#monetization

#monetization

Podcasting has exploded in popularity, and the good news? Starting your own show is easier than ever. You don't need expensive equipment or technical know-how-just a strong topic bank, solid branding, and growth strategy. The next step is choosing the right platform. Luckily, there are several free options that support your podcasting career from the ground up. Here's a breakdown of five top platforms you can use without spending a dime.

"This [will] empower creators to make data-driven decisions about how they want to grow their channel organically or use paid tools like YouTube Promote."

Take Hudl, which started out in 2006 as a platform to help players and coaches (of all levels, not just high school) review game footage for training purposes. Over time, the Nebraska-based company has expanded into public-facing content, like livestreamed games and highlight reels and even hardware in the form of a line of smart cameras that automatically track movement. All the school has to do is put the camera somewhere facing the field and turn it on.

The company has opened a waitlist for what it's calling the " handle marketplace," where it will sell abandoned and inactive usernames. But there's a slight catch: To make a bid for one, you'll likely need to be a Premium+ or Premium Business subscriber to the site. Some handles will be effectively free, included in the cost of the subscription. But for "rare" handles, X is warning users the price tag could be steep. "Rare handles," the company wrote in an FAQ about the marketplace, "may be priced anywhere from $2,500 to over seven figures, depending on demand and uniqueness." It's unclear if usernames X took away from active users (including @music and @sports) will be included in the sale.

Problem: If your pricing is tied to human users, but AI is doing the work, you're leaving money on the table (or worse, annoying customers with irrelevant seat counts). Reality: Customers don't care about seats. They care about results. Manny's take: "Don't sell software. Own outcomes." If your product helps a customer resolve 1,000 support tickets a month, why charge for seats? Charge for resolved tickets.

TapNation, the mobile game publisher behind Thief Puzzle and , has partnered with ad quality leader AppHarbr to elevate player experiences and maximise ad performance. With real-time ad quality controls, TapNation prevents disruptive creatives from ever reaching players, eliminating unskippable ads and preserving seamless gameplay. While ads fuel revenue and enable progression through rewarded play, poor ad quality creates friction from intrusive creatives and aggressive templates to app crashes. This leads to complaints, churn, and negative reviews that undermine long-term growth.

There's the saying, "good artists copy, great ones steal." And then there's whatever Ananta is doing. The upcoming open-world RPG from NetEase developer Naked Rain is going viral again thanks to new footage from Tokyo Game Show 2025. While it might look like the latest round of Genshin Impact-inspired mobile anime slop, the developer has confirmed it won't be relying on exploitative gambling mechanics to earn its keep. It will, however, be ripping off Spider-Man in every way it can.

Publishing is at a crossroads. The business model that once supported thriving newsrooms, creative outlets, and niche media platforms has crumbled under the weight of collapsing ad deals, ineffective subscriptions, parasitic agencies, and a digital landscape increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence. Publishers who have endured decades of disruption now face a stark choice: adapt with clear strategies for monetization or risk being sidelined entirely.

Yeah, there are two things that I think made Google the dominant search engine that we know it as today. The first is that it was just a better product. It was a better search engine than the competition. It wasn't the first one, it wasn't the only one, right? People remember Yahoo was a very big company, they did search. AltaVista is one that I remember using back in the day. And Google search engine is better, I think, for two reasons.

During the Made on YouTube 2025 event, the company introduced a slew of new AI tools and features that aim to help creators streamline their process and help with engagement. Starting with YouTube's Shorts, Google is implementing its DeepMind Veo 3 Fast generative tool that can create backgrounds on short clips with sound. That includes tools for motion and restyle, prop additions in scenes, AI edits that turn raw footage into a draft video and speech-to-song functionality that converts dialogue into a soundtrack.

As part of the deal, Minute Media is acquiring VideoVerse's Magnifi software, which uses AI tech to cut longer video content and full-length games into bite-size clips. This capability will add a more personalized, contextually aligned pool of video inventory to Minute Media's STN Video platform, Rich Routman, president of Minute Media, told AdExchanger.

Their report also revealed that the top two spending areas of investment for marketing budgets globally are: video content, and thought leadership material. Writing thought leadership content is viewed as a critical investment for marketing purposes, for several reasons, including boosting credibility and trust amongst customers, standing out from the competition in the industry, and becoming known as the go-to source of information in a specific field, which naturally translates to more opportunities to interweave upselling and promotion of products/services.

If you're Gen Z, you probably grew up on algorithms that whisper "monetize it" the moment anything feels fun. The importance of personal brands is constantly drilled into you, along with a side of LinkedIn wins, Etsy grinds, and side hustle culture. If you're good at something, you're told to sell it (or at least make it go viral). Google queries for "how to monetize content shot up 305% in the past month, while "how to build a personal brand " is up 67% year-on-year.

Joining the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program grants access to resources for building solutions on its platforms, fostering opportunities for passive income streams.

For a monthly fee, Kajabi allows creators to build assets like digital shops, email newsletters, courses and podcasts. Instead of floating around in YouTube or TikTok's algorithm hoping the right person clicks on the right link, platforms like Kajabi give creators a way to build a more direct connection to their fans.

WhatsApp has officially begun rolling out ads in the form of Status Updates and Promoted Channels, marking a major shift in its monetisation strategy.

Ladybird is an independent project to create a web browser with a new engine that is strictly based on web standards and will never include any monetization.

Research from Vitrifi indicates that only 3% of fibre broadband operators have fully automated their service provisioning and activation, leading to high costs and customer frustration.

Almost everything in life now feels monetized, from birth to death, with every aspect of existence having a price tag attached, even relationships and joy.