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How Captain Yar Earned $65,000 in 7 Months With beehiiv
Yaroslav Sobko’s Journey From Zero to $16,000 Per Month With beehiiv
Kanishka Kumawat & Brandon Storey
August 28th, 2024
There’s a new online business model in town.
The newsletter-first business.
While most people are still trying to launch product or service businesses, the smart ones are realizing that we’ve entered a creator economy.
One of those people is Yaroslav Sobko.
In just under a year, he was able to grow his AI newsletter, Cyber Corsairs, to over 50,000 subscribers and $16,000 in monthly revenue.
Cyber Corsairs is a beehiiv newsletter centered around productivity in AI.
In the newsletter, Sobko and his team share the latest news, trends, tools, and tips about optimizing your productivity with AI.
Now, let’s dive into how beehiiv helped Sobko build a $16,000 per month newsletter business in less than one year.
Table of Contents
Meet Yaroslav Sobko, aka “Captain Yar,” the voice behind Cyber Corsairs:
Captain Yar’s Backstory
Yaroslav Sobko started his AI newsletter, Cyber Corsairs, one year ago (in September 2023).
Coming from a marketing background, this wasn’t his first rodeo when it came to communicating with an audience via email.
Sobko shared, “I did some newsletter operations before, but it was mostly corporate emails. I'm a marketer with 20 plus years experience. In 2016, we did our company newsletter and tried to promote our product services. We had some sponsorship deals with our industry leaders; but it was a small newsletter, and sponsorship deals were hard to close.”
Then, one day, Sobko came across a few newsletter-first businesses that caught his eye.
Sobko recalled, “I watched some videos of the Morning Brew, The Hustle, and Milk Road, and it was inspiring. Then, I started meeting other people in our industry and different newsletters that started using beehiiv and growing together, and I thought that looked interesting — that you can build the business based on newsletters. So I thought, ‘Let's try it.’”
Sobko started to realize the power of newsletters and the dominance of email as a direct line to your audience.
“A newsletter is a channel to access an audience, and you own this channel. It’s pretty much a distribution channel. So if you have a newsletter and you deliver value on a weekly, monthly, or daily basis, you have a distribution channel for your product or service.”
So Sobko launched his AI newsletter, Cyber Corsairs.
Secret to Success: Experimenting From Day One
For the first three months, Sobko went all in on experimentation.
“We were focused from the beginning on testing emails. I don't try to create a perfect email from scratch. I said, ‘Let's write one crappy email a week, and, next week, let’s try to make it less crappy.’”
Because of this, Sobko and his team were able to iterate quickly and optimize the experience for his readers.
Sobko shared, “We started getting replies from our readers, and they started giving us encouragement that we’re doing something good.
Once he felt that his audience was happy with the content and the quality of the newsletter, he switched his focus to growth.
Sobko explained, “For the first three months, we tried different formats, different approaches, started testing beehiiv’s Ad Network, and started testing beehiiv Boosts. We noticed we can use media buying and paid advertisement to attract more subscribers and scale up faster. By using the Ad Network and Boosts, we can actually recoup partially (or fully) our ad spend.”
Rapid Growth Secrets: Adding 12,000 Subscribers Per Month
Right out of the gate, Sobko wasn’t messing around when it came to growth. He knew that experimenting would give him insights that would help him tap into subscriber growth, and it worked.
Sobko shared, “We started in September; and, in January, we grew to about 4,000 subscribers. I hired a couple people who helped me with writing and growth.
According to Sobko, “We started [growing] really slow.” So after his initial testing period, he could see he had a viable business; so he went all in on growth in January.
Sobko thought back to the conversations he had with his team at the time. “We need to start cranking up our numbers, so let's start scaling more aggressively. Let's start writing more aggressively. We found our voice and our angle. Let's do it bigger and faster.”
Sobko recalled, “I remember in October we had this plan: Okay, let's grow by 100 subscribers a week. So I said, ‘Let's think about how we can get our 13 subscribers today, so we will end up with 100 subscribers this week; and then I increased this number. Let's do 200 subscribers a week. Let's do 500 subscribers a week.”
By breaking down his goal into daily, bite-sized pieces, it forced Sobko to think outside the box, crush his targets every time, and iterate fast on what was working.
By primarily leveraging paid growth, Sobko was able to find his growth groove. He shared, “We are getting 3,000 subscribers a week – so around 12,000 subscribers a month.”
Sobko has one of the fastest growing newsletters on the internet, but he believes he’s not even close to his growth potential. He shared, “We understand how to double this amount in the next several months, so that's why I said we are going to grow at a speed of 25,000 subscribers a month.
Enjoying this beehiiv case study? Learn how Matt Navarra earned $25,000 from beehiiv Boosts.
Reaching $16,600 in Monthly Revenue
At the start of 2024, not only did Sobko begin tapping into rapid list growth, but he also started ramping up his newsletter revenue.
Sobko shared, “We start scaling pretty much 20% month over month growth with our subscribers. And at the same time, we start increasing our efforts in advertisement, in different monetization strategies, and a premium subscription using beehiiv premium options.”
Sobko explained how the beehiiv Ad Network and private ad deals have been his bread and butter since January.
“We’re using the beehiiv Ad Network, other networks, and direct outreach to sponsors, and, from January, our revenue was $3,500 a month. We, just today, summarized our revenue for July 2024, and it ended up being $16,600.”
The crazy part?
In the previous month (June 2024), Sobko made $11,000 in revenue, which is a 50% increase in revenue month-over-month. And, from January to August (in just seven months), he’s generated $65,000 in revenue and is profitable.
Sobko doesn’t see him and his team slowing down anytime soon. He shared, “We understand that we can keep growing with this. We can average 20% month-over-month growth for several more months.”
Sobko believes his growth is sustainable thanks to his strategies and also the fact that he has a good team on his side. He shared, “For a small team of four people — we have a writer, a growth manager, a sales manager, and me as a project manager and owner — we're doing not bad.
“And it's all part-timers; so people have full-time jobs, and they joined our project to learn how to use beehiiv, write interesting and profitable newsletters, grow together, and learn new stuff.”
Sobko has experienced incredible success with his newsletter when it comes to growth and monetization. Soon enough, he found that people were constantly asking questions about what he was doing to succeed so fast, so he began sharing what was working online with others.
Sobko shared, “For the last four months, other newsletters started approaching us and asking questions and asking us to share our experience, so we created a community for newsletter operators interested in learning how to grow together and how to grow exponentially.”
As of July 2024, there are just under 1,000 people in his community.
Sobko explained, “People share how they use beehiiv to produce good content and deliver it to as many readers as possible; how they use beehiiv Boosts to recoup their ad spend; how they grow faster and cheaper; how they use beehiiv’s Ad Network more efficiently to make money from their newsletters; and overall tips, tricks, tactics, and strategies on how they can improve.”
To support this movement and community on newsletter growth and monetization, Sobko created a second newsletter with a fitting name, Grow Monetize.
In it, Sobko summarizes what he’s learning in his AI newsletter: what to write, how to write, how to grow, and how to monetize more efficiently.
Sobko shared how this community has eventually turned into so much demand that he decided to launch a newsletter growth and monetization agency to serve his audience even more. He shared, “Our audience started approaching us and asking questions and they directed our writing efforts and our productizing efforts.”
“Because advertisements are good, premium subscriptions are great. But at the end, if you want to make some decent money, you must offer some products, services, or expertise to your readers, and that's what we’re leaning into now.”
Sobko created a small newsletter agency to help small newsletter operators by designing their newsletter, improving their growth strategy, optimizing their landing page, helping with conversion rate optimization, and ramping up their monetization.
One caveat with Sobko’s newsletter agency? He only helps newsletter operators using (or willing to switch to) beehiiv.
beehiiv: The Best #1 Platform for Newsletter Operators
Sobko believes that beehiiv is the best platform for newsletter operators.
He shared, “There are plenty of ESPs, but beehiiv is the best for newsletter operators. You might find somebody doing better segmentation or doing something else, but you can't find one tool that’s so efficient for a newsletter operator.”
Sobko explained how beehiiv simplifies the newsletter game because it’s an easy all-in-one tool.
“If anybody wants to test the waters and try to launch a newsletter, beehiiv offers the best solution. You don't need a dozen different tools like a WordPress website, an email service provider (ESP), and use some automation to automate it. You can do it all in one tool, and the best thing is that you can try it for free.”
Not only does Sobko believe that beehiiv’s growth features are second to none, but he’s also bullish on their ability to help publishers monetize. He shared, “You can start making money from month one, and that's crazy.”
“If you create other content like YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter, you need to build a huge audience to monetize. But with beehiiv, you can literally make your first dollar in month one.”
Sobko explained how this ability to monetize fast is a huge motivator to keep moving forward.
He shared, “You start writing, you start delivering some value to your readers, you start growing, and you get your first dollar, maybe even week one, and you can write about what you like, share your experience in marketing, wellness, or sports, or anything.”
Considering Sobko has built a $ 16,000-per-month newsletter business in under a year, it’s no surprise that he believes newsletters are the best way to build a business in 2024.
The main reason? You own the audience.
Sobko explained, “If you create YouTube videos or Instagram content, it's not your audience. They can ban you. You're renting an audience. They can change algorithms, so your readers won’t see your content, and you don't have a big variety of monetization strategies you rely on.”
On the other hand, Sobko believes that beehiiv makes it easier than ever for creators to monetize via newsletter.
Sobko shared, “You can monetize with ads that beehiiv provides you within the Ad Network. You can monetize with beehiiv Boosts. You can monetize with a premium subscription. You can monetize by selling your product or services. You have a variety of monetization strategies. And if one monetization strategy doesn't work, you can be successful with just another strategy.”
Sobko shared how if even a portion of your subscribers decide to unsubscribe, your ability to grow with beehiiv ensures that your audience will thrive long term.
Sobko explained, “You can't lose this audience. Yes, people unsubscribe, but your churn is really low. Our churn rate is 2% a month. So if you have 100,000 subscribers, you can lose maybe 2,000 max. beehiiv will keep delivering your emails to your readers, people will keep reading them, they’ll keep clicking on them, and you’ll keep making money.”
Sobko continued, “Even if you freeze your growth and you decide, ‘I don't want to spend more money. I don't want to optimize, I don't want whatever,’ you can still write to this list for years and keep making money, month after month. That's why I believe that everybody should try it. This side hustle can grow to a million dollars a year in revenue.”
Optimize by Staying Close to Your Audience
Why is Sobko so successful with his newsletter within the first year? Is it his ability to grow? His ability to monetize? The newsletter platform he chose?
You could argue that it’s all of the above, but there’s one thing, in particular, that Sobko has done which has caused him to succeed so fast. He has stayed close to his audience from day one.
How? By testing different strategies (and seeing how his readers respond) as well as listening to their feedback to improve the newsletter experience.
Sobko shared, “We tested seven emails a week. We tested one email a week. Two or three emails a week for us is the best cadence, so we send our audience a free email: one valuable tip or trick and why we think it's valuable.”
After determining how often his audience wanted his newsletter, Sobko started asking his audience about content.
He shared, “beehiiv gave us the opportunity to create surveys. Every time people sign up or read our welcome sequence, we send them a survey. They told us they’re interested in ChatGPT prompts for productivity.”
With Sobko’s second newsletter, Grow Monetize, people are super interactive and will ask him to teach them how to improve their newsletters.
Sobko shared, “We share our experience and our knowledge on Twitter and in this newsletter, and people send us requests., ‘Hey, can you help me grow faster, or can you help me figure out a monetization strategy, or can you help me create an optimized landing page…’ We onboard these clients to our platform. They give us access and ask for help or for services.”
As of July 2024, Sobko has served 15 different newsletters with his agency. He shared, “Some of them hire us with a monthly fee to help them achieve month-over-month growth in their subscription base.”
Sobko’s agency is poised to generate even more revenue for his newsletter operations. He shared, “We expect to hit at least $20,000 revenue in September because we see that our current partners and clients stay with us.”
“And, every month, we onboard several new clients. We have inbound requests so we don’t even use cold outreach. Plus, we have this great community and newsletter where we share all this information for free.”
Favorite beehiiv Feature: beehiiv Ad Network
We asked Sobko what his favorite beehiiv feature was. And although he had a few in mind, the Ad Network is his favorite overall.
Sobko shared, “The Ad Network is like a cheat code. So for a newsletter to make money (without asking your readers to pay you money), you must use an advertisement. But to find advertisers, reach them, make a deal, sign an agreement, receive a down payment, receive ad assets, create and approve an advertisement, receive money, and send a report, it's a lot of work.
Sobko explained how to be able to run ads on your own (without a tool like beehiiv) would require employing a full-time person.
Sobko explained, “With beehiiv’s Ad Network, beehiiv does it all for you, and you can integrate this advertisement in two clicks. We currently have three weeks in advance booked with advertisements, just from beehiiv.”
One of Sobko’s favorite things about running a newsletter business is how it’s a tight-knit community, even with the competition. He shared, “Let's say I'm writing an AI newsletter and other people are writing AI newsletters, but we promote each other.”
“We help each other grow. We use sponsorships like The Rundown or AI Tools and run their advertisements. We help them with our Boosts or different ways to help them grow, and they send subscribers to us because we use the same core promotion tools.”
Sobko explained how these kinds of partnerships are hard to come by with any other business model.
Sobko shared, “A newsletter is one of the businesses which can help you grow together with your competitors because we are not competitors, and I believe this feature of beehiiv and feature of a newsletter business is what I enjoy the most because I don't need to compete. I can cooperate and partner, and it's great.”
The Future: Reach $500,000, Expand the Empire, beehiiv Partner Program
We asked Sobko to share about what’s on the horizon for his newsletter business, and he has high hopes. Not only does he expect to reach half a million in revenue, but he also plans on expanding his newsletter empire.
Sobko shared, “Before our first year of operation, we expect to hit $40,000 a month in revenue, so that can actually give us $500,000 a year in revenue. It's crazy.”
Sobko is so gung-ho about newsletters that he plans on scaling his operations and launching a dozen more.
Sobko shared, “We discussed an opportunity to build more newsletters,, so our idea is that we must have at least five or six newsletters before the end of this year. And next year, we potentially can have a dozen different newsletters.”
Sobko also explained how he’s generating additional revenue by simply referring new people to beehiiv as a beehiiv partner, so he’ll continue cashing in on easy revenue as he expands.
Sobko shared, “We’ll continue work with beehiiv as we are also beehiiv partners. You can actually make money by sharing beehiiv. We have 26 people who have started using beehiiv because of us, so we also help promote beehiiv as partners.”
Key Takeaways
Yaroslav Sobko launched his beehiiv newsletter in September 2023 to serve the AI productivity community. Since then, he has tapped into rapid growth, launched a second newsletter, and hit $16,600 per month in revenue.
Here are some key takeaways:
Experiment From Day One: To serve your audience best, you need to figure out what they love. Test different types of content. Test different send cadences. Ask them what they want to learn. Use the initial phase to optimize the reader experience fast.
Once Your Quality Is There, Lean Into Growth: Once you’ve created a high-quality publication, start leaning into ways to accelerate your subscriber growth. Leverage paid acquisition like beehiiv Boosts and other paid media to accelerate your growth.
Tap Into Different Revenue Streams: Sobko reached $16,000 per month in revenue by tapping into multiple revenue streams: the beehiiv Ad Network, beehiiv Boosts, Premium Subscriptions, private ad deals, and a newsletter agency. Test different revenue streams to generate more income from your newsletter audience.
Go All In On Newsletters To Own Your Audience: You can’t rely on social media algorithms and rented audiences anymore to create a viable content-first business. Leverage a platform like beehiiv to own your audience, grow fast, and monetize from day one for a lasting business.
By leveraging beehiiv, Sobko was able to grow his newsletter to over 50,000 readers, reach $16,600 per month in revenue, and become an authority in the newsletter space.
Want to launch a newsletter business today like Sobko?
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