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Newsletters have been a stable online business model ever since the Internet became popular. For some time overlooked because of social media, they're now making a big comeback.
There are a few reasons why newsletters are now hot:
Note: this thread is ONLY about newsletters as a business model. If you use a newsletter as a traffic channel for your business that's cool but that's not the topic of this thread.
There are a few reasons why newsletters are now hot:
- Writers are looking for new ways to make money without being dependent on someone else (like a newspaper, website, or Amazon).
- With big social media platforms censoring writers, many shifted to Substack (a popular platform for newsletters) which is committed to minimal censorship. But even if you're not using Substack, newsletters in general are resistant to censorship because you control them and can always take your list elsewhere (unlike with social media).
- Smart content creators realized they're only renting space from social media. A newsletter list allows them to have direct access to their subscribers.
- Big players invest heavily in this industry. Twitter acquired newsletter tool Revue while Business Insider bought Morning Brew newsletter for $75 million.
- Newsletters are in essence customer lists. So while you're building a newsletter, you're also building a valuable asset.
- Newsletters require very little capital and can be easily managed by one person.
- Once you figure out how to grow a newsletter, it's easy to start another one and scale to a few newsletters or more. The Agora is an example of a big publishing business mostly built through various newsletters.
- Newsletters on topics that appeal to many people can grow into lucrative businesses. Example: mentioned before Morning Brew or Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter recently acquired for $27 million.
- Newsletters have their own ecosystem. If you're in a popular niche, you can build and grow your newsletter by only interacting with other newsletters, similar to podcasting.
- Directly, called premium or paid newsletters. This is most common for finance/industry newsletters where you're writing content that can make people money.
- Through sponsorships. Depending on the niche and your list size, you can make anywhere from a few dozen bucks to a few thousand dollars or more per one ad placement.
- Through affiliate marketing. You have a list and (hopefully) you have their trust so you can recommend products and make money from commissions.
- Through selling your own products and services. As above - you build trust with your audience so it's easier to sell.
- Through creating communities or organizing events - once you have enough subscribers, a newsletter can easily turn into a community. You can sell monthly or yearly access to it or organize events for your subscribers.
Note: this thread is ONLY about newsletters as a business model. If you use a newsletter as a traffic channel for your business that's cool but that's not the topic of this thread.
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