system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
[Had to chop this into two comments, second one is in response to this one.]

Not at all - very minimal returns unless you become maximally popular on a front page website like YouTube or Twitch (or both if you're really trying to min/max) and take advantage of any partnership platforms and/or sponsorship offers that come your way and are amenable to your goals in your business. This is possible but extremely, extremely difficult, and does require an intense degree of networking and a sprinkle of luck. 

If you don't have an editor, prepare to spend hours upon hours editing. Particularly when it comes to narration and reading specific lines, accept the fact that you will need to read and re-read some lines over and over again to get the right pitch or tone of voice (that also flows seemlessly with the rest of the reading, which you will now need to splice onto each end of this hopefully successful line reading). I've had narrations that were a 45 minute recording that was inevitably spliced down into about 12 minutes. You have to comb through virtually every second of the recording, scouring for the proper snippets and stitching them all together. Listening to the same lines over and over. If you don't hate the sound of your own voice now, you will by the time you're finally done editing. Don't even get me started on hunting for the right royalty-free music and/or sound effects if the recording calls for it. Recording the content could sometimes feel a bit laborous, but editing it was torture.

It is also worth mentioning here (at the risk of sounding pretentious after having just mocked pretentious artists) that there is a certain level of skill required for all of this. You need to develop your skills as a vocalist. You need to develop your skills as an editor. You need to develop skills that can allow you to quickly obtain elements for your recording (such as music or sound effects). I'm not saying there's anybody who can't actually do it if they really try, I'm just saying there is an element of skill involved here. If your tone doesn't match the script or your line splices sound choppy, people will recognize your product is inferior to other alternatives out there they could be listening to (or hiring). I'd say the real pretentiousness really comes about in the creative differences, beyond these barebones guidelines for having an objectively quality product. 

Now imagine going through the works for that single 12 minute recording. First is time spent reviewing different materials to decide what you want to read that will bring in the views. Next, you need to get your equipment set up (if it isn't already). Competent mic, pop-filter, recording software, etc. Then you need to record the reading, which can take anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours+. Then, typically, you need to run the entire recording through a "clean" that eliminates any background "fuzz" that your mic may have picked up. The exported clean version is then put into your actual editor, where you'll spend anywhere from an hour to eight hours editing, depending on how much difficulty you're having and how long the original recording was. You spend time curating a small library of royalty-free songs that work specifically for your recording and splice them in, taking extra time and care to smoothly transition from one to another when it's most appropriate. You sprinkle in all the sound effects that make the recoedinf perfect. Finally you're able to export the final product. You upload it to any relevant online spaces where you're trying to establish a foothold, share the links across all your social medias created for your brand, and sit back and watch. 

The recording gets a cumulative total of 9 views. 

So you make another recording, making improvements over the first. It gets 12 views. The next gets 19 views. The one after that settles at 15. 

In between all of these recordings being posted, you're navigating social media like mad on your brand pages trying to network with the community that is interested in your sort of work, or even your niche if you have one. You need to embed yourself within the community, converse with like-minded individuals, and above all else interact with other creators and their fanbases as well. Because their social medias already have the sort of people that will subscribe to your sort of content in their comment sections, they're great places to chat. Some people will look at your profile. Some of those might even click on one of your recordings. And a fraction of those might actually subscribe. Networking is arguably the most important aspect of this sort of enterprise with the way the industry is now. If you're really, really lucky, you might even get one of the medium fish creators to shine a glimmer of publicity on you.
gpt
Mind you, if you want this to work, you really need to dedicate yourself to it. Create a schedule. Follow it to a T. Stick with it even though your last ten recordings barely breached 100 views even though you've been working a full-time job and putting 50 hours a week into this brand for the past six months. Maybe then you'll get noticed by a small-time sponsor who will give you a share of ad-revenue on a commissioned narration. It'll end up being so little you'll want to weep, but hey, you're finally digging out of the red you put yourself in buying all that recording equipment, and possibly software. 

I know I'm on a tangent here, but I will never forget the time that there was feedback corrupting a line I had read. I had to set all of my equipment up again, but no matter how hard I tried to replicate the equipment and my positioning, or even by tweaking the audio with software, I could not get it to sound like the original recording. It was distinctly off, and made the recording sound like shit. I ended up having to re-record the whole thing. It was a 37 minute recording. I was probably two hours into editing when I discovered the corrupted line. When I finally finished the recording and posted it, it got a measly 400 views, which was below my then-average of around 700-800 views. This was before I was sponsored. 

When it comes to podcasting, I can't say for certain, as I've never done it personally. But I'd imagine it would be really similar in a lot of ways if it's a scripted recording. If you're doing live podcasts, or even just recordings of non-scripted conversations, I suppose that would cut down a lot on editing. I'd imagine it ramps up the difficulty in other ways, though, being that you'll need to be more quick on your feet verbally and command an imminently entertaining or charismatic appeal that not only captivates the audience, but can keep the conversation moving. Again, this is where a level of skill comes into play.

I'm not saying you can't be successful at it. Clearly it's possible - you've got plenty of people using their voice and the internet to make a successful living today. But as if everything I mentioned up there wasn't a hard enough pill to swallow, I haven't even talked about the competition yet. Believe me when I say you're a minnow in an ocean. As I said, there are plenty of people making a living off of this. These would be your top, maybe, idk, 5% of earners in this particular mechanism of the industry (as opposed to paid voice acting gigs for shows or movies, etc). The other 95% of people having an honest go at this as a dedicated practice are not making enough money to call it a living. A lot of them are making money, but trust me, when you're putting in this much work you'll want to cut it down to one job or the other eventually. This is, of course, assuming you're also working full-time. 

Sorry dude this rant totally got away from me but **TLDR:** Is there money to be made? Yes. But be prepared to sacrifice, *a lot.*