Local Advertising on your podcast

[andrewzarian]

Hey guys!

I was wondering who here has taken local advertising for their podcast. It seems like we all concentrate on national businesses and forget about the companies that are based around us.

Have you considered local ads?

Have to had a local advertiser on your podcaster? If so how did it do?

Would love to hear from you guys

[BradShoemaker]

With our show, Hammer and Nigel, we have mostly had local advertising. Granted, the show we do is mostly Indianapolis based. The show consists of former radio guys with guests ranging from local TV, Radio, Newspaper and Sports guys. The show, unintentionally, has become a media insiders show. People who are interested in listening to stories from athletes and media people have tuned in. A lot of those that tune in are fans of the hosts, others people who work in the industry, and the rest seem to be people looking to get into the media world. We have frank discussions about where the Mainstream media is heading, the pitfalls of the corporately owned giants and how that is pretty much ruining the quality of the product.

So, 90% of all of our revenue have come from local sponsors. We are branching out with a few more shows (hence my disappearance from here as the studio is being put together), and those shows will likely focus on topics that have a more national sense (not so Indy based).

As for whether or not it works... we're not breaking the bank by any means, but we are adding a comfortable side income to the mix.

[Jim Sinicropi]

Our organization, FingerLakes1.com, Inc. manages a popular website in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Our website receives about 20,000 visitors daily. We also develop websites and provide hosting service via our own fiber-optic datacenter.

To supplement our popular news/info site at www.FingerLakes1.com, and to better compete with local radio/newspapers, we began Internet Broadcasting in 2011.

Out Internet Broadcasting Network, at www.FingerLakes1.TV, has grown to over a dozen shows and live coverage of various local events.

Our entire network is funded through local advertising and recently, there has been an increase in the interest from local businesses and organziations. We are able to turn a profit, on the broadcasting side. Much of our operation and equipment upgrades are funded via our coverage of high school basketball. In 2012-13 we live webcast 12 games and produced a weekly HS basketball podcast and packaged them together for advertisers. This venture was highly successful and we are expanding heading into the upcoming season with support from last year's sponsors and advertisers mostly in place.

If your content is locally focused and interesting, and you can generate interest (views/downloads), then yes, you can certainly monetize your show locally.

[yourhometownradio]

One of the stations I work with (whav.net) - is a non-profit station operated by Public Media of New England. The management of that station has taken it one step further - he's using underwriters as support for his station. It's taken a few years, but it has proven with some success that local businesses are interested in quality internet radio.