How To Start & Scale A Paid Newsletter [Ep. 109]

*A big thanks to Travelpayouts for sponsoring this episode on paid newsletters

Want to start a paid newsletter—and scale it for reliable recurring income?

You’re in the right place, as we’ll be going over a 5-step strategy for doing just that!

By the end, you’ll understand:

• How to come up with a profitable newsletter topic
• Tips for designing & pricing your paid newsletter
• Pros and cons of using Substack vs a traditional email marketing platform
• Strategies for successfully marketing your paid newsletter
• How to retain members for more consistent income
• And more!

Plus, I’ll share numerous paid newsletter ideas to help you get inspired.

💻 Bonus: This episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast includes options for learning through audio or a text guide.

💡Quick paid newsletter tips:
Choose a paid newsletter idea that solves a recurring information problem your audience has—not just “more content.”
Use collaborations—like guest emails and referrals—to quickly get in front of new subscribers.
Reduce churn by offering discounted annual plans, which also help prevent failed-payment cancellations.

🎁 Grab my free Travel Blogger Resource Library featuring a Create A Paid Newsletter Workshop! You’ll also get access to 75+ resources that can help you grow your traffic, email list, and income.

🎁 Grab Travelpayouts’ free Digital Product Launch Guide, which can help you grow your paid newsletter earnings even more.

Start & Grow A Paid Email Newsletter Step-By-Step [Audio + Guide]

There are so many ways to monetize your blog, but if you’re looking for a revenue stream that brings in consistent, predictable income, I highly recommend considering a paid newsletter.

Instead of relying on one-time sales, a paid newsletter helps you earn recurring revenue while building stronger relationships with your audience.

Personally, I run a VIP Opportunities Newsletter for travel bloggers, where I send out five paid blogging opportunities every Monday. It’s an easy-to-manage digital product that directly solves a problem my audience has—finding paid work.

Curious about launching your own paid newsletter? Stay tuned, as that is exactly what we’ll be breaking down below!

🎉 Also, don’t forget to grab access to my FREE Travel Blogger Resource Library. Get access to 75+ resources that can help turn your blog into a profitable business—including a Start A Paid Newsletter Workbook based on today’s episode!

Why you should start a paid newsletter

A paid newsletter is an email newsletter that subscribers pay to receive thanks to the education, entertainment, and/or value it provides.

Some of the benefits include:

• Earning recurring revenue for more predictable income—since your newsletter will likely have a monthly or annual fee.
• Typically higher open rates than free newsletters—since subscribers who pay for content are usually more engaged.
• It can be relatively easy to create—and scale, since you’re production costs won’t really change aside from potentially needing to pay more to your email marketing platform as you get more subscribers.
• Positioning yourself as an expert in your niche since people are willing to pay for your skills or knowledge—which can also open the doors to other opportunities like speaking and collaborations.
• Being able to provide premium content to your community without ads & sponsorships.
  • You can include these if you wish, but keeping your paid newsletter ad-free can improve subscriber satisfaction and retention.
  • That being said, you can also monetize with affiliate links as long as they’re relevant, properly disclosed, and naturally integrated into your content. Just be mindful not to overdo it—readers subscribe for value, not constant sales pitches.

Now let’s dive into our five-step strategy for starting a paid newsletter.

Step #1) Choose the value you’ll deliver

When it comes to how to make a paid newsletter, you’ll first need to pinpoint its purpose. For this, I highly recommend aiming to solve a recurring information problem for your audience.

Start by considering:

• Who you help and how
• The problems or pain points your audience currently struggles with
• What you could deliver in a newsletter to make their lives easier

A few examples of profitable paid newsletter formats:

✔ A list of opportunities, leads, or deals—like what I offer with my VIP Opportunities Newsletter, where I share five paid opportunities for travel bloggers every Monday.

✔ In-depth insights, reports, or case studies that go beyond the free blog content people can find online.

✔ Educational content that is also like a course within a newsletter—and potentially you might even offer feedback on their work.

✔ A behind-the-scenes look into your process—such as travel hacking methods, brand pitching strategies, or trip planning techniques.

✔ Exclusive bonus content or early access—similar to what people offer on Patreon.

Thinking about these formats, I came up with some ideas for a blog that helps people improve and monetize their travel photography skills:

• A weekly list of travel photography opportunities like paid gigs, contests, grants, and calls for submissions
• Comprehensive photography guides for various destinations
• Case studies on successful travel photographers and their tips for success
• Monthly photography challenges with tutorials and feedback
• A sort of Story Behind The Shot newsletter where you give people a behind-the-scenes look at how you and/or other photographers capture specific travel shots

This list is not exhaustive. It’s just to give you some ideas to help you start thinking about how to come up with paid newsletter ideas for your own blog.

💡 Pro tip: It’ll be much easier to promote your paid newsletter if it feels like a natural extension of your existing content.

Ask yourself:

• Is there something my audience already wants from me that I can turn into a paid offer?
• Can I upgrade or expand a section of my free newsletter into a premium version?
• Do I have an audience segment that would happily pay for deeper insights?

Step #2) Design your paid newsletter

Once you know what value you’ll deliver, it’s time to design your newsletter structure. Key things to decide:

What will it include? Make sure your content fits the time you have available to consistently produce it.

How often will it go out? Daily, weekly, monthly? Choose a frequency that you can realistically maintain.

How much will it cost? According to Kit, the average paid newsletter price is $11/month, but rates can range from $5 to $40+ per month. I’ve even seen paid newsletters that cost more than $100 per month!

💡 Pro tip: You can also offer tiered pricing to cater to different budgets. Let’s say you run an educational travel photography newsletter. You might offer:

• ✔ Basic Plan ($5/month): Monthly newsletter with tips
• ✔ Premium Plan ($15/month): Weekly Newsletter + bonus resources like Lightroom presets, shot lists, and composition guides
• ✔ VIP Plan ($25/month): Weekly Newsletter + bonus resources + exclusive Q&A sessions or a feedback group

The more valuable your content, the higher the price you can charge! Some creators will also keep it simpler by offering a very limited free tier, a paid tier with more inclusions, and then an annual plan that allows people to save money if they pay in full for the year.

Others don’t offer a free tier at all and just have a paid monthly option and then a discounted annual option. Consider what makes the most sense for you.

Step #3) Choose your newsletter tech

When it comes to how to set up a paid newsletter, there are two main ways:

✅ Option #1: Use your existing email platform.

• For instance, if you’re using a platform like Mailerlite or Kit, you can add a paid subscription option using a PayPal or Stripe button.
• This keeps everything in one place without needing to move.
• Fees vary, so it’s worth contacting PayPal or Stripe to confirm the exact amount based on your newsletter price and setup.
  • For instance, with PayPal, transaction fees may differ depending on whether you have a Business or Personal account.
  • Additionally, if you’ve opted into Micropayments—designed for transactions under $12—you may be charged a higher percentage fee.

✅ Option #2: Use a platform like Substack.

• Substack is free to use, but they take 10% of your revenue, plus Stripe processing fees.
• Reduces back and forth since everything is in one place.
  • In my experience using the Paypal button, sometimes people get confused about how and where to actually subscribe and unsubscribe so that they’re not being charged anymore.
• It’s super easy to set up—you don’t even need a website.
• As you publish newsletters, your Substack paid newsletter will start to resemble a magazine with a discoverable archive of content. Readers can open your posts to view free content, or they’ll be prompted to upgrade to a paid subscription.
• Speaking of discoverability, Substack includes built-in features to help you grow your audience, such as:
  • Recommendations, where other writers can suggest your newsletter
  • Cross-posting, where writers can easily share each other’s content in their newsletters
  • Subscriber referrals, where readers earn rewards for bringing in new subscribers
  • “Upgrade to Paid” buttons that can be added to newsletter and site content to easily convert free readers into paying members
  • The ability for people to search for and find niche newsletters right on the Substack platform

💡 Pro tip: If you want full control over automation, sales funnels, and advanced email marketing features, stick with a traditional email platform like Mailerlite or Kit.

If you prefer a simple, hassle-free setup designed specifically for paid newsletters, Substack is a great choice. It handles subscriptions, payments, and email delivery without requiring extra tools or tech setup.

By the way, if you want to learn more about launching a newsletter on Substack, I recommend watching this interview with Tim Leffel, who grew his Substack newsletter to over 21,000 subscribers!

Step #4) Promote your paid newsletter

Creating your newsletter is just half the work—now you need subscribers to actually make it profitable.

Here are a few ways to promote it:

✔ Create a compelling sales page. Clearly explain what subscribers get, how often, and why it’s valuable. You really want people to see the direct impact of signing up.

✔ Link it everywhere. Add it to your blog’s main menu, social media bios, email signature, within relevant blog posts, pin it on Pinterest, create IG Reels and TikToks promoting it. Basically, share it everywhere you have eyes.

✔ Position it as a natural upgrade. Promote your paid newsletter inside your free emails. For instance, if your free newsletter shares occasional flight deals, it would be easy to organically prompt people to upgrade to your paid newsletter for weekly or daily deals and error fares. This is a smart way to monetize your free email list!

✔ Bundle it with other products. Sell it alongside courses, templates, or digital downloads. Going back to the newsletter sharing flight deals, if you sell a travel hacking course, prompting people to also grab your paid newsletter is smart because it will make it easier for them to find cheap flights. Make the value of the bundle clear by framing it as a complete solution to your audience’s needs and the best way for readers to save money on flights while mastering travel hacking strategies.

✔ Leverage collaborations. Pinpoint bloggers in your niche who have the audience you want to get in front of and swap guest emails, do Instagram Takeovers, and offer affiliate income for referring subscribers.

💡 Pro tip: Let hesitant subscribers experience the value first-hand by offering a 7-day free trial to test out premium content, which can help increase your conversions.

Step #5) Retain subscribers

Getting people to subscribe is one thing—keeping them long-term is another. According to Kit, you should aim to keep churn—the rate at which subscribers cancel their subscription—below 4% per month.

To reduce churn and increase retention, try these strategies:

✔ Offer discounted annual plans to secure subscribers for a year. Annual plans also help reduce involuntary churn—when subscribers don’t intend to cancel but their payment fails (e.g., an expired credit card). Since annual subscribers are charged less frequently, there are fewer chances for failed payments to interrupt their subscription.

✔ Set up payment failure notifications to prevent unnecessary cancellations. Instead of immediately unsubscribing someone due to a failed payment, ensure they receive reminders and an opportunity to update their billing info. Depending on your platform, you may need a third-party tool to handle this effectively.

✔ Offer special perks to people who sign up 6-month or 1-year plans. Or you might surprise long-term subscribers with unexpected perks, such as a freebie, an invite to a private Q&A, or an exclusive resource.

✔ Improve the 30-day onboarding experience for new subscribers—such as by making it clear what they’ll get, highlighting past popular content, and asking them to reply to the welcome email (which can help future emails hit their inbox and not a different folder).

✔ Ask for feedback—and actually implement changes when needed.

✔ Offer a private community option, like a private Facebook group, to give subscribers a sense of belonging and increase the value of the newsletter

✔ Track analytics. See which emails get the most opens and clicks so that you can share more of what people truly want.

💡 Pro tip: If people are canceling too often, you’ll want to diagnose why by analyzing customer feedback, monitoring engagement metrics like open rates, and ensuring your content aligns with subscriber expectations.

Additionally, consider sending an exit survey asking for their main reason for canceling—like cost, lack of value, too much content, etc. Again, you want to take subscriber feedback into consideration and aim to offer the best newsletter experience possible.

See Success With Paid Newsletters With These Helpful Tools:

VIP Opportunities Newsletter. If you want to see paid newsletter examples, this one is mine, and it includes five paid blogging opportunities sent to your inbox every Monday.

Substack. A beginner-friendly platform designed specifically for paid newsletters, handling subscriptions, payments, and content delivery in one place.

Kit (30-day free trial included). A powerful email marketing platform with automation, segmentation, and customizable landing pages to help grow and monetize your newsletter.

Mailerlite. An affordable and user-friendly email tool with built-in payment processing, automation, and drag-and-drop design features for a seamless newsletter experience.

RightBlogger. AI-powered content creation and optimization tools to help generate engaging newsletter topics, subject lines, and persuasive copy.

Monetize Your Blog With These Helpful Past Episodes:

How To Create Content That Converts & Sells On Social Media

How To Land Profitable UGC Collaborations

How To Start A Blog & Make Money Step-By-Step

How To Create A Free Challenge That Grows Your Email List & Income

How To Create A Free Email Course That Grows Your List & Income

Click here for all profitable blogging podcast episodes.

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What are your top tips for starting a paid newsletter?