Hey ya’ll,
I’ve got some longer writings in the works, here in the dark windy depths of winter (it is dang windy outside right now!), but today, after posting here on Substack the most recent Ground Shots Podcast episode which was released over a week and a half ago, I thought I’d share with ya’ll my cost breakdown for the podcast.
I’ve had a handful of folks reach out to me lately asking about doing consultations helping them start podcasts, and one of the things I’m looking at is the budget of a podcast, and what my budget has been specifically. This cost break down can shift a little depending on how many episodes get put out as I have a host that allows a certain size limit for audio files per month, and if I surpass that, I have to pay more.
One of the things I’d be breaking down with folks who want to consult with me, is what layers I use to make the podcast, and edit it myself (I used to pay someone but I couldn’t afford to pay them anymore without enough grant support or listener support). I haven’t always been good about my budgets for things, and so looking at this gives me a clear idea of what the overhead is not including paying myself, and not technically including the equipment investments I have made over the years.
I’d love to pay myself at some point, but after this many years of doing the project (over 5?) I still haven’t been able to. It truly is a labor of love.
If you’re interested in talking to me about starting your own podcast (I say the more neat podcasts, the merrier!), I am available for consults in that realm, email me at kelly@ofsedgeandsalt.com to inquire about a reciprocal exchange.
Here’s a general budget layout:
ZOOM communications - $167 / year (subscription to pay for hosting recordings of episodes, and larger classes)
Google Photo and Drive - $100 / year (cloud backup of podcast episodes and the entire Colorado Trail Project file set, a cost I have solely paid since the project started)
Libsyn podcast host - $240 / year at $30/month - this is for the current file size I have set up - so about 2 episodes a month at 2-3 hours each
Descript podcast editor - $360 / year - to edit my on my own. I used to pay out $40/hour for audio editing and episodes would cost between $100-$300 each to edit, so this is cheaper, but you have to learn to edit yourself with a program that has limitations.
Dropbox - $144 / year - Cloud storage backup of all episodes (also I back up on 2 external hard drives)
Squarespace website - $300 / year minimum - host space for podcast extended show notes and photo diaries
Canva Pro - $180 / year - I finally started doing this and it has made a lot of things easier. I design all of the placards and visuals for the podcast myself, which takes hours and I do it on Canva often to be able to post the visuals in multiple places
This amounts to about $1,490 / year overhead to run the podcast, not including paying myself anything for my time (5-25 hours of time per episode) nor does it include recording equipment investment, of which I have kept minimal but with some good mics— compared to some podcasts. (I have three different mics, I use a different one depending on the recording scenario) This also doesn’t include the cost to me traveling in past years sometimes hundreds of miles out of my own pocket to interview someone in person.
This number can shift - if I decide to not include things like my web host overhead, and split that among other things I do to share the cost. I also don’t need to back up my files in two different cloud locations, or in the cloud at all, but you risk losing all of the work if something happens to External Hard Drives. I also don’t need to be including the Colorado Trail Project photos and videos in the overhead, but it was a documentation project that was woven into the podcast for a year, and was never finished, and in order for my to eliminate that cost I’d have to move all the files which would take a ton of time. My collaborator for that project has never paid for backing up our work.
Some people publish podcast episodes in more archaic ways, just on substack, or other platforms, but it makes it less possible to get it more places, if you don’t have a central host. Some people own their own host spaces, but I had a friend recently get theirs hacked and lost tons of stuff so I’m weary of not using a tried and true host. If you have questions about any of these things I’m talking about, email me to inquire about a consultation where you can ask me all the things.
SO at about $1,490 a year, the podcast costs $124 a month.
But, I invested probably about $500 in equipment not including a new computer recently which I acquired through trading a friend for photography. ($1400 computer).
If I paid myself a living wage for doing skills that took me a long time to learn, writing, audio editing and photo editing, graphic design - I would pay myself minimum of $35/hour. So at about 15 hours per episode and if I do two a month, than paying myself would amount to an extra $1,050 per month - so $1,174 per month.
Since my time is unpaid, and I spend it not working jobs I could get paid to do, I have to figure out how to manage fitting in podcast editing time. Ultimately I have put in thousands of unpaid hours into the project, as we do when we are embarking on such things. This makes sense for perhaps the first year of a project, but after 5 years, it would make sense for me to have enough funds to get paid to do the project, especially with the listenership (up to 3k-4k downloads a month depending)
That puts the cost of the project at over 14k a year, if I paid myself a minimum of $35 an hour releasing 2 episodes a month.
Currently the funding that supports the podcast is small - Substack brings in about $100 a month, and the old Patreon for the podcast (which I am fading out because I don’t like the exclusivity and awkwardness of the platform which seems to constantly change and deters people from using it) at about $100 a month. Affiliate links, which include bookshop and vibrant earth seeds discount code, bring in very little, about $5-$20 a month. SO the podcast brings in about $2,400 a year, which helps some, but doesn’t pay for my time.
If Substack had 200 subscribers at $7/month, it would bring in about 16k a year, not including the cut that the payment processors each take and Substack itself, and would at least cover the cost and pay me a little more than $35/hour, or be extra to invest in more equipment for recording, or to be able to release episodes more often.
Oh yeah, sometimes I pay for musician’s albums for use on the show as well.
Some podcasts have overheads of over 100k a year because they have a large paid staff to break up the tasks of each episode. I do the hosting, the research for each episode, come up with the questions, do the communication emails and texts, find the music and get permissions, do the audio editing, do the graphics and audio showcase editing for social media, and all the social media for the podcast. In the past I have had a co-host for awhile, who helped edit a few episodes, and had help finding music for a few episodes, and had a sound engineer the first 2 years, of which I had to pay out, like I said between $100-$300 an episode.
I have been against big advertisers on the podcast because even if I did it, it wouldn’t necessarily generate me a ton of income, but would water down my message.
Grants I haven’t been good at finding for the project because of the interdisciplinary nature of the project, the web weaving ecology to all other cultural things that I find vitally important to do in the project. And because I’ve been nomadic, place-specific grants are out of the question, and because I am not a non-profit, foundation grants are also out of the question. Got a grant suggestion or skills to offer voluntarily? Please do email me to let me know.
Affiliate marketing I am particular about and so far have only felt good about doing stuff with bookshop and my friend’s seed company. Other things like that though I am open to!
Substack is the best grassroots way to get funding for the podcast, and is a platform I didn’t expect could be useful in that way when I first started it as a place to explore my more avante-guarde and vulnerable writings. Now I see it as a space that makes way more sense than Patreon ever did, supports collaboration and community, the way that ‘ground shots’ as a ‘web’ of stories and ideas, has always aimed to be.
I currently have 16 paid subscribers, and have a long ways to go to get to the 200 needed to fully fund the podcast paying me, without having to do advertisements still.
I am curious to do more recordings of each writing piece in my own voice, and going back and doing some of those in retrospect (a good challenge for me!) and feature more Ground Shots extras episodes for paid subscribers only. I’m still thinking about the bookclub, and without putting out any more free time than I already am, I’m trying to figure out the best way to host the club that is accessible for all. Since the podcast talks a lot about books and literature resources, I’d love to break down some important books in the intersections of ecology and creative culture with the audience, something I really enjoy doing with folks.
I hope this general breakdown is helpful for folks looking to start a podcast and thinking it doesn’t cost anything, and also for transparency with the audience wondering what it costs me to do.
The reality is, I can’t keep using personal funds to create the podcast, because they have run out, and the podcast has generated exponential attention over the years. I’d love to travel again to do in-person interviews in particular regions with folks doing specific work (like basketmakers in Europe for example) but currently I can’t afford to do so unless the podcast got substantial funding.
Here are a few of the reviews folks have left on itunes over the years, which tickle me to see when they pop up:
What you offer the world is priceless. We all benefit from the work you do. Please forgive me for not being a paid subscriber sooner. I am upgrading now. All blessings.