How to create, price, and launch your 1st paid newsletter (+ format ideas)

Adding an extra income stream would be great, right? You could smooth out your income, grow your audience, and hit your business goals. But who has the time?

You’re already writing emails, planning blog posts, staying active on social media, and trying to make time for that little thing called a personal life.

Have you considered a paid newsletter?

Subscriptions provide recurring income. So instead of learning a new skill, like ebook design or physical merch, take the time to set up a premium newsletter—a small step with a potentially big payoff.

This guide teaches you how to create a paid newsletter to further connect with your audience and increase your income.

How premium newsletters fit into the creator economy

Paid newsletters are on the rise, and for a good reason. Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering creating a paid newsletter.

What is a paid newsletter?

A paid newsletter—often called a subscription or a premium newsletter—lets subscribers access additional or exclusive content via email by paying a monthly fee.

The main difference between a free and a paid newsletter is whether or not subscribers pay a recurring fee. Free vs. paid newsletters can also vary in frequency and topic depending on the creator.

For example, Barrett Brooks’ free newsletter features essays on ‘promising companies solving important problems,’ while his paid newsletter shares high-performers’ traits, habits, and skills. Each newsletter appeals to Barrett’s audience, but the exact topic, cadence, and price vary.

How big is the paid newsletter market?

Free newsletters are everywhere in the creator economy—45% of creators write emails, and an additional 16% plan to start a free newsletter this year. But how big is the paid newsletter market?

There’s no central database of paid newsletters, but our research hints at their popularity. Our 2023 State of the Creator Economy survey revealed that subscriptions and paid memberships are the second most popular income stream creators want to add to their lineup this year.

While there was a surge in the popularity of paid newsletters in 2020, Google Trends reveals that there was interest before and after that point.

Can creators make real money with a paid subscription newsletter?

The short answer: absolutely, but don’t expect it to happen overnight.

Starting a paid newsletter is one of the fastest ways to turn your knowledge and expertise into sustainable revenue. Newsletters are easy to launch and maintain, even for independent creators or small editorial teams—it’s possible to make a healthy independent living from newsletter revenue alone.

Newsletters also offer creators a ton of flexibility around pricing. Many newsletters offer multiple tiers, letting subscribers join for as little as a few dollars each month.

Why should I start a paid newsletter?

Here are a few reasons to consider starting a premium newsletter:

• Email has better engagement rates than social media: The average email open rate is 43%, whereas social media engagement struggles to reach 1%. Social media, Slack, and other channels are only becoming more crowded, making it difficult to stand out amongst the noise.
• Email inboxes are still a quiet space in a noisy world: An email newsletter’s direct connection starkly contrasts with ever-more-crowded social feeds, paid ads, and other marketing channels. Producing high-quality content lets you create a more intimate, long-term relationship with your subscribers. And in return, they reward you directly by opening their wallets—engaged readers are up to 8 times more likely to convert into paid subscribers.
• Newsletters allow you to write what you want: creating a paid newsletter puts you in the driver’s seat instead of producing what your job demands.
• You can write about nearly anything: When launching a successful premium newsletter, the riches are in the niches. You can create a newsletter about almost any topic, industry, or interest, and there’s a good chance you’ll attract a dedicated readership.
• Email newsletters are easy to scale: You only need to create the content for each edition once—then deliver that newsletter to unlimited subscribers. That means independent creators can generate healthy recurring revenue while keeping expenses low.

What are some good examples of paid newsletters?

Premium newsletters come in all shapes and sizes:

• Artist Amanda Palmer has a community of 10,000+ patrons funding her creations
• Journalist Alicia Kennedy sends a weekly paid edition of her food journalism newsletter with recipes and kitchen notes
• Podcaster The Black Guy Who Tips offers paid premium episodes for subscribers
• Therapist Kati Morton has paid newsletter tiers that offer exclusive videos, hangouts, and posts
• Coach Kate Marley sends a paid newsletter resembling a newspaper with diverse columns and series
• Consultancy Mixed Media curates freelance leads, job opportunities, and tips

How to set up your first paid newsletter in 7 steps

So you’ve got a killer idea for your email newsletter, and you’re ready to start building your audience. Great!

Before you dive headlong into writing your first edition, here are a few essential things you must consider as you launch.

Step #1 – Determine if it’s right for you

Email newsletters might be a great business model, but remember you’re still running a business.

Paid newsletter subscribers expect consistent quality and a delivery schedule, even when your life and mood are inconsistent. Think about what your schedule and mental space allow right now in terms of:

• Send schedule: can you deliver additional new content weekly? Or should you start with a monthly edition?
• Content workload: the effort required for an investigative journalism essay and a free-flowing journal entry differs. Consider what type of content you have time for right now.
• Audience preferences: it won’t matter how badly you want to create a paid newsletter if your audience isn’t interested. Ask for feedback and survey them about the types of resources they want.
• Audience size: you want your paid newsletter to earn enough money to be worth the extra cost, which means you need the right balance of audience size and subscription cost. Don’t worry—we’ll review that topic a bit more soon.

Step #2 – Find your topic

Choosing the right topic or niche for your newsletter is incredibly important.

Pick a topic your audience is interested in and one you’re experienced with and interested in sharing. That way, you’ll find it far easier to develop new ideas for each edition without you (or your audience) getting bored.

Solve the problem your readers have

Make sure every paid newsletter edition entertains, educates, and provides value for your audience, so your subscribers will stick with you for the long haul. Sometimes the initial idea will come from something you struggle with, and other times you can ask your audience what they want to see.

Start with a problem you have yourself. This is classic product advice, and it applies to newsletters. If you want to create a newsletter whose readers make a habit of opening it, solve a recurring information problem for them. Think about what information needs to recur in your own life, and then imagine the newsletter that will recurrently solve them.

– MC, Flow State

Craft a simple value proposition

Summarizing the value of your paid newsletter into a short phrase has two key benefits:

1. You gain clarity about what to create: The option to write about anything and everything is overwhelming, and placing bumpers around your topic helps you stay focused.
2. Your audience recognizes if the topic interests them: A compelling description excites your audience about the paid newsletter or helps them realize it isn’t a match. More paid subscribers is good for business, but you’ll have a more positive and engaging experience if there’s a fit between you and subscribers.

Here’s an example value proposition from Brihana Graham: “Freelance Flow makes pursuing a creative career easier & more accessible. Monday through Thursday, we share freelance leads, job opps, & tips for building a freelance business!”

Step #3 – Decide on your premium newsletter content and format

After you decide to pursue a paid newsletter and have a topic in mind, it’s time to work out a few details.

What do you put in a paid newsletter? A paid newsletter isn’t just ‘news.’ Paid newsletters include text, links to content like videos and courses, access to exclusive video chats, and curated information. Think of your premium newsletter as a golden ticket into an exclusive area of your business where you can put anything you want inside.

What about the length of a paid newsletter? Each premium edition can be as short or as long as you’d like; just be sure your audience knows what to expect. The experience of reading short daily musings versus long essays is very different, and you don’t want to catch paying subscribers off guard.

Here are some paid newsletter ideas to help you get creative.

10 unique ideas for paid newsletter formats (+ examples)

Premium newsletters cover a variety of formats. Here are a few to get you started.

1. Set up an evergreen newsletter

An evergreen newsletter is a series of emails you set up and add to. As each new subscriber joins your list, they’re automatically sent each email in the series, one by one. That means when someone signs up for your newsletter, there are already weeks (or months!) worth of emails waiting to be sent.

To the subscriber, an evergreen newsletter doesn’t look any different. Over time, you create more content waiting for new subscribers, delivered on a consistent schedule, just like you’d do with a broadcast.

This way, you make sure everyone sees your best content and take away some of the pressure to create a new broadcast each week or risk radio silence.

Brennan Dunn from Double Your Freelancing tackles the topic of the “email hamster wheel” head-on in his newsletter, Create & Sell. Each weekly edition has in-depth content about using email marketing to scale your sales.

Want to set up an evergreen newsletter of your own? Check out this Kit automation template you can import to get started in just a few minutes.

2. Add content to an exclusive backlog

If you want an evergreen and broadcast newsletter hybrid, consider creating an exclusive backlog. This backlog would be a place for past issues or content to live where subscribers can access it. You would keep sending broadcasts in real-time, but new subscribers could go back and see past work.

For example, the Monthly Tax Roundup paid newsletter sends tax news regularly. Following a similar format, you can send monthly updates and link to an archive of past editions or topics for subscribers to explore.

3. Release YouTube videos ahead of schedule

If you’re already creating videos, releasing some content ahead of time won’t take much more effort for a paid newsletter. Promoting your products is one way to increase YouTube earnings and diversify your income.

To leverage video content for your paid newsletter, send videos to paid subscribers a week or more before they’re live on your YouTube channel. Your paid newsletter can also allow subscribers to vote on video ideas, offer input, or hear about announcements first.

4. Send an exclusive recipe each week

If you’re a food blogger, you likely work on different kinds of recipes. Maybe you develop blog posts specifically for air fryers. Or, you have some quick recipes while others are more involved. Whatever the case, think about grouping some recipes for a paid newsletter.

While your website and free newsletter remain broad, you could use a paid newsletter to niche down the exclusive recipes you send. Your paid newsletter can also be a place to share behind-the-scenes recipe development and offer early access to new cookbooks.

Chef Daniella Malfitano has a free weekly newsletter with recipes, plus a paid newsletter with an exclusive cookbook each month.

5. Share behind-the-scenes content and song covers

Musicians can use the time between album cycles and tours to connect with their fans with a paid newsletter.

If you’re already writing songs in the studio or at home, why not share behind-the-scenes clips? You could also use the paid newsletter as your tour diary or get community input on album names, artwork, and more. An exclusive acoustic version of a song or cover of your favorite tune also makes great paid newsletter content.

For example, the For the Record newsletter promises to give paid subscribers “backstage access,” featuring song requests, stories behind the lyrics, and behind-the-scenes footage from studio sessions.

6. Break cornerstone courses down into bite-sized content

A paid newsletter could be perfect for people who aren’t ready for your high-priced course or premium coaching but still want your help. In fact, you could pitch your paid newsletter as an alternative to subscribers who go through your sales funnel but don’t convert.

Since creating unique content for your paid newsletter could take a large time commitment, repurpose courses into emails. These smaller pieces offer a glimpse into the full product, kind of like an appetizer. Coach Stephanie Pollock offers a course worth of content split over 10 emails.

7. Curate content and opportunities

Original creation isn’t the only way to help your audience— expert curation is powerful, too, and a great way to lighten your workload. It’s up to you and your audience what the right ratio of original to curated content is.

Your curated content can include job opportunities, related content, guest posts, and exclusive quotes.

Therapist and podcaster Guy Macpherson, PhD uses his paid newsletter to share new books and publications, upcoming conferences and events, and audience spotlights.

8. Pull inspiration from outside

Even creators with seemingly endless ideas have off days or face writer’s block. If the idea of coming up with content over and over is daunting, look for ways to find inspiration outside of yourself.

Is there a way to crowdsource your inspiration? Or lean on your own personalized recommendations to pass ideas along to fans?

You can even start a monthly subscription before you have a specific idea, like Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad. Simply set up the option for your audience to support your work with a monthly fee if they’re interested.

9. Host recurring exclusive Q&As

If you want to mix up written content with the occasional video, consider hosting a monthly Q&A. Record it live (or not) and share it in your paid newsletter—no editing required.

Asking subscribers to submit questions for a monthly Q&A has a few benefits.

1. Subscribers really get to engage and get their questions answered
2. You learn what people are *actually* interested in learning
3. You can dedicate one of your weekly newsletters each month to sharing the exclusive Q&A, which you could release as free content the next month

For example, nutrition journalist Christine Byrne hosts monthly live workshops and offers discussion forums for their paid subscribers.

10. Launch limited-run content

Want to dip your toes into a paid newsletter without a long-term commitment? Create limited-run content or shorter paid newsletter sequences. A short-term newsletter lets you test the paid newsletter format and see which topics or angles people respond to without committing to months or years of putting in the reps.

To make your limited-run newsletter valuable, pick a clear theme or value proposition. Then, promote the newsletter as a set number of editions so subscribers know what to expect.

Harvard Business Review likes to create short-run newsletters. HBR’s Managing Data Science newsletter is an 8-part series that curates expert writers around a specific topic.

Step #4 – Choose your paid newsletter platform

You’ll need a paid newsletter platform to bring your idea to life, which you can build into your email newsletter tool or a separate service.

When you compare your options, run the numbers based on your target number of subscribers and paid newsletter price since there are usually transaction fees. You should also include any other marketing tools you use as part of your monthly expense total.

Here’s how pricing works across three paid newsletter platforms:

• Kit: Account is free for up to 1,000 subscribers and starts at $29/mo after that. Transactions are 3.5% + $0.30 each.
• Substack: There’s no monthly fee, but there is a 10% platform fee and 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
• Ghost: An account for 1,000 members is $36 a month, plus 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

It’s hard to grasp what these numbers look like in action, so let’s run through a scenario. Assume our example creator has just under 1,000 total email subscribers, which they’ve turned into 50 paid subscribers at $10 a month.

Step #5 – Set your newsletter pricing (or price tiers)

Choosing your paid newsletter price feels tricky, especially if this is your first premium subscription. A combination of outside research and internal planning helps you find the right pricing.

Check out how much other paid newsletter creators are charging

Looking at paid newsletter pricing benchmarks helps ensure you’re heading in the right direction. Have a monthly price in mind for your newsletter? Check out what other writers charge. No clue what to charge for your newsletter? Check out what other writers charge.

What is the average price for a paid newsletter?

The average monthly price of a paid newsletter is $11. Pricing typically doesn’t go below $5 a month. High-value newsletters targeting business audiences (who often expense their purchase on a company credit card) can go up to $40+ a month.

The average yearly price of a paid newsletter is $100, roughly the equivalent of 10 months times the average monthly cost. If you offer an annual subscription, throwing in a month or two free is common.

5% conversion rate from free to paid

Another important number in your newsletter business is your free-to-paid conversion rate. A 5% conversion from free to paid newsletter subscribers is a great place to start, while some creators get closer to the 10% mark.

A 5% conversion rate means that if you want to reach 500 paying subscribers, you’ll likely need an email list of 10,000.

While there’s no benchmark that signals your list is finally “big enough” to open up a paid option, use the 5% sample conversion rate as a benchmark for your email list. That means if you’re sitting at 100 free subscribers, you may only be able to convert five people right now.

4% churn is normal

Churn is a natural part of a recurring revenue model and a good metric to watch. While a high (or growing) level of churn could signal issues with your content or chosen audience, losing some subscribers is okay. Subscribers might cancel if they cut back on their expenses or have outgrown your content.

Losing around 4% of subscribers each month is typical. A list of 500 paying subscribers with a 4% churn rate would lose 20 monthly subscribers. While you shouldn’t fret that some people unsubscribe, you should work to keep your conversion rate higher than your churn rate so that you grow in the long term.

Tailor your pricing to your audience and goals

As a creator, you can experiment in your business and tailor everything to your audience. Below are some factors that might move your ideal price up or down.

Just remember that you have the ultimate say in your pricing, so take examples as inspiration rather than rigid rules.

Revenue target

How much do you want to make from your paid newsletter each month? Starting with your end goal and working backward can help ensure you don’t set yourself up for burnout.

A simple way to do this is by dividing your monthly target by how many paying subscribers you think you can convert, at least in the foreseeable future. For example, suppose you want to make $2,000 a month and have 5,000 free newsletter subscribers. In that case, you need to convert 250 people to your paid newsletter, which is a 5% conversion rate.

Topic impact

Generally, the greater your topic’s impact on a person’s life, the more you can charge. For example, career, business, and finance topics typically cost more than personal essays or recipes.

Remember: this doesn’t mean some topics are more important than others.

It’s easier for readers to justify spending money on your newsletter when their investment will lead to more money. Plus, subscribers might be able to expense business newsletters for their job.

Publishing frequency

You need to balance quantity and quality that works for you and your audience. If you send content more frequently, you might have an easier time charging more. That’s why you’ll sometimes see daily paid newsletters with higher pricing than monthly or weekly content.

Consider how often your audience will likely use your content and what frequency you can maintain. If you aren’t sure, consider how often you publish now. If once a week is what you can manage, start there for your paid newsletter. If you think splitting your content into smaller portions makes it easier to digest, then daily sending could make sense.

Ideal list size

You need to decide what kind of paid newsletter experience you want to have.

• Higher pricing = fewer readers = more personal connections. Is this going to be a small and engaged community with more hands-on interaction and user-generated content? Then consider a higher subscription fee.
• Lower pricing = more readers = more reach and upkeep. Are you looking for scale with a large list of slightly more impersonal connections? In that case, charge a smaller monthly fee.

Bonus content

If you have additional resources or plan on creating them, use your work as leverage to turn your newsletter into a community. A premium experience with bonus content or access can drive loyalty and retention and is worth a higher monthly price.

Plus, it’s a way to use each product to grow the other. You can refer course students to your newsletter and sell your newsletter subscribers to your courses. Just make sure you aren’t trying to cram everything you offer into each newsletter—a readable and usable design is essential.

Step #6 – Create a landing page for your new product

Your paid newsletter ideas are in motion—time to give subscribers a place to sign up! A landing page is a dedicated space to promote your free or premium newsletter on your website. Don’t worry if you don’t have a website yet or want to branch away from your current setup; you can create a landing page without a website.

Here are a few landing page best practices to keep in mind:

• Stick to one call-to-action (CTA): your landing page needs to focus on a single product, like your paid newsletter, to minimize distractions
• Add testimonials, social proof, and results: subscribers will be more likely to hand over their billing details if they trust your premium newsletter delivers value
• Use a cohesive and easy-to-navigate design: stick to your brand colors, add an image or video, and ensure your CTA button stands out.

Step #7 – Promote your premium newsletter

New creators and veterans alike may wonder how to market a paid newsletter, especially if you want to grow your email list for free. Driving traffic to your premium newsletter landing page takes time, but consistent effort to provide value to your audience and introduce the paid newsletter at the right time helps.

Here are a few newsletter promotion ideas to get you started:

1. Partner with fellow creators through the Kit Creator Network to promote content and products to each others’ audiences
2. Add a link to your newsletter sign-up in your social media bio
3. Guest posts on industry and niche websites to get in front of a relevant audience
4. Use a newsletter referral program to reward subscribers who share your work
5. Create a free resource to grow your free newsletter, then promote the premium version to your audience

How to set up your paid newsletter in Kit

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for—let’s get your paid newsletter up and running!

You can check out our step-by-step guide to creating a paid newsletter in Kit Commerce right here—but here’s a summary.

1. Set up your paid newsletter product in Kit Commerce

Open your Kit dashboard, click Products in the Earn menu. Then click the red button labeled New Product.

Next, under Product Details > Pricing Type, you’ll want to select Subscription:

You’ll be able to select your newsletter’s billing Frequency (either Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly) and Price (the amount to be charged at each billing interval).
Next, in the Fulfillment section, select A Newsletter:

2. Send out your paid newsletter

You’ll send paid newsletters as broadcasts, filtered to only those who subscribe to your newsletter product. That way, you’ll never accidentally send your premium content to non-paying subscribers.

Start by creating a new Broadcast email and remove the default All Subscribers filter by clicking the X that appears on hover. Next, click Add Filter to add a new filter, then select Subscribed to > Products. Select the name of your paid newsletter product you set up in the previous step.

Finally, click Add Filter to finish setting up your filter.

Once you set the recipient filter, you’re free to compose & send (or schedule) your broadcast following the remainder of the normal process.

The product filter will automatically ensure it only goes out to those actively paying for it at the time of sending. That means if a subscriber cancels their subscription, the filter automatically excludes them — no action required on your part. 🙌

Pro tip: You can offer discounts on your paid newsletter subscriptions just like any other digital products.

5 premium newsletter best practices

By now, your brain is likely swirling with ideas, aspirations, and next steps. Before you jump into your paid newsletter journey, there are a few email newsletter best practices to explore to set yourself up for long-term success.

1. Kickstart your audience with free newsletter content

Launching a paid newsletter from scratch is no easy feat. Convincing someone to pay for your content—even if it’s only a few dollars a month—can be much harder when you haven’t yet shown that you can deliver value.

If you don’t already have an email list: consider sharing your content for free before adding paid tiers to build a loyal subscriber base through your free newsletter content.

If you do already have an email list: tell your existing audience about your newsletter and why they should subscribe, and link directly to your signup form. Even a small subscriber list can be enough to kickstart your paid newsletter audience.

2. Treat your newsletter as a product

A simple mindset shift alters how you create and promote your premium newsletter. Instead of thinking of the newsletter as just another message in your audience’s inbox, consider it a standalone product like an ebook or course. Adding mental weight to your premium newsletter lets you prioritize high-impact content and convey its value.

No one is paying you to send them more email. What they’re paying for is the value your newsletter delivers. And the best way to showcase that value is in a format that’s easy to create and consume issue after issue and does the heavy lifting of shaping your newsletter’s identity, expressing your voice, and keeping your readers interested over the long haul.
— Michael Jones, Supercreator Daily

3. Mix things up and build ultra-relevant content

Your paid newsletter should evolve alongside your audience, so it always feels fresh and worthy of the price tag. Here’s how to create an excellent experience for paid subscribers:

• Keep your eye on the value proposition: imagine the exact person who opens your paid newsletter and devours all the content. Who is that true fan and what enriches their lives? What can your newsletter offer them that no other newsletter can?
• Gather feedback often: ask what your audience wants you to change, add, remove, or improve—and then do it.
• Find relevant add-ons to your paid newsletter: look for new ways to add value, help your audience, and diversify your income streams.

4. Avoid getting stuck on the content hamster wheel

The longer you stick with your paid newsletter, the larger your audience and income can grow. Here’s how to make your paid newsletter sustainable so you don’t burn yourself out before reaching your goals:

• Make a list of the content you’re already creating. Is there work you’re already doing (or have done) that you can easily repurpose into exclusive content? Is there a way to add something to the free content you’ll already create that makes it more useful, insightful, or engaging?
• Aim to make content with dual purposes. If you’ll create 100% original content for the newsletter, brainstorm ways to leverage it elsewhere after it’s had some time in your exclusive space. Maybe your paid subscribers receive content before everyone else, you edit monthly Q&A webinars into short clips you can promote on social media, or you repurpose your free newsletter into an ebook that’s only available to paying subscribers.
• Automate sequences that grow your newsletter for you. Running a paid newsletter involves creating content, marketing the newsletter, and managing the list. By automating sequences like your welcome messages or referral program, you can set your newsletter up to work and grow without constant direct input from you.

5. How to increase your paying newsletter subscribers

The best way to demonstrate your newsletter’s value to potential subscribers is to show them. Linking to your past content is a great way to give potential customers a taste of what you offer and encourage them to share your content with their audience! Here’s how to shout out your past work:

• Share links to any of your past newsletter editions (both free and paid) within your newsletter broadcasts
• Embed a feed of past newsletters on any of your landing pages
• Create a blog post to round up your most popular newsletter editions
• Set up a product upsell to promote your premium newsletter to customers
• Use an email automation to offer a paid newsletter discount to your most loyal and active subscribers
• Find creators to collaborate with, like being a podcast guest to promote your premium newsletter

Ready to launch your first paid newsletter?

Paid newsletters are a great way for creators of all kinds to share their knowledge and expertise and build a sustainable and predictable revenue stream. The more entertaining, helpful, and valuable your newsletter is, the more you can make.

While it might be easy to get started, running a paid newsletter can be an uphill battle. But the earlier you start, the faster you can build your newsletter into a sustainable business that works for you.

Start small, be patient, and before you know it, you’ll have a thriving newsletter subscription business that supports you financially while letting you share what you love.

Start your premium newsletter for free with Kit!