It’s funny.
Everything old is new again.
A lot of people have been talking about the ‘email newsletter’ business lately.
This isn’t just about using an email list to promote your products and services.
The email list is the primary business model.
In some cases, their goal is to grow a huge list and sell ad sponsorships in their emails.
Other times they’ll promote affiliate offers.
Or they’re using the email newsletter as the ‘freemium’ and sell a higher-level paid membership to monetize the list (this is a great business model).
In some cases, they make it sound like it’s a radically new business idea.
Build a list. Communicate consistently. Make offers.
Hmmm…where have you heard that before?
It’s what set me free from delivering pizzas 28 years ago.
And it still works like crazy today.
The money is in your relationship with a list.
Why is the email business model becoming so popular again?
Because it works.
And it’s also easy to get started.
You don’t need your own products or services.
You just need a list management tool like Aweber, Birdsend, or dozens of others (these are affiliate links).
Choose a niche market where you have interest and some level of expertise so you have value to share (you could even get started by curating content or interviewing experts instead of writing your own content).
Put up an opt-in page, preferably with an enticing lead magnet to get people to subscribe.
But here’s a shortcut clients have used in the past to make that even easier.
Instead of creating their own lead magnet, they found a product (or service) they could promote as an affiliate that already had a content piece they could share.
For example, perhaps it had a content-rich video used to presell the offer. This could also be an audio interview, a blog post, a PDF cheat sheet, or anything. It simply needs to be something you’re allowed to promote as an affiliate.
In some cases, it might already be setup so you send visitors through your affiliate link directly to the content piece on their website. If not, you can ask for permission to use their freebie to help you grow your list and send them customers at the same time.
Create a landing page about your email newsletter along with the free gift you’re offering. Your thank page could go directly to their freebie or you could set-up a short presell page that then links over to them.
Promote your landing page.
You can use content marketing, joint ventures, or paid advertising. Or some mixture of the 3.
There are so many possibilities here. It depends on your skills, your personality, and your audience.
Create a customized list building plan that’s the right fit for you…
How will you monetize your email newsletter?
Start with affiliate offers.
You won’t be able to sell ads until you grow your list into the thousands.
And if you’re up for it, I’d recommend creating a membership, putting together courses, or offering coaching. But you don’t have to start there.
You can test with affiliate offers, track results, run surveys, and figure out what your audience wants to buy.
