Those of you who are in internet marketing business fully understand the importance of building your email subscriber list.
At least, I sincerely hope you do! If you’re not doing it, you’re missing out on a big chunk of revenue. According to the DMA National Client Email Report from 2015, for every dollar that you invest in email marketing you get $38 back.
Return on investment that’s topping 3800 % is nothing to sneeze at!
However, I’ll assume you’re doing all that - pitching your products via email, engaging with your audience, offering actionable advice, and so on. Also, I’ll assume that a weekly (or monthly) newsletter is also a part of your email marketing strategy (if it’s not it should be).
So, is there another possible revenue stream that you're not exploiting here?
Of course there is! If you are not selling newsletter advertising you might be missing out on anywhere between $200 and $1000 every week, depending on the size of your list and send frequency.
Don’t worry about alienating your subscribers by adding ads to your newsletter. Most of them are used to seeing ads everywhere they go and if you do it tastefully (cherry-picking ad offers and making sure your content is still in the spotlight) they won’t really mind. Even the big boys such as Quartz and Time are doing it, so why shouldn’t you!?
Why is Selling Newsletter Advertising a Great Way to Make Money Online?
Well, there are several reasons why this should appeal to online marketers:
No extra spending
Not time-consuming
Ability to present relevant offers to subscribers
Basically, there’s little to no work here involved on your part. The gains, however, can be pretty substantial. Practical Ecommerce website charges up to $990 for two ads in just one of their issues!
Who Can Sell Newsletter Advertising?
Anyone with a list of subscribers! Seriously, there are no obstacles here. The only thing you need is a decently sized list of dedicated subscribers who read your newsletter regularly, and you’re in the money! Of course, it helps to have a large list - the bigger the better, actually. You will be charging ads based on CPM (cost per mile, or thousand of impressions). The usual pricing ranges from $10 - $50, depending on your click-through rates and this will vary by industry you’re in. The larger the list of subscribers, the more you will be able to charge per ad.
Tips on Selling Newsletter Advertising
Businesses with large lists (bloggers, publishers, and others) are often reluctant to offer ad space in their newsletters, thinking that doing that will drive away their subscribers. That can be true sometimes, but the fault lies exclusively with the publisher. If a newsletter becomes cluttered with ads, of course people will jump ship. Here are a couple of tips on how to keep your audience intact and still earn money by monetizing your newsletter!
TIP 1 - Build a strong relationship with your audience prior to monetizing
TIP 2 - Be upfront about advertising - address any concerns your readers might have
TIP 3 - Control the ad space - it’s your newsletter, you make decisions about placement
TIP 4 - Always keep the focus on quality content
TIP 5 - Don’t get greedy - more ads does not equal more money
TIP 6 - Use quality ad networks if you don’t have the time to fish for advertisers
While it might be true that you won't earn a truckload of money by selling newsletter advertising, it's still foolish not to monetize something so valuable.
It takes so little time and effort and costs nothing that it can eventually earn you enough money to single-handedly keep your newsletter profitable!