Would you believe me if I told you the website below is capable of making $260k/year?

Yup, a simple daily newsletter run by 1 person (@tldrdan) with nearly no infrastructure cost.

Here are the economics:

  • 118,000 subscribers
  • 36% open and 8% click rates
  • He charges $1,000+ per email for sponsorships

There's no reason why you couldn't apply this concept to hundreds of other industries and niches.

In this email, I'm going to show you the exact approach I'd take to start and grow a daily newsletter to $10k/month.

Lehgo.

Phase #1: Pick Your Topic / Market

Time: 1-2 days

Here are 5 I came up with off the cuff:

1. Politics

Catch people up on national political news, high profile state and local elections, and fact check popular stories.

Honestly, all three of those things could be their OWN daily politics newsletter.

Tons of flexibility on your target audience.

2. Online Marketing

Highlight awesome emails and ad campaigns found on Facebook and other digital platforms. Your target readers are junior marketers, CMOs, agency owners, etc.

3. Real Estate Investing

Surface the best deals you've found across the country, new tools you've found (or updates to tools), and industry updates.

Your target readers are real estate investors (duh), realtors, developers, etc. Or maybe you narrow it down a bit. Example: real estate for aspiring first-time investors. Or maybe it's a specific property type you specialize in covering (beach house investing).

4. Homeschooling 

One idea per day that helps me be a better homeschool parent. New curriculum, strategies, and top posts from Facebook groups. Help me not feel alone and give me new ideas to do my job better.

Your target readers are homeschool parents, leaders at homeschool organizations, overbearing grandparents (kidding), etc.

5. Parenting

Daily goodies that make me feel better as a parent. Keep it light hearted. Funny memes. 1 simple tip that doesn't feel like work. Crazy parent of the day. One gadget. One activity my kids can do themselves.

Your target readers are obviously parents, but you'll likely narrow it down to parents of a certain age range.

Key considerations when picking your topic:

  • Are you into this topic enough to write about it daily? (This is probably the most important one.)
  • Is it easy for you to imagine who the target readers are and where they hang out online?
  • B2B audience or B2C audience? Monetization could potentially look different for each (more on that later).
  • What kind of stuff could you sell to your audience?
  • What kind of companies would want to buy ads/sponsorships?

Don't obsess over these. But use them to guide your thinking in the decision-making process.

Now, here's how to build an audience around your selected topic for $0.

Phase #2: Get your first 250 subscribers

Time: ~7 days

  • Write 5 newsletters.
     
  • See if you feel good about the concept.
     
  • Invite everyone you know to join.
     
  • Send them a 1:1 invite via text, email, LinkedIn message, FB message, or Twitter DM—basically whatever method would make the most sense given your relationship.
     
  • Don't be timid. Here's a simple script you can tweak for each person you invite: "Hey FIRSTNAME, I'm starting a newsletter where I talk about TOPIC. Thought you might enjoy following along on my journey. Want in?"
     
  • You don't even need a landing page for this. If they say yes, just ask for their best email. Upload directly to free MailChimp account.
     
  • Start sending your daily email.
     
  • Include 1 affiliate link per email.

This will get you a minimum viable audience that can help you spread word of mouth early on. Even if someone who joins isn't necessarily interested in your newsletter topic, they will know people who are.

Want the full playbook for this step? Check out the section of this article on Ambassador List-Building. It works.

Phase 3: Scale to 1,000 subscribers

Time: 3-6 months

  • Find 10 active watering holes where your target audience hangs out (blogs, FB groups, communities, forums, etc.).
     
  • Interact in each one daily. Contribute to the conversation.
     
  • Source the owner's email address.
     
  • Reach out. Tell them about your newsletter. Befriend them. Don't act like a weirdo.
     
  • Partner with them on content for their audience: guest post, FB live, etc.
     
  • Repeat 10 times with 10 more watering holes each time.
     
  • Focus on the top 10%.

Check out my "Partnership Marketing 101" article for in-depth guidance on this phase.

Phase 4: Scale to 10,000 subscribers

Time: 12-18 months

  • Keep writing daily. Don't. Stop. Publishing.
     
  • Pursue deeper partnerships with top groups from Phase #3 (ongoing column, monthly workshops, etc.).
     
  • Run a giveaway related to your topic 4x per year.
     
  • Reach out to the biggest influencers in your niche. Feature them in your newsletter. Get on their radar.
     
  • Create a free GoViral account and incentivize new subscribers to share your newsletter with their friends after they sign up. This is low-hanging fruit.
     
  • Hone your writing.
     
  • Listen to your audience and find out what they like and what they want more of.
     
  • Perfect word of mouth.

When I first tweeted about this business idea, Dan (the guy whose newsletter I mentioned at the beginning) answered a bunch of questions in the replies.

Check out his response to a guy who asked about the best way to grow an email list:

Notice how much overlap there is between what he did and what I'm recommending?

Notice how it doesn't include "put up a landing page, keep writing blindly, and hope random people somehow start subscribing"?

Outreach, outreach, outreach. It works wonders.

Screw rejection.

What About Monetization?

You should be thinking about monetization from day one.

That's why I said to include at least 1 affiliate link per email even when you're just getting started.

It doesn't matter if those links don't add up to huge numbers. Be in a money-making mindset.

As you grow, think about sponsorships earlier than you think you should. Put up a simple page with sponsorship info on your site. Here's what Dan's looks like.

Skeptical of newsletter sponsorship dollars? Check out this response to my Twitter thread:

Even if you could only get a fraction of $1,650 per email, that's still a significant revenue stream. ($250 per email @ 5 emails per week = $1,250 per week. That's a salary.)

But don't stop at just sponsorships. Remember, you have an audience. Build stuff that helps them solve problems.

Create an online course. Link it up in every email. Run a big promotion 2x per year. Host a webinar for it monthly.

The possibilities are seriously endless.

So who's going to do this?

If it's you, respond to this email and tell me about your newsletter.

Ask me to sign up. I'll be your first subscriber. As long as it's not something weird. ;)

- Bryan