How I Booked a Paid Ad For My Newsletter (with less than 700 subscribers)

I know what you’re thinking:

you need thousands upon thousands of subscribers to start earning money with your newsletter.

Having a stadium full of subscribers definitely helps. But it’s not a requirement for monetization.

Here’s a quick story about how I got a paid ad for my newsletter — with only about 650 subscribers and a free Substack account.

Could I Actually Make Money?

I started my Substack account in January 2021.

It wasn’t long before I saw fellow newsletters with “#Ad” or “Sponsored by…” sections in their newsletters. And not just the big ones like The Hustle or Morning Brew — but “smaller” newsletters too. It got me thinking maybe I could do the same. Only one problem: I only had around 650 subscribers.

“Who’d pay to advertise to a list that size?”

How I Found An Advertising Brand

So I did some digging and found Swapstack.co: a newsletter advertising marketplace that connects brands with newsletters.

Newsletter writers can pitch brands, and brands can reach out to newsletters.