Looking for data-informed guidelines for pricing ad space on your newsletter? You may not find it... yet. Some say sell zero ads til 75k subs. Others have monetized with just 1 issue. Is there a science to selling newsletter ads?
NYT tech journalist Kara Swisher noted as she announced the launch of her newsletter in September, “everyone loves newsletters because they offer writers a fresh, intimate way to connect with readers.” But if you didn’t have the equivalent of Kara Swisher’s NYT platform to launch your newsletter and have instead built up your readership over time, you may be wondering about how to monetize your hard work.
If you’ve decided to work with advertisers, you’ll want to do some research in order to prepare to engage advertisers. Understanding the current market and how to price ads is step one. However, searching for guidelines for pricing benchmarks does not yield much clarity. The growth of newsletters as an industry seems to have outpaced the availability of data-informed insights or industry standard that might guide you as in areas like pricing ads.
Look, we get it. Nobody is ever excited to take a survey. But what we could all look forward to is the data! From submissions so far we're already seeing some interesting trends which we cant wait to share with you. We will be reaching out to some of you to feature you as case studies in the report. So pour yourself a cup of whatever it takes,set a 3 minute timer,and take the survey here.
This time of year tends to mean business is booming or screeching to a stop. How's it going for your newsletter? Join 3 newsletter writers reflecting with us.
Ashley writes Opt In Weekly, a newsletter bringing fresh tips & insights for creating, curating, & publishing emails people actually read! Two years and 57 issues in, she's definitely the creator whose advice is worth taking. When it comes to her own newsletter she shared with us that she's...
Excited about: "responses from readers! Every week comes with replies that let me know more & more people are finding value in the newsletter."
Challenge she's working on: "Hoping to book 1 speaking engagement/month. Subscribers who "get it" before they opt in are the best."
Rolf is a self-described "marketing nerd" spending 10–15 hours each week reading, testing, and organizing the daily surge of content, apps, and tools so you don’t have to. The result is the 62 issue strong Fresh van Root newsletter.
Hitting publish every two weeks for over 2 years, he's seen trends in reader behaviour and dropped some knowledge to share with the Crew.
The December Dropoff
"I learned last year that pushing new content in December is a bad Idea. So instead of creating fresh newsletters in December we will create a "best of" issue with the most clicked stories of 2021."
One challenge he's (not really) working on: "Subscribe rate, open/click rate have all been down across the board last December."
Asked what approach he's taking to fix that, Rolf says "wait for January.." A strategy we can't fault! Will you be taking a break this holiday period?
Jesscreated the #jesspicks newsletter to help people get resources and tools to make money from a sidehustle. With 1,100 readers receiving it each Saturday with their morning coffee, she has earned her readers' trust through delivering every single week. Taking pause on the past year and pointing forward she share that she's...
Excited about: "writing my final issue of the year this week. And having some brain space to do some thinking for 2022."
Want to join us in reflection. Tweet us what you're excited about or a challenge you're working on.
This time of year tends to mean business is booming or screeching to a stop. How's it looking for your newsletter? What are you excited about? What's a challenge you're working on?
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