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2023 Email Newsletter Roundup (12 Favorite Newsletters of the Year)
Learn From the Best of 2023 to Optimize Your Newsletter
TG & Brandon Storey
February 9th, 2024
In 2022, 3,674 creators launched a newsletter on beehiiv.
In 2023, 26,345 creators launched on beehiiv.
That’s a 717% increase!
While we don’t know exactly how many creators will launch in 2024, we do know that newsletters are on the rise.
To follow along we highly recommend you follow our CEO’s (Tyler Denk) personal newsletter below. He transparently shares everything as we build 👇️
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In this thriving creator economy, there’s never been a better time to launch an email newsletter.
To set you up for success in 2024, we’ve analyzed tens of thousands of newsletters to narrow down what makes a great newsletter.
There’s no better way to elevate your newsletter game than to learn from the best.
Here are our top favorite newsletters of 2023
1. Arnold’s Pump Club
Yes. You’re reading this right.
Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger is on beehiiv.
And he’s pumping up millions of his followers with insights beyond building bountiful biceps (although you’ll certainly learn how to get your swell on here).
Arnold’s Pump Club is a daily newsletter jam-packed with advice and insider tips on how to live a healthier life overall. It’s a quick, 5-minute read, making it easy for anyone wanting expert advice on living a healthier life who only has a few minutes available every day.
Something Arnold does well with his newsletter is jam-packing it with valuable content. Every single newsletter is full of research-backed health and fitness insights, fitness plans, and healthy recipes.
Even though you can see Arnold has a team helping him with his newsletter, you feel like he’s right there with you. Arnold’s engaging with his community (through his app) and his team is leveraging that content well in the newsletter to ramp up engagement.
Key Takeaways:
Don’t underestimate the power of adding more value to a newsletter.
Use your newsletter to cross-promote multiple media channels (podcast, app, etc.).
Leverage images and other visuals to improve your branding and design. The vintage photos of Arnold as featured newsletter images are a great branding move.
Create a simple newsletter template to streamline your newsletter creation process (and create congruency in your subscribers’ experience).
2. Smart Nonsense 🌈
Smart Nonsense is one of the most unique newsletters we’ve ever come across.
This is because it’s not a newsletter.
It’s a comic.
Dylan Jardon and Henry Belcaster just happen to use newsletters to deliver their comics to their readers.
The creator duo started on YouTube and have both gone viral over and over again with shorts like this:
Fast forward to mid-2023, and the Smart Nonsense team created their newsletter to turn their crazy educational animations into a static comic.
They do an incredible job of capturing their readers’ attention immediately, starting with a mind-blowing welcome email.
They’ve mastered the art of keeping their readers’ attention through their hilarious storytelling… all in the name of education.
Key Takeaways:
Use visuals to get attention as well as engagement (for example the way the mascot, Durd is used as the main character in Smart Nonsense comics).
Leverage storytelling to hook readers down a slippery slope.
Combine education and entertainment to double down on the value your readers receive.
Monetize your newsletter by offering a service (in Smart Nonsense’s case, they indirectly promote their animation studio).
Read the full Smart Nonsense story here: Smart Nonsense 🌈: Zero to 10,000 Subscribers in One Month on beehiiv.
Why Listen to Me? I’ve generated over $1 million with email and get over 50,000 monthly visits on my niche blog, Hockey Question. I also run Storey Time, a newsletter on how to launch a creator business.
3. Milk Road
Milk Road is a daily newsletter all about the world of cryptocurrencies.
With a quarter million readers, they’ve quickly become one of the leading crypto newsletters in the world.
You can read all about it in this beehiiv case study: Milk Road: From 0 to Acquisition in 10 months.
Most newsletters look the same. Black font, white background, and no unique design features that set it apart from the rest.
But, every year, more newsletters are being launched (which means inboxes are getting crowded), so you have to do what you can to stand out.
Milk Road does an excellent job of creating a simple, easy-to-read newsletter that’s also visually appealing.
They’ve taken a complex topic in cryptocurrencies and made the industry easy to understand with their 5-minute daily read.
One area Milk Road has excelled in is its referral program, made possible by beehiiv.
They’ve taken all the complexities out of referral programs by offering a simple, cost-effective, frictionless reward system.
While many newsletters successfully implement a comprehensive program with dozens of rewards and multiple tiers, they’ve created the simplest one possible:
One action, one reward. And, it’s digital. There’s no fulfillment process. The subscribers get their reward immediately.
All readers have to do is copy and paste their unique referral link and send it to their friends, family, or colleagues. When someone subscribes to Milk Road through their unique link, they get access to the downloadable PDF: An Inside Look at What The Crypto Whales Are Betting On.
The best part is that it’s 100% automated for Milk Road.
Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box with your newsletter design.
Use a referral program to accelerate your newsletter growth organically.
Offer simple incentives with your newsletter (for minimal effort) to reduce friction.
Leverage automation in your acquisition strategy to speed up growth.
Read the full Milk Road story here: Milk Road: From 0 to Acquisition in 10 months.
4. Superpower Daily
Superpower Daily is a daily newsletter centered around 2024’s hottest topic: Artificial Intelligence.
Right after ChatGPT was launched, a programmer named Saeed Ezzati launched his own ChatGPT Chrome Extension. Within weeks, his free extension took off. But, he understood that he needed to figure out how to monetize it.
So, he started a daily AI newsletter alongside it: Superpower Daily.
Within just a few months of launching his extension and newsletter, he built an audience of 380,000 people.
If there’s one thing that sets Saeed’s newsletter apart, it’s that he’s not afraid to leverage his coding skillset to give his users a unique experience.
He constantly builds tools, automations, and different software to improve his business. For instance, he figured out how to get his newsletter to show up within his Chrome extension. He tweaked the code on his beehiiv site to enable sticky sidebar ads.
Now, he’s on pace to make over $100,000 this year from his newsletter.
Key Takeaways:
Leverage your unique skills to customize and personalize your newsletters.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box with different growth strategies.
Create solutions within growing trends to double down on audience growth.
Read the full Superpower Daily story here: Superpower Daily: $150,000 Annual Revenue In Only 5 Months on beehiiv.
5. YASSSletter
YASSSletter is one of the top newsletters for foodies.
It’s a food-based newsletter packed with delicious recipes, impressive photos, and unique content about holiday food traditions around the world.
Led by Ben Siman Tov, otherwise known as BenGingi, and his wife Zikki, the culinary duo are passionate about bringing the food they love to the world through their social accounts and newsletter.
The husband and wife duo run a catering business together. But, they wanted to spread the love and build a community, so they started sharing their recipes online.
And it took off. Big time.
The BenGingi brand has over 1.5 million people within their audience. They’ve spread out their content across several channels including their newsletter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
One key to success with their newsletter is sticking to a schedule. They send out a weekly newsletter and have content ideas lined up months in advance.
They also follow a template in their newsletter to keep things succinct and ensure they’re a predictable system in the newsletter creation process.
They show off a great featured graphic, three recipes, a bit of history of the dishes, some personal stories, and incredible photos.
Key Takeaways:
Take your passion and start documenting it online.
Create a schedule to fuel consistency and growth.
Template your newsletter to speed up the creation process.
Read the full YASSSletter story here: YASSSletter: A Love Letter to Food and Community
6. The B-Side
Local newsletters have been around forever.
Offering news based around a geographic region to your community will always be in demand.
The B-Side took advantage of this idea but with a twist: Gen Zs don’t typically consume email newsletters. So, they decided to tap into that market to serve up the exact kind of newsletter they’d love.
The B-Side is a Boston-local newsletter that focuses on the latest happenings in the Boston area. They engage with the younger generation using TikTok and Instagram and funnel people into the daily newsletter.
And, the crazy part is, they’re getting 60% open rates! For a daily newsletter, that’s one of the best we’ve seen.
With their beautiful design and enjoyable reading experience, their ability to engage with their Gen Z audience is second to none.
Key Takeaways:
Consider offering a local newsletter if you’re stuck on ideas (it’s a proven model)
Study your audience. Know how they like to consume content and translate that to your newsletter.
Leverage design, including a template, newsletter structure, and images to keep your subscribers reading to the end (and coming back every day).
Read the full B-Side story here: How The B-Side Gets 60% Open Rates on beehiiv.
7. Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life
Want to reach a large audience?
Try talking to Americans about football.
That’s what Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life is all about.
The daily newsletter covers the latest in fantasy football to an audience of over 360,000 people.
Every day, fantasy football fans and sports bettors open up their inboxes to receive the latest in fantasy football including rankings, trades, waiver wire, and more.
The newsletter does a great job of capturing their audience’s attention with visually striking graphics.
But, what keeps them sticking around is their up-to-the-minute content. Fantasy Life over-delivers in its depth of content. They provide their readers with every single detail regarding players, teams, and the right moves to make so they can dominate their fantasy football leagues and win their bets.
Something CEO Eliot Crist does well with the newsletter is list management. He ensures that people who aren’t engaging with the content are removed so they’re only sending it to people who want to receive it. This ensures they always have a high open rate and click-through rate while keeping their deliverability high).
The proof of their dominance in the newsletter space came in the form of an investment in 2023:
They landed a $2 million Seed Round investment to grow the media business even more.
Key Takeaways:
Look at the different ways you can carve out a niche in a major industry.
Actively manage your list and clean it regularly to maintain high engagement rates.
Dive deep into the quality of your content. The more value you provide, the more your readers will stick around.
Read the full Fantasy Life story here: How Fantasy Life Increased Click-through Rates by 200%.
8. The Pivot by Robin
Robin Arzón is one of the most popular fitness instructors in the world.
You know Peloton?
She’s the leading instructor and also their Vice President of Fitness Programming.
She’s also completed 27 marathons and is a two-time New York Times bestselling author.
And… to top things off, she just broke a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest live cycling class on Thanksgiving 2023 (November 23) with 27,550 people.
Robin recently launched a beehiiv newsletter called The Pivot by Robin.
It starts off with a bang.
She immediately asks new subscribers to join the #3for31 challenge.
It’s a 31-day challenge to walk, jog, or run for 3 miles (and 30 minutes) for the entire month.
Robin does a great job of immediately getting her subscribers to take action. And, she also gets them to get back on social media to engage there and share their results.
She tops off her challenge with a giveaway that funnels back to her main business: Swagger Society.
It’s a private membership that offers people a chance to dive into Robin’s inner circle, access her private app, engage with community members, score VIP tickets to live events, and more.
Key Takeaways:
Get your subscribers involved. Make your newsletter a two-way street, offer them a challenge, and ask them to engage.
Implement an omnichannel strategy by fueling engagement between social media and your newsletter to fuel growth.
Offer your readers a chance to get even closer (and drive newsletter revenue) with a paid community.
9. The Rundown AI
What’s this? Another AI newsletter?
It sure is. But, it’s not just another AI newsletter.
The Rundown AI is one of the best AI information hubs in the world.
Rowan Cheung started The Rundown in early 2023 and in only 4 months, he was able to grow it to 150,000 readers.
Just one year later, the newsletter has over 400,000 daily readers in 2024!
Rowan does an incredible job of breaking down the hottest AI news stories into easy-to-digest content snacks.
In just a few minutes, his readers know everything there is to know about AI that day.
Something he does well with his newsletter is his format.
He breaks up his newsletter into different sections and incorporates excellent design work to make it easy to read.
You can skip to the part you love the most like the latest developments, trending tools, or AI training.
He also includes a great “quick hits” section where you read the summaries of other top AI stories in seconds, giving you some bite-size news snippets.
One more thing…
Rowan is earning a ton through sponsored ad revenue.
His sponsored ads are also beautifully designed, making them a delight (not an annoyance). He includes a simple inbound funnel for new advertisers to reach out to him.
Rowan uses Typeform to narrow down potential advertising candidates. His minimum slot starts at $1,000-$3,000 and goes all the way up to $50,000+ which should give you a good idea of how much he’s earning in sponsored ad revenue.
Key Takeaways:
Lean into the design by templating your newsletter with a predictable format.
Make your content easy to consume by breaking it down into bite-size pieces.
Let advertisers know you’re open to sponsorship and automate the inbound process.
Read the full Rundown AI story here: How Rowan Cheung Grew His Audience from Zero to 300,000 in 4 Months.
+1,200 words (4 more)
10. Capital Creators
Dakota Robertson is an incredible social media ghostwriter.
He’s got one of the top creator accounts on X (Twitter).
His specialty? Social media ghostwriting.
Dakota teaches people how to write, grow on X, ghostwrite for others, and build a creator business from the ground up.
His newsletter, Capital Creators is a weekly gem packed with incredible business lessons.
What separates Dakota from other newsletters is one thing:
Storytelling.
He has mastered the art of storytelling. And, his storytelling is one skill he’s built that’s led him to earn plenty of money through his newsletter.
He knows exactly how to:
Hook readers in down the slippery slope
Journey with him through his personal experiences
Teach his readers valuable lessons on monetizing their personal brand
Get his readers to take action
He doesn’t dabble too much with fancy design or images like a standard newsletter.
Instead, he takes his readers on an adventure with every email to show them the ropes of building a successful creator business.
Through his newsletter, he earns regular six-figure months by leading people to his courses, cohorts, and coaching.
Key Takeaways:
Leverage storytelling to hook readers in and increase engagement
You don’t need to have a ton of visuals to make it work, but you do need to compensate by providing valuable written content
Don’t be afraid to pitch your newsletter subscribers. They’ve already shown more interest than your audience who’s only on social media.
Read the full Capital Creators story here: How Dakota Robertson Uses beehiiv to Earn $250,000 Per Month.
11. Young Money by Jack Raines
Like Dakota Robertson, there’s another storyteller you’ll want to subscribe to.
His name’s Jack Raines.
He runs a weekly newsletter called Young Money by Jack Raines.
Jack’s niche? Giving personal finance, life, and business advice to Gen Zs.
His angle? Humor. And, illustrations that are… Well, just take a look:
And, Jack’s crushing it both in terms of his list growth and monetization.
We spoke with him in March 2023 after being on beehiiv for a year. In that time, his list skyrocketed from 2,000 to 35,000 subscribers.
Jack started monetizing by offering advertisers a slot in his newsletters.
When we first spoke with him, he was placing ads for about $800 in his weekly newsletter (at 18,000 subscribers).
Something Jack utilizes to fuel his growth is beehiiv’s custom landing page builder.
On his landing page, he has a clear call to action and tells you a bit of what his newsletter is all about. Below, you’ll find testimonials from credible authorities and an archive of his best performing newsletters.
Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to get creative with how you present your newsletter.
Lean into your personality – if you’re a funny guy or gal, use it to your advantage. It’ll keep people entertained and wanting to come back for more.
Get more sign-ups by building a powerful landing page like Jack.
Read the full Young Money by Jack Raines story here: How Young Money’s List Grew 17x Since Switching to beehiiv.
12. LA Happenings by Camber
Some people start newsletters as the foundation of their business.
Others build products and add on a newsletter to fuel growth.
Mady Maio did the latter.
Camber App is basically if Google Maps and Instagram had a child.
It’s a social app that provides a fun and easy way to explore the world around you.
The Camber website explains it perfectly: “It’s for tourists that want to feel like locals and locals that want to feel like tourists.”
Mady launched her beehiiv newsletter, LA Happenings by Camber to help engage with her app’s community.
She built her local LA newsletter to share what’s happening in the city so you always have something fun to do and somewhere new to go.
And, the newsletter feels like it’s written by a close friend.
Mady breaks down her newsletter into a few key sections:
Intro
Things to Do
Places to Be
One Final Thing
And sometimes she places a sponsored ad somewhere in between
Her newsletter has allowed her to build up her community and engage with her current (and future) app users. It’s enabled her to showcase her expertise as a guide in the city to low-key promote her app.
Key Takeaways:
If you’re starting with a product, add on a newsletter to build up your community.
Don’t sound like a robot with your writing. Write like you’re talking to a friend and you’ll attract more subscribers.
Consider multiple monetization options. Mady’s built an app as her bread and butter, but she’s also earning through newsletter sponsorships.
Read the full LA Happenings story here: How Camber App Grew Its Community & Brand Using beehiiv.
Join the World’s Top Creators on beehiiv Today
That’s a wrap on our favorite newsletters from 2023!
In case you missed it, these 12 creators are all powered by beehiiv.
The question is, why?
Simply put, beehiiv is a creator-first platform.
Everything we do is to spur creators around the world onwards and upwards– towards their goals.
Whether that’s to:
Grow an audience
Quit their job
Monetize their passion
…Or change the world.
With beehiiv, you get access to the best creator tools on the planet including:
Ad Network
Skip the hassle of hunting down potential newsletter sponsors. We make monetization easy by giving you access to an entire library of sponsors waiting with cash in hand for newsletters to partner with.
Get connected with ad partners by showcasing the brands you already love to your audience. It’s the easiest way to earn a substantial income from your newsletter long term.
Boosts
The average newsletter takes months to earn that first dollar. We expedite the process with Boosts. The moment someone subscribes to your newsletter, they’re shown recommended newsletters they can sign up for with one click.
You can earn money through sponsored recommendations. Get paid every time you Boost a newsletter with one of your subscribers.
The flip side of Boosts: you can pay to have your newsletter show up as the recommended newsletter. If you’re looking to grow your list fast, you can pay a set fee to capture subscribers automatically.
Integrated Referral Program
Struggling to bring in new subscribers? Let them be the ones to grow your list. Use beehiiv’s referral program to encourage your audience to share the love. Build out easy rewards, track your results, and grow on autopilot.
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