Professional Podcaster

So my current TV gig is ending in less then a month (Whoo hooo). I'm really trying hard to not go back into TV Post production supervising because as I am getting older the stress of the job is taking a larger toll on me mentally and physically. So what do I do instead. 40 is pretty late in life on a career change and my next career I would love to have less stress and I don't need to make a ton of money as long as I can pay for my mortgage and monthly expense then I'll be good. So what to do?? PODCASTING!!!

Well I love Podcasting; creating, producing, editing and hosting.. it's all tons of fun and I think I'm pretty good at it. Unfortunately podcasting doesn't pay and even costs money for URL's, websites and podcast servers. I got to thinking my podcasts numbers are decent Knights of the Guild is averaging 6000 to 14000 a month and my MASH 4077 is averaging about 2500 downloads a month. I'm also starting up my new Confessions of a Fanboy podcast so will see what the numbers are like for that one as well. Regardless, if I was able to charge 99 cents per episode/download that would be a nice monthly income. But I do realize that paying for a podcast is not the "norm", that most podcasts are free to download. I'm sure I would lose a lot of listeners because of it, but even if a 1/3 of my listeners stuck with me and paid the 99 cents per download,  I could survive on that and create even more fun podcasts and making podcasting my new career.

Of course there is always a plan B. Again my numbers are decent I might be able to get some advertising and/or sponsorship and go that route. But without HUGE numbers I wouldn't be able to charge enough money to survive solely on my podcasting.

These ideas are all still in there early stages, gotta do a bit more research on both charging for podcasts and finding advertisers and sponsorship. Unfortunately that means I may have to take another stress filled post job before I can put anything of my plans into action. But I'm determined to make my future living as a professional podcaster.