But Ara challenged me.
Wasn’t expecting that tbh. After some thought, I replied to Ara:
Great question.
From a consumption standpoint: to be informed, educated, entertained or to purchase.
From a creation standpoint: to inform, educate, entertain, or sell.
:)
My response was sincere. But too naïve. And it inspired this article.
I’m not going to bury the lede here.
The point of your newsletter is to make money.
Exceptions be damned: the point of every newsletter is to make money.
Newsletters are marketing. And the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to drive revenue.
Your initial response might be, “The point of my newsletter is merely to get people onto my email list and off a rented (social) platform — not to sell them anything.”
That’s great! And that’s called content marketing. You’re creating content (your newsletter) to grow an audience to convert into customers. So your newsletter is an indirect path to monetization.
But your newsletter can make money both indirectly AND directly.
And it’s so much easier to consider HOW your newsletter is going to help you monetize as a creator from the beginning, instead of trying to shoehorn a monetization strategy into it a year down the road.
