I made $200 in the last 2 weeks from mine. Proof in comments if you don’t believe me.
My goal is $2k/month by end of year. And no, I’m not going hard on this, I’m putting in maybe 1-2 hours a week. So that’s why it’ll take 10 months instead of 2. Slow and steady but basically passive so I’m not complaining.
Anyway here’s what I’m doing if you want to copy it:
Niche first
Finance pays the best CPMs but don’t just do “finance.” Go specific. Finance for single moms, stock market for complete beginners, that kind of thing. AI is also a solid bet right now, it’s genuinely exploding. Health, dating, local news — all work too. Just pick something and commit.
Build it like a company not a diary
Seriously don’t attach your name to it. You want something you could sell one day. A newsletter with your name on it is a freelance gig. A newsletter brand is an actual asset. Different things.
Platform
Substack is free and fine for starting. I use beehiiv. Better customization and they have their own ad network built in, which means you can monetize from day 1 without finding a single sponsor yourself. That alone sold me on it.
Getting subscribers
This is where most people get stuck. Options are:
Meta ads — reliable but expensive. beehiiv has a paid boost feature too where other newsletters basically send their readers your way. Both cost money though.
Free route is content. X, LinkedIn, Reddit. Reddit has been my main thing. I post about side hustles, people find value in it, they subscribe. Got around 150 new subs just last week from Reddit. This exact type of post is how I do it.
Sending issues
Just send consistently. AI helps a lot with organizing and formatting but you still have to know how to use it properly or the output is terrible. I use it as a tool not a ghostwriter.
(Writing this post myself by the way, hence the grammar crimes lol)
Money
Small newsletter? Use the beehiiv ad network. I’m at 2k subscribers and making $15-20 per issue from it. Not retiring off it but I’m sending the newsletter anyway so it’s basically found money.
Hit 5k and you can start going after real sponsors — $100 to $400 per placement depending on your niche. That’s when it gets genuinely interesting.
You can also do digital products or affiliate stuff on top of that. Multiple streams from the same audience.
Autopilot
Once you’re at 5k, set up a beehiiv boost at like $1.50-$2 per subscriber. Keep some budget running and you get new subscribers without doing anything.
For the actual issues, either get a VA or build out an AI workflow that does the heavy lifting. You just review and send. Sponsors tend to stick once you have a relationship going.
End result: $2k/month for a couple hours of work a week. That’s the goal anyway.
If you want to go bigger — $15k, $50k, $1M/month (yes those newsletters exist) — that’s a whole different level of effort. But that’s not what this post is about.
Started writing this thinking it’d be 200 words. Oops.
Drop any questions in the comments, happy to answer. Proofs going in comments too 👇
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