Newsletters have always been a thing. However, due to how quickly things are changing in the online space, they have become even more popular in recent years. With A.I becoming more and more prevalent, Google fluctuating with updates on a regular basis, and social media changing their algorithms seemingly every other week, having a direct line of communication with your audience has never been more important.
Having your audience in the palm of your hands is important for many reasons. It allows you to build a community, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and, most importantly, monetize your passion. Yes, that’s right – you can turn your passion into an income stream by starting a newsletter.
However, although it sounds good, it’s pretty challenging to get started. You have to worry about the process of creating engaging content, growing your subscriber list, and figuring out how to monetize it. But don’t worry- in this article, I’m going to go over how you could grow, monetize, and scale your newsletter.
Before I begin, if you don’t want to miss a future post, sign up to our newsletter now!
It’s More Than Just Picking a Niche
Usually, when people start out with side hustles like this, the first word of advice is to pick a niche. Yes, you do have to pick a niche; however, it’s deeper than that.
You need to figure out what your newsletter will be about.
For example, let’s take James Clear. He’s in the self-development space, so it’s safe to say that his niche is self-development. However, he has a unique angle.
He puts together a 3-2-1 format.
Each message includes 3 short ideas from me, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for you to ponder.
Let’s also talk about the TLDR newsletter. They have a curation strategy where they curate all the different news in tech so you can stay up to date.
It’s all about saving people time, or putting together valuable information in a really digestible way.
This shows that you can have a niche, but it’s all about finding your unique angle and value proposition within that niche.
Finding Your Unique Angle
In order to find your unique angle, you need to think about the pain points your audiences face on a regular basis. What solutions can you offer them through your newsletter?
Let’s take a basketball newsletter for instance (we don’t see too many of those). Some possible pain points for basketball fans could be not having enough time to watch games or keep up with the latest news, not being able to attend all the games they want, or wanting more in-depth analysis and insights on players and teams.
So what unique angle could this newsletter take? Maybe it’s a weekly roundup of the top plays from each game, complete with highlights and analysis. Or maybe it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the players’ lives and training regimens. The possibilities are endless, but the key is to address a specific need or desire that your audience has.
If it’s from a training standpoint, maybe you could provide your audience with a shooting drill, dribbling drill, and conditioning drill every single newsletter issue.
You really just have to think outside the box.
Tip to Find Your Unique Angle
When it comes to your audience, it’s almost guaranteed that they are on Reddit. There is basically a community on Reddit for everything.
But, instead of going straight on Reddit, you want to use a tool called Gummy Search. Gummy search allows you to do a deep dive into the subreddits in your niche. They categorize the posts using AI so you can see pain points, advice requests, and more. Here’s an example below:
As you can see, Gummy Search scanned the two subreddits r/DigitalMarketing and r/SocialMediaMarketing.
It picked up 57 pain and anger points, 191 advice requests, and 99 solution requests. These are great for never running out of ideas for your newsletter.
I came up with this newsletter specifically because, in the making money subreddits, people were having a hard time adding new income streams.
What Is The Best Newsletter Platform To Use?
There are a lot of good ones out there, but personally, I recommend Beehiiv.
They have many growth and monetization tools, along with a close-knit community that will answer any questions you may have.
Here’s a breakdown of how you could make money & grow on Beehiiv.
Growth
Starting with growth, Beehiiv has multiple ways for you to get more subscribers to your newsletter.
- Referral Program – You can ask your subscribers to share your link for a reward once they hit a milestone.
- Boosts (Growth)- They have a boost option where you could add money to the platform and have other newsletter creators advertise your newsletter. For this one, I have a boost offer for $1.50. Whenever someone gets me a subscriber, they make $1.20 (Beehiiv takes a percentage).
- Magic Links- You can send what’s called a magic link to another newsletter and have them add it to their email. When someone clicks that link, they automatically subscribe to your newsletter. This is a great way to collaborate and grow together with other creators. The best part is that it’s free. So, if you find someone who would like to cross-promote, you can get free subscribers.
Monetization
Next up is monetization. There are a couple of ways you could monetize your newsletter using Beehiiv.
- Boosts (Monetize)- Boosts monetize is the opposite of boost growth. You apply to recommend someone else’s newsletter and get paid for it.
- Ads- They send you ads that pay on a CPC basis. I’ve sent my first few the last two newsletters I sent out and got paid $7.50 & $5.00. I could imagine having thousands of subscribers how much you’d be able to make.
- Premium Subs- If you could think of a premium option for your newsletter, you could charge subscribers.
- Partner Program- This is more so if you want to push Beehiiv’s services and get paid for it. Most people do this through their personal brand.
How To Grow Outside Of Beehiiv?
If you already have an audience on Instagram, X, a blog with a lot of traffic, etc., you could promote your newsletter there.
However, if you don’t, here are a couple of tips for promoting your newsletter.
- Social Media- Share your newsletter on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You could also ask friends and family to share it with their network. Your best bet is to choose one platform where your audience is in the most and go from there.
- Collaborate With Other Creators- As mentioned earlier, collaborating with other creators is an excellent way to grow your newsletter. Reach out to creators in similar niches and see if they’d be interested in collaborating.
- Guest Writing- Consider writing for other newsletters or platforms within your niche. This can help you gain exposure to a new audience and potentially drive subscribers to your own newsletter.
- Utilize SEO- Make sure to optimize your website and newsletter content for SEO so that it can be easily found by people searching for topics within your niche.
How To Monetize Outside Of Beehiiv?
The monetization methods on Beehiiv are cool, but if you pay to be on Beehiiv, you may not make money for a little while. Because of this, you want to diversify your income streams.
- Affiliate Marketing- Partner with brands and businesses that align with your newsletter’s niche and promote their products or services through affiliate links. You’ll earn a commission for any sales made through your unique link.
- Sponsored Content- Similar to affiliate marketing, you can partner with brands to create sponsored content within your newsletter. This could be in the form of a product review, sponsored article, or sponsored mention.
- Send traffic to YouTube or a Blog- If you have thousands of followers, leveraging them to send traffic to a blog or YouTube channel can also be a great way to monetize. Just by simply having a monetized YouTube channel or a premium ad network on your blog could bring in additional income.
What You Should Make Sure Of Before You Launch Your Newsletter
You must ensure you are prepared and have everything in place before launching your newsletter. Here are some things to consider:
Make Sure The Niche Is Monetizable & Has a Large Enough Audience
You have to make sure there’s a method to make money through your newsletter. If you don’t have a monetization strategy in place, it will be difficult to sustain your newsletter in the long run.
Keep a Consistent Type Of Content
Keeping a consistent type of content will make sure you don’t lose your readers. If you start off with a certain type of content and then switch to something completely different, it could cause confusion and dissatisfaction among your audience. Also, sticking to a certain type of content will make you better at putting that content together, which will make the whole process more efficient.
Find Where Your Audience Is At First & Study The Content
Knowing where your audience is is important because that’s where you need to produce content. Make sure you study each social platform and look at the main demographics using it.
For example, if your audience is older, Facebook may be your best bet in terms of reach. If your audience is younger, Instagram or TikTok may be more suitable.
On top of that, you want to study the content that is successful on those platforms. Find 4-5 successful creators in your niche and think about how you could create their content in your own way.
Sign Up To Beehiiv Now And Get Started
If you want a 30 day free trial on Beehhiiv, click here now! Let me know what you plan on starting your newsletter about! Best of luck!