Welcome to Ghost Business - where mediocre business ideas go to launch or die

This week's agenda:

• Podcaster Shirt Marketplace

• What Dall-E Thinks We Meant

• Viability Score

Podcaster Shirt Marketplace

The term decentralization is overplayed, but you can’t hide that it’s an actual trend happening:

• Ghost kitchens are the decentralization of restaurants

• Solar is the decentralization of energy

• Crypto is the decentralization of finance

• Podcasting is the decentralization of information

Podcasting has become huge. There are about 150M podcast episodes floating around the internet. With about 8B people in the world, each episode should average about 50 listens. (That was kinda pointless math, but was curious)

Anyways, the podcasting ad marketcap just passed $1B last year and has no plans of slowing down. I tend to watch the majority of my podcasts on YouTube and Spotify video because it adds an entertainment factor and feels like you’re in the room.

We see (and hear) plenty of digital ads, but why not have a separate marketplace for the video podcasters to get ad revenue for what they are wearing.

This idea first came to me when I was DJing night clubs and thought of the same concept for DJs. A brand would pay them to wear their shirt/hat/apparel for the 1 hour set and it would be guaranteed to be viewed by the thousands of club goers and possibly online stream viewers.

Then it hit me when I was watching the All-In Podcast, one of my all time faves, and David Sacks got a ton of shit for wearing a Moncler hat when they all have an agreement not to advertise on the pod.

So this got the wheels turning, what if there was a marketplace for brands and podcasters to come together for an apparel ad placement agreement.

Movies, music videos, and much more already do this with product placement. It’s the podcasters time to shine.

What would this look like?

The final product would be a marketplace. The easiest version is grid like selection where you can view the podcasters; avg video reach, genre, and YouTube and Spotify link.

Brands can reach out through the portal to negotiate on pricing and the marketplace takes a cut. Bonus points if payment is made through the marketplace.

What DALL-E Thinks I Meant

How Could You Execute?

• You would essentially start as an Ad Buyer for a couple of small podcasters you know. If you don’t know any podcasters, go to YouTube and find ones with 100-1000 views per video and ask them if they would be interested in extra income. (you’ll get a lot of YES’s)

• Reach out to brands in their space to generate interest, it would go like this:

  • “Hey BRAND, I have a ton of podcasters in my network that reach your customer profile, would you be interested in a brand deal for a small fee/trade? All you would need to do is send a shirt and payment, your logo will be viewable for years and has the chance to reach thousands of viewers.”

• Once you get a few deals going, start reaching out to bigger and bigger podcasters, the check size should get bigger as well.

• Once your network has gotten bigger, you can reinvest the money into an online marketplace site. Your main focus would switch to getting as many big name podcasters on there as you can.

Viability:

1 [building spaceships] 🚀 to 5 [easy peasy] 😊 

This business is a 3 ghost viability. This would take a little more elbow grease. Ad buying is a grind but once you can get a good rhythm, strategy and formula going it’s off to the races!

The tough part would be the initial brand deals, which there is a ton of content (err podcasts) that can show you step by step on exactly how to land those deals.

It’s a great day to be great!

Love, Mike

 👋 

P.S I’m a size XL if anyone wants to send me a shirt 😃