How to grow a profitable newsletter with Substack
Hey there,
Hope you’re having a great week. I wanted to talk about the newsletter business a little bit.
I started noticing earlier this year how more and more people are focusing on their email list and building a newsletter. It’s actually an entire business in itself!
Newsletters like The Hustle, Milk Road, and others have sold for tons and these are potentially one-person operations!
It’s so interesting to me.
I have two newsletters. This one and a larger one on Systeme.
I think Substack is THE platform to use for newsletters. It’s amazing that it’s free and has a ton of options available to easily create and distribute your message in the form of an email newsletter.
Here’s how you can start and grow your own profitable newsletter using Substack…
Newsletter Creation with Substack
I won’t walk you through a step-by-step of signing up for Substack and then starting your newsletter. That’s pretty self-explanatory.
When you get on Substack, the first thing I’d recommend doing to get acquainted with the platform is join other newsletters.
See what others are talking about, look at their setup, etc.
Then, start promoting your newsletter to your audience.
Newsletter promotion
For me, I use Medium almost exclusively for that.
I have 47K followers and I create around 15-30 Medium stories a month. It’s super easy to put a plug at the end of my stories talking about my Substack newsletter.
This has helped me grow to around 1,000 subscribers effortlessly.
How I see other creators promoting include:
Being active on social platforms like Twitter and posting their Substack subscribe link on their profile
Being active on other communities and forums online and doing the same
Paying for ad spots on other newsletters and other places to drive subscribers
Using a tool like Sparkloop to incentivize and share their newsletter
Monetizing your newsletter
There are obvious and not-so-obvious ways to monetize your newsletter.
Set up a paid Substack newsletter
Sell ad spots and partner with brands for collaborations
Sell products and services in your newsletter
Use affiliate links
Just try one or more of these monetization channels out and see how it works. Go for it!
You will see what’s the best fit for you over time. But, the most important thing is just to start.
Where can your newsletter take you?
The sky’s the limit!
It can be an entire business. Imagine running a full-time business with a newsletter! Amazing.
This really excites me.
What do you think?
Jenn
P.S. My website flipping course is $150 OFF. Get the course to learn how to build a website flipping business in just 30 days. My student is neck in neck with me, selling nearly $40K in sites on Flippa alone. My Medium story on this is coming out soon.