The "how" (and "if") of monetizing a newsletter

The number of newsletters being launched has boomed in the last few years. But whether this indicates an opportunity or an overcrowded market remains to be seen.

I caught up with successful newsletter creators to find out if it's a good time to get started — and if so, how to do it right. 👇

Are newsletters still worth your time?

👤 Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

Email has always been powerful. Newsletters, especially editorial-style newsletters, are back in style.

I do think 2024 will see a decline in them so we are probably past the first newsletter peak. This doesn't mean newsletters will disappear but they will probably see a bit of a plateau, some consolidation, and then more steady growth without as big of an explosion.

So, I think quality newsletters are the future and worth investing in for founders.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

I don't think newsletters are going away anytime soon. But there has been a huge uptick in people starting newsletters, so there's a lot more competition than there used to be for getting into someone's inbox.

I feel like, in the early stages, founders have enough on their plates. The newsletter probably shouldn't be high on the priority list. It fits the bill better for someone who's focused on growing their personal brand, or a more mature business.

👤 Alexander Isora of The 10k Newsletter:

Emails are 1,000 years old and we still haven’t invented an alternative. So even though emails feel old and lame, it is still alive.

I just asked my 20-year-old friend if she uses email. She said yes. That means Gen Z is still using it!

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

Newsletters are definitely a thing of the future. It's one of the few ways that founders can "own" the audience — to have a direct line of communication with them. That can't happen with a social media following.

👤 JT of Tiny Empires:

Newsletters are still one of the best ways to communicate effectively with an audience.

In saying that, there are now a lot of newsletters out there so the competition is massive. One way around this is to brand it differently by thinking of the newsletter as the distribution channel, rather than the business itself.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

I cannot think right now of any business that shouldn't have a newsletter. Of course, there are hundreds of different newsletter variations, but it's one of the few marketing channels that you truly own.

You don't need to rely on channels that can ban you at any time with no reason.

👤 Alexander Isora of The 10k Newsletter:

Newsletters are the simplest possible form of a product. It is easy to start, easy to grow, easy to maintain. It is so tempting to start your own newsletter if you don’t have any other products. But that can be a trap: Since the entry point is low, the competition is crazy.

Plus, now we have GPT and soon there will be fully automated newsletters. Thousands of them. The market will be even more saturated. So if you bet on a newsletter as your only product, you’d better have a plan.

Monetized newsletters vs promotional newsletters

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

I don't think there is one right purpose for a newsletter. You should determine how the newsletter will help you achieve your business goals.

You can use a newsletter as a content marketing tool to build/grow an audience of customers, prospects, etc. for your primary product/service. In that case, you still deliver valuable content but you insert calls to action related to the product or next step in the buying process.

When a newsletter is the content product you sell, you must hyper-focus on who the audience is and what content they want related to your topic. Someone who pays for a product has much higher expectations than someone who signs up for a free newsletter. Also, it's worth noting that the newsletter customers make recurring decisions about whether the newsletter provides enough value that it's worth paying for.

👤 Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

If you can make the newsletter a product in itself (great content, engaged audience), monetizing the newsletter is great.

If you are outstanding at creating SaaS products or educational content, a newsletter is definitely a good way to grow your reach and promote that product.

But ideally, you do both. If you do at least a weekly newsletter, you will generally have enough promo placements to promote your own products along with some products that sponsor you.

👤 JT of Tiny Empires:

I think this is very dependent on the market. For businesses that need a wide reach, I think about these as growth newsletters. So ideally, they should be free (no paywall), with low-friction signup and highly shareable content.

More niche businesses can monetize effectively through a paid subscription as there is no requirement for mass reach and the content is more highly tailored to that specific market.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to utilize a newsletter. It can be great for building your personal brand, selling your own products, or creating a whole business around the newsletter itself, with ad revenue or affiliate revenue, for example. It depends on each person's use case.

For me, with the SaaS Bootstrapper, it's a way to build my personal brand, engage with my audience, help as many people as I can, and create awareness for my products.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

I think it should be both. More and more I see this trend: People start with newsletters as a means to promote their products, but after a while, they add ads to it. To be honest, I can't think of a single newsletter I read that hasn't switched to this model.

But we need to remember the most important aspect of any newsletter: quality. If you provide high-quality content, you can monetize it in almost any way.

How (and when) to monetize your newsletter

👤 Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

It's best to reach a certain critical audience before you try to monetize. Depending on the niche, that could be 500-1,000 unique opens, or it could be 10,000+ opens for things more mainstream.

In terms of the best ways to monetize it, I think sponsored posts are the best balance of quick cash flow and quality.

With affiliate offers, while you could be quicker to 'fill your inventory', your cash flow won't be great. Plus, there are so many practices that hurt publishers in the affiliate space, I'd recommend being very careful.

Creating your own products to monetize in your newsletter can also work very well, but this takes more time because you actually have to create that product. And you now have two things to work on: the newsletter and that new product you are charging for. It's very easy to spread yourself too thinly this way.

So start with sponsored placements.

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

Creators who want to monetize their newsletters are likely to bring in bigger revenue through sponsored content, paid ads, etc. But to do that well, they must have an audience size that would attract companies. Depending on the niche, it could be a few thousand or 100,000 subscribers.

Selling individual newsletter subscriptions is a tough road, especially if it's the primary revenue channel. Creators should at least offer a free trial subscription so the audience can see if it's worth the money. In this case, I think it's often best to build up a free audience and then consider a premium paid subscription for the biggest fans.

👤 JT of Tiny Empires:

My view here is again based on the growth needs. Does the newsletter need to get a large audience (go free), or can it stay niche (go paid).

A newsletter focused on a "general" category like "AI" or "Startups" is probably best to stay free as they are naturally high-growth areas but don't have hyper-specific content. Whereas something like "Technical innovations in the legal sector" has a very specific audience and high-value content for that audience, so it is easier to monetize.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

If the newsletter itself is a business, then adding revenue or paywalled content is likely the best way to go. If you're generating awareness for your own products, then the products themselves could be the monetization.

For a personal brand, there are a lot of options, such as ad revenue, affiliate marketing, selling your own products, and consulting.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

You shouldn't monetize if you haven't really established quality of any kind. Your audience isn't there for the ads, it's there despite it, because your quality is so good.

You should monetize when you feel confident in your content quality. Then you can either include ads or promote products complementary to the content you produce.

It's a vague answer, I know, but if quality is in place, even if you only have 100 subscribers, you can advertise.

👤 Alexander Isora of The 10k Newsletter:

I start monetizing every product from day 1, even if it is just a few dollars. That includes my newsletter.

But in the early stages, it shouldn't be about the money. It is about your experience and connections. Over the years, you will find a perfect place and form for your ads. And by then, you will have grown the newsletter big enough to earn good cash.

How to grow your newsletter

👤 Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

SparkLoop, newsletter promos and swaps, and paid social. Those three are the biggest three nowadays IMO. You can still get some organic reach on social, of course, but that's the exception, not the rule.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

Most of my newsletter subscribers come from social media, particularly Twitter/X, some from Reddit, and Indie Hackers. A small number come from referrals from readers.

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

The Tilt's best growth has come from cross-promotion opportunities. We exchange mentions/ads with other newsletters that target a similar audience.

In addition, we also get referrals from creators in the ConvertKit referral program.

👤 JT of Tiny Empires:

For me, personally, it's mainly organic, although some other strategies I've used include republishing content to channels like Reddit.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

SEO, reddit, Twitter, Product Hunt, and newsletter ad exchanges.

Tips from the pros

👤 Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

Just do it, iterate quickly, learn from people who do it the way you'd like your newsletter to be.

It's never been easier or cheaper to start, so just do it.

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

Don't start until you can commit to creating and delivering it regularly. Start with a minimum viable frequency. You can always send it more often, but it's harder to send it less frequently than you promised.

👤 Alexander Isora of The 10k Newsletter:

Use the same title every time. Here is mine: "Hi {$name} ☕️🥐 The 10K newsletter is here.” Your subscribers will get used to it over time. If you put random "clickable" keywords in the title, people will ignore it because everybody does that.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

Just start. Don't overthink it. You'll find your voice along the way. Just like with an app, you can and will iterate. You can experiment with different formats and content, and over time you'll find what works for you and what resonates with your audience.

👤 Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

Newsletters also can work well as foundational content — blog articles, social media posts, short-form videos, etc. can all be packaged from the original newsletter content.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

Find newsletters you really like. Copy some of the structural elements (not the content) from them.

👤 JT of Tiny Empires:

The easiest option is to go very niche and target a specific group of users.

👤 Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

Write a lot. Provide real value. Write something you would want to read. Be consistent.

👤 Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

Write about the thing you're truly passionate about. The longer I'm in business, the more I realize that you cannot fabricate a true passion.

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