Start a Paid Newsletter to Share Stories, Tips and Tools

What is a Newsletter?

A newsletter is a regularly scheduled email containing news, updates, insights, or curated content on a specific topic or niche. It’s typically delivered to subscribers who have opted in to receive updates.

A newsletter is the way to go if you want direct access to your audience and not depend on social media algorithms.

How to Make Money With a Newsletter

By monetizing your newsletter through subscriptions, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, or product sales, you can generate revenue streams and monetize your audience so you can continue to afford to do the work.

There are several ways to monetize a newsletter and generate revenue:

• Sponsored Content: Partner with brands or businesses to feature sponsored content or advertisements in your newsletter in exchange for a fee or commission.
• Affiliate Marketing: Promote affiliate products or services within your newsletter and earn commissions for referrals or sales generated through your affiliate links.
• Premium Subscriptions: Offer premium or exclusive content to subscribers who upgrade to a paid subscription tier.
• Product Sales: Use your newsletter to promote and sell your own products, courses, or services directly to your audience, driving traffic to your sales pages or e-commerce store.
• Membership Communities: Create a paid membership community with premium content, courses, forums, or member-only events.

Who Should Start a Paid Newsletter?

A newsletter is best suited for bloggers, writers, influencers, content creators, or just about anyone who wants direct access to their audience. Consider the following:

A newsletter allows you to engage with your audience on a personal level by delivering content directly to their inbox.

You can reach your audience without relying on third-party algorithms or platforms, ensuring your message gets delivered to your subscribers’ inboxes.

Steps to Start a Paid Newsletter

By following these steps and using the right tools, you can launch your paid newsletter.

Step 1: Define Your Newsletter’s Purpose and Audience

Consider what type of content you’ll provide, whether it’s industry news, personal stories, educational insights, product updates, or curated resources, and who would benefit most from receiving it.

Step 2: Choose an Email Marketing Platform

Popular options include ConvertKit or Substack, which offer features like email template customization, subscriber management, automation, and analytics tracking.

Step 3: Build Your Subscriber List

Share your website, blog, or social media profiles to encourage people to sign up. Offer incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or freebies to entice people to subscribe, and prominently display opt-in forms or pop-ups to capture their email addresses.

Step 4: Create Compelling Content

Craft attention-grabbing subject lines, write compelling stuff, and include images, videos, or infographics to enhance engagement.

Step 5: Establish a Consistent Sending Schedule:

Determine the frequency and timing of your newsletter. Choose a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly schedule. Consistency is key to building trust and keeping subscribers engaged.

Step 6: Track and Analyze Performance

Track metrics such as open rates and subscriber growth to measure how you’re engaging and growing your audience.

Tools You’ll Need

To start a paid newsletter, you’ll need various tools and platforms to create, manage, distribute, and monetize your newsletter. Here are some tools to choose from.

Choose a writing platform:

Create a dedicated website or landing page for your newsletter using WordPress, a content management system (CMS). You can use WordPress themes and plugins to design and customize your site, showcase sample newsletter content, and encourage visitors to subscribe.

Choose an email marketing platform:

ConvertKit is a popular email marketing platform offering features specifically tailored to creators. It offers customizable email templates, segmentation, automation workflows, and subscriber management tools.

Or you can use Substack.

Substack is a platform specifically designed for creating and monetizing email newsletters. It provides tools for composing and sending newsletters, managing subscribers, and processing payments for paid subscriptions. This is an all-in-one platform for launching your paid newsletter. Learn more about starting a Substack newsletter.

Use content creation tools:

Use Google Docs or Microsoft Word to write your content before importing it into your email marketing platform (for example ConvertKit) for distribution.

Design with Canva. a graphic design tool that allows you to create eye-catching visuals, graphics, and images to include in your newsletters and enhance your content’s overall look and feel.