Start A Newsletter - Business Ideas
Did you know that in the past five years, there has been more than a 50% increase in the number of people who read newsletters?
Newsletters are one of the few things you can use to market yourself as a trusted expert. A well-written newsletter can educate your subscribers and build connections with them.
Email newsletters are a great way to connect with customers and potential customers. It’s a newsletter’s job to inform, persuade, and sell to your audience.
Starting a newsletter requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell newsletter publishing, or selling newsletter publishing online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key Stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
|
Office Space Expenses |
$0 |
$7,000 |
|
Employee & Freelancer Expenses |
$151 |
$352 |
|
Website Costs |
$223 |
$7,215 |
|
Business Formation Fees |
$600 |
$4,700 |
|
Equipment & Supply Expenses |
$63 |
$200 |
|
Inventory Expenses |
$350 |
$14,750 |
|
Advertising & Marketing Costs |
$0 |
$2,550 |
|
Software Expenses |
$150 |
$2,420 |
|
Total Startup Costs |
$1,537 |
$39,187 |
Case Studies
•
$2.13M/mo
•
$4K/mo
•
$3.38K/mo
•
$70K/mo
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Contrarian Thinking |
contrarianthinking.co |
560 |
|
|
Yolo Intel |
yolojournal.substack.com |
572 |
|
|
Cup of Coffee by Craig Calcaterra |
cupofcoffee.substack.com |
572 |
|
|
Chief in the North Newsletter |
mnchiefsfan.substack.com |
572 |
|
|
BowTied Opossum |
bowtiedopossum.substack.com |
572 |
|
|
MDPI |
mdpi.com |
2,482 |
|
|
Money Talk |
heymoneytalk.co.uk |
2,993 |
|
|
Scientific American |
scientificamerican.com |
4,573 |
|
|
MarketBeat |
marketbeat.com |
6,367 |
|
|
Roam |
roamresearch.com |
7,004 |
|
|
BetterStudio |
betterstudio.com |
8,246 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
|
Flexibility |
You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own. |
|
Meaningful business connections |
You never know who you will meet as a newsletter. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity! |
|
High customer retention rates |
Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer. |
|
Easy to encourage "impulse buy" |
In the newsletter, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer. |
|
Control of workload |
With starting a newsletter, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you. |
|
Gain exposure and experience |
This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you! |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
|
Motivation of employees |
If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees. |
|
Low margins |
The gross margins for your newsletter are typically around 40%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability. |
|
High employee turnover |
In the newsletter, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment. |
|
Taxes |
As a newsletter, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it. |
|
Niche Market |
A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience. |
|
High overhead expenses |
With starting a newsletter, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below. |
Marketing Ideas
-
1
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.
-
2
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
-
3
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.
Hey! 👋 I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.
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