How to Make Money from Your Internet Radio Station

There a number of different ways to make money from your radio project; from approaching advertising agencies and establishing partnerships with festivals to creating your own e-store! 

We’ve put together a couple of methods that are worth testing out! As well as helping boost your profits, they’ll also be sure to get your radio station off the ground.

Check out our video on the subject here: 

Note: These ideas won’t make you rich overnight. However, they’re certainly realistic when it comes to earning a bit more cash from your online radio station.

Use Strategic Sponsorships/Partnerships

When you’re just starting out, advertisers can sometimes be a bit reluctant to splash the cash. So if you’re looking for a slightly less invasive way to monetize you radio station, you might be more inclined to strike up a sponsorship deal. You could have your radio presenters say a couple of words about your sponsor before starting a specific show. Or perhaps you’d prefer to showcase their business on your radio website.

For example, if you’re a regional radio station, you might want to consider a sponsorship deal with a local football club. Offer them positive publicity in exchange for payment. Most of all, think about the message that you’re sending your listeners by establishing a certain sponsorship. It’s up to you to determine whether this conforms to your radio station’s brand identity.

Include In-stream Advertizing

Sell your air-time to companies and businesses! However, there are various details that potential advertisers will want to know beforehand. They need to be reassured that it’s worth advertizing on your radio station.

Make sure that you’re aware of your audience size as well as the type of listener that your radio station attracts. If you’re still getting to know your audience, don’t forget to take a look at the Statistics tab of the Radio Manager and take some time to interact with your listeners!

Scheduling adverts or jingles in between your programs is great. Although, it’s only really effective if the ads correspond to your listeners. The last thing that you want is for your listeners to change station. Hence the importance of targeted in-stream adverts. Finding the right advertiser is the most effective way of generating revenue and keeping your listeners happy.

Top Tip: In the Radio Manager, you can upload your adverts directly into the “Ad” section of the Library in order to avoid your ads from automatically being used as fillers.

Set up an Affiliate Program

In just a couple of clicks, you can easily start monetizing your station thanks to an Affiliate Program. Take for instance, the popular Apple Affiliate Program. Anyone can can sign up incredibly easily, so why not start earning a 7% commission every time someone purchases a track on iTunes via your Radio Player! If you’ve already set up an account, be sure to check out this quick tutorial on how to configure your Affiliate account with the Radio Manager.

Create an Online Store 

Who doesn’t love branded goods? Creating merchandise is a great way of earning money whilst gaining the loyalty of your listers and! So whether it’s your station logo on a t-shirt or the catch phrase for your most popular radio show on a hoody, let your imagination run wild.

As well as adding to your profits, an e-store could turn your radio station into a brand. Your early morning listeners certainly won’t forget to tune in to your station as they sip coffee from their newly purchased radio mug marked with your station branding! Let’s not forget the must have stickers that might just end up all over the subway for a bit of extra publicity!

Top Tip: There are a whole load of platforms that exist to help you set up your own online store. For example, why not check out Spreadshirt, Awesome Merchandise or Printful.

Donations & Investment

Believe it or not, there are some incredibly generous people out there, so don’t miss out on the opportunity! Create yourself a donation button using platforms such as PayPal or crowdfunding pages like Tipeee. You can then easily integrate them onto your own radio website. In the meantime, rediscover our article on how to involve your listeners in the development of your radio station.

Or like Primordial Radio, you might even want to consider equity-crowdfunding via platforms such as Seedrs!

Got any more money boosting ideas for the rest of the RadioKing community? Leave us a message in the comments section below!