I have used both Substack and Medium but the publishing friction can be quite high eg finding an illustration. What are my options, where my material will still be found and not just lost in the internet ether?
There are a lot of posts here asking "how do I land my first sponsor" at 300, 1K, 2K subscribers. I build a newsletter analytics tool and pulled sponsor data across the whole index to see what the actual numbers say.
The short version: if you're small, it's not you. The sponsorship economy genuinely doesn't exist yet at your size.
96% of newsletters have ZERO detected sponsors.
Out of 32,667 newsletters tracked, only 1,201 have any sponsor at all. Only 116 have 10+.
Sponsor adoption scales ~9x with audience size:
1K-5K subs: 5% have any sponsor 5K-25K: 5% 25K-100K: 14% 100K-500K: 29% 500K+: 43%
If you're under 25K, ~95% of newsletters your size have no sponsors. That's not a you problem. Subscriptions, products, or affiliate revenue are usually a better path until you're bigger.
Your topic matters as much as your size.
Crypto newsletters: 20% have sponsors. Education: 3%. Travel: 3%. A 7x gap. Below 100K subs, niche matters more than subscriber count for whether a sponsor economy exists for you at all.
The brands actually buying are concentrated.
Half the top advertisers by placement count are B2B SaaS for engineering/PM audiences (Vanta, Attio, Harmonic, Tracksuit, Anthropic). Three are DTC health/supplements (Momentous, LMNT, Maui Nui Venison). If your audience isn't one those brands want, sponsorship is harder regardless of size.
Methodology: 32,667 non-LinkedIn newsletters across Substack, Beehiiv, Ghost. Detection runs on public post content, so it misses some inline Substack mentions — real rates may be ~20% higher, especially on paid Substacks.
If you're under 25K subs and you DO have sponsors, you're a genuine exception — would love to hear how you landed them.
Hey all, I recently launched my first website called checkbox.money, it's a platform that allows users to subscribe to different newsletters related to stocks and the market.
As a casual investor, I wanted to create a platform that could just summarize all the noise from the news out there related to the stocks I pick. Eventually, it became something more than just that.
I decided to build this as a side project since I felt burnt out from my job as an SWE. The transition to using AI in the workplace really sucked the joy out of what I felt was fun in coding. At some point, I was fed up and just decided to build something on my own and see how far I could take it.
Anyways, please take a look and let me know what your thoughts and opinions are 🙂
I have made an automation that helps pull in leads.. I want to be able to bring in atleast one client by tonight.. what shall I do?
I hope one of you guys are a owner of an agencies, freelancers, or someone who sends newsletters via email.
I hope one of you can help me out
I just recently started a newsletter about 1-2 months ago. The subscriber acquisition rate is so slow. I’ve been posting on social media daily, including LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit. I’m not quite sure how else to spread the word and gain trust.
I’m a dual board certified neurologist. My newsletter The Brain Capsule is a quick weekly read for daily habits and the neuroscience behind them for brain health, sleep, stress management, longevity, the gut brain axis, etc. I just don’t know what else to do. What have others done to gain subscribers? Or do I need to be patient?
Thanks!
I’ve been trying to understand how newsletter sponsorships actually get priced and evaluated, so I spent some time reading old Reddit threads from founders, newsletter operators, and marketers.
One thing I noticed is that a lot of sponsorship conversations still seem to start with subscriber count, when the more useful signals might be open rate, audience fit, CTR, and whether past sponsors actually got results (correct me if I'm wrong).
One example stuck with me: someone said a 1k list with a 40% open rate can be a better bet than a 10k list with a 15% open rate for a lot of advertisers.
Not because 1k magically beats 10k on reach. Obviously, the 10k list still gets more total opens.
But because the smaller list might be more niche, more trusted, cheaper to test, and closer to the exact buyer someone is trying to reach.
So I’m starting to think subscriber count isn’t useless, but it’s probably the wrong first filter.
If you run a newsletter, how do you convince sponsors your list is worth testing beyond just subscriber count? Do you show open rate, CTR, past results, audience details, or something else?
I've been doing Reddit marketing for a newsletter owner in the stocks and investing space for the past few weeks.
Here's what actually worked for me:
r/investing: 2M+ members, serious audience, loves data-backed breakdowns and analysis. Posts that teach a framework or explain a market move convert extremely well.
r/stocks: Very active, slightly more casual than r/investing. Great for newsletters covering earnings, sector trends, or stock picks, as long as you lead with insight, not hype.
r/ValueInvesting: Smaller but highly engaged. This audience reads deeply and subscribes to things they trust. One of the best quality-subscriber sources I found.
r/personalfinance: 18M members. Not pure stock talk, but anyone interested in building wealth is a natural newsletter reader. Works well for newsletters with a broader investing angle.
r/dividends: Tight-knit community focused on income investing. Very loyal audience, if your newsletter covers dividend stocks, ETFs, or passive income, this sub converts quietly but consistently.
Now here's the thing most people mess up.
Dropping a link in a post is the fastest way to get shadow-removed. Mods flag it immediately, and even if it goes through, Reddit's algorithm suppresses posts with external links.
The approach that worked instead: curiosity-based lead magnets.
I write posts that are genuinely useful but I deliberately leave an open loop. Something the reader feels is missing. Then I mention the full breakdown is in my newsletter, or they DM me and I'll send them the full list.
No link. Just curiosity. The DMs come in, and that's where the subscriber conversion happens.
It's slower than dumping a link, but it actually works and you don't get removed.
One more thing I've learned from doing this across different niches: Free Reddit marketing doesn't work equally well everywhere.
The niche I'd actively avoid? Business and marketing. The audience is hyper-skeptical, mods are aggressive, and those subreddits are already saturated with people trying to promote things. You're fighting a losing battle.
After testing across different niches, I identified 18 niches where subreddits are large enough to matter AND the audience isn't burned out on promotional content so they actually engage.
If you want to see if your newsletter is a perfect fit for reddit markering you can leave your niche and newsletter link in the comments and I can share you which subreddit suits you.
The ones that stand out: AI, tech, sports, and health. These audiences are curious, the subreddits are active, and free Reddit marketing genuinely moves the needle.
I asked a few friends how many newsletters they're subscribed to.
Average answer: 12.
Then I asked how many they actually open and read every week.
Average answer: 2.
That means roughly 83% of newsletter content never gets consumed. Not because it's bad — because life gets in the way. People subscribe with good intentions and then reality hits.
I've been thinking about this problem for a while. The content is good. The format might be the issue.
Text requires you to stop everything and focus. Audio doesn't. You can consume it while you're already doing something.
Has anyone here experimented with audio versions of their newsletter? Curious what the experience has been like for both writers and readers.
I've been using something that does exactly this — earbox dot space — converts newsletters into short podcast episodes.
How much beehiiv's recommendations can be helpful with also the counting the efforts put to setup crosspromos with other Newsletters.
Also should I focus on substack more or beehiiv recommendations features. I mean like we can also ask other Newsletters for restacking or atleast after building a good relationship.
Actually I used beehiiv as a email sender and have setup substack so substack subs get subscribed in beehiiv. I publish same posts on substack web posts.
Should I focus more on beehiiv recommendations or substack for crosspromos or getting subscribers?
Love to hear you experience, suggestions.
For those who want to move to Spain, here's a newsletter that sends remote tech job postings for English speakers every week. Think one-stop-shop for relevant listings from Linkedin, Indeed, etc.
I group the postings in 4 categories based on their recency and popularity, same way I used to do it while jobhunting. Hopefully it helps you find your next role!
Is there an app that you use to create your HTML for your newsletter where you can just paste your text and have it edit the HTML for you and paste it back into your newsletter tool?
I use Kit.
At the moment I'm just using Claude to write my HTML, but it's a back and forth process and I run out of credits quickly.
Recently I launched ShareText on Product Hunt and honestly, I was shocked by the response.
Within the first 10 days, thousands of private links were created and shared by users.
The idea behind ShareText was simple:
I originally built it because I felt most sharing tools were either:
What surprised me most was seeing how people actually used it:
This made me realize that sometimes users do not want another “workspace” or “platform.”
They just want a fast tool that solves one problem really well.
Still early, but seeing real adoption from the community has been incredibly motivating.
Would love feedback from fellow makers:
What do you think made a simple tool like this gain traction so quickly?
I publish every weekday, sometimes Saturdays too but there’s no rules- just vibes. It’s mostly AI written, I just throw in extra comments here and there. I spend 15-30 minutes on it daily. Then a little extra for social media.
950 subscribers, 57 percent open rate. I’ve been advertising local businesses, they get four ads per month for $150 but I think it’s about time to raise the price again.
Hi folks, I’ve noticed that most newsletter sign-up pages request for just email addresses and no other detail.
I’m assuming that newsletters that are sent out are personalised to each user using their first name. So how do you all get the first name of your users when most times they put an email address that has nothing to do with their first or last name?
Backstory: I work in comms for a 20-person NGO. Up until 3 months ago, we were sending our general newsletter completely by hand via Outlook... I finally decided enough was enough, did some research, and moved us to Kit - the free version, of course (why pay for something that you can get for free??)
Well, it has been a total failure. The deliverability has been awful, to the point where our own team wasn't even receiving the emails. I ended up looking like one big noob in front of the organization (even though they conveniently forgot we were literally sending them manually before...).
Anyhow, but I now finally have a budget - about to €40/month (though I'm happy if it's less. Also I can increase the number if the price – performance works in my favour). We currently have 1,800 subscribers.
What I've looked into so far: I talked to some colleagues working in similar organizations, and they recommended MailUp. I checked it out, but for what we actually need, the pricing is over €100/month, which is way out of our budget. And whatever preplexity/gemini recommend it not really fit for our needs upon doing a more extensive research into the recommendations.
Must-Haves:
Does anyone have recommendations for a provider that fits this description and handles multiple distinct project lists well within this budget? I really do not want to go through KIT thing again...
I’m currently building partnerships with newsletters in different niches (DTC, SaaS, finance, health).
I’m actively looking for:
These are accounts I have just created, so they are brand new. Please do not hesitate to reach out—especially if you are involved in the fields of biohacking, longevity, fitness, or sports. Honestly, any topic works; as long as we can reach a mutual agreement, we can work together. I offer a 20% commission on every product sold, plus a 15% discount for your audience—along with other perks, and I am also open to discussing your specific terms.
If you run a newsletter and are open to partnerships contact me:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588787146254
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anyniat.karoka/
Mail: anyniat.karoka@gmail.com
I run a real estate blog helping foreigners buy property overseas (mostly focused on Southeast Asia). SEO traffic dropped hard in 2025 and maintaining a website solo has been brutal. I want to shift to a newsletter format so I'm not dependent on Google.
I have a 600+ email list (mostly foreigners who've already bought property in Asia), genuine interest in deep research and writing, and some data on what people actually ask about. I just want a sustainable format for content I already enjoy creating.
What I'd write about:
Topics that cross borders, things like:
Rotating between market deep dives, cross-country comparisons, and structural topics (legal, tax, ownership models).
What I'm trying to figure out:
For context, I'm not selling anything through the newsletter. I make money through agent referrals.
Appreciate any input.
No catch. Just realized how rarely anyone is taking advantage of the podcast space. I have a coworker who gets like 40k downloads per month. Even a small conversion on those numbers is massive list growth. I'm based out of Columbus Ohio, so ideally id love to work with someone i can physically meet but if anyone is down to start a podcast where we jointly record it, that'd be sick. We can coordinate with timezones and everything. Regardless I'm starting a podcast this summer as I'm off work (teacher) and have the summer off. I could probably even do guest speakers, that would be sick. Great way to promote your newsletters. DM me if interested.
Edit: I was thinking of a super casual but high quality podcast. You can run your own and I run mine and we have a back and forth about newsletter stuff. We meet to record. Basically I’ll record older emails of mine. And the second part of the podcasts becomes our convo and thoughts about the topics discussed. maybe for 30 minutes to an 45, hour tops.
Recording will be via riverside(the platform) or really any virtual meeting tool like zoom then we push the final recorded version to Buzzsprout which is another platform that will aggregate and share the podcast to popular outlets like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If we record every other day that is like 45 episodes in just 3 months. Almost enough for the year.
If your newsletter fits any of these niches:
You can send a cross promo request directly here
If not, feel free to join the community (130+ creators) and let me know your niche, I’ll notify you when a relevant opportunity comes up.
Let’s help each other grow in a way that’s authentic and valuable to our readers.
I mean the type of daily newsletter that sums up local news, fun activities, family-friendly stuff, maybe weather, etc.
Those seemed to enjoy a bit of a moment in 2024-25 and I'm wondering whether that ship has sailed.
When I try to research that market, I always wind up on a Youtube or Skool page where some guru is selling an "AI does it for you" newsletter course, which makes me think the market is already saturated.