Sounds like B.S. but stick with me. Too many people overlook the opportunity of a newsletter. I’ve trained 1000s of writers over the last 9 years, and I’ve learned this is because the average person doesn’t think their life or work has value.
But this is wrong.
Each of us has enormous value. We just have to find the right community of people who appreciate and understand that value.
The idea of a newsletter should turn you on
A newsletter is a place to put all your wisdom.
Every day, whether you realize it or not, you’re transforming information and experiences into wisdom. You’re having aha moments and maybe even breakthroughs.
Believe it or not that wisdom has enormous value. It deserves to be shared.
There are many ways to share all of this but a newsletter is one of the best options. Email newsletters are direct, personal, and private. They are a place to refine the craft of writing & compile the best bits from your week.
Seriously, be crazy and start a newsletter.
This is what powers your newsletter
A newsletter is useless if it has no readers.
The obvious way to grow a newsletter is by posting tweets, Instagram posts, LinkedIn posts, or long-form essays on a blog.
If you’re not a fan of social media you can always collaborate with other writers and do some sort of exchange. One week you promote their newsletter in your newsletter. The next week they do the same.
Many creators with huge email lists do this. It’s their dirty little secret. There’s an entire hidden marketplace of people trading newsletter recommendations.
If you have no clout or social proof, you can also buy recommendations for your newsletter through something like ConvertKit’s Creator Network. Either way, to successfully run a newsletter you need a clear idea of where readers will come from. It’s the same problem authors have to solve for.
Yes, you can publish a book on Amazon, but it’s useless if no one knows about it.
Making $5 a month from a newsletter
Platforms like Beehiiv and ConvertKit allow you to charge for a newsletter.
The idea is you have a free version and a paid version. For every free newsletter you send, you also send a paid one. Simple idea…
People pay to get more.
No begging. No feeling salesy. No internet guru marketing tricks.
Just your wisdom packaged up each week for those who want it for the same cost of a cappuccino — $5.
Of course, you can price higher. It just means you need to provide more value. There are easy ways to do this.
- Free written content, then sell paid podcasts or video content
- Community membership
- 1–1 time with you
- Masterclasses
A friend of mine is a recruiter. He thought no one cared too much about what he did for a living. Then he built a newsletter that helps people find higher-paying jobs.
Over a year he built up a massive list of people who wanted to increase their salary. $5 a month to get a $10K or more pay rise makes loads of sense.
Create a newsletter pitch that makes $5 a month seem like a stupidly low price for what’s included. Test the offer on friends. Get feedback from strangers. Run Google surveys.
How $5 a month transforms your life
You need 1666 people paying $5 a month to earn $100K a year from a newsletter. Read that again.
Like, could you find 1666 people on the internet full of billions of people? Of course you can. Once that formula gets uploaded into your brain there’s no unseeing it. You don’t need to be an influencer or best-selling author to do this. You just need to build a tiny audience.
$100K a year is huge for most people. That really would transform their lives. Sure, it’s not easy. It won’t happen in a week either. But hopefully you can see how important it is not to ignore newsletters.
A $5 newsletter is about this bizarre reality…
Running a $5 newsletter upgrades your psychology.
Even if you don’t make $100K in your first year, it’ll still start to change how you perceive reality. Strangers you’ve never met on the internet will blindly pay for something you produce.
A world of possibilities starts to open up once that happens. Even making $20 from a newsletter is huge. Because if you can make $20 then the only limit is your creativity and imagination.
Use a newsletter to create a psychological shift.
It’s not about the $5
Wait, what?
A newsletter is a vehicle. Charging $5 a month for a newsletter is level one. The real hidden power of a newsletter is all the other ways you can make money and feed your family.
You could have ads, post affiliate links, do paid interviews with experts who want to promote their book/offer, or simply sell a digital product on the backend and keep the newsletter free.
Even cooler than that, a newsletter is an opportunity magnet. Newsletter readers will get to know you. Some will randomly have opportunities for you. These will arrive in your email inbox with no extra work needed.
This option is far better than waiting to be chosen or asking for permission in the form of job applications and college degrees.
Newsletters let you write your own damn permission slip.
It’s cliche as hell but what you want are more opportunities, not necessarily more money. Because opportunities lead to money, and money releases you from the shackles of fulfilling other people’s obligations.
Final Thought
Even if you don’t think you’re an expert it doesn’t matter.
Research newsletters. Consider starting one. And if you love your 9–5 job then start a newsletter connected to your industry.
If you have no readers then send the early editions of the newsletter to customers, colleagues, suppliers, and people in your network. Place a big orange share button on every newsletter so your network can share the newsletter for you.
That’s how a $5 a month newsletter can change your financial life.
