Do You Believe in Ghostwriters?

Here’s the number one reason to hire someone to write your newsletter: Your time is limited.

Maybe you just don’t want to spend precious hours writing your own newsletter. Maybe you can’t.

No worries. We’ve got your back.

We’re going to show you several ways to hire someone to write your newsletter, or even hire a team for writing.

But first, let’s get clear on why an email newsletter is worth the effort.

What Is the Purpose of a Newsletter?

There are many reasons for having an email newsletter. But the main goal, of course, is to make money.

We'll be getting into the details below, but a few basic facts should demonstrate the purpose of an email newsletter.

As a marketing tool, newsletters deliver a return on investment of almost 3,600%. That is, for every dollar invested in a newsletter, a business can expect to get back $36 in sales, on average.

The other big benefit of a newsletter is that it gives you a way to show up consistently in the context of providing helpful and entertaining information.

By providing help and entertainment, instead of merely trying to sell something, the newsletter helps you become known, liked, and trusted. Ironically, this non-selling (or at least, not just selling) approach will ultimately increase your sales!

We’ll show you other ways to make money with a newsletter. But first, let’s look at what’s involved in hiring somebody to write your email newsletter.

How Much Do You Pay Someone To Write a Newsletter?

The Internet is filled with freelancers who will be happy to write for you under various terms.

Many of these writers charge an hourly rate, which can range from a few dollars to a hundred dollars or more. Some writers will charge a flat fee for each article or newsletter they write. Others will charge by the word.

If you have a preference for how you want to pay someone to write a newsletter, make this clear upfront.

In general, you get what you pay for. This doesn’t mean the least expensive writers aren’t good at what they do. Writers who command higher fees usually have one or more of these skill sets:

• Specialized knowledge/experience in an important topic or industry

• Strong research skills

• Knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics

• Marketing/Sales writing ability

• A solid understanding of content strategy

• Add-on services, such as building a website, setting up an email campaign in beehiiv or other email newsletter platforms, creating funnels and automations, etc.

If none of these extras are important, you can hire a less expensive writer and still get great results.

Shortcuts To Hire Somebody To Write Your Email Newsletter

There are many writing services available online. These platforms handle some of the recruiting and vetting of writers for you, or at least provide you with a pool of freelancers who have been rated by their previous clients.

For example, sites like Compose.ly offer managed content packages. Their in-house writers produce everything for you, typically for $999/month or more, although you can also pay for individual articles à la carte.

Verblio follows a hybrid of monthly service and the à la carte model. You decide how many articles you want per month, and pay for them based on length. A short, 300-word piece can go for as little as $40, while a 2,000-word article costs around $360.

Guru offers you a more hands-on approach. You post a job describing what you want, and interested freelancers will bid on your project. You can also look at the profiles of freelancers, read their reviews, go through their portfolios, and reach out to anyone you think would be a good fit for your newsletter.

If you want a diversity of voices in your newsletter, you may want more than one regular writer. So let’s look at how you could hire a team.

How Do You Hire a Team for Writing?

When you use a done-for-you, managed service like the one we mentioned above, you’re essentially hiring a team for writing. But if you want more control over the process, there are other alternatives.

Many business owners will build a “stable” of regular writers. You simply hire somebody to write a newsletter article, hire somebody else to write the next one, and so on.

You’ll build a relationship with each writer, and if you both have a good experience it should be easy to hire them back for future work. Eventually, you’ll have several writers you trust in your rolodex.

There are pros and cons to this strategy.

On the plus side, you get to call the shots. You don’t have to worry about a managed service provider who changes their policies or their fees or gives you a writer who isn’t a good fit.

Another perk is that your writers can often refer other professionals, such as programmers, graphic artists, web designers, or photographers when you need them.

Finally, since you’re personally hiring writers “in the wild,” you increase the odds of finding a “unicorn” who offers value above and beyond what you’re paying them.

However, there are many downsides to hiring a team for writing. Unless you have enough work to keep all your writers busy, they will have other clients. They may not always be available when you need them. Occasionally a writer will drop out of your loop because they found a more attractive situation somewhere else.

Finally, it takes time and energy to hire and manage multiple part-time contractors. If you’re going to go this route, we highly recommend you use a good project management app, such as Asana.

How Do You Become a Newsletter Writer?

There are essentially two ways to become a newsletter writer.

Are you a business owner, or someone passionate about a specific subject? If that’s you, we recommend you use beehiiv or a similar service to launch your own newsletter.

If you’re a freelance writer and want to become a newsletter writer, there are several steps you can take. You could focus on just one, or try all of them simultaneously:

Three Ways to Become a Newsletter Writer

• Visit sites such as Verblio and Compose.ly and look for links labeled “Careers” or “How to become a writer”

• Set up your profile on Guru and similar websites, and start bidding on newsletter writing jobs

• Reach out to businesses that don’t have newsletters and offer to write for them. For some critical tips on writing a newsletter, visit the beehiiv blog.

Do People Pay for Email Newsletters?

You might be surprised at how many people pay for newsletters. There are entire platforms that focus on this.

The paid newsletter platform Substack has over one million subscribers who typically pay $5-$10 or more per month. You can learn more about Substack and other platforms here.

And subscriptions aren’t the only way you can make money with a newsletter. You use it to promote your business, sell ads, promote affiliate products, or even get businesses to sponsor your email newsletter.

How Much Should I Charge for Email Newsletters?

There are many opinions around what to charge for a newsletter, but they all boil down to this: whatever you charge for an email newsletter, the cost should be far less than the value your readers get.

How do you provide this value?

The key is to give your readers original content that they can't find anywhere else. People will pay for education, inspiration, useful information, or entertainment. The most successful newsletters provide a combination of these.

However, as we’ve seen, there are many ways to monetize your newsletter without charging for a paid subscription.

Whatever model you follow to monetize your newsletter, beehiiv can help.

If you want to write a paid newsletter and have access to a network of creators who can recommend your network, a proven referral model, analytics, and many other growth tools, start your own beehiiv newsletter today.