How easy is it to make $2k with a newsletter?

Can you really make $2k a month from a NEWSLETTER?

This came up in a podcast interview I did this week with Katherine Reynolds Lewis from the Institute of Independent Journalists.

And here I thought I was setting the revenue bar too low!

I chose $2k/mo as a starter goal because it’s enough to turn down some freelance work and it seemed like a modest goal. I was stunned to hear it didn’t come across that way.

Sure, it’s certainly not a flick-of-a-switch but it is achievable even with a small audience size. I know, because I’ve done it.

Count yourself among the non-believers? Read on! I lay out my case in today’s issue.

The path to making $2k/month with your newsletter

I have two groups of data that makes me confident $2k a month is a goal most journalists could hit.

The first group is the success stories of indie journalists making good (often full time) money from their reader base.

Newsletter writers like Caitlin Johnstone, Nathan Tankus, Ryan Broderick, Matt Kiser, George Chidi, and Judd Legum.

The second data set is my own newsletter revenue.

I’ve made over $150k from my three newsletters in the last few years. That revenue spans from sponsorships and paid subscriptions to digital products, memberships, coaching sessions and speaking gigs.

My newsletter monetization journey

I’ve had three main newsletter projects. Here’s their stats.

📈Personal Newsletter (on Growth Design)
Operating: October 2019-June 2020
Platform: Mailchimp
Total Issues: 10
Subscribers: ≈200
Acquisition Channels: Twitter and LinkedIn
Revenue Streams: Course and Coaching Sessions
Total Revenue: $5577 ($4k course)

🌴LA Pays Attention (Civic Education)
Operating: March 2020-Nov 2021
Platform: Substack→Squarespace (Bad move)
Total Issues: 13
Subscribers: 2k
Paying Subscribers: 25
Acquisition Channels: Reader Referrals, Twitter and Press
Revenue Streams: Paying Subscribers
Total Revenue: $4740 + $50k client work booked for another outlet
Acquired: February 2023 by LA Public Press

🔌Low Energy Leads (Lead Gen)
Operating: April 2023-Now
Platform: MailerLite→beehiiv (Good move)
Total Issues: 50+
Subscribers: 1.5k
Acquisition Channels: beehiiv Recs, Cross-promo, LinkedIn, YouTube/Podcast, Events, Newsletter Ads, Facebook Ads, Gumroad, and Guest Speaking
Revenue Streams: Membership, Sponsorships, Digital Products, Events, Speaking
Total Revenue: $1156 (Sponsorships) + $96k (Everything Else)

Now you might look at this and think, wow Lex that’s very unimpressive.

But I want to point out three things:

1) Total email list size across these newsletters is less than 4000 subscribers
2) At the height of these projects, my social following was at most 15k (all channels combined)
3) The majority of the $150k laid out above is from newsletter-specific revenue (sponsorships and paying subscribers) and newsletter-driven revenue (course, membership, products, events, speaking)

This does not include most of my client revenue which was assisted by all three newsletters—a big reason why I’ve been able to work for myself for 5 years. I only included client revenue on LA Pays Attention because it resulted directly from the newsletter’s content and style.

Your newsletter monetization journey

There’s two revenue streams I’d start with: subscriptions and sponsorships.

Subscriptions are readers paying you for your publication or for perks.

Sponsorships are brands who want access to your audience.

There’s backup revenue streams like selling products (guides, ebooks, merch), hosting events, starting a community, offering coaching sessions, and public speaking. A newsletter will help with all of that, but let’s forecast subscriptions and sponsorships for now.

Subscriptions

Most indie news subscriptions start between $5-10/month.

The conversion rate from free readers to paying readers is *estimated at* 5-15%.

(I’m gathering better data on this but the worker-owned newsrooms I’ve been talking to are above 10% so let’s go with 10%.)

If you get 1000 subscribers, that means you can expect 100 of them will go paid and at $5 a sub, you’d make $500/month overall.

You also don’t have to charge $5. You can charge $9 or even $15. Or more!

If you charge $15/sub, you’d hit $2k/month at an email list size of 1300 readers.

If you charge $5/sub, you’d hit $2k/month at an email list size of 4000 readers.

I turned this projection into a spreadsheet for you so you can play with subscription tiers and subscriber counts.

How do you get to that list size and that subscriber count? That’s what this entire newsletter project is about.

Sponsorships

Sponsorships demand a whole guide but they are much easier than you think to acquire and you can get them nearly right away. I did an issue on them for my other newsletter.

I’m aware there’s ethical boundaries with companies and journalism but there’s rapidly growing interest in booking audiences directly through newsletters (as opposed to Facebook or Google Ads). Keep an open mind that there are brands that would work with you who are not a conflict for your reporting.

My first sponsor was one of my readers who runs a market research firm.

My main sponsor this year has been Senja, the testimonial and word of mouth tool.

I’d recommend a list size of at least 1k before adding sponsors but at 1k, you can make a few hundred dollars at least from sponsors each month. Check out Passionfroot as a fast track to getting started.

Our takeaway

Making $2k/month seems doable to me because it’s been doable for me. And I’m a person with a small audience! Probably smaller than you!

There’s a few mechanics you need to grow your list and get those conversions popping, but you’re in the right place for that.

We’ll continue debunking what those are together and if you’re new here, check out:

1) Automate more upgrades
2) The 5 email sequences you need for paying subscribers
3) Afraid to self-promote? Your fears unpacked!

By the way, I’m heading to ONA24 this week in Atlanta to talk about reader-funded journalists making more money. Will you be there? Reply and let me know!