Monetizing Newsletters using Buy Me A Coffee (with Use Cases)
Let’s say you are not a rookie anymore, your newsletter has grown, and you have made some traffic. But should you stay put waiting for more businesses to flow in? I say you don’t.
There is no harm in patience, but a tad bit of perseverance also wouldn’t do any wrong. Remember all those subscribers you earned, now is the time to put them to real use.
Email isn’t going away any soon, it’s here to stay. You could say the same for email newsletters; they are becoming more relevant and popular than ever.
By publishing Newsletters, you have the opportunity to reach out to readers in a very personal way, and if you are a company, raise awareness and understanding of your business and its products, services. But that’s not it!
You can also slowly but surely evolve your email list into a gratifying source of income.
This requires a simple strategy for knowing your list, making your list happy, and getting them to make you money.
The Strategy 🤔 💡
The very first thing you want to consider is who is on your list, and what would interest them. After this, check to see how many people are there on your list. If you have a HUGE general list, you could make a lot of money. Then again, if you have a super small yet niche list, you could still earn as much!
The next in queue is frequency; If you are only sending one message a month, you are making your chances of revenue slim. Whereas, if you change that to once a week, then you can have lots of little proposals that could add up to big bucks.
Migrating to a more friendly and creative platform for sending your newsletters is also a great option. Email newsletter platforms, equipped with proper design, subscription tools, publishing procedures, could make your publishings more appealing for readers.
Now that we have mastered the strategy, let us move on to some methods that will help us carry out the plan.
1. Sponsored Content 💰
Sponsored content has been around for decades; print publications were the ones first to employ it and continue to do so. But as online marketing has taken over the way we consume content, we have seen sponsorships move from print to web.
If you have a decent number of readers, other content marketers might be interested in promoting content that highlights a product or service they are trying to sell.
But if you are concerned about boring your readers from dull, regular ads, you can pick a sponsor company that sells products targeted to your core audience, and when done right, any mention of these contents feels like a natural fit rather than an invasive advertisement.
2. Direct Fan Support 🎉
Publishers are starting to realize that their voice and the perspective they bestow on their readers is what sets them apart from others.
If you have been gradually building your email list up, it means your ideas are getting people engaged. How great would it be if you could get paid to deliver quality content?
One of the more unusual, yet probable ideas is getting your readers to support you. Creator friendly platforms such as Substack and Buy Me A Coffee work on the idea that an audience can willfully choose to subscribe to a writer they trust to render value.
Substack offers its writers all the tools required to publish a newsletter; you can build an audience that you own and can take with you if you ever leave the platform.
Writers can publish free newsletters or switch to paid subscriptions whenever they want. They also offer other services, including payments, publishing, analytics, and other resources to help you grow your supporters.
With Buy Me A Coffee, you can simply ask your readers to Buy you a Coffee, that is to make a contribution. Add your profile link or button on your newsletter, and your readers will be able to support you without even having to register an account.
Many successful Newsletters, like the Sunday Paper, by Maria Shriver, are employing this feature to receive support from their audience. The best thing about this? Your readers, without being distinguished as premium or not, can support you alike.
The supporter-only newsletter option of the platform allows you to make a revenue from people who connect to your work. Imagine, if you could get a thousand people to pay you $10 a month, you have enough to make a living.
3. Affiliate Links 🔗
Working with affiliates can also be an excellent opportunity to monetize your newsletter. Several brands and companies will happily pay you commissions on any on sales, signups, or leads that you drive to their site.
The generic process for this within your newsletter would be to talk about a product of the affiliate company and add a link to the service. Try to promote a few products where you can earn either recurring commissions, for example, monthly membership sites, web hosting, etc.
You can also opt for products or programs that can make you commissions on two or more levels through sub-affiliates or downline members; this will help you build long-term residual income streams.
There are numerous ways to add affiliate programs in your email. You can have full banner ads that you create, you can have subtle ads, or you can dedicate the entire newsletter to the product or service of the affiliate.
Monetizing your newsletter through affiliate channels can be pretty profitable, and there are companies like ShareASale, Amazon Associates, Clickbank, etc. that could help you in the process.
Make sure that you only work with affiliates that share your company and brand values. If your affiliates have suspicious origins, their deception or low brand qualities will reflect upon you.
4. Sell your own Product/Service 🚛
Selling your own products and services could be one of the most effective ways to monetize your newsletters. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds.
You can create webinars that educate your subscribers more on the niche you’re in. You can also design eBooks or paperbacks to provide even more value.
The very best place to monetize your email list is on the Thank You page of your newsletter. Add parts of your product and link them to the Buy or Shop page, to convince subscribers to purchase right away, you can even include testimonials and raving reviews.
Monetizing your email newsletters is not easy, and it will take some time. Moreover, you will have to try out a few different monetization methods before landing one that works best for you and your audience.
For example, when you are just getting started, a fundraiser may suit you best. As you expand your audience, you may be able to grow to paid sponsorships or affiliate marketing.
Making money through your email list is not hard, but like anything that is rewarding, it demands careful planning, commitment, and the willingness to evolve and grow when events require it.
Once you have built an email list, sustained them through free valuable content, you can easily employ and use one of the ways discussed above to start earning.
