4. Offer infomercials

Another clever way to monetise your station is by offering infomercials. Infomercials are extended advertisements, often including a discussion or demonstration. So, imagine someone who would pay you to be interviewed on your station in order to promote their product or service. It can be everything, from a local entrepreneur introducing her business and offerings, to an author talking about their new book, or a band introducing their new album. Infomercials work quite well if you have a large listenership so that the person who wants to be interviewed knows that the show will be heard by many and their money will be wisely spent. However, keep in mind that in some countries like the US, this tactic or selling airtime is considered illegal unless you disclose the sponsorship publicly.

5. Offer banner placements on your site

Now let’s go back to the ads discussion we opened earlier. Another type of ad you can offer is on-site ads. These are banner ads that you can place on your radio’s website. First, you will need to decide where the ads will appear. Check out this post from Google about the most common sizes for banner ads. Also, when thinking of the fees you will ask for each placement, consider the following:

• Homepage banner placements should cost more than placements on other pages like your blog. 
• The banner placements on the top of your page should cost more than the banner placement at the bottom of your page
• The bigger the banner the more you should charge

An easy solution would be to use a service like Google Adsense to automate the ad placements for you. Google AdSense is a program run by Google and works by matching ads to your site based on your content and visitors. Google Adsense will optimise your ad sizes to give them more chances to be seen and clicked.

If you have a mobile app, then in-app advertising  is another way to earn money by serving ads to your audience. You can offer ads within your mobile app through banners placed in attention-grabbing positions.

Finally, you may want to consider offering a background ad (also called a skin ad) which is a site takeover ad that will appear in the background of your site and will be clickable.

Tip: If you are good at designing banners and graphics you can sell that as a service to other businesses (or complimentary as a way to make your offering more appealing). You can use sites like Canva to create beautiful graphics and banners free of charge.

6.  Utilise affiliate marketing

Another great way to make money is through affiliate marketing. You will need to sign up to affiliate networks that will connect you with advertisers who are looking for publishers like yourself to spread the word about their products and services and pay you for driving conversions. This method can net you a fair amount of income if used correctly and if your station and website has high traffic.

Below are 5 popular affiliate networks: 

• Amazon Associates
• eBay Partner Network (EPN)
• CJ Affiliate
• Affiliate Window
• iTunes Affiliate programs

7. Start a blog

You can create and manage a blog section where you will write about topics related to the nature of your station. If your station is dedicated to music, then you can write blog posts about that music genre. This can be news about the scene, interviews, upcoming shows and events, etc. Be creative! Having a blog could bring organic traffic to your website and convert those readers into listeners. Also the more your site visitors, the more the ad impressions and therefore the ad revenue you will get from Google ads as well as affiliate banners. Also, if your blog turns out to attract lots of readers, there will be a point where companies will reach out to you and be willing to pay you to write about their services and products. Others will pay you to just include one dofollow link pointing back to their site, on your existing or future blog posts. This technique is called backlinking and it’s one of the most popular SEO techniques. Maintaining a blog is not an easy thing but it can pay off in the long run.

8. Rent out your studio and gear

There are people who are looking to record a show, or a voice-over but don’t have the equipment or the expertise to do it, and will be looking for professional help. There might be organisations who would want to hire out your studio to produce a show or a podcast. There might be even local bands who will want to record a demo CD. The options you can offer depend on the studio space and equipment you have. On top of renting your studio, you could also provide technical support and charge by the hour.

9. Organising online events and gigs

Another way to generate revenue is by organising events and gigs. Last year, due to COVID, the number of online events hosted daily worldwide increased massively. At the same time, now more than ever, internet users feel more open to pay for attending an online event. You can organise an online event with local DJs and bands performing from your studio and share the revenue with the bands/DJs. You can co-host an educational event with an expert in a specific field that interests your audience. For example, you can team up with a famous singer associated with the music that you play, and ask them to give a workshop with simple singing techniques for everyone. Try to be creative and think outside the box when brainstorming and planning your events.

10. Get sponsors for your events

If you plan to throw a party or hold an event, you can find sponsors who will be willing to pay you for becoming sponsors. You can offer to put up their banners at the venue, place their logo on the flyer and digital assets and also give them on-air ads and endorsements.

11. Donations

This is a fairly simple method. You can implement a donate button on your site, your newsletters and even your Facebook page (if you are a non-profit) and let your audience decide how much they want to chip in. Just be sure to let them know how much their contribution means to you and what you will do with their funding. Keep in mind that if you are already taking lots of ads and paid sponsorships, people might be sceptical to donate.

You can do crowdfunding as a one-off effort on sites like Kickstarter or use a platform like Patreon for ongoing support with special perks for members. However, keep in mind that creating and maintaining a crowdfunding campaign can be time consuming and you need to have a well thought plan in order to make it work. Be sure to spend some time to research successful campaigns and find tips on creating a successful campaign. You will need to be clear why you created your campaign and what is your aim/goal.

12. Sell merchandise

You can make your own radio station merch and sell it online via your site or offline when you hold an event. You can produce anything, from branded t-shirts and hoodies, to bags, hats and mugs.

Airtime Pro hat

13. Launch a membership section

You can launch a members-only section on your site where you offer exclusive content to paid members. However, it’s not that simple to get someone to pay if your content is not high quality or super important to them. Users will pay only if they feel that what they get justifies the money they pay and that there is value to it. So, think of what your listeners love and what they would pay to have. If you were a fan of your station what would you expect to see in a members-only page?

You could offer them access to live shows with special guests and then upload them as premium-podcasts. You could also offer them discounts on your merchandise, and other special offers.

14. Consulting

If you are an internet radio ninja-guru, you can offer consulting services to other internet radio stations and DJs. For instance, if you’re a sound engineer and have set up numerous radio stations in the past, then you can help people with starting an internet radio station, setting up their station correctly, buying the right equipment or upgrading their existing gear, etc.

So that was it! Now it’s time to create a media kit and get those advertisers on board! Good luck.

If you have more tips on monetising your station please feel free to share it with our community in the comments below.