Evite. And you shared why sponsors might not actually be the most reliable form of income for your show. And so I want to unpack this with you, but before we do, I think we should tell them how we picked the topic for this episode because I think it's a funny story. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I think that sounds great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah. I think it's, you know, just lifting the curtain here a little bit for you listening. I am someone who likes to, you know, make it look like I have things all together, but I really don't. And so Jordan emailed me yesterday and she's like, Courtney, we're supposed to be recording tomorrow. Like, do we have topics? Is there something I'm supposed to prepare? And so I had left off like what, a month ago, with an email saying, Yeah, I'm gonna dig back into the BuzzCast archives and I'm gonna look up and see what topics we haven't covered and like what your expertise would be great at and what we could dig into. And I was like, Yeah, no, this is some problem. Like, I haven't prepared you because I just dropped the ball and emailing you back. And so we were going back and forth and just really kind of defining what we wanted to talk about here. And and Dordan, you spoke about monetization at podcast movement several months back. And I was just amazed because you just have such a knowledge on this topic.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

And you really do. And I, you know, I you're someone who not only like has just talks about it, but you've walked the talk with your podcast. You've had sponsors, you've had different ways that you've monetized. And I'm just, you know, it's the the fact that you said, okay, I've had these big sponsors and listener subscriptions and support are definitely going to be more reliable. It's like, hold on a minute, you're someone with 13 million downloads saying this. Like, I am eager to unpack this. So can you walk us through? Let's let's talk about sponsorships first of all. Because I know that we would love to know and just be a fly on your wall. How did you land those in the first place? What did that actually look like? Can you take us through the ins and outs of that?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Absolutely. Well, what's interesting is like when I was first uh an independent podcaster and I started my downloads started like going crazy. And I was like, wait, I can make this a job. This could be like a side hustle. This could be like a career. And I just was looking around at what all the other podcasters were doing, and you know, I'm seeing them do like merch and they're doing Q ⁇ A's and they're doing like Patreon accounts and they're doing like sponsorships and ads and all these different things. And I was at a point where I was just like experimenting with everything. And merch was like an absolute no-go. My mom bought a shirt and then that was it. And so I I experiment with all these different things to uh monetize with and sponsorships because I had so many downloads. A, it was a little bit easier to land sponsors, and B, it worked for my podcast because sponsorships I learned work on a CPM model, which is cost per melee or cost per thousand downloads. And so I was like, okay, well, if I'm getting so many thousand downloads, the math is mathing. This makes sense to do this. And so what I did was I just did like a bunch of research and online you can find templates for sponsorship pitches, uh, insertion orders, which is just the order like telling sponsors, you know, I'm going to have your ad in X many uh episodes for however long, or they're baked in, or they're dynamic ads, and you're gonna pay me this much money per, and you're gonna pay me in like 30 days or you know, whatever it is. And so that's what an insertion order is, it's just basically like a quick agreement. Um, I was able to like slap one together in Google Sheets. And so it was very much like a bootstrapped operation at first getting my sponsors. And I was so scared to get sponsors at first because it's it's almost like that fear that you have as a novice podcaster where you feel scared to even like ask listeners to like leave a rating, or it feels awkward to ask people for like a uh to support the show or to tell a friend about it. There's just this like weird thing where it feels like you're breaking a rule or you're doing something wrong if you ask people for things. And so asking sponsors or asking brands to sponsor your show felt really scary. And so I put it off and put it off, and I finally got an email one day from Patchology, and it's like this beauty brand, and they had reached out and they said, Oh, you know, our whatever officer is a huge fan of your podcast. Her daughter listens to it every night, and we were wondering if we could sponsor your show, and we have these like sleep patches and we have all this different stuff. And I was like, Oh, great, okay. And so I just like worked out a thing with them, and I had I did like a giveaway package because I said, Hey, this would actually be really cool if I could do a giveaway. Are you guys down with that? And they were like, Yeah, absolutely. And that was my first interaction with like getting a sponsor. And then it got to the point where I was like, okay, this is cool, this is doable, and these brands, these big companies are actually just people. And I think that that is something that is so important to keep in mind. So when you're reaching out to these brands, so I would just do um a cold email. And the way that I found the brands I would like email is I would listen to other podcasts in my niche and listen for okay, who's sponsoring this show? Who are they getting? And do I have an episode topic that aligns with this brand? Is there, you know, something else? Like I had a Sherlock Holmes episode and I got a tea company because I was like, you know, he's he's English and like in England they drink tea. That was my tie-in. Um, but they had like good sleepy time tea, and I was like, okay, well, I'm going to get this tea company. And so I emailed them, I let them know about the show, and I always keep things very casual because all of us get these emails in our inbox that are very um formal, I want to say, like overly formal, where it's like, good morrow to you, sir, madam. Like, I would like to perchance obtain the acquisition as to like this thing here to forth. And those kind of emails for me just immediately get sent spam. Like immediately I block them, there's they're in the spam folder, and I never look at them again. And so I really focused on my pitch emails being as casual and as human as possible. And so I would email them and say, Hey, I'm Jordan. I'm the host of like this podcast, and I've been drinking your tea for weeks on end. It's helped me so much. And I know that my listeners would also benefit from this. Like, would you be interested in sponsoring a couple episodes and we can see how that works? And then they write back and they go, Yeah, that sounds great. And it's just it's really important to like keep in mind that you have humans on the other side of that computer, on the other side of that message. And I first had a pitch deck because that's what I was told you had to have as a pitch deck for your for your podcast. And so I I went on Google Slides because again, it's free, it's for me. And I put together a pitch deck, and then something about it just felt like a little weird. And then I learned about a one sheet. And a one sheet is just a PDF page talking about your podcast. Maybe you have like a host photo on it. You say how many downloads your podcast has. You can talk about your listener demographics and things like that, which is all information you can get off of like Spotify. And you can just have like little accolades. Like I had um, I was a DiscoverPods finalist for like a couple years when they were doing those awards. And so I, you know, I I put it on there a little, a little zz at the bottom of my one sheet. So I would just send them a PDF one sheet and I would just say, like, hey, if you want more information, I've attached this one sheet. But yeah, so that's how I really landed my first uh sponsors was through identifying good targets for my audience. Like it has to be, I had to make sure that these brands were aligned with my podcast. And I had to make sure that it was something that my audience would actually like because if I have audience members that are not going out to these sponsors and using my URL or using my codes, the sponsors aren't going to buy again for more ads. And so I had to make sure that I was not going to like meet undies or something like that for my sleep podcast, you know, which I get I guess I could have done. Like some people sleep in their underwear, but to me it felt weird. It just didn't feel on brand for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah. Oh my gosh, there's so much here that I want to unpack with you because first of all, you just made it sound so simple to go out there and get sponsors. And I love how you have taken the pretentiousness out of it. I mean, even now, podcasting as long as I have, I still feel weirded out by like approaching people and being like, hey, would you like to give me money for my podcast? And yet you said something just now that was like so brilliant. And it was like, hey, I use your product, and I think me and my listeners would really love to have you here on the show. And it was the way that you framed that, how it was like, it's me and it's also all these listeners that I'm bringing to you. And maybe it's not all these listeners, maybe you don't have a huge podcast with millions of downloads. I don't have millions of downloads, and I want to talk about that too, but just it just was disarming in such a way that it's like it's just a simple mindset shift around like, hey, I'm not asking these people for money, but rather I'm bringing you an asset to say, I've got this audience. Would you like to get in front of it? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

And there's so many things I definitely want to touch on the fact that you don't have to have a big audience to get sponsors. I think that is one of the biggest like mistakes or things that people don't understand about sponsorships is you do not need to have a big audience. And I actually um I spoke in Portland about this very thing. And it was just like a quick like how to pitch your podcast to like sponsors. And one of the really important things that I want to drive home here is that if you are just starting your podcast, if you don't, if you haven't even launched yet, you can get a sponsor. Is it easy? No, it is not easy. Sponsorships are so much work, but if you're willing to put in like a couple hours over the weekend or just send like 10 emails and hope that it works out, or even, you know, go hit the pavement and knock on some doors with like local businesses, you can get a sponsor. I had one lady come up to me at a conference and it was after I had given that talk in Portland, and she told me she's like, Hey, I want to thank you. Like before my podcast launch, like I went to your talk and I got $500 in sponsorships before my podcast launch. And I was just like so excited. And I talked with her about it and she said, Yeah, like I I have this like very niche topic. I went to this company and I said, Hey, I'm actually gonna be covering all the things that you know your company is in, like whatever industry you're in. Would you be interested in sponsoring this podcast? And I'll talk about it. And here's the cool thing is when you are a new podcaster, you don't have anything to like prove. Like when you've been podcasting for like five or 10 years, like, yeah, like download numbers, download numbers kind of matter, but if you're just starting out, it's really easy to say, hey, I'm just starting out. And if we do a baked-in ad, which is like you record the ad into the episode and it stays there forever, it's really easy to go to a sponsor and say, Hey, I will record an ad. I will, I will talk about your your product, about your company, I will work this episode around whatever your services, like whatever your service offerings are. And it will be in this podcast in perpetuity. And so when I'm podcasting years from now and people go back and they listen to these episodes, they're gonna hear your brand for years and years and years to come. And suddenly it starts looking a little bit better and it starts looking like, oh, maybe a hundred bucks is worth it because this is just gonna stay in there forever, and she's gonna build up this podcast. And you know what? We're gonna share it because we hope that more people listen to this. And so I really think that that is a huge bargaining chip that smaller podcasters have, especially like dynamic sponsorships are great, but you're constantly revolving inventory. You know what I mean? Like you have you're constantly creating inventory if you have dynamic sponsorship reads where you can like put them in, take them out after a certain amount of time. But really, that only works well for podcasters that are getting, you know, the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of downloads. That's really the only time it makes sense. Because otherwise, if you're doing a sponsored ad read for like 20 bucks per thousand downloads and your podcast gets like 500, then you're getting like $10 for that. But if you are working in some sort of like package deal and you're you're you're kind of uh that I think that's really what I'm trying to say here is like you're packaging your podcast in a way that's more appetizing to a brand, in a way that is going to benefit everyone for like years to come. It's worth so much more money than $10.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

This is really a smart end because statistically, listeners go back to the first episodes on podcasts. Even with podcasters who have like 400, 500 episodes in their back catalog, people still go back to the first one. And this always blows me away because it's like, I don't want anyone to go back and listen to my first episode. It was certainly not worth listening to, in my opinion, now having done this, you know, a long time, but it's still out there. If you wanted to go listen to it, you could. And, you know, when I was kind of up and coming in the business space in the early, early days of starting my business, and I knew nothing about marketing and I knew nothing about podcasting or any of this stuff, I was listening to podcasts to learn. And I would go in those host back catalogs and I would listen to their episodes and their first episodes. And it's like, well, if I did that, surely other people are doing that too. Right? It's just our own user behavior. Sometimes it's curiosity or whatever it might be. So think for a sponsor, to your point, that is insanely valuable real estate. Because if you are launching for the first time and they are the first sponsor in your first episode, listeners are going to hear it. You know, if you were like sponsoring episode 242, well, maybe listeners are finding that at some point, but like the first episode is the one that they go back to. Absolutely. But Jordan, it sounds like somewhere along the way in your process of getting sponsors and landing these sponsors, you learned that sponsors weren't the most reliable form of income for you. Can you tell us more about that?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah, I mean, it got to the point where I had BetterHelp buy out my catalog for like two years at a time. Like I think, I think I worked with them for like two or three years. I mean, it they're a huge spender in the in the advertising space. And I would have a like HelloFresh and every plate, and you know, just all the all the usual suspects in the podcast uh ecosystem. And I found a couple things were very difficult about working with these big brands for like sponsorships. And one of the things was they would, if they bought me for an entire year, I was beholden to them for that entire year. I could not take a break, I could not like take a breather, I could not do anything like that. If something came up, I had to make it work and make sure that I was releasing that day that I promised them I would release and I sold them that ad read for. And life happens. And that got really stressful. And I and once it kind of got into like that section, it it felt very much like, oh, this isn't fun anymore. And now I feel like I have to do it because you know, someone's paying me and now I I'm beholden to them. But then on top of it, when you would get like these big sponsors, like sometimes you'd have months where you get like a few thousand dollars. And then you'd have a month where you got like 200. And then you'd have like another month where you got like zero. And I noticed that the market, like the ad market is just so volatile. And I'm working with like ad agencies and I'm I'm doing all the things that you're supposed to be doing, and I'm still not getting ads, I'm still not getting sponsorships. And I realized I was like, oh, you know, they're working around like fiscal calendars, they're working around like seasonal ad buys and different campaigns that they're trying to do. And it just it didn't feel very consistent to me. And it was, it got to the point where it was like more trouble than it was actually worth because when I was doing it myself, I would just spend hours and hours and hours and like every weekend finding sponsors and pitching them, and then like maybe one would respond and we'd be able to like work something out. And then when I got like um an ad agency, it was a lot easier for me, but they would just they would work with like whatever the the budget was, and so like sometimes I'd be included in these ad buys and sometimes I wouldn't. And it was just like it was really tough getting like lumped in with all these other podcasts, and I'm like, man, this this uh this betting company didn't want to work with me. Like, what are they crazy? This would have been perfect. So it just it started feeling like a little sour to me, the whole sponsorship space. And I had had uh listener support, like listener subscriptions, where I just did like a bonus episode um every month. Like when I very first started, I started building up my bonus episode back catalog. And so you can do this through like Apple Pod Podcast subscriptions, um, you can do it through like BuzzBrow subscriptions, supercast, anything like that. And I just worked out that I would do like a bonus episode. It wasn't like a huge commitment for me. It's not a big deal to record a bonus episode. And I just listed the uh listener subscriptions, I would have like a tier, like some people could do like five dollars, I would have people subscribe for like ten dollars or twenty dollars a month. Thanks, mom. And so what I found was when the sponsorship boom, like the sponsorship money boom really subsided and and funds kind of dried up and it wasn't like the right season for it, my subscriptions were still there, like my listeners were still there. And it's been amazing because I mean, just recently, you know, Courtney, we were talking about this. This just kind of like a wonky season for everybody. Like everyone just has a lot going on. And you know what? I needed a break from my podcast, and I took a break from my podcast, and it's now just because life is happening, it's been a few months, and my listeners are like writing in, they're like, Hey, just like want to check on you. You don't usually like miss this, but guess what? All my subscribers are still there, and I'm not running ads, I'm not running sponsorships, I'm not even thinking about my podcast, and they're just there waiting for me, and they're still supporting the podcast, even though I haven't been doing stuff. I've just been trying to like breathe for a moment and they're there. I don't owe them any, like they don't feel like I owe them anything. They're just happy that they can support the podcast. And to me, that is so valuable because with sponsors, I wouldn't be able to take this break. I wouldn't be able to take this breather. I'd have to like do some make goods or whatever they call them. Like I'd have to, I'd have to connect with people and then we'd have to redo paperwork and then everyone would be like annoyed that like I got tonsillitis and couldn't record this episode. And so it's just like it's it it just it feels better to me to be monetizing through listener support and subscriptions. I feel more supported in it, and I feel like they're gonna be there no matter what. Like it's it's this consistent thing. They're not just it's not like seasonal, it's not this weird like budget calendar that I'm trying to go by and budget with as a podcaster. And so to me, listener support just feels a lot better as a podcaster.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

And freeing as a creator. I mean, think about that. You said it, just the ability to be able to take a break from your show if you need to, and to not have to worry about always chasing a dollar on your show. And so I know you've got a lot of knowledge on the different types of subscription offers that people could offer on their podcast. I would love to dig into that with you in the bonus episode. This has been super valuable. Jordan, thank you so much for all that you've shared and for just taking demystifying this. What I feel like is this mysterious, you know, how do we get sponsors for our podcast? And then, you know, demystifying that, taking us through what that process looks like, helping us understand that a little bit better, and hopefully helping you listening decide if sponsorships is something that is worth it for you to pursue. But come with us to the next episode because I know Jordan, you've got a lot more to share, other ways, creative ways that you could monetize your podcast and keep your freedom. So, Jordan, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

And if this episode was valuable for you, I would love it if you would take a second to hit the follow button, hit the like button, the heart button, whatever it is, wherever you are listening, and let us know in the comments which strategies are working for you best right now when it comes to monetizing your show. And if you haven't monetized your show, then stay right where you are, because in the next episode, Jordan is joining us back with three low effort ways to monetize your podcast with content that you've already created, including why your back catalog might be a hidden revenue asset and how she started monetizing her podcast before it was even launched. Plus, she's gonna share the one mistake that keeps most podcasters from never making a dime from their show. So if you want to monetize your podcast without adding more to your plate, head with us to the next episode and let's make your podcast binge worthy.