How to get rich with newsletters (without getting lucky)

The rise and fall of the newsletter (an insider’s look).

In 2015, facebook throttled reach for pages.

Writers, marketers, and small business owners realized if they don’t own their audience’s contact info they’re screwed.

Enter email.

An old crusty, channel… suddenly made desirable again.

Not longer after, Substack gave journalists, bloggers, and writers hope for escaping their dying media jobs. Big names defected from big labels promising “uncensored writing” direct to their fans.

Readers start paying for words directly (instead of peering through a large shrubbery of ads).

Think “1,000 true fans” on steroids…

“All you need to do is get 1,000 people to pay you ten bucks a month!”

But the truth is, 99% of folks never make ends meet there (which is why I ignore it and other similar platforms with similar success metrics so gracefully).

Anyway…

Back to the story.

That’s when Morning Brew sold everyone on the newsletter referral system (get friends to sign up, earn points, get schwag) — meanwhile they’re selling your eyeballs to the highest bidder.

Then all of a sudden, every media company has a newsletter.

Ex-Morning Bew employees build Beehiiv while copywriters rebrand as media operators and ghostwriters, agencies pop up promising to “launch your newsletter”, growth hackers build fake sign-up farms and viral looping strategies…

Newsletter arbitrage becomes a thing (buying ads to get cheap signups then flipping those leads to high paid newsletter ads).

Huge companies start pouring cash into newsletter sponsorships.

Everyone and their cousin launches a newsletter.

And 95% of writer’s never see a dime while the top 1% make six-figures sending 2 emails a week. Everyone thought they were launching a “passion project” but in reality it was just a huge media land grab.

But the good news is…

Most will get commoditized in the deep, dark void of “newsletter aggregators”.

And as long as you don’t fall for the “AI-will-just-do-everything-for-you” hype and focus on writing emails in your own voice, with your own stories, and build the kind of trust that AI can’t fake…

Then you can focus on getting rich (without getting lucky) — by monetizing WITHOUT ads.

Sell your own coaching, your own consulting, your own courses, and your own services. Use your email list to sign high-ticket clients and build high value partnerships.

The newsletter gold rush is over.

But like I said before, email is the coyote of the internet, you can’t kill it, no matter how hard you try.

Inboxes are filled to the brim, but you can still stand out by becoming the only email your readers actually want to read (sitting on the edge of their seat in eager anticipation of it’s arrival).

If you do as I teach inside the Email Sales Accelerator, waitlist link below:

https://kevinhood.me/accelerator

Best,

Kevin Hood