Monetizing Newsletters: When Creators Strive With Ideas

As the creator economy has developed, new approaches to monetization have emerged. The framework below outlines the three primary ways creators leverage audience to build wealth: promoting other people’s products, selling their own products, and investing in their audience or alongside them.

What’s interesting about newsletters is that consumers are willing to pay for them. While blogs have never really figured out monetization (apart from ads), Substack alone claims more than 50,000 paying subscribers.

And like mixtapes, the newsletter relationship is creating a cult-like following for the creator, turning readers into fans. The fan comes along for the ride as the writer moves from amateur status to stardom and it introduces a relationship with the creator that’s personal. This opens up a ton of opportunities for emerging businesses and, visibly,... See more