How To Make Money as a Newsletter Creator

TikTok, Instagram, beehiiv, Twitch, Spotify.

What would these platforms be without the millions of content creators distributing incredible content we love?

The creator economy is huge – with nearly 207 million content creators worldwide. With modern technology at our fingertips, the ability to create great content has never been easier. It gives us a voice, a creative outlet, and a digital bullhorn to share our point of view with the world.

But, the majority of creators aren’t just doing it for fun.

Plenty of creators are making the big bucks, like Dakota Robertson who’s earning $250,000 per month on beehiiv.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know to tap into the creator economy and earn a full-time income as a newsletter creator.

Let’s begin!

Who Should Start a Newsletter?

Who should start a newsletter?

Why not YouTube? Or Tiktok? Or even traditional blogging?

Well, newsletters are arguably the easiest medium to start distributing content in, regardless of your niche.

In 2022, 3,500+ newsletters were started on the beehiiv platform. Only 1 year later, 25,000+ newsletters were launched on beehiiv — an increase of 717%!

Since the number of newsletters popping up every year is increasing, there’s no doubt that the masses are finally starting to see the incredible value newsletters offer creators looking to earn a living as a writer.

No matter what niche you’re in, a newsletter can be an incredibly lucrative tool.

The average return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is 3,600%.

To put it in perspective, if you were to invest $1,000 in the stock market, you might earn $100 (10% ROI) in any given year.

But, if you invested $1,000 into email marketing, you could reasonably expect to earn about $36,000.

Does that sound crazy?

Well, it’s true!

In fact, Saeed Ezzati launched his newsletter on beehiiv less than a year ago and is already on pace to earn $150,000 annually.

So, who should start a newsletter?

Anyone who wants to have the flexibility to create the type of content you love, the freedom to work for yourself, and the earnings to do more than just “get by.”

And, the best part is, you don’t even need a huge audience to start earning an income.

Eli Weiss from All Things CX & Retention secured an advertiser for $1,000 before he sent a single newsletter edition.

If you want to either:

A) Start your own business as a creator and earn a full-time income, or
B) Take your existing business and accelerate your revenue generation…

Then starting a newsletter is the best strategy you could take both in the short term and the long term.

How To Start Your Newsletter in 30 Minutes

Starting a newsletter 10 years ago wasn’t so easy.

The tech was clunky, you had to know a lot about writing, designing, and programming.

And, it was challenging to flip the switch on monetization to start generating income.

But now, with intuitive newsletter platforms like beehiiv, it’s never been easier (or quicker) to start a newsletter.

Step 0: Pick Your Platform

In this article, I’m not going to beat around the bush and be shy about beehiiv being a good option. Yes, I’m going to give you 100% unashamedly biased advice. But, I truly believe if you want to start an email newsletter that earns you an income, beehiiv is the best choice available.

But, if you want to go with older tech or something that has a less intuitive user experience, there are other options out there.

In fact, there are tons of solid choices to choose from. You can read this post where we highlight some of the best newsletter platforms available. I just can’t promise any of them will allow you to launch in 30 minutes (and monetize as easily as you can on beehiiv).

Here’s how you launch your first newsletter from scratch in 30 minutes using beehiiv:

Step 1: Sign Up For a beehiiv Account

First things first, you have to sign up for a beehiiv account. It’s 100% free and only takes a few minutes.

Just enter your email address and you’ll be guided by a trusty virtual assistant who will get you set up as quickly as possible.

After answering a few basic questions, you’ll be given access to your beehiiv dashboard.

Just remember to check your email inbox to verify your email address. 

Now, your account is all set up!

Step 2: Customize Your Newsletter

Now that you’re in the back end of your beehiiv, it’s time to create your newsletter template. In your beehiiv dashboard, head over to the right side of the screen to “Get Ready to Publish.” Under that, click “Customize your theme.”

This page will allow you to create a theme for your newsletter in the form of a template so you can keep your newsletter content consistent with your audience.

In the template editor, you can update fonts, colors, background colors, and more to optimize your design.

Alternatively, if you want to just get started with your newsletter, you can skip this part for now and move on to the next step.

You can always come back here and update your newsletter’s theme. Plus there are plenty more customization and design options once you start creating your newsletter within the newsletter editor, which leads us to step number four.

Step 3: Create Your First Newsletter 

Now, for the step you’ve been waiting for: writing your first newsletter publication.

First, head over to your beehiiv dashboard. On the left side, you’ll see a column with the words “Write.” If you click on that, you can access “Posts” which will show you all of your previous posts. 

On the top right of your dashboard, you’ll see a black button that says “Start writing.”

Click on that to write your first post.

Now, you’ll find yourself inside the beehiiv editor. This is where the magic happens.

Here, you’ll have access to dozens of features to write, design, and edit your newsletter content before hitting send.

Feel free to play around with the various features and design elements to craft your own unique content.

If you’re wanting to see what your newsletter will look like when a recipient receives it, head to the bottom right of your screen and click “Preview.”

You can choose to view your newsletter in both email or web format (since it will also be published on your beehiiv website as a post). 

Or, you can view your newsletter by desktop or mobile design. You can also send yourself a test email to see how it will show up in your inbox.

Once your newsletter is ready to go, simply hit “Schedule” in the bottom right and select a time you’d like the newsletter to go out at. Or, hit “Publish Now” to send it to your list immediately.

Want to learn more about writing your first post? Check out this video to learn how to do it with a few clicks on beehiiv:

Step 4: Set Up Your Subscriber List

Now that you’ve gone through all the key steps to send your newsletter, you may be wondering… “Who am I sending this newsletter to?”

That’s where your email list comes in.

Let’s set up your subscriber list.

To do that, go to your dashboard and click on the “Audience” section on the left side of your dashboard. Then, click on the “Subscribers” tab. If you’ve moved over from another platform, click “Import Subscribers” to start the migration process.

If you’re launching a brand new newsletter, then under “Audience,” click on “Subscribe Forms.” Next, click “Create New Form,” and you can design your own email signup form for your beehiiv website.

In order to build your list, you’ll want to direct people to your beehiiv website to view your signup form. For more tips on how to grow your email list, check out these posts from the beehiiv blog:

• How to Create a Successful Sign Up For Your Email Newsletter

• 12 Newsletter Growth Channels To Scale Your Audience

• Boost Subscriber Sign-ups with These Tactics

• 5 Step Email Newsletter Strategy (Building An Engaged Audience)

• Ultimate Guide To Building An Email List for Marketing

Why Listen to Me? I’ve managed two email newsletters over the years including one with 100,000 subscribers and one with 30,000. I currently run a digital media business, Hockey Question, that gets over 50,000 visits per month.

Everything You Need To Know Before You Start a Newsletter

Before you dive headfirst into the newsletter creation world, there are a few things you need to know to ensure you start off on the right foot.

First of all, I know we share some numbers up above about a 3,600% ROI and creators earning hundreds of thousands of dollars within a few months on beehiiv.

Just know this: it takes time. And, it takes effort. And not everyone will earn a full-time income in a few months.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to stay the course. With newsletters, it’s not a matter of if you’ll earn a full-time income. It’s a matter of when. By establishing a long-term mindset and vision, you’ll have the best odds of success.

Patience is key here.

But, just how long should you expect to wait before you’re earning some solid Benjamins?

Well, the average content creator earns their first dollar after about 6.5 months.

By 17 months, or right around the year and a half mark, the average creator is earning enough to support themselves. At the 25-month mark, or about two years, the majority are earning enough to hire their first employee.

For some people, a year and a half is a long time to wait.

But, think about this. How quickly did high school fly by for you? If you went to college and got a degree, how fast was that?

Both of those periods of time take about 4 years. The average creator can build up to a full-time income as a newsletter creator in half that time — right around the two-year mark.

By taking steps in the right direction today, you’ll be almost guaranteed to make a living from your newsletter in under two years, as long as you’re committed to consistently publishing content and improving.

See How Much You Could Be Making With a Newsletter

8 Best Ways to Make Money as a Creator

Now that you understand the why behind email newsletters and how to launch a newsletter, let’s talk about the part where you make lots of money.

The reality is that building an email list and sending out newsletters on their own won’t earn you a dime (although beehiiv makes it as easy as flipping the switch on beehiiv Boosts to do just that).

If you want to generate income as a newsletter creator, you have to take off your creator hat for a second and put on your business hat.

Here are eight of the best ways you can earn money as a newsletter creator:

1. Sponsorships (Ads)

The most lucrative path for most newsletter operators to start earning money is through sponsorships. This is where a brand will simply pay you a cut to advertise their business or product in your newsletter.

It’s a simple exchange: you have the value of eyeballs and they have the value of money they can pay you to promote their product.

beehiiv makes it super easy to turn on sponsorships through the beehiiv Ad Network: a diverse digital marketplace of sponsors and newsletter operators that are easily connected directly through the beehiiv platform.

It’s simple: you get to set your rates and get matched up with sponsors who align with your vision.

Alternatively, you can set up private sponsorship deals on your own outside of beehiiv. But, for the fastest and easiest path to advertising monetization, beehiiv’s Ad Network is an intuitive option.

2. Subscriptions

The other most common way creators monetize their newsletters is through subscriptions. It’s a simple business model that when implemented can be a seamless way to scale your revenue.

All you do is create a premium edition of your newsletter in beehiiv, and charge your premium subscribers a flat monthly subscription fee.

The best part is, unlike other newsletter platforms that take a percentage of your subscription revenue, beehiiv only charges you a flat fee for your beehiiv plan (regardless of your premium subscription revenue).

With this model, you might choose to charge $10 per month for your premium subscribers to give out a premium newsletter once a week or once a month. If you have 10,000 regular subscribers, and 20% of them opt-in to your premium subscription, that’s 2,000 subscribers.

That means 2,000 subscribers x $10 per month = $20,000 per month.

If you get another 1,000 subscribers on board, that’s $30,000 per month.

3. Affiliate Marketing

If you want to stack up your earnings even more, then you might want to consider affiliate marketing. This is where you link to specific products for a commission.

For instance, let’s say you have a newsletter all about Balinese cats where you provide tips and tools to help these types of cat owners. Instead of just linking out to recommended products, you could contact the brand owner to give you a commission if someone buys the product through your link.

If the owner agrees, then every time your newsletter readers click on your affiliate link to a product and click buy, you’ll earn a small percentage of the sale.

Let’s say you promote a specific cat collar in one of your newsletters to your list of 5,500 people. In this newsletter, 37 of them bought the cat collar through your link for $59.99 and you got a 10% commission on that.

In this scenario, you earned $5.99 x 37 = $221.63.

While that may not be enough to pay your monthly rent, by setting up enough deals with brands, and including enough links to products in your newsletters, you can semi-passively earn a solid income from strictly affiliate marketing.

And, this example is for a low-end product. If you’re in B2B, there may be $5,000 to $10,000 products you promote that land you a 10% commission. If you have a list of the same size (5,500 people), and 7 of them buy a $5,000 product, then you’re making even more money.

In this scenario, you earned $5,000 x 10% x 7 = $3,500.

4. Digital Products

Another way you can monetize your audience with a newsletter is by creating and selling your own digital products, rather than promoting other people’s products for a commission.

This could be an online course, a guide, PDFs, templates, videos, photos, or just about any other type of exclusive content you can create in a digital form.

A good example is Matt Gray, who leverages his beehiiv newsletter to sell his business coaching courses.

With digital products, you set the price and you take the cut, which means your profit margins will be very high (since there are no middlemen). Plus, you don’t need to ship anything, saving you even more money.

5. Sell Physical Products

The alternative to selling a digital product is selling good old-fashioned physical products.

The same rules apply to selling digital products, but the options and versatility available are endless.

While many e-commerce store owners launch email newsletters to generate more revenue, you can actually do the reverse: start an email newsletter and create an e-commerce business out of it.

Oftentimes, by building an audience first before creating a product, you’ll be much more likely to find success with it. This is because you’ll get to know your audience’s needs, wants, desires and pain points to know what kind of products they’d buy.

6. Consulting & Other Services

While a popular way to monetize a newsletter is by selling your own product, another way you can create a new income stream is by selling your own services.

The simplest way you could sell your services is by offering paid consulting to your subscribers.

Think about it — when you run a newsletter in any particular niche, your audience will perceive you as an expert in that niche.

And, as time goes on, as you consistently publish content on a topic, your perceived authority will grow in the space, giving you leverage to charge people for your expertise.

In many cases, this is best suited for B2B niches over B2C, however, you could offer consulting in almost any area.

Many newsletter operators, like Moyo Solyman, have even found success in newsletter consulting.

Plus, others have even launched their own newsletter growth agencies like Matt McGarry to help other creators in the space succeed as a newsletter operator.

7. Boosts

One of the newest ways you can monetize your newsletter is with beehiiv Boosts. This is essentially beehiiv’s recommendations – which allows you to recommend other newsletters (and get recommended) on autopilot but with a twist:

Rather than organically promoting other newsletters, you get paid to promote them.

The way it works is the moment someone signs up for your email newsletter, beehiiv will show them a few recommended newsletters to also subscribe to. If your new subscriber also signs up for a Boosted newsletter, then you’ll get paid a few dollars.

Let’s say you earn $3 for every Boost. Well, if 30% of your subscribers also boost onto another newsletter, and you get 100 new subscribers each month, that works out to:

$3 x 100 x 30% = $100.

In this scenario, you could be earning an additional $100 per month in passive income by simply turning Boosts on.

If you start growing rapidly, bringing in 1,000 new subscribers per month, then you could be earning $1,000 extra per month without doing any more work.

8. Get Acquired

There’s one more path to monetization that’s often overlooked when people start a newsletter: acquisition.

When you launch a newsletter, you have to keep something crucial in mind: your newsletter isn’t just a hobby — it’s an asset.

Just like a stock or bond, a newsletter is something that has intrinsic value that others are willing to pay a price for.

The value of your newsletter as an asset will rely on a variety of factors — such as niche trends, economic conditions, and others, but the main one is this: how much is your newsletter earning and how long has it earned income?

If you’re able to generate even $1,000 per month from your newsletter, you’ll quickly find that people will be flashing five-figure dollar amounts toward you to acquire it.

Some newsletter creators even launch newsletters with an acquisition in mind from the start, like Richard Patey, who has sold several newsletters over the years.

The main benefit to seeking an acquisition is that it’s a path to get a big payday, as many others have done in the five-, six-, and seven-figure range.

Just keep in mind, that acquisition almost always follows other forms of monetization. It’s extremely difficult to get acquired unless you have been consistently earning money through other streams for several months or years.

How to Monetize a Newsletter as a Creator

If you want to live the life of a creator and earn a full-time income from your content, then you need to pick a path that works for you.

A newsletter is one of the best ways to build an audience, publish unique content, and turn that content machine into a viable money tree. 

But, monetizing a newsletter is no easy task. While there are plenty of methods and tactics to turn your newsletter into a real income-generating business, you need to know the right strategies and lean on the right technology to make it happen.

beehiiv offers creators dozens of features that can help you monetize with a single click. 

Whether you’re looking to land premium sponsorships for thousands of dollars, offer a premium newsletter for recurring subscription revenue, or want to earn passively by promoting other newsletters through Boosts, we’ve got you covered.

beehiiv is the newsletter platform built for growth. It's the easiest and quickest solution for any creator looking to start their own newsletter that isn’t just a hobby – but an income-earning business.

What are you waiting for? Start cashing in on your creativity and sign up for a free beehiiv plan today.