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How These 100k+ Subscriber AI Newsletters Leverage beehiiv
Copy the Newsletter Strategies of The Top AI Publications
Brandon Storey
April 29th, 2024
In 2023, 3,159 AI newsletters launched on beehiiv.
This makes up 12.0% of all newsletters launched on the platform last year!
Why are AI newsletter operators choosing beehiiv?
beehiiv is the newsletter platform built for growth.
In 2023, Rowan Cheung launched his AI newsletter on beehiiv: The Rundown AI. In just 4 months, he built an audience of 300,000 — 150,000 on both his beehiiv newsletter and 150,000 on his X (Twitter) account.
Saeed Ezzati reached similar heights in roughly the same timeframe. In only five months, he grew his AI newsletter to over 180,000 subscribers. What’s even crazier? He’s already making $150,000 annually from his newsletter.
To help get you set up for success in 2024, I’ve analyzed the four biggest AI newsletters on beehiiv (and how they’re succeeding) so you can get off to the right start.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Why Listen to Me? I’ve generated over $1 million with email and written over 1,000 blog posts. I run Storey Time, a newsletter where I teach people how to become full-time digital writers. Feel free to reach out to me on X anytime!
1. The Rundown AI
Rowan Cheung.
It’s a name that’s quickly grown atop the AI world in the past year.
Why?
Because he launched The Rundown AI — one of the best AI information hubs online.
In early 2023, Rowan Cheung launched The Rundown newsletter and in just 4 months, he was able to grow it to a whopping 150,000 readers.
And, in 2024, the newsletter has already amassed over 450,000 readers!
Rowan does a great job of giving bite-sized snapshots into the top AI news stories of the day.
He simplifies and summarizes the stories in a simple way that makes them easy to consume.
In just five minutes, his subscribers know everything there about the latest happenings in AI that day.
He excels in one area really well: formatting and design.
Rowan splits up his newsletter content into different, skimmable sections and adds on beautiful design to make it even easier to read.
And yes, he’s got some incredible AI images inside.
His newsletter lets you easily skip to whatever part you're most interested in, whether that’s trending tools, AI training, or the latest developments in AI.
Plus, Rowan includes a section called “quick hits” that features even more concise stories in the AI world.
Oh, and Rowan – he’s earning plenty of revenue with sponsored ads.
He incorporates beautifully designed ads that don’t taint the experience, but actually make the newsletter even better.
Plus, to attract advertisers, he includes a seamless inbound funnel so they can reach out to him to partner together.
Rowan leverages a simple Typeform questionnaire to filter potential advertisers.
Minimum ad slots start at $1,000 and they go all the way up to $50,000.
Key Takeaways:
Make your newsletter easy to read by splitting content into sections.
Leverage design and format your newsletter with a predictable template.
Focus on making your content easy to digest.
Leverage sponsored ads to earn money on autopilot.
Ask advertisers to fill out a form to automate your monetization process.
Read the full Rundown AI story: How Rowan Cheung Grew His Audience from Zero to 300,000 in 4 Months.
2. Superpower Daily
Superpower Daily is an AI newsletter that hits your inbox daily.
Right after OpenAI announced the release of ChatGPT, Saeed Ezati (a programmer) launched his own ChatGPT plugin via Chrome Extensions.
In just a few weeks, his free Chrome extension took flight and gained thousands of users.
Saeed quickly understood that if he wanted to monetize his extension, he needed to think beyond the free extension.
So, he launched a newsletter on beehiiv: Superpower Daily.
And, in just a few months he built an audience of 380,000 people between the extension and his newsletter.
One thing that sets Saeed’s newsletter apart, is that he’s willing to experiment – especially when it comes to creating custom coded projects, apps, pop ups, and more.
Saeedi is constantly building new tools, automations, and different extensions to improve his newsletter business.
For example, he custom coded his extension so his daily newsletter appears as soon as someone hops into his extension – so his extension users get to read it right there.
Saeed also custom coded his beehiiv website to enable sticky sidebar ads to earn more revenue from advertisers.
Something Saeed does well is leverage beehiiv’s custom subscribe landing page. With beehiiv, you can create a custom signup landing page to help draw more readers into your newsletter. In it, you can showcase newsletter reviews to stack social proof and convert more visitors into subscribers.
Here’s how you can create your own custom signup landing page:
Saeed’s business continues to grow and he’s on pace to make over $150,000 this year from his newsletter.
Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to think of new ways to grow.
You can build a product and then add on a newsletter to monetize
Lean on your background and skillset to supercharge your newsletter.
Use beehiiv’s custom subscribe landing page to grow your list faster.
Read the full Superpower Daily story: Superpower Daily: $150,000 Annual Revenue In Only 5 Months on beehiiv.
3. The Neuron
The Neuron is an AI newsletter that’s packed with the latest trends and tools in AI.
Trusted by professionals from top companies like Apple and Microsoft, The Neuron is one of the fastest-growing newsletters around.
Created by Pete Huang, the newsletter hit 10,000 subscribers in the first month.
And in just under a year, Pete’s hit 330,000 readers.
How did Pete grow so fast?
He leveraged his social media following.
For a year leading up to the launch, he was very active on both X (Formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
He fueled early newsletter growth by plugging it on posts that did well.
Pete does a beautiful job with his branding.
You’ll notice that he stands out from the first two AI newsletters in our list on branding alone.
Why?
He created a brand mascot: a happy, orange kitty.
This immediately makes his newsletter more memorable. He’s tapping into a tactic Milk Road used early on (before they were acquired)
Like Milk Road, Pete uses his orange cat mascot to help personalize his newsletter and help his readers associate the mascot with his newsletter (and vice versa).
Just take a look at what Pete does with his sponsored ad here:
Did you spot the cat?
He took his sponsor’s advertisement graphic and customized it by incorporating his mascot onto it.
This is brilliant. Not only does it help the ads feel like part of the experience, but it makes his whole newsletter less bland and way more fun!
Key Takeaways:
Think differently with your branding to stand out.
Consider using a mascot (in this case, a jolly, orange cat).
Use social media (i.e. X or LinkedIn) to grow your list organically.
Read the full Superpower Daily story: Superpower Daily: $150,000 Annual Revenue In Only 5 Months on beehiiv.
4. Superhuman
What’s this? Another AI newsletter?
Yep.
And it’s a big one.
The biggest one on the list.
Superhuman has amassed over 500,000 readers in just over one year.
In late 2022, Zain Kahn started Superhuman and he was able to grow it to 135,000 readers in only 3 months.
Now, he’s, at half a million (in early 2024).
Zain does a great job of templatizing his newsletter into a few sections:
Today’s Menu
News
Next in AI
Sponsored Ad Slot
Top News Story Number Two
AI at Work
Friday Laughs
Productivity
AI Generate Images
Basically, Zain covers everything about AI.
And, he does it in a beautiful template, giving readers a consistent experience every time they open up his email newsletter.
One thing Zain has done well to grow his audience is to ensure his newsletter content is top- notch.
How does he do it?
Not only does he employ a team of professionals to help him, but he also leverages reader feedback.
Every day, Zain uses beehiiv’s one-click poll feature to get feedback on his emails.
This way, he can quickly iterate on his content based on how his subscribers respond.
Key Takeaways:
Create a simple, predictable template.
Leverage user feedback with beehiiv polls to maintain quality content.
Don’t be afraid to hire help to help you double down on growth.
Read the full Superhuman story: Superhuman by Zain Kahn: 135,000 Readers in 3 Months on beehiiv.
Join the World’s Top AI Creators on beehiiv Today
Well, that’s it!
The top AI newsletters on beehiiv.
When you launch your own AI newsletter, just remember: anything is possible.
These four AI newsletter operators didn’t start out with over 100,000 subscribers.
They were just like you at one point: driven by an obsession with AI.
So, why not start your own AI newsletter today?
With beehiiv, you can grow your own newsletter faster than any other platform. And, with multiple monetization options, there are endless ways to earn income on autopilot.
beehiiv gives you access to the best newsletter tools on the planet like:
Ad Network
Forget hunting down newsletter sponsors.
When you’re trying to grow and monetize your AI newsletter, your best plan is to focus on content rather than spend your time looking for the perfect ad placement. beehiiv makes monetization easy by giving you access to thousands of sponsors.
Get connected easily with premium ad partners on the beehiiv Ad Network so you can start earning every month.
Boosts
Want to monetize fast?
There’s no better way than with beehiiv Boosts.
Our recommendation system lets you earn on autopilot.
Simply recommend other beehiiv newsletters, and for every subscriber who signs up, you’ll earn passive income.
Plus, if you want to fuel growth, you can be that sponsored recommendation on other newsletters, allowing you to grow your list even faster.
Integrated Referral Program
Curious how AI newsletters grow so fast on beehiiv?
One of the easiest ways is by leveraging our integrated referral program.
Within our simple referral dashboard, you can let your subscribers do the growing for you by incentivizing them to share your newsletter with friends.
Ready to launch your own AI newsletter?
Join the conversation