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Email monetization can be tricky. It can be hard to convince people to sign up for your newsletter in the first place – now you want to ask them to pay for it? It sounds ridiculous, but surprisingly it can work. There are many ways to make money off of your newsletter without lowering the quality of the content (and in fact, even offering premium services) and without annoying your regular readers. In this post, I will get into the reasons why you should or perhaps shouldn’t monetize your email newsletters and if you decide to go for it, I’ll give you 10 ways to monetize that will get you on the road to success.
The Case for Monetization
Anything that you spend a lot of time doing is worth getting paid for. That’s the bottom line. So, is it possible to make money off your email newsletters? Yes. Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, apparently made $15,000 in just one month from adding sponsorships to his newsletter. These sponsorships were through the Converkit Sponsor Network, which has pretty tough requirements. Including that, you have to have 10,000 newsletter subscribers and publish your newsletter at least once a week. If your newsletter is pretty new or just small, this option won’t work for you. You should also consider that Mark Manson’s book has been selling like hotcakes for many years, so he had quite the headstart.
ConvertKit also offers the ability to do paid recommendations, which means that when a reader signs up for your newsletter, they have the option to sign up for other newsletters as well. If they do so, you get paid money. This is done through an account on Sparkloop or through the ConvertKit Creator Network. I haven’t tried either of these, so you will need to do your own research as far as this option goes.
Adding a paid tier to your newsletter is also an easy way to monetize without taking away from your current readers. If they want to access more content, or maybe free eBooks and other digital products, they can pay a premium price. Otherwise, they can stick to their normal tier and still enjoy content from you regularly. Many places claim that you can make six figures a year by simply adding a paid tier to your newsletter, so it might be worth a shot.
Anyone hoping to monetize their newsletter is hoping to make money on it. It might be that you want to provide added value to your subscribers, diversify your revenue streams, or cover the expenses that you have for your email marketing software or website costs. Before you can monetize, there are a few other things that you’ll want to consider.
Why You Might Not Want to Monetize
There are a few reasons why it might not be worth it for you to monetize your email newsletter. The biggest reason not to monetize would be because you don’t have enough subscribers. If you are only sending emails out to a few hundred people, it’s likely not worth it to monetize just yet. Keep in mind that you can’t even qualify for sponsorships until you hit 10,000 and you won’t make much off of a paid tier in your newsletter if it’s only a few people. Of course, if you think your readers will love that paid tier and you can expect a few hundred to do it, then go for it. But I would expect only 10% or less of your readers to pay for that, so if that is only 10 people – well, you do the math.
The other reason is that monetizing when you aren’t offering really high-value content can actually make you lose subscribers. For instance, if you only use your newsletter to update on day-to-day life and updates on your career, things which are interesting but not necessarily useful, then it is too early to monetize. People will pay for things that will improve their lives in some way. For example, consistent tips on how to get better at self-editing. Someone who is really into editing could use these and improve their life, therefore they have a higher value.
Keep in mind that monetization is not all or nothing. For my newsletter, I don’t send weekly (or even monthly) emails. I only send out newsletters when I have something to announce, like a new book. That might change in the future, but because it is so infrequent for me right now, I know it’s not time to monetize. Keep in mind, though, that my newsletters do always include links to my books which is a form of monetization. But the money I make is from the sale of my books and not necessarily from the newsletter. It might still count but I wouldn’t consider my email to be monetized since it doesn’t make money without selling my books.
10 Ways to Monetize Your Email Newsletter
If you are ready to start making some money off of your email newsletter, here are some popular ways to make it happen.
- Sign up for sponsorships and include advertisements in your newsletter.
- Use the Creator Network to get paid for recommendations.
- Add a paid tier to your newsletter.
- Take advantage of affiliate links for products and services that are relevant to your content.
- Promote your own products and services.
- Sell your digital products, like eBooks and courses, in your free newsletter.
- Organize events, webinars, or online classes that your readers can pay to attend.
- Offer consulting or coaching services and include ads in your newsletters.
- Use a donation or tip jar with the purpose of keeping your content ad-free.
- Use a membership program for premium content. This might be in the form of a membership-only access website or other pay-walled site.
