Over the past week, some of podcasting’s early adopters have been doling their advice on how to make money podcasting.

• Michael G, co-author of Podcast Solutions, says that podcasting is a community, not an industry and advises podcasters not to rely on the advertising and sponsorship “white horse” to rescue them from their “monetary woes.”
• Paul Colligan, co-author of The Business Podcasting Bible and who wrote the forward to my book, states that podcasting is just a tool and that podcasters need to develop a multiple streams approach to their podcast.
• Jason Van Orden, author of Promoting Your Podcast, says in his podcast that “if you want to make real money in podcasting, stop calling yourself a podcaster.”
• And the sessions at this year’s New Media Expo (of which I’m speaking) seems to be slightly skewed towards the monetization angle which is totally awesome because podcasters are demanding to know.

I agree with Paul that you should consider it a tool. I agree with Michael that it’s a community and I agree with Jason that you can’t call yourself a podcaster and make money.

Yet, there’s an easy way to make money podcasting and it has nothing to do with the community, the tool or the podcasting label.

I call myself a podcaster. I made all my money over the past 2 years from podcasting. There is a business for podcasting. However, when I speak to my target market, I never introduce myself as a podcaster. I made that mistake early in my business and I spent a better part of my introductory conversation educating the person on what podcasting is.

Instead, I introduce myself as someone who solves a specific problem. When people ask me what I do, I don’t say that I’m a podcaster, nor do I say that I’m a consultant. I instead say:

“I help those responsible for sales generate quality leads and boost sales without cold calling.”

Or…

“You know that there are many people who hate cold calling? I help make selling fun and profitable using tools over the Internet.”

This one is a winner…

“Are you getting at least 30 new leads per week from your website? Well, I help businesses use audio and video on the Internet to fill their sales funnel.”

In essence, I let my tagline sell my expertise. Whether I meet the person online, over the phone or at a networking event (which I rarely attend these days), I let my tagline peek the person’s interest.

When the person says, “Tell me more, Leesa,” I then give them my business card with 2 free chapters from my book, or if it’s online, I direct them the website where I offer 2 free chapters from my book. Or, I point them to my video about what podcasting is all about.

Again, you can still call yourself a podcaster. I do. But I highly recommend that you start using a tagline to sell your expertise as a podcaster. Tell people what problem you solve whenever you’re asked “What do you do?”