The Ultimate Guide To Newsletter Business Models

Your newsletter business model will determine your niche (or your niche will determine your business model), the way you build and scale your newsletter business overall, and help you choose your ESP (email service provider).

We'll be discussing all things newsletter business models, with the two MAIN models being:

1. The Creator Model 
2. The Media-Brand Model

In our last massive breakdown, The Ultimate Guide To Newsletter Types and Styles, we took a look at ten different newsletter types, which we'll be coming back to throughout the course of this breakdown - so I suggest being aware of them.

Our two main newsletter business models rely on two different methods of monetization:

1. The Creator Model = Value Ladder (Digital Products / Services)
2. The Media-Brand Volume = Sponsor Volume (Ad Sales)

This will make more sense as we go through our breakdown, so don't worry too much if you don't understand the difference just yet.

That said, these two models will actually expand a bunch and we'll be going through individual breakdowns of:

1. The Creator Newsletter Model
2. The Media-Brand Newsletter Model
3. The Hybrid Newsletter Model
4. The Creator Pivot To Media-Brand Model
5. The Creator Paid Newsletter Model

Meaning you'll be getting deep dives into FIVE different newsletter business models, with two main types, and three stemming from them.

I want to show you that there are plenty of variations you can go with and the two main examples are built on either selling digital products (or services) or sponsorship volume.

Each section will have a specific deep dive case study into a creator or brand that uses each model and makes more than a million dollars a year.

This is the opportunity available to us writer-creators with newsletters.

So as we make our way through this I want you to continue to think about how these business models relate back to:

1. Your Niche
2. Your Idea Newsletter Type
3. Your Personal Writing Style

If you need some more help specific to your niche (not necessarily directly related to the ideal newsletter methodology, but just YOUR personal niche discovery) you can also read my case study on The Science of Choosing Your Niche.

📬#1 - The Creator Newsletter Model

One thing I want to make clear before we start is that almost all newsletters will have the opportunity to be hybrid newsletters, especially as they scale, but there is still a very clear difference between them.

This difference stems from the niche and business model, which will also determine the ideal newsletter type (or the other way around).

We're going to start with Justin Welsh's Saturday Solopreneur newsletter as our first example, coming in as a Creator Newsletter Model.

Justin's newsletter is truly one of the best (if not THE best) examples for this business model.

Let's look at a quick overview breakdown before we dig deeper.

Justin Welsh - Saturday Solopreneur: 

• Newsletter Type: Thought Leader 1X Weekly
• Business Model: Creator (Value Ladder)
• Primary Revenue: Digital Products
• Niche: Specific (As opposed to "Broad")

Now let's take a look at each of these sections a bit deeper.

I'm going to skip over a deep breakdown of the newsletter type being that we did that deep dive in a full article here, but I'll touch on each of the rest.

Niche Overview

Justin is one of my big case studies in the niche article I made mention to earlier (The Science Of Choosing Your Niche), so if you want to learn more about how he went from a SaaS Consultant to a LinkedIn Growth Guru...all the way to a thought leader among Solopreneurship, then you'll want to read more there.

That said, for this one I'm specifically looking at his niche as it pertains to his newsletter (from the point he started it until now).

The reason I'm starting by highlighting his niche is because it plays a role in how he is able to run his business as a Creator Newsletter Model with a Value Ladder.

On Justin's home page he writes "Turn Your Knowledge Into Income" and he proceeds to say: "Join 210K+ readers of The Saturday Solopreneur for tips, strategies, and resources to launch, grow, and monetize your internet business."

So his niche is internet business, with his clear sub-niche being solopreneurship.

This niche is niched down far enough that it allows him to sell digital products around the methodologies he has used/mastered to grow his solopreneur business.

Note: Justin originally started much more niche, and in doing so had more success selling very specific offers with very specific outcomes.

He is also in one of the perfect niches for monetizing with digital products or services because he falls inside what is referred to as "The Big Three".

The Big Three Niches are: Health, Wealth and Relationships.

These are the things that people will pay money for courses, coaching, cheat-sheets, informational products, and consulting for.

Obviously other niches CAN work, but this is the ideal placement for a Creator Newsletter model (within these three).

Quick Spotlight: Superhero Jacked

This is one of the reasons I have been able to make over seven figures online with my fitness newsletter, Superhero Jacked, even though it is sub-niched into nerd and pop culture categories.

At it's core, Superhero Jacked is a fitness newsletter, so people will pay for programs, courses, memberships and coaching. 

If I were to have niched primarily into fandom (nerd and/or pop culture), I would have likely have had to opt for one of the other business models we'll be covering (Media Brand Model, most likely).

Business Model and Revenue Stream(s) Breakdown

Justin Welsh makes his money primarily through selling his own informational products (digital courses, and he has also sold community and coaching as well).

Note: We'll also take a look at some newsletters that fall into The Big Three that still have a hard time monetizing because they are still too broad.

Let's take a look at Justin Welsh's revenue streams (full breakdown of 2022 revenue):

1. Courses: $1.3 Million
2. Coaching: $144,000
3. Sponsorships: $120,000
4. Subscriptions: $103,000
5. Affiliates: $25,000

Justin calls himself "The Diversified Solopreneur", which means he likes to diversify where his income comes from, but in reality his courses make up over 75% of his income.

And if we tack on the fact that "subscriptions" are also a piece of his digital products (that is an upsell from his courses), we're at about 83% of his income.

And if we then even go a step further and add coaching in (considering this can also be lumped into The Value Ladder Model), we're at a whopping 91% of his income.

He now seems to have cut down nearly completely on his coaching in 2023, and scaled up the earnings that come from sponsorships as his newsletter subscriber volume has significantly increased as well.

Note: Sponsorships in this case are newsletter sponsors, or brands/creators paying for "ads" inside his newsletter. This will be a recurring revenue stream we will see throughout this breakdown.

The goal of our Creator Newsletter Model is to be able to sell digital products and services to our audience while also having the opportunity to monetize with sponsorships and affiliates.

As we'll learn more about below: the more subscribers we have, the more opportunity there is for sponsorships as well, which also puts us in a great position to diversity like we see from Justin Welsh here - but that is definitely not the primary source of income, or the main goal of our newsletter.

 The Ideal Model for ALL Newsletters?

In our breakdown of the Ultimate Guide To Newsletter Types and Styles, I concluded with a quote from Marketing Max (who runs Growth Daily), touching on whether or not he would look at things differently if he was to grow his newsletter again.

He makes specific mention to something he heard from Sam Parr (creator of The Hustle, one of the largest Media-Brand Newsletters that sold for $20-30M+) saying that if he started another newsletter there would be no ads and it would make money other ways (with something to sell).

Max goes on to agree with him, from personal experience, and says if he was to start over he would have ads as a small percentage of the income, but niche down into a much more specific niche that he could monetize more optimally.

And guess what niche Max is in: Marketing.

So, yes, he IS in a Big Three Niches, but because he is so broad, it becomes harder to sell a specific outcome.

To wrap up this conversation Max is asked if there are any creators he thinks are a great example of what he's referring to.

And, sure enough, he says Justin Welsh and his Saturday Solopreneur.

Even newsletter operators of newsletters earning millions of dollars agree that The Creator Newsletter Model is the most optimal, especially for solo creators.

📬#2 - The Media-Brand Newsletter Model

Next up is our Media-Brand Newsletter Model, which has become extremely popular with brands like The Morning Brew and The Hustle selling for upwards of $30-60 million dollars each and other media-brand newsletters flooding into the scene looking to replicate the model they popularized.

Where the goal was selling informational products and services to your audience for our Creator Newsletter Model, this model is the exact opposite, with the sponsorships being the primary income model.

We're going to use The Morning Brew for this section being that they essentially invented the business model (starting around a year before The Hustle).

We'll start with our brief overview:

 The Morning Brew: 

• Newsletter Type: Daily Curated Current Event Newsletters
• Business Model: Media-Brand (Volume)
• Primary Revenue: Sponsorships
• Niche: Broad

We aren't going to go nearly as deep for The Media-Brand Newsletter Model as we did for our Justin Welsh Case Study above, but we will be doing a direct comparison to it.

Niche Overview

Being that the goal with The Media-Brand Newsletter is volume, it's makes it advantageous to stay broad with your niche.

For example, Morning Brew's niche is Business News.

They share daily current event updates, having started the newsletter looking to be a replacement for The Wall Street Journal when they were in college.

Rather than get specific on an outcome they could sell, they stayed broad and the product IS their newsletter.

And I don't mean that in the sense that you have to pay to get it (although we will do an overview of paid newsletter options); I mean that in the sense that they see the newsletter itself as the product, even though it's free.

The reason is because it's the main source of their income.

Let's take a look at the outcomes and goals that would stem from The Morning Brew's niche VS. Justin Welsh's niche to make it more clear.

 Justin Welsh VS. Morning Brew Niche Deep Dive

• Justin Welsh Niche = Internet Business / Solopreneurship
• Morning Brew Niche = Business News
• Justin Welsh Goals = Start Your Own Online Business
• Morning Brew Goals = Become Smarter
• Justin Welsh Outcome = Make Money Online as a Solopreneur/Creator
• Morning Brew Outcome = Learn the Daily News/Stay Up To Date
• Justin Welsh Products = LinkedIn OS and Content OS
• Morning Brew Products = Sponsorships in The Newsletter

Can you spot the difference here?

There is a very clear outcome that comes from Justin Welsh's niche, and it becomes even more clear when you find his products.

Where Justin focuses specifically on growing on LinkedIn and Twitter to grow and scale his online business, he then sells you the exact model that he used to do it.

His content aligns with those goals, and everything points in the direction of being specific to helping you achieve them.

Then you have Morning Brew on the other hand that doesn't have any specific goal or outcome in their content other than to keep you informed.

Their goal is volume.

Business Model and Revenue Stream(s) Breakdown

As I said, this business model is pretty simple.

There's one goal (which you should know well by now): volume.

Here's how it works:

1. Increase Newsletter Subscribers
2. Sell Sponsorship Spots in The Newsletter

And here are ways you can make more money:

1. More Subscribers (The More Subscribers, The More You Can Charge)
2. More Sponsorship Slots (The More Slots, The More Sponsors)

Which is also exactly why the most popular route among Media-Brand Newsletters (almost exclusively) is daily volume.

Let's do some math.

We'll pretend for each 1,000 subscribers we make $100.

(This isn't the exactly the case, but it's easier math.)

Here's what we can dive into:

• 1,000 Subscribers = $100
• 1X Email Per Week = $100
• 5X Emails Per Week =$500
• 5,000 Subscribers = $500
• 1X Emails Per Week = $500
• 5X Emails Per Week = $2500

So, as you can clearly see, there are two obvious ways to increase revenue, and both come back to one thing....

Volume.

 Who Is This Model For?

There are going to be some creators out there that this model might be ideal for, but it's not what I recommend.

The same way you CAN make 50K/month opening Pokemon cards on YouTube, you CAN scale a Media-Brand Newsletter Model and make money, but it's not optimal.

Especially for a solo creator.

That said, if you are in a niche that is outside of The Big Three (Health, Wealth, Relationships), and/or in a very broad topic (not niched down into specificity) it might be worth considering the Media-Brand Newsletter Model (Volume) route.

Note: As we know from Marketing Max: "Marketing" is not specific enough. If you're targeting broadly like this in your niche, and don't have a sub-niche, the Media-Brand Newsletter Model might be better for you, depending on your newsletter type. Max says to niche down far enough where you can attempt to be the "go-to" person in the specific sub-niche you're in.

📬#3 - The Hybrid Creator Model

The next newsletter business model we're talking about is The Hybrid Creator Model.

The two models we broke down above are THE two core newsletter business models and the rest of them will stem directly off of them in some way, but are relevant enough for us to take a look at examples.

This model should be pretty obvious, but I wanted to show you an example of someone who uses this model extremely well.

In this case we'll be taking a deeper look at Katelyn Bourgoin's newsletter: Why We Buy.

We'll start with the brief overview:

 Katelyn Bourgoin - Saturday Solopreneur: 

• Newsletter Type: Topic Specific 1X Weekly
• Business Model: Hybrid
• Primary Revenue: Digital Products/Sponsorships
• Niche: Somewhere In The Middle (But in The Big Three)

The one thing I will point out before we dive in is this: If it isn't obvious, the goal for Media-Brand Newsletters was volume, the goal for Creator Newsletters was value ladder, and the goal for Hybrid Newsletter is somewhere in between.

Volume helps ALL of these newsletter types (for obvious reasons), but is more important for Hybrid Newsletters than it is for Creator Newsletters.

Niche Overview

Katelyn's niche is technically marketing, but she's sub-niched into buyer psychology (consumer behavior, marketing psychology, etc.).

So while Katelyn IS sub-niched a bit deeper than marketing, she is actually still in an extremely broad niche because of the outcome of her niche.

Let's take a look at another example:

• Katelyn Bourgoin / Why We Buy Niche = Marketing Psychology
• Me / The Creator Newsletter Niche = Creator Newsletter Growth
• Katelyn / Why We Buy Goal = Market Smarter
• Me / The Creator Newsletter Goal = Grow a Creator Newsletter

In one case the outcome is extremely clear. 

If all the content and the overall niche and brand point to one outcome and I am clearly stating I am the "Solo Newsletter Growth Guy", it becomes much easier to work towards dominating a specific sub-niche and sell a specific outcome.

But, as we'll learn from breaking down Katelyn's revenue streams a bit more, she solves this in unique ways, and has a great split between sponsorship revenue and digital product revenue.

Note: This example could also be shown with Justin Welsh's niche. He is technically more "broad" than the majority of new creators want to start out. When he started selling his LinkedIn growth course he was essentially a LinkedIn growth guru. It's important to see where these creators started, not always simply look at where they are now. (Read the niche article I mentioned above for more information)

Business Model and Revenue Stream(s) Breakdown

Katelyn is transparent enough to share a lot of information about her revenue in interviews, and directly on her Twitter profile.

In one post on her Twitter in August 2023 she shares:

"I'm projected to do ~$511,000 CAD in 2023 sales in sales by the end of August (that's ~$377266 USD)...."

She then breaks down her revenue streams as follows:

• Sales from Un-ignorable: 44.8%
• Sponsorship sales: 36%
• Sales from digital products: 11.4%
• Private workshops: 4.6%
• 1:1 strategy calls: 3%

Katelyn's Un-Ignorable Cohort is a partnership with Demand Curve, as she tells us by saying that first 44.8% is her cut of the partnership.

They sold out their first cohort in 57 minutes towards the beginning of 2023.

Note: If we cut the 44.8% from Un-Ignorable and just look at Katelyn's two digital products (she just recently rolled out a third, in a new partnership early 2024, but I don't have details on that for this example), it would make her sponsorships 65% of her total income.

 Katelyn Bourgoin Hybrid Niche Deep Dive

The reason I add this stat/note is because it's important to recognize that Katelyn's niche has made sponsorships and volume as the priority for her at one point.

She is technically in a more broad niche because of the outcome of the overall sub-niche not being hyper-specific, but she CAN still profit with digital products and a value ladder because she is within The Big Three Niches.

She also helps this by getting more specific on her actual offers.

The key takeaway: it is the specificity of what you're able to offer that is crucial.

 Who Is This Model For?

This model is best for people who find themselves in a broad niche, teetering into the Media-Brand Niche, but also in The Big Three Niches.

Revenue can come a bit slower due to the lack of specificity (which is even more important when you're starting out [once it becomes time to make offers]), but if you're dead-set on staying a bit more broad, then this model could work for you.

Alternatively, you can also choose to pivot like the next model we'll see below.

📬 BONUS #1: The Creator Pivot To Media Brand Newsletter

Our fourth newsletter business model is actually more of a deep dive to show you the options available to you as you build out your newsletter.

For this one I'm going to be covering TWO different scenarios of creators who chose to pivot from a Hybrid Newsletter Model to a Media-Brand Newsletter Model.

They both are in the broad marketing niche, and they both started with 1X weekly newsletters (though Alex Garcia tested 2X as well).

These two newsletter creators are:

• Marketing Max = Growth Daily
• Alex Garcia = Marketing Examined

Instead of giving each newsletter/creator a deep dive into their niche/type/model/etc. like we have been for the other newsletter business models I'm just going to give a bit of a backstory of how they went from Hybrid 1X Weekly to a 5X Weekly Media-Brand Model.

It's important to note that I specifically chose these newsletters in a more broad marketing niche (growth marketing) for two reasons:

1. I shared the specific quote from Marketing Max on how he stated he would have chose a different route for his newsletter, earlier in this breakdown.
2. They had the choice to attempt a more Hybrid Newsletter Model, but as you'll see, they chose to go the Media-Brand route, with two different tactics used to pivot into it.

Just to recap: the goal of the Media-Brand Newsletter Model is volume.

The more sponsorship slots you have, the more money you can make.

That means you want more subscribers, and more emails sent (more emails sent = more sponsorship slots).

BUT, the key difference that we're looking at is the fact that both Alex and Max took different routes to get to the same outcome.

(The same outcome being more emails).

While each of them started as a 1X weekly newsletter, they both eventually opted for the Media-Brand Newsletter Model with 5X emails a week.

Here's how they decided to grow into it:

1. Marketing Max: Max took a more obvious approach, keeping his weekly email that is sent out on Saturday and then tacking on "Growth Daily" as a daily (5X weekly) newsletter inspired by the TLDR Newsletter.
2. Alex Garcia: Rather than take his main newsletter and switch it to 5X weekly, or even just start a second newsletter, Alex decided to add 4 more newsletters on top of Marketing Examined, with each one covering another aspect of marketing.

  Who Is This Model For?

This model is just another alternative you can take during your growth with your Creator Newsletter.

I personally think this would likely only be viable for people who start out with a more broad niche as they look to hone in on where they really want to be, and then potentially discover they don't want to niche down and/or don't want to focus primarily on selling digital products and/or services.

If that's the case you can still go with the Hybrid Model and only sell products/services "here and there"...but this pivot could become more ideal for you.

Note: If you don't have volume, then this path WILL take longer to monetize.

📬 Bonus #2: The Creator Paid Newsletter Model

Update: I have now also added a full deep dive titled: "How And When To Start A Paid Newsletter" if you are interested in this style.

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Last but certainly not least, we have our Creator Paid Newsletter Model.

I'm tacking on "Creator" at the front of that because some of the highest earning newsletters with small teams with this newsletter model come from creators that I'll mention here.

For the actual breakdown I'm going to be referring to Heather Cox Richardson from Letters From An American, and Kevin Van Trump from The Van Trump Report.

Heather Cox Richardson - Letters From An American: 

• Newsletter Type: Paid Daily Newsletter
• Business Model: Paid/Free
• Primary Revenue: Paid Newsletter
• Niche: The History Behind Today's Politics
• Yearly Revenue: 10+ Million

I love using this example because Heather is not only showing the possibilities of a Creator Paid Newsletter Model, but she also shows another unique aspect in the sense that she is a solo-creator that runs a 5X weekly model as well.

Kevin Van Trump - The Van Trump Report: 

• Newsletter Type: Paid Daily Newsletter
• Business Model: Paid
• Primary Revenue: Paid Newsletter
• Niche: Agriculture Insights
• Yearly Revenue: 20+M

Again, we have another daily newsletter, this time with specific daily insights to the agriculture industry - so you can see a bit of a theme here when working around these types of paid newsletters.

The key differences between these two are:

1. Heather has a FREE version of the newsletter.
2. Kevin ONLY has the PAID version of the newsletter.

So Heather is charging for Subscriber-Only posts, the full archive, ability to post comments, and join the community she hosts.

(We'll see some more insights on how you can use this style below, but it generally is better for most creators to stick to The Creator or Hybrid Model).

Kevin does offer a free trial (foot in the door technique), but ONLY has the paid newsletter to unlock massive insights (which is clearly has).

Things To Make Note Of:

There are two specific things I want to make note of when it comes to our Creator Paid Newsletter Model.

#1: These creators are the go-to experts in their specific fields.

If you want to learn about either aspect, they are the #1 person IN THE WORLD you would want to get the information from.

That's what makes this newsletter style extremely rare (after all, there can only be so many #1 World Experts...), and difficult to start.

#2: There is also another variation of a Creator Paid Newsletter Model that you can use to essentially charge for a "paid" version of the newsletter.

It's similar to what Heather Cox Richardson does, but as I mentioned: she is an expert in what she is writing.

So if you are not that, I want to mention that you can still consider this model, but it's just not always optimal.

This second variation includes bonuses in the newsletter, a community (and other people even add coaching and resources), but this model isn't actually all too far from just creating a community/digital product.

Is it viable? Yes. 

Is it vastly different than something you can do as a Creator or Hybrid Newsletter? No.

Popular newsletters like Lenny's Newsletter and even Houck's Newsletter have gone this route, but they are also outliers in their specific niches/fields, and it will normally be much harder to go this route for most people.

📬How Your Niche Plays A Role In Your Newsletter Business Model

As you saw throughout this breakdown: your niche is going to play a big part in the route you go with your newsletter.

Your niche will determine:

• Your Ideal Newsletter Type
• Your Ideal Newsletter Business Model

You can obviously choose these two things first, and THEN work more towards choosing a specific niche, but either way it will come full circle for you.

Let's take a look at a few examples:

1. Marketing Niche = Similar to Marketing Max, Alex Garcia and Katelyn Bourgoin.
2. Pokémon  Niche = Similar to Pat Flynn's Deep Pocket Monsters (Highlighted here and in our niche article)
3. Creator Newsletter Growth Niche = Similar to my niche with Creator Newsletters.

Right away I see very clear paths for newsletter types, newsletter business models, and even potential pivots for these three examples.

Without niching down further, here's how I see it: 

• Marketing Niche = Hybrid or Media-Brand Model
• Pokémon Niche = Media-Brand Model
• Creator Newsletter Niche = Creator Model

Can you spot the big differences that cause us to see it this way?

Here's what I see:

• Marketing Niche = Even though it's in The Big Three Niches, it's still too broad of an outcome to be Solo Writer-Creator Model. This niche would need to niche down more to be ideal, but could be similar to Katelyn's Hybrid Model, or pivot into the Media-Brand Model like Marketing Max and Alex Garcia.
• Pokémon Niche = Not in The Big Three Niches. Would have a very hard time selling digital products and monetizing with informational products. Ideal spot would be to earn with sponsorship income (volume).
• Creator Newsletter Niche = Very specific. Can sell a hyper-specific outcome via informational products, coaching, consulting and more. 

So there are two things you are looking for here:

1. Is your niche in The Big Three Niches (Health, Wealth, Relationships)?
2. Are you niched down enough to offer a hyper-specific outcome?

As you learned in our niche article, you can always start hyper-specific and grow into a much larger brand (similar to Justin Welsh starting in SMB SaaS Growth, then growing into LinkedIn Growth, and now Solopreneurship).

But at the end of the day I want you to remember one thing that will ALWAYS be apparent as you attempt to place yourself in the Creator Model:

Specificity Wins.

📬 Which Newsletter Business Model Is Best For You?

If you're still in the process of figuring out your exact niche, business model and ultimate goal - then I highly recommend going with The Creator Newsletter Model.

That said, The Hybrid Model is also a great starting point for people who are not exactly in a rush to make money, and would rather start broad, build, and then decide they want to niche down a bit more if needed.

Ultimately, the best choice is going to come back to your own personal preference, but there's no denying that The Creator Model is the most optimal.

Even newsletter operators that have earned millions and millions of dollars with their Media-Brand Newsletters agree with this.

Thankfully, as long as you start within The Big Three Niches, you can find a way to work your way towards building within this model (it just might take niching down and getting hyper-specific to do it optimally).