Starting a newsletter can be one of the best or worst decisions of your life. It all comes down to the topic you choose to cover.
Choose the wrong one, and it doesn't matter how much time and energy you spend on it. Choose the right one, and all of your time and effort will correlate to profits.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Peter F. Drucker.
Let's discuss how to find a profitable newsletter topic so you actually see maximum returns on your investments.
I'm also going to show you my favorite way to research existing newsletters to see which are doing well and see what they're sending.
First, we must understand newsletter monetization methods.
Understanding Newsletter Monetization Methods
How you monetize your newsletter will dictate what topics are the best fits.
Here are the core ways you can monetize your newsletter. Note that you can and should monetize your newsletter in multiple ways.
Method #1: Charge for Your Newsletter
Charging a monthly subscription for your newsletter is a winning strategy for the correct type of newsletter. Services like Beehiiv and Kit make the tech implementation easy, but creating the right offer and marketing it are not so easy.
Best suited for:
- Newsletters that have highly valuable insights, usually timely details, or insider-style information.
- Niches that help people earn or save money do well as paid newsletters.
- Newsletters hosted by people of authority. Influencers, authors, etc.
Drawbacks:
- Harder to grow a large list. The quality and engagement of each subscriber is much higher, but building a 100-person paid newsletter is more difficult than a 5,000-person free one.
- Pressure to consistently deliver quality content. You should be doing this anyway, but it's different when people are actually paying you.
Method #2 Affiliate Offers
This is my go-to method; every niche has at least a handful of quality affiliate offers you can promote to your newsletter.
Best suited for:
- Everyone. Even if it isn't a perfect fit, every newsletter should try to promote at least one relevant affiliate offer.
- Audiences with a "no-brainer" affiliate offer that everyone in the space would want. If you are in the finance space, a simple financial planning app would benefit every reader. If you're in the fitness space, your go-to whey protein powder would be suitable for almost every reader. Some niches have easier offers to sell than others.
Drawbacks:
- Not easy. It takes lots of clicks to drive conversions, even on a great offer.
- Tracking discrepancies. I trust most affiliate programs as far as I can throw them. It's a given that many of your sales (maybe most) will not be credited to you due to cookie issues, coupon codes, or even flat-out scammy affiliate managers trimming sales down to bloat the bottom line.
Method #3 Paid Sponsorships
Newsletter owners can sell placements or solo broadcasts to brands. You can market these yourself or use a company like Paved to find sponsors for you.
Best suited for:
- Large, broad newsletters or very niche newsletters that target a specific, high buyer intent audience.
- B2B newsletters.
Drawbacks:
- Pressure to deliver results. Not all offers convert, and it feels bad to take money and not deliver.
- Some effort is required to consistently find sponsors. Especially early on. Platforms like Paved help, but many newsletters proactively contact brands to offer sponsorship placements.
Newsletter Spying with Paved
Every newsletter creator should have a Paved account. Not just to sell your own sponsorships but also to spy on other newsletters.
Navigate over to their marketplace and filter newsletters by top-rated.
From there, start clicking on different newsletters and see what packages and pricing they are offering.
You can also see valuable insights like how they are getting their subscribers.
This can give you a good idea of what sort of similar strategies you can adopt to replicate their results.
Go and check the latest reviews for each newsletter while you're there.
Do they have any sales in the past couple of days?
What are they charging?
What are the reviews saying? How many clicks are people getting? Are they happy with the results?
You can also see their latest broadcasts.
What are they sending? How are the placements positioned?
You get the idea.
You can go even further and filter by category.
If you're considering a finance newsletter, research what others are charging and whether they're generating sales.
Who has sponsored them in the past?
While you're there, create an account so you can promote your newsletter there when it's ready.
Method #4 Your Own Product or Service
The most profitable method if you have a great offer. Ideally, your product should be something you don't have to spend any time or effort on. Something that can be delivered digitally or shipped with no extra work on your end beyond customer support.
Best for:
- Creators with an offer that solves a costly problem or saves a significant amount of time.
- Audiences who already ask you for “the system.”
Drawbacks:
- Requires an actual product, fulfillment, and support.
- You’ll split your focus between content and delivery.
Tips: Start with a low-lift, high-margin digital product (such as a template, playbook, or database) and build toward higher-ticket offers.
Method #5 Sparkloop Referrals
Sparkloop is a free service that lets newsletter owners get paid by sending referrals to other newsletters. This is one of the best-kept secrets in the email marketing game.
Best suited for:
- Newsletters that run paid ads. You can liquidate or discount your own ad spend by earning a little bit on each new lead you get by referring them immediately to other newsletters.
- Newsletters that have a very low cost to acquire a lead. Sparkloop earnings typically average out to about $0.50 to $1.20 per confirmed lead. If you can stay below this, you can grow your list and get paid to do it.
- Broad consumer niches and niche B2B (if there are relevant partners). Broad newsletters like "
Drawbacks:
- Sharing leads with other newsletters. You will be fighting for attention in their inbox. This isn't a huge deal, though. Most people receive 100+ emails per day.
- Some tech set-up. Once you're set up, you're good, but it's a little bit of a chore to get it started.
Other Considerations
It's not all about the numbers. Here are a few more considerations.
- Do you enjoy the topic? Not mandatory, but it makes it much easier.
- Is the topic future-proof? Some things aren't going to be around for much longer. Is your topic trending up or fading out?
- Is your topic something people want to hear about regularly? Some topics aren't things people care to hear about regularly.
Profit Signals: How to Judge a Topic Fast
Here's a quick set of considerations.
- Buyer Power: Are there companies with budgets to reach this audience? (SaaS, fintech, tools, agencies).
- Offer Density: Are there 5+ high-quality products you could promote today?
- Sponsor Density: Can you find 20+ relevant brands that already sponsor similar newsletters/podcasts? (Great proxy for cash-in-the-space.)
- High CPC Keywords (Proxy): If ads are expensive around your topic, brands likely value these readers.
- Moat & Access: Do you have proprietary data, workflows, or interviews that others can’t easily replicate? Not mandatory, but if you have some unfair edge, leverage it.
- Low CAC Path: Can you acquire 1,000 subs for <$1 each via content, swaps, social, or paid recommendations? (If so, paid recommendations can help subsidize growth.)
There you have it.
If your newsletter flops, you can't say you didn't at least give yourself the best chance possible!