Start A Paid Newsletter Business - How To Make Money Writing Emails?
Let’s face it, most content on the web is rubbish. And that’s because there is so much stuff online, that each published article doesn’t make a lot of money. And if you can’t make money writing quality content, then why spend time doing it at all. It’s a horrible vicious circle.
When the internet started, it was about making information free for all and that was a great idea. But it did not mean that people had to work for free!
Paid newsletters solve 3 problems
Problem 1 - We don’t browse the web anymore to search for information. We open our phones and play around with a few apps. So getting people to read your article on your website is hard.
Solution : paid newsletters send the content directly to the readers email box. An email app that most people look at several times a day.
Problem 2 - When we read an article online our attention span is very low. We need to get straight to the point. Read diagonally if we can. And move onto the next bit of content as fast as possible. Good articles just don’t get the time they deserve.
Solution: as users pay for a newsletter they have carefully chosen, they will be much more focused and digest the content accordingly. The whole experience is a lot higher quality.Problem 3 - Good writing takes time, and writers need to make enough money to live.
Solution: by making readers pay for your content, you will always receive money in exchange for your work. You’ll be able to spend more time writing, researching and making your articles brilliant and insightful.
How to start a paid newsletter?
1 - You can do it the hard way
Create your own website yourself or use a website builder like wordpress. And then add a mailing service like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign or GetResponse.
2 - The quick and easy way - use a newsletter platform like Substack.
Substack was created in 2017 and allows you to create a newsletter in literally seconds. It’s completely free to start and then you only pay a % of your paid subscriptions.
You have total control over how much you want to sell your subscription for (between $5 and $49) and in a few clicks you’re off. You’ll never have to worry about any technical aspects.
How much money can I make with a paid newsletter?
Paid newsletters is a big business! Even if you start small with a £5/month subscription and 1000 subscribers, that’s £60,000/year for just 1 or 2 emails/week.
TheHustle is a business newsletter that has 3 millions subscribers and makes about $50million/year.
The James Altucher newsletter is a finance and cryptocurrency newsletter and was sold for tens of millions of dollars to Agora.
On Substack, you can see a list of the best earning newsletters. Here are the top 5 paid publications and their estimated earnings.
- 1st - The Dispatch ($200,000+ / month) : politics, policy and culture
- 2nd - Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson ( $150,000/month)
- 3rd - Reporting by Matt Taibbi ($150,000+/month)
- 4th - Sinocism by Bill Bishop ($150,000+/month)
- 5th - The Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan ($50,000+/month)
Can I make more?
Yes ;-) A paid newsletter is like a filtering system. The users that are paying for your content literally love your work, so give them more! Here are a few monetising best practices :
- Offer them an upgrade for a premium newsletter for 10x the price
- Offer a lifetime subscription for the price of 24 months
- Include affiliate links in your newsletters
- Create paid events around your theme
- Create a paid community
- Add talk to expert sessions and seminars
Have fun building your paid newsletter empire!!!