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How Leo Laporte Makes $1.5 Million Per Year from Podcasting

written by John Chow on October 3, 2009

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Who says podcasting is dead? Well, podcasting pioneer Leo Laporte says so. This is a strange thing for Leo to say since he makes $1.5 million a year from his TWiT podcasts. What’s even more amazing is Leo’s cost for generating that income (which is doubling every year) is only $350,000. I’ve participated in a few podcasts and created two guest podcast for Shoemoney in the past. They were fun to do and I really enjoy making them. However, I never thought there could be so much money in it.

In the following video, Leo shares his views on podcasting, the Internet and how the little guy is beating up big mainstream media. The talk, given at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco on Friday, is 40 minutes long but well worth a listen as Leo covers some really good points that are sure to help you in your online money making goals.

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{ 54 comments }

Michael Powers October 3, 2009 at 5:29 pm

That is amazing that he can make that much money with Podcasts!

Justsoblogger October 3, 2009 at 8:49 pm

It is his usual job nothing miracle!

Free Business Cards October 3, 2009 at 11:48 pm

The great thing is that you can do this with almost anything online. Right now people are making full time revenue from Twitter, Squidoo, Email, P2P, Blogs, Vlogs, Youtube, Mobile Web, and anything else you can imagine.

If its on the web figure out a way to take advantage of it and make sure you idea can scale.

EarningStep October 4, 2009 at 6:20 pm

yeah.. but make money with podcasting is readly not making sense… the guy is really awesome

Jacques | Web Design October 4, 2009 at 1:45 am

It just goes to show that if you’re top of the heap of pretty much anything, you’ll be highly successful. Video is becoming increasingly popular on the internet in general, and the blogoshere in particular, so the traditional audio podcast gets uprated to video (think tv taking over from radio….words vs moving pictures & words) and there is huge potential here, as history repeats itself….

Money-Era October 5, 2009 at 6:20 am

Yes I agree. Also take into account the new trend of watching TV on mobile devices (e.g. cell phones).
This is huge in Japan and taking on in Europe – so to invest in a video channel communication is a smart move for sure.

gaban October 5, 2009 at 4:02 am

he is really great man

How to Make Money with blog October 5, 2009 at 10:45 am

People like Leo will always keep podcasting alive.

-Shanker Bakshi

How to Make Money with blog October 5, 2009 at 10:40 am

Frankly speaking i am not interesting in knowing how Leo laporte makes 1.5 million per year from podcasting. but if he is doing so he is really a great man to follow.

-Shanker Bakshi

Dana@Online Knowledge October 3, 2009 at 5:34 pm

Wow, there are a lot of money in podcasting. Thanks to share this video john. And i do not think it already dead either.

kachingkaching October 3, 2009 at 7:22 pm

yeah took him awhile tho’

nathan October 3, 2009 at 9:37 pm

I also don’t think it’s dead too. It’s so amazing how these guys get to earn so much money. Is it because they’re the pioneers?

Lee Ka Hoong October 4, 2009 at 7:12 am

I believe that Podcasting will be very popular in some days later, perhaps you can try to do podcasting in your blog to see whether you can make 1% of Leo’s annual income. :D

Weight Loss Diet Plans October 4, 2009 at 11:27 am

I don’t think they are pioneers, podcasting has been around for years, it’s just that they found a system that brings in the big bucks.

Bayseec October 6, 2009 at 2:15 am

Thats rite. All you need is know the way in that area to become successful.

Josten October 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm

sounds good as gold will definitely finish watching this

Personal PPC Coach October 3, 2009 at 6:42 pm

Yeah and if you’re interested in getting started with podcasts I think Audacity if a free open source program. And sony sound forge can get you of the ground for a price, I think anywhere from 75 to 300 dollars depending on your demands.

Ben Pei October 3, 2009 at 8:04 pm

That’s right! I have used audacity for many projects before it is really a professional software that is free.. You just need a mic.

Jacques | Web Design October 4, 2009 at 1:55 am

Or a flip mino and video editing software, as I think video podcasting will be rapidly overtaking pure audio only…..

EarningStep October 3, 2009 at 6:56 pm

awesome . i didn’t how he did it.. but it was great…

Amey October 3, 2009 at 7:19 pm

That was a interesting video. I loved call for help and the screen savers.

Greg Ellison October 3, 2009 at 7:23 pm

It was a very good video that Leo did. Greg Ellison

Emma Springer October 3, 2009 at 7:46 pm

I learn something new every day. I did not know that money could be made from podcasting. This is the first time I have heard of this. I will watch the video.

Ricky October 3, 2009 at 7:46 pm

vrey great speech… the money is not in the podcast but where you can connect podcaster with advertiser…..

Ben Pei October 3, 2009 at 7:59 pm

That’s the golden key I believe..

Ben Pei October 3, 2009 at 7:58 pm

That’s cool.. 1 .5 Mil a year just by podcast.. now that’s some superstar earnings!

Personal PPC Coach October 4, 2009 at 11:02 am

It is definitely superstar earnings to me. But I wonder if he thinks the same? Probably not. You don’t get to the top by settling.

bradleybradwell October 3, 2009 at 11:34 pm

I think the title is a little mis-leading. Leo himself doesn’t make 1.5 million a year, his company does. Remember that a large portion of that goes back into the company. The 1.5 million is a revenue number, not his personal earnings.

John Chow October 4, 2009 at 6:33 pm

I also stated that it cost $350,000 to run the company. And in the end, he owns the company.

Market Samurai Review October 3, 2009 at 11:41 pm

You can make money with nearly everything at least if you are good enough at this everything! SY

Blogging Guide October 4, 2009 at 4:45 am

Great post John, very inspirational, it just goes to show there is a lot of money to be made in podcasting still!

Weight Loss Diet Plans October 4, 2009 at 5:48 am

Wow. that’s some serious money for doing a podcast. We did a podcats on eating healthy for more than a year and I had no ideas about raking in that kind of cash.

Lee Ka Hoong October 4, 2009 at 7:03 am

$1.5 mil a year from Podcasting? That’s a huge figure man! I believe that Leo had something special or some unique special knowledge or skill to do this.

Also, thanks John for sharing this video!

Chris Jacobson October 4, 2009 at 7:23 am

I first heard of Leo back when he did the Screensavers show on G4TV (formerly TechTV). It’s amazing to see how he’s branched off from then and done a lot of great things; TWiT being one of them.

Height Weight Chart October 7, 2009 at 12:41 am

That’s insanity. He’s good, but the main TWiT show is now unbearable. It’s two hours of just rambling and inside tech industry jokes. Love Buzz Out Loud as a true podcast for getting tech info and staying informed on news that affects the community.

I wonder how much the ad spends are for SquareSpace and Audible and other advertisers. Once he accepted ads for the podcasts (he still calls them netcasts) he jumped the line into being a radio show.

health blogger October 4, 2009 at 7:34 am

Wow.. What a big amount.
Is it good to earn big buck but health also important to care..

fas October 4, 2009 at 7:37 am

Podcasting is not really dead and that amount is quite insane.

Lifestyle Indonesia October 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm

I don’t understand what a podcast is but I have another different mobile companion which is iPAQ. It works well for mobile blogging.

Personal PPC Coach October 4, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Podcasts are just a series of videos that someone releases through software such as itunes or juice.

Weight Loss Diet Plans October 4, 2009 at 2:20 pm

That’s a video cast, a podcast is usually just audio.

Personal PPC Coach October 4, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Sorry I should have said video or audio.

Rahul - Web Guru October 4, 2009 at 8:39 pm

This is quite interesting that people make money via Podast as well. Strange but true I guess.

Steve Chow October 4, 2009 at 8:53 pm

wow! That’s Amazing!

Money-Era October 5, 2009 at 12:12 am

Do you notice any resemblance (as far as name) between Twitter and TWiT?
This could be used in clever marketing :-)

Chris Peterson October 5, 2009 at 12:54 am

The video was fabulous!
A really interesting stuff.

Brad October 5, 2009 at 10:06 am

it sort of sounds like shoemoney asked a question at 26min.

Brad October 5, 2009 at 10:25 am

it sort of sounds like shoemoney asked a question at 25min.

Richard October 6, 2009 at 9:48 pm

He can make so much money with podcast? That much money? Wow, i wish I could have as much, eh…

Anyway, keep learning, and keep doing….

cd drives October 6, 2009 at 10:46 pm

Impressive revenue numbers, but even more impressive net profit figures if he’s only got $350k in expenses!

Height Weight Chart October 7, 2009 at 12:40 am

Impressive amount but its not like he started from zero, he had a built in audience he took from TV…It would be a much different story w/o that…

Height Weight Chart October 7, 2009 at 12:44 am

Obviously, the TWiT show is his most popular show. Still, he makes less, but similar bucks off of his other shows, too. This is about his “network” not that one show.

Comparing his (almost) one man operation to CNET or even Revision3, isn’t fair. I respect Leo for basically going it alone. He hires young, enthusiastic, talented kids (basically interns) who will move on to bigger things later. Some are even making names for themselves.
I know I’m anecdotal, but I didn’t find Leo from TechTV. I never saw that network. I found Leo through Diggnation and Revision3. And my favorite occasional guest on the TWiT show is Brian Brushwood, who also has a show on Revision3.

Height Weight Chart October 7, 2009 at 12:46 am

Leo Leo Leo….. SEVEN employees and your total payroll is $350K ? Wow, that means the most you can make working for Twit is a whopping $1k per week? I guess Kevin Rose was smart to spin off and do DIGG, huh?

Billy October 7, 2009 at 9:02 pm

Maybe Leo should start having to pay for all the free bandwidth he gets from cache fly and AOL. Then lets see what he’s go left. He has lots of nerve begging for donations all the time. You’re all like sheep and fall for the act.

How to Make Quick Money October 8, 2009 at 6:13 am

Hey John,

I must say that Leo Laporte is a true player of the podcasting industry today. He is good at his job and for sure he can say this thing.