Welcome. Every Monday, I share micro case studies to help you generate revenue with newsletters. I also share some BTS from our community of solopreneurs.
Tea from my life
I wish I had some fun stories to share here. But I am travelling to Bangalore this week, so I am just working on weekends to not have work on the trip.
If you’re based out of Bangalore and want to catch up, let me know. I can’t promise, but I’ll try my best to meet.
I brewed for my friend. It was fun.
Analysis in 350 words
Matt McGarry shared the best and worst ways to monetise newsletters. Here is what I disagree with.
(fyi: love the guy, learned a lot from his content)
According to Matt, the worst ways to monetise: courses, low-ticket digital products, affiliate income, and direct subscriptions.
And the best ways to monetise: live cohorts, communities, services, conferences, brand collaborations.
In my experience:
Courses: Yes, they are not standalone products anymore. Too many courses have saturated the market. In today’s context, courses are a great add-on. As an example, I have a community and I’m also building a course inside the community. This increases the value, aka packaging.
Low-ticket Digital products: Unless you’re really big, you must have a low-ticket offer. It allows you to gauge paying potential and intent. You don’t want to build, hoping your audience will take your premium offer someday. Always test with a buy button; failing fast is okay and good.
Direct subscriptions: I agree that people have a limited budget for subscriptions, but I believe publications should be independent of advertisers and partnerships for revenue. Especially true if you’re building in micro niches.
Affiliate income: It’s a bonus. Just have a page (I’m building a tools I use page) and let people know what you endorse and why. Don’t get too desperate here; it’s nice to have money, but it must not be your major source of revenue.
Live cohorts and communities: Given the state of the market, it’s the best way to monetise because people today love live experiences and need companionship more than ever. It’s time-consuming, so I’d only advise starting a community or cohort if your newsletter is one of your main projects. For side hustles, digital products have better ROI.
Conferences: Works for big brands, people with great connections, local newsletters, micro niches.
Brand collabs: If you’re a daily user and can actually vouch for people to invest their money in a product, you should pitch them for an exclusive partnership. It has great value in a world full of advertisements. Works great for creator-led newsletters.
Sneakpeek into the community
Chelsi was sharing her outreach process to land clients.
I added my two cents about how keeping in touch helps:
Marketing resources shared in the community
I read this on Twitter/X.
“If you feel lost, stuck, or uncertain, I strongly recommend you create a north star filter for yourself”:
On YouTube this week
I shared a short video on what people actually mean when they say “ownership of the audience.”
Hangouts
In the first week of every month, we share the best content we have consumed last month.
Smiles from last Wednesday:
Was today's content helpful?
Have a great week!
Love,
Vikra.