This Is How To Make Real Money With Newsletter
My revenue numbers are proof that my strategy works
Last week, I wrote an essay on why you don’t want to be a creator
In sum, creators are broke because creators try to monetize the content itself while entrepreneurs use content to sell products and services they own. In today’s issue, I’ll show you exactly what I mean.
LFG. 🔥
My Revenue Numbers From My Newsletter
Let’s put some numbers out there. I currently have 15,684 subscribers to my newsletter.
I write every morning, Monday through Friday. I usually write about business, but not always. My newsletter varies in subject and I try to keep it conversational and write about whatever is on my heart at the moment.
I think this is the reason why my newsletter doesn’t grow a lot in total subscribers, but it does grow in engagement. The people who stay subscribed, even after discovering the occasional randomness of the newsletter, are true fans.
Okay, so let’s get to the good stuff.
What do I sell in my newsletter? Mostly, I sell access to my membership site called The Launchpad. The Launchpad teaches people how to build online businesses, focusing on agency work, lead gen directories, and content marketing.
How much does it cost? The Launchpad is $697. However, when people join the community is when I usually introduce my higher ticket product called Sales Training. Sales Training is a more in-depth program that teaches agency owners how to prospect, pitch, book meetings, close deals, and make more sales. So some of my revenue comes indirectly from the newsletter because many customers buy The Launchpad through the newsletter and are then upsold in the community.
What are the sales numbers? I officially launched the program on March 22, and so far I have made $70,364.85.
I feel pretty good about it. On one side, I feel like I’m selling myself short. If I dedicated the entire newsletter to the niche industry, I think I’d make more. But the other side of me knows that doing that would defeat the purpose of writing a daily newsletter in the first place.
This Is The Difference Between Being An Entrepreneur And A Creator
The argument creators make is that if they don’t have to worry about creating a product or providing a service, then they can focus all their effort on creating the best content possible. That way, the ad revenue from sponsorships will pile up because the content will be so good.
This sounds good in theory, but for the vast majority of people, it’s a dead end.
Let’s use podcasts as an example.
Ad revenue is very lopsided. I encourage you to read this article that breaks down the revenue numbers of the world’s top podcasters.
The Daily, which is the most downloaded podcast in the world, makes $4,000,000 a year. That’s obviously a significant amount of money, but they also get 9,300,000 monthly downloads.
Every other podcast makes zilch. About .002 percent of podcasters make enough money to live off of.
Now, compare that to someone like me, with an email list of 15,000. It would be impossible for me to make real money off a podcast.
Let’s use newsletters as an example.
You could argue I’m cherry-picking podcasts, but newsletters have much higher CPMs for ad revenue. A CPM for newsletters can go as high as $40.
If I’m sending 5 newsletters per week (about 20 to 22 per month), and I’m somehow charging top dollar at $40 CPM:
That’s $40 × (15,000 ÷ 1,000) = $600 per send
That means $600 × 22 = $13,200 per month
$13,200 a month is real money. And in this case, I wouldn’t have to worry about building an actual product.
But what people don’t realize is that selling sponsorships is very difficult. It’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to sell sponsorships and create a daily newsletter at the same time. The cold outreach required to sell sponsorships is daunting. You will almost certainly need to hire a full-time salesperson, which will destroy your margins and make your life more difficult.
Not to mention that you’ll always be selling, you probably won’t be able to fill your ad inventory, and you’ll be dealing with media buyers who are the worst. Before you know it, you’re not even a creator anymore. Rather, you’re a full time sales rep who is begging people who have leverage over you to advertise.
It sucks. No thank you.
In Sum, Invest In Yourself
The biggest hurdle that keeps people from succeeding in online business is feeling like they need to generate revenue right away.
One of the best things that happened to me was discovering Copyblogger (which I now own) and getting to know Brian Clark. Brian would always tell me “audience first,” which means that as long as your biggest priority is creating value for your audience, the rest will take care of itself.
That requires patience and delayed gratification.
It’s not easy, but here’s the process.
Publish free content. I recommend creating YouTube videos and writing a weekly newsletter every week for a year. If you can get to 1,000 subscribers, you can build a business.
Start selling a service. I’m once again telling you to start an agency. An agency doesn’t need to be a marketing agency. An agency just means a service business. For example, Juliana has fewer than 100 newsletter subscribers and she lands new clients every week.
Scale that service down into a program and a product. I teach all of this in The Launchpad and in Sales Training. The idea is that the service you provide gets broken down into digital products that give you the ability to scale.
Never stop. This is the hardest part. It’s easy for me to show you the revenue I’m generating from my newsletter, but the reality is I’ve been closing deals, making investments, and working on my newsletter for years. It’s a process, and the ones who win are simply the ones who kept going when it seemed pointless to do so.
I’m sure a lot of you who read my newsletter might feel intimidated by this. “You make it all sound so easy” is feedback I’ve heard before.
But the distinction is important. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.
People overcomplicate these things. They get in their heads, get impatient, and want it to go any other way than it is. The trick is to trust the process and act like an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs build businesses. They don’t beg people for money.
You can do it. I know you can. If I can do it, you can do it.
Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.
Tim
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