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Real Talk on Newsletter Growth With Insights From beehiiv Case Studies
Tips To Scale, Grow & Monetize Your Newsletter
Kanishka Kumawat
December 6th, 2024
When we revamped beehiiv case studies, the goal was simple: to help businesses, creators, and publishers unlock the blueprint to growing, scaling, and monetizing their newsletters.
After nearly 9 months of owning this process full-time at beehiiv, I wanted to sit down with you and share some of the most valuable insights I’ve gathered from my conversation with these newsletters.
These aren’t just theories or fluff.
These are tangible lessons from people who have walked the same path you’re on right now.
I know it’s easy to romanticize the idea of building a newsletter—gaining a massive following, scaling effortlessly, and monetizing in your sleep.
But the truth, as I’ve discovered in conversations with these creators and businesses, is far more nuanced.
The reality is — growth comes from testing, failing, learning, and sometimes just pushing through.
My favorite question is always- “How did you grow to your first 1,000 subscribers?”
Revealing that behind every success story is a ton of strategy, iteration, and often a few missteps along the way.
But the best part? These lessons are yours to take and apply.
Here’s what I’ve learned that can help you take your newsletter to the next level.
- Kanishka
Table of Contents
1. Build a Niche Audience That Aligns with Your Goals
Coastal Recruiting launched a newsletter to connect with a hyper-specific audience in the coastal job market. Within 45 minutes, they hit 20,000 subscribers.
How? By knowing exactly who they wanted to reach and delivering content tailored to them. Their newsletter isn’t just about jobs—it’s a curated space for insights, opportunities, and community-building in a niche that rarely gets this kind of attention.
Takeaway: Whether you’re recruiting talent, selling a product, or building a personal brand, newsletters let you focus on the people who matter most.
2. Experiment Like Your Success Depends on It—Because It Does
Be it content styles, sending frequency, or how you engage with readers. It’s through these experiments that you find your unique groove.
One of the biggest lessons from newsletters like Cyber Corsairs is this: experiment early, and experiment often.
Captain Yar has been in the marketing space for over 20 years.
He didn’t just stick to one type of content; He mixed in informative pieces with promotional offers. The result was higher engagement and $65,000 in revenue in just seven months.
So, if there’s one thing you take away, let it be this: don’t be afraid to try new things, even if they don’t work right away. Each experiment is a step closer to success.
3. Diversify Your Revenue Streams Early On
A common thread I noticed in newsletters like Geekout Newsletter, Last Money In, and Cyber Patterns is that they never relied on just one source of income.
They diversified early.
From beehiiv’s Ad Network to direct sponsorships, paid subscriptions, and beehiiv Boosts, these creators spread their bets.
This gave them financial stability and helped them scale even faster.
If you’re focused on building a sustainable newsletter business, think beyond a single revenue stream. Diversification isn’t just smart—it’s essential for long-term success.
Jason Levin has his newsletter, Cyber Patterns on beehiiv, which not only generates income through multiple channels, but it also serves as the foundation for his latest venture—memelord.tech—a startup blending humor and marketing to connect brands with audiences.
4. Own Your Audience
Owning your audience is one of the biggest advantages of newsletters over platforms like social media.
Case studies like Bagel Bots and Freelance Opportunities! make it clear: when you own your email list, you’re not at the mercy of algorithms or changing platform rules.
Unlike social media, where you might lose reach overnight because of an algorithm change, a newsletter allows you to stay in control.
You can pivot your content, segment your audience, and explore new revenue streams whenever you see fit.
"Let me tell you, it was such a life-changing decision that I made. I'm so glad I went with beehiiv," Kaitlyn gushes. "I've now been with the company for nine months. I love it so much; it's so helpful."
That’s the kind of flexibility that leads to sustainable growth.
5. Let Data Guide Your Strategy
One of the most powerful tools you have as a newsletter creator is data.
Top creators—like Jennifer Chou—don’t just rely on gut feelings. They pay attention to the numbers.
Open rates, click-through rates, and audience engagement metrics aren’t just numbers—they’re insights into what’s working and what’s not.
With beehiiv’s robust analytics and A/B testing feature, you can fine-tune everything from subject lines to content formats. Jennifer used data to refine her email cadence and grow her audience, and it worked.
weekly reminder to always A/B test your subject lines on @beehiiv
~5% difference equates to nearly 3,000 additional opens 🤯
— Tyler Denk 🐝 (@denk_tweets)
1:35 AM • Dec 4, 2024
So, as you continue building, make sure you’re keeping a close eye on your data. It will help you tweak and perfect your strategy.
6. Build Relationships, Not Just a Subscriber List
The importance of community shone through in case studies like Creator Economy NYC, Cliff Notes, and Tech Breakfast Club. They prove the real game-changer is building a deeper connection with your audience.
Creator Economy NYC started by BCC’ing people in emails to become more than a newsletter by fostering collaboration within its community.
Cliff turned his expertise into a brand that opened doors to speaking gigs and valuable connections—reminding us that personal engagement can elevate a newsletter beyond the inbox.
Tech Breakfast Club didn’t just engage readers online; they brought them together through meetups, transforming digital connections into real-world relationships.
Focus on creating spaces—whether through events, collaborations, or personal interactions—where your readers feel genuinely part of a community.
When you do that, they’ll stick around for the long haul.
💡 Quick note: If you subscribe to the beehiiv blog newsletter, you’ll receive all these amazing resources delivered straight to your inbox every month!
Here’s how these newsletters grew to their first 1,000 subscribers and strategies you could use to not just grow to the first 1,000 but also 10,000:
Andy Austin relied heavily on Facebook Ads to drive his initial growth.
By targeting specific audiences that aligned with his newsletter content, he managed to gain traction quickly.
Captain Yar experimented with various types of content and capitalized on early engagement with his unique audience, combining educational and promotional content.
Here is an article from Yar himself on going From Zero to Inbox Hero.
Morgan Barrett grew the Tech Breakfast Club by getting together with friends and acquaintances in real life and then decided to take it all online.
From then on, the newsletter started taking shape and was just about strengthening the community.
Jason Levin has been writing on the internet for over a decade.
Cyber Patterns is the base of his entire business. By leveraging his newsletter, he’s launched a paid community for marketers, his first book (that has sold 1000s of copies), his course, his YouTube channel, and much more!
Tyler O’Shea focused on SEO optimization, leveraging social media and beehiiv Boosts, to grow his audience.
By sharing consistent, high-value content, he drew in readers who were passionate about underdog sports stories.
6. Cliff Notes
Cliff Worley grew his newsletter to 1,000 subscribers over a year, focussing on organic growth. Worley’s biggest driver of growth isn’t a digital channel or tactic. It’s his speaking gigs.
You don’t need to do a ton of audience research first to create a successful newsletter. Just start by picking a topic you’re passionate about and then find your people.
Kaitlyn Arford grew her audience on X (formerly Twitter) and then on Buy Me A Coffee – which helped her grow to 4,000 subscribers.
To take things to the next level, she started her newsletter on beehiiv. By positioning herself as an expert in freelancing, she quickly attracted a large number of readers.
This newsletter by Brett Dashevsky grew its subscriber base by tapping into community events and meetups within the creator economy in NYC.
The in-person engagements built trust and transparency and helped Brett convert attendees into email subscribers.
Michael Nadeau, founder of The Defi Report, teamed up with Gigareef to integrate beehiiv’s API as a headless CMS.
This allowed them to streamline content management and scale like a business from the get-go, driving consistent subscriber growth by leveraging their niche expertise and operational efficiency.
10. Bagel Bots
Adam Greenbaum spent 10 years building a social media following of about 100,000 people. The newsletter gained traction through the valuable content he shared on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram, driving organic growth to the first 1,000 subscribers.
Matt Navarra used his X (formerly Twitter) presence to grow his list rapidly. He has been sharing engaging, relevant content around social media trends and inviting followers to join his newsletter.
This helped him reach 1,000 subscribers in under 24 hours of launching his newsletter!
In its first 12 months, The Decade Investor newsletter reached over 14,500 subscribers.
Kolin leverages social media as a top-of-funnel strategy to grow his newsletter. His large following on X (formerly Twitter) was instrumental in quickly growing his subscriber base to over 2,000 in the first month.
13. Vegan Tech Nomad
Jennifer Chou, leveraged social proof by sharing how her productivity hacks transformed her own life, spreading her message across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter)
She has been consistent with her content, which helped her not only grow her audience but also monetize her newsletter through multiple streams, including the beehiiv Ad Network, productivity Notion templates, beehiiv Boosts, and a premium newsletter tier.
So, What Are the Next Steps?
As we wrap up this post, it’s time to put these stories into action.
Newsletters aren’t just for creators—they’re for businesses, startups, and anyone looking to build something impactful. From Coastal Recruiting to memelord.tech, the possibilities are endless.
Here are a few key steps you can start applying to your content strategy today:
Test Different Content Formats – Dedicate the next 30 days to experiment with your content. Try long-form, short-form, listicles, and even personal stories. Monitor your engagement metrics to see what resonates best with your subscribers.
Monetize with a Multi-Stream Approach – Don’t wait to monetize. Start exploring beehiiv’s Ad Network today, or reach out to potential sponsors in your niche. Add a paid tier or exclusive content for those willing to support your work financially.
Partner with Other Creators – Identify 2-3 newsletters in your niche and reach out to them. Offer a cross-promotion. Partnerships can help you grow faster than you think.
Leverage Your Data – beehiiv’s 3D analytics can help you take a deep dive into your subscriber behavior. Find out when your audience is most engaged and tweak your sending times, subject lines, and content to align with those patterns.
Looking for more resources to begin with?
These are my top recommendations from the beehiiv blog to get started right away:
You’ve got the tools, insights, and strategies from the top newsletters on beehiiv.
Now, it’s time to get started.
Happy emailing!
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