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At the start of this experiment, I said I’d be looking at the different ways to make money from email, so I’ve dedicated this week’s update to that very subject and will be sharing five ways you can monetise.

First though, here’s me putting it into practice by sharing an ad from this week’s chosen sponsor.

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1. Sell products and services

Probably the most obvious way to make money through email marketing is by using them to promote your products and services.

You can link your emails to low cost products and services such as books:

Or events:

Or courses:

Or you can use your emails to promote your higher priced products.

You don’t have to include the links in the main body of the email like I have above. You can pop them in a P.S at the bottom of your emails, add links to your footer, or ask people to message you for more information.

And you don’t have to promote products or services in every email. You can mix up your content so that some is purely value, some is purely promotional, and some is a combination - it’s entirely up to you.

2. Create paid subscriptions

Another way to monetise your emails is by creating paid subscriptions. And there are loads of different ways for doing this.

You can offer a paid subscription alongside a free subscription where paying subscribers get extra content not available to free subs or they get access to new content earlier than free subs.

Or you can share part of your content for free and then put the rest behind a paywall (lots of newspapers do this - they let you read part of a story or one article before you have to pay).

Or you can ditch the free stuff and only offer paid content (it will have to be good content though).

And paid subscriptions don’t have to be solely about getting more content. Your paying subscribers might get access to webinars or networking or communities or events or training - pretty much whatever you want to offer.

For example, my paid subscription gives you access to monthly co-working sessions, monthly lunch and learns, and member-only emails and content.

Paid subscriptions are easy to set up and there are loads of platforms that let you do this including, Beehiiv, Ghost and Substack.

3. Ask for donations

If you don’t feel comfortable asking people to commit to a paid subscription or you don’t want the added pressure of having to come up with exclusive content for paying subscribers on top of your regular emails, you can ask for tips or donations.

It means people who like what you do can support you without having to make an ongoing financial commitment.

Again, there are loads of platforms that allow you to do this within the platform (including Beehiiv, Ghost and Substack as well as Patreon). Or you can use a dedicated platform such as Buy Me A Coffee, Ko-Fi, Coindrop or Tipeee (plus many more).

I set up a Buy Me A Coffee page in February, but I changed it to Buy Me A Beer. Of course, you aren’t buying an actual coffee or beer - it’s just a way to show support or appreciation (although I probably would use it for beer).

4. Affiliates and referrals

Another way to make money is by sharing affiliate links or working with referral partners. Beehiiv offers a Boost feature where you essentially earn money by referring other email newsletters. I wrote about Boosts a few weeks ago. I haven’t been using them much, but I imagine if you attract a high number of new subs each month, it’s an easy way to make a few pennies.

Substack has a recommendations feature and you can offer incentives for people who refer new subscribers. In return, you can look for creators offering incentives for referrals.

But referral payments and affiliates aren’t limited to what’s offered within the platforms. Lots of companies offer referral or affiliate incentives. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend anything if I wasn’t confident it was good value or good quality which is why I don’t share hundreds of affiliate links in my emails.

However, I do have one to share this week. I attended Atomicon last year and it was so good, I attended this year’s event too (which was on Tuesday).

I’ve already signed up for next year’s event and I have an affiliate link to share with you if you’d like to take advantage of their early-bird pricing.

As I say, I already have my ticket so I’m putting my money where my mouth is. If you would like to know more about why I like this event and why I recommend it, just drop me an email and I’ll give you completely honest feedback and info about it.

If you do fancy it, then please do use my link to book - I’d really appreciate it. The super early bird offer is only available until next Friday and then the price goes up.

5. Sponsorship and paid ads

If you have big subscriber numbers, you can offer sponsorship opportunities to companies who share a similar audience.

Sponsorship can involve different things. It could be having a banner ad at the top of your email or it could be that you do a review of their product in your email. It could be that you share a video or image or it could involve sharing a special discount code with your readers.

And you don’t necessarily have to approach sponsors or wait for them to approach you. There are sites that will connect you with sponsors (such as Paved) .

Beehiiv has a very good ad feature that makes it super easy to put paid ads in your newsletters. These ads work by paying out a small fee each time one of your readers clicks on the ad.

I wrote about this in the week 19 and week 21 updates and I’ve been sharing ads in my emails for the last few weeks just like the one at the start of this email and the one I’m about to share.

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Weekly Progress Report

Last week I was in Croatia, and this week I was up in Newcastle Monday to Wednesday for Atomicon so I’ve not been able to do much extra towards the newsletters other than ensuring the content is written and scheduled.

I’m fully back in the office for the next few weeks so I have some time to refocus on growth.

My next event is a lunch and learn on Thursday 26th June and the theme is repurposing and recycling content, so the focus in the next week is promoting that event and the membership.

I also need to start thinking about how this newsletter (and the experiment in general) is going to look for the second half of the year.

Upcoming events

All events are included in my monthly membership for £20 per month, but if you’d prefer not to commit, you can book any event on an ad-hoc basis at £15 per event. Here’s a reminder of what I’ve got coming up.

That’s about it from me for now. As always, thanks for reading and do let me know if you have any questions, comments or feedback.

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