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- How I Monetise Revenews
This week I’m doing a deep dive into how I monetise this newsletter at 450 subscribers and my plans for future revenue.
🫥 I thought it’d be cool to be transparent, and hopefully helpful to apply to your own situation.
Assuming the numbers are too small for it to be bragging, let’s dive in! 🚀
Current monetisation and a whole new approach
Newsletter marketplace & newsletter
Newsletter News
Sales + Michael Jordan = Meme.
How I Monetise
🔴 First, context.
I’m two and a half months into my entrepreneurial voyage. I launched Revenews in September, including this newsletter and consulting services. The latter generates 90%+ of my revenue right now.
Newsletter subs are 90% organic (X & LinkedIn), I spent $50 in a newsletter for creators. I will invest in growth soon.
Because this newsletter is so niche, the classic sponsorships model probably won’t ever generate an impressive amount of revenue. Even with 10k subs, a 60% open rate and $100 CPM, I’m making ~$2,200 per month, which isn’t nothing, but it also can’t be everything.
This reality has made me look outside my scope of expertise (ad sales) and ultimately will expand it. Without further ado, here’s the monetisation plan for Revenews.
🤝 Affiliate Marketing
Done well, affiliate marketing can be extremely powerful, and can turn being ‘too niche’ into a superpower.
My approach for this is to only promote the brands…
That I currently use (and love), or previously used at a large newsletter.
Multiple clients/friends of mine use and I’ve spoken directly to the brand.
Why? It maintains integrity, builds trust, it’s creatively convenient and should generate better results.
For example, it would be impossible for me to write this newsletter without mentioning Apollo. They also happen to have a decent referral scheme (15% of all revenue for 12 months).
Currently, I have 13 leads (free trials) and 1 conversion, generating $15 a month. Assuming 20% convert from free to paid, at 5,000 subscribers, this should be generating $420 - $2000 a month. Potentially more if larger companies convert. Not bad for 1 product.
Beehiiv offers 50% affiliate commissions for 12 months, I’ve only sent 1 free trial, but with time & scale, this could/should also snowball. Others include Newsletter Blueprint & MegaHit, the latter I started linking before I had any affiliate agreement, because it’s an awesome product, and I like Niklas, the founder. We’ve now created an agreement, the revenue potential isn’t yet clear, but very promising so far.
There are a couple of other programs that look very promising or already generate $20-50 per month. Rotating 5-10 high-performing partners could pack a serious revenue punch, especially for just copy & pasting links, for products that I’d be recommending anyway!
Managing affiliate links/tracking can become a bit of a mess, I use (and like) PartnerStack for a few of them, which gives great visibility. They actually rejected my application to join their own referral program. I took it very personally. 💔
📑 Custom Referral Agreements
IRL handshakes and hairy wrists are not essential
Very similar to the above, just negotiated individually. I’ve agreed with an awesome newsletter growth agency, anyone who fills out this form becomes a lead for them & I get a cut of the ensuing retainer.
Since last week, I’ve sent a handful of leads. In time, this format could become something which makes me $5-10k per month.
This should also work well for other agencies, automation consultants, other consultants and high-ticket/niche software. I could also charge for exclusivity in the future.
I see referrals/affiliates as a win, win, win:
Win for you readers, helping you discover services/products for newsletters, I choose partners carefully and have gotten multiple thank you messages for introductions.
Win for the partner, they get more customers & money.
Win for me, I get paid and it adds value to Revenews.
🥧 Flat Fee Sponsorships
I’ve had a couple of offers already, but in my opinion, it’s too early. I’ll extract more value from a cut of purchases, versus under $50 for premium ad-real-estate.
Looking at a similar newsletter-newsletter with ~10k subs, they allegedly sell quarterly sponsorships for $9,000. This should be low-hanging fruit for me, but I’ll have to wait until I have a few thousand to make it worthwhile.
As mentioned, my assumption is that other revenue channels will be more appropriate for this small/niche newsletter. But flat fee sponsorships will likely be a piece of the pie!
Bonus: I’m currently also monetising with Beehiiv boosts. But, most newsletter founders tell me that Sparkloop is the more efficient referral revenue channel, which I will switch to soon.
Future Possibilities
🎯 Selling Leads
Similar to referrals, I charge brands a smaller amount for the leads, i.e. readers that have filled out a form.
🤖 Hybrid Affiliate Deals
This idea I really like. Charging a small monthly fee to be the only recommended partner/product in a specific vertical, plus a commission. This spreads the risk across publisher and brand, whilst ensuring the placement and revenue. I’ve seen this work well for niche NLs.
👨🏫 Courses
I think I could impart much deeper value on the nuances and practicalities of certain monetisation topics in long-form video. Pricing would likely be a one-off payment to access the entire course, or certain topics and assets.
📚 Premium Content
This could include access to the evergreen courses as well as monthly updates and timely insights on the ad sales market. I could also offer access to the advertisers in my network where appropriate.
🏷️ Sell a Product
Productise my current consulting offering into an agency and use the newsletter as a funnel (without ruining it). I don’t currently promote my services because I don’t want to turn this into a sales-fest (plus I’m full, a great problem to have!).
I could create a SaaS product, solving a specific problem for newsletter operators. The newsletter would be the perfect funnel for that.
TLDR: Lots of opportunities that I’ll explore more when I have the scale and bandwidth.
While I have you here…
What product/service would you find most valuable? |
🧐 Recommended Reading
I'd heard about it before, but this week I properly explored Duuce, the number 1 platform for buying and selling newsletters. Super cool idea.
Plus. their newsletter called Newsletter Creator, is great for holistic insights on, yes, you guessed it. Newsletters.
🤝 The Neuron acquired Big Brain, hear from the founder.
🪦 Mailchimp shuts down TinyLetter, if you used it, switch to Beehiiv.
📈 A guide to creating a $200k per year premium newsletter.
🤖 How to stay in line with email guidelines next year.
📊 Bloomberg has 500k paying subscribers, here’s how.
🏆 My Favourite Tools
Apollo - the most efficient way to find emails, send sequences, and more. The free version has unlimited email credits too.
Megahit - Turn your subscribers into sponsors. Find out who’s in marketing. Insanely powerful tool.
WhoSponsorsStuff - The best way to find brands sponsoring other newsletters, track key newsletters, and view the campaign itself.
Wellput - Fill your unsold inventory with PPC deals, choose the brand and edit the copy. They are one of the good guys.
A top newsletter growth agency has room for clients. Where the CAC be low & the quality be high. Apply here.
* I (or my clients) currently use all these wonderful things, or I’ve used them whilst working for a large newsletter. If they have an affiliate link, it might’ve found its way on here, if they don’t I recommend it anyway.
🤣 Inbox Banter
P.S. If you want a list of the 50 highest-spending newsletter sponsors in 2023, all you need is just 1 referral !