Week 19: Beehiiv Ads

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This week’s update is about the Beehiiv ads feature and so it makes sense to open with an ad from this week’s sponsor, The Rundown AI.

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Using Beehiiv Ads

The ads feature is only available on paid plans and is completely optional. I wasn’t sure there would be many ad opportunities for me since my subscriber numbers are so low. But less than two weeks after upgrading, I was offered my first sponsorship opportunity.

When an ad opportunity comes up, you get sent an email letting you know, but they are also available in your ad dashboard.

Here’s an example of one I was offered but decided not to run because it wasn’t relevant.

As you can see, it gives you an overview of the company whose ad you would be running and the amount you would earn per click.

“View details and respond” takes you to another page where you can view the different ad layouts. If you are happy to run the ad, you select the version you want and choose the date you want to run it.

You then need to add the ad to an email newsletter that will be sent on the date you have selected. You can do this as you write the post: add a new block/element and select the “advertisement” option and choose the ad you want to run.

Create the rest of your newsletter and then go through the usual steps. After you have scheduled your email, you’ll be able to see what the ad looks like. You must send the ad in an email that goes out on the date you selected.

Once your newsletter goes out, you make money for every person that clicks on the ad.

There are some rules. You aren’t allowed to send emails that are just full of ads and nothing else and you aren’t allowed to ask people to click the ads just so you can make money.

I’m sure some creators run every ad they are offered. I’m only going to run ads that I think are relevant.

I said from the start of this experiment that I want to do things the right way and I think putting loads of irrelevant ads in my emails would go against that (hence why you aren’t seeing an ad for a precious metals company).

I’m of the opinion that the more relevant the ads are, the more likely it is that my readers will click on them.

So today I’m running my second ad (the one at the top of this email). I signed up for their newsletter after receiving the ad opportunity because I wanted to make sure it was good quality before promoting it and it is. If you are interested in AI, take a look - some bits are a bit techy for me, but there are some useful insights too.

I’ve got another opportunity to review and if I think it’s relevant, I’ll be placing that ad next week.

I’m not sure I’d want to run ads in every newsletter, but I’ll see what the response is like. I don’t think they are particularly invasive and given that the whole idea of this experiment is to test the features and try to make money, it wouldn’t be too terrible if I did.

I imagine that if you have a big readership, you can probably cover the cost of your Beehiiv subscription with ad revenue.

I don’t have a huge readership, so I think if I earn anything, it will be pennies. But, hey, something is better than nothing.

Weekly Progress Report

I’ve had a few problems with my Make Your Copy Count website this week. The backups weren’t working properly and then I lost the plugin that hosts all my courses, so that took a few hours to sort out.

I’m also moving all my course videos from Vimeo to Jetpack so they are on my site rather than externally hosted (and because it is far cheaper). So that has involved quite a lot of work as I’m having to update all the course lessons.

On top of that, I ended up spending a morning in A&E after my husband fainted while running and busted his face up (and they say exercise is supposed to be good for you).

This means I haven’t had time to do much with my newsletters other than creating the usual content and sharing it on social media.

On the upside, I have gained a couple of subscribers for The Freelance Fairytale and Write With Lisa. And I’m making a few pennies each day by re-posting stuff on Medium, (not nearly enough to get excited about though).

The next few weeks will be more of the same - trying to grow my subscriber numbers and make money. I’ve got a holiday coming up in a few weeks so I’ll need to pre-write a lot of content for all four publications so I need to make time for that. And of course, I need to keep doing the stuff that pays the bills (although I love doing the training and mentoring so I don’t think I’d give that up even if I was making the big bucks from these newsletters).

Anyway, that’s about it for now. Don’t forget to click that ad at the top if you are interested in AI and I’ll be sharing other ads when I think they are relevant, so keep an eye out for them.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please do feel free to email me. I read and respond to all emails personally.

And if you’d like to join my next co-working event, it’s on May 15th, and you can sign up here.

P.S If you like my content and would like to show your support, you can buy me a beer here.