An $80k/month newsletter with 0 employees

👋 Hi friends -

Welcome to The Newsletter Growth Memo. Twice a month, I share short reflections with my newsletter clients + other operators.

Zero formality, ads, or affiliate links - just a guy sharing learnings from working with media operators doing $25-250k / month with newsletters.

New reader highlights: Welcome to Ryan (The Newsletter Conference), Lux (Somedays), David (Nautilus), and what appears to be Zain Kahn’s (Superhuman) newsletter-only inbox. Don’t worry Zain, I’m cool with it.

Two friends of mine built a $10M/year mobile app portfolio, 7-figure newsletter, and 7-figure e-commerce company.

They don’t know how to code.

They don’t even write their newsletter.

Also, they’re brothers.

Now here’s where it gets interesting….

They’ve solved the #1 issue many newsletters are having (unless your newsletter is 1440): Ad sales.

They’ve never booked a single sales call and do $80k/month with ads on a list of 300-400k.

That’s 20 cents per reader per month.

Let’s say you have a newsletter with a 40% open rate, $50 CPM, send 5x per week, and sell 70% of your ad inventory.

You’re making 28 cents per reader per month.

They’re not too far off on your LTV - with no sales team or major expenses.

Because all of their ads are programmatic via Adsense.

Here’s how it works.

Quick backstory:

I got to know Joel (brother 1) when a mobile app aggregator I helped build acquired his app portfolio in ‘22.

I went to Singapore last year to hang out and pick his brain on newsletters.

I love the way he thinks and this will be the first of several emails I’ll send RE: tactics we (newsletter folks) should learn from email marketing veterans.

Before we begin, a few caveats on who this works for:

1. You need to be in a niche that can send 3-5x per week

2. You need a niche with $50-100 RPMs (rev. per thousand page views) - think finance, beliefs, B2B SaaS, insurance, law, etc.

3. You need good content that drives people to multiple pages in a single web session

Alright, let’s dig in:

Joel has made one small change vs. your email newsletter.

He’s moved all his content to individual web pages.

Once you do this, your emails become an invitation to read your web-based newsletter.

Chenell, a cool friend and reader, does this, albeit with no Adsense monetization (get Adsense going, Chenell!)

This new format means…

1. Your headlines are equally important as before

2. Your in-email copywriting/hero image around the article becomes critical - a user who doesn’t click through is not monetized

Joel’s funnel uses paid ads from day 1:

Quiz/lead magnet ad → Quiz funnel → Email collection → “Personalized” $29.99 info product offer → Emails

Interesting, right? The ads don’t drive to a newsletter.

Joel’s email list is a happy accident from people who don’t purchase his product. 

Could ads drive straight to a newsletter? Absolutely.

Joel might not focus on newsletters…. but you do.

He’s got a $1M business hanging out inside a much larger business.

Just sitting there, ready for a savvy newsletter operator like you to borrow its blueprint.

Most people reading this email are doing a minimum $10k/month with a newsletter - you have the resources to test this in 2024.

Here’s how I’d take ~2 months to test this on the side of an already-profitable newsletter:

1. Put newsletter articles on a siloed branch of your site (1 week)

2. Apply for AdSense monetization (4 weeks) - a full guide to getting accepted here

3. Experiment sending a portion (10-20%) of your list emails that drive to your web-based newsletter (4 weeks)

4. Benchmark your bounce rates, RPMs, page views, and session duration to prove unit economics

5. If it works for your niche, start scaling it and double-monetize with an in-email sponsor (see Chenell’s Growth in Reverse as an example)

Joel sent me a guide of benchmarks + how he approaches this business.

You can read it here.

By the way:

I’ll be working with 2-3 more newsletters starting in July.

I’ve cut CPLs for newsletters up to 50% (20-40% is typical) while helping them scale profitably to $500-1000/day in ad spend.

If you’re doing at least $15-20k/month in revenue and want a free Loom walkthrough on 2-3 optimizations I’d make to your ad account, hit the checkmark below.

That’s the letter.

- Nathan May

1. Find me on LinkedIn!

2. Have a question on growth, monetization, or content? Reply here or shoot a note to [email protected]