Julie Broad (Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers) explains how authors can monetize their newsletters and websites. She outlines three primary approaches: (1) dedicated email blasts (full email sent on behalf of a sponsor), (2) banner ads placed in newsletters or on websites, and (3) affiliate promotions (tracked referral links, e.g., Publisher Rocket via booklaunchers.com). Julie emphasizes audience-target fit, warns that frequent or poorly-targeted sponsored emails can cause unsubscribes, and recommends maintaining a content calendar and good tracking. She gives practical price examples (dedicated mailings as low as $50 up to $500 or packages valued at $2,500) and a rule‑of‑thumb range of about $10–$100 per thousand subscribers for dedicated emails, noting higher rates when open rates exceed ~30%. She also lists matchmaking platforms (Pear, Hecto, SwapStack) and notes that many authors find selling their own services (courses, speaking, consulting) more lucrative than ad sales, though ads/affiliates can cover maintenance costs.
Questions this video answers
August 5, 2022.
Pear; Hecto; SwapStack.
She says she has paid as little as $50, has paid $500 for targeted mailings, and seen package values quoted at $2,500.
Approximately $10–$100 per 1,000 subscribers for dedicated emails (higher when open rates exceed ~30%).
Chapters
I was chatting with an author considering our services for his book and he shared that his primary goal was to build up his website and newsletter so he could sell advertising. It's been a while since I thought about that model, but way back in 2006 when I first started a newsletter, that was my planned business model never materialized exactly the way I envisioned, which is what I told him. But that doesn't mean there aren't revenue opportunities for authors as they grow their newsletter and their website traffic. If you're wondering about making money from your newsletter and website as an author, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, Founder of Book Launchers. We're a full service team of professionals that will help you write, publish and promote a book to build your business or become a thought leader. Most of our clients are using their book as a tool to grow their business. One of the ways it does that is by being a piece of long lasting marketing that will over time send people to your website. That traffic might be something you can monetize, especially if you get people to join your newsletter list. Typically, you'll find three common ways to make money from an email list or even from your website. I'll start with email list number one. Dedicated email blasts. As a sponsor or an advertiser, I can tell you it's the only kind I will actually pay money for these days. This is where the entire email is dedicated to your offer. Depending on the size of the list and the niche targeting, you can sell this to advertisers for a fee. Now you you should know this will hurt your list if you do it often or if the offers aren't perfectly targeted for your audience. For example, if you were on the Book Launcher's launch letter and I send you an email about publisher Rocket, you're probably fine with that offer. But if I email you about buying this heated blanket, it has nothing to do with why you're on my list. So either way you're probably gonna generate some unsubscribes. So you have to factor that in when you send dedicated emails for others. So speaking of pricing, what you can charge for this will vary based on the AUD that you're offering and the targeting of the promotion to that audience. I've paid as little as $50 for a dedicated mailing. For a really targeted one, I've paid 500. Some of the packages that I use or that I buy to sponsor events and things like that, they'll include it and say the value is 2,500. Again, it's really going to depend on the sponsor and the size of your audience and how well that audience is targeted to what the sponsor is offering. Really targeted. Even if it's a small but engaged audience, you can charge more for this dedicated email blast. Second Way Banner Ads these are quite common and it's an image at the top or in the middle or at the end of a newsletter. There may be a single dedicated spot for these or multiple spots with multiple advertisers. There are plenty of newsletters that offer this and it can be a great thing for some products or services to promote to your audience. You got to make sure there's a fit. For example, if you're the Green wizard and you have mentioned this one product in your book on having a yard, everyone will be jealous of you. Could have that company potentially place a banner in your newsletter. Again, the price will vary based on the size of your audience and the specificity of the targeting. Electric Speed by Jane Friedman is a great example of a newsletter that has relevant banner ads in the content of that newsletter. The third way is affiliate promotions. Now this can take the form of either a mention in your content, you could write a dedicated email and it might be banners that you create for them. And you get a link even from Amazon or from the supplier of the service. And that link tracks back to you if someone makes the purchase. This is what we have for Publisher Rocket. It's called an affiliate link. You go to booklaunchers.com Rocket and you'll see it takes you to a Publisher Rocket page. But that tracks back to me. Our affiliate relationships with these companies are more to ensure we can get support for our clients and community when we need it. Thank you. Because we've sold so many copies of their software. But the little referral fees are nice too. But we don't do it for the fee only and you shouldn't either. If there's already a product or service you're recommending, see if they have affiliates. Or set up a store with Amazon and use Amazon referral links so that anything you recommend you get a little fee for. There are many influencers who make a great living with their newsletter list through affiliate promotions. So that was your email list for your website. Banners are a good choice obviously and you can put affiliate links there or you can just sell banner space. But the bigger question is what are the numbers? Like what size of an audience and how much traffic do you need to support the ads? Unfortunately there is not a magical number. But if Your audience is perfectly suited to the advertiser and you have engagement. There will be interest if you can help them reach hundreds of engaged fans. If your list is small and generic like you offer business advice versus tips to set up the legal structure of your business to reduce taxes and liabilities, you will struggle to get advertisers for that business tips newsletter. You will also need to have a content calendar so you can tell advertisers when your newsletters are going out and what the theme or the content will be so they compare their promos with you when it's going to make the most sense. Pricing all this out is more difficult because there isn't a standard rate sheet. I personally prefer to pay per click when I do ads because I don't trust lists to have a lot of engagement, but then you got to make sure they've got good tracking. Usually it's all part of a bigger package which is normally based on reach, so that would be a flat fee. Based on the number of subscribers to a newsletter, I would say you can expect to be getting somewhere between 10 to $100 per thousand subscribers for dedicated emails, especially if you can show the advertiser you have Open rates over 30% Most of the time for banner ads. I'd have to say you're on the lower end of that rate now. How do you find these advertisers? Well, you can put an ad in your own newsletter letting people know. You can also reach out to the companies you're already talking about to see if they have or if they pay for ads they want to do sponsored content or have affiliate links. There's also a couple of platforms that can be useful, like Pear, Hecto and Swap Stack. These are sites that act as matchmakers between content creators and advertisers at the beginning of the video. I mentioned that way back in 2006 when I started my very first newsletter. This whole making money from my newsletter and my website was going to be the model that I had, but I actually never got too deep into it. I did enjoy a few strong affiliate or some people call it joint venture relationships, but I ended up deciding that focusing on my own courses and offering my own services was a far more lucrative use of my list. On occasion I found a good partnership with a company and having them to pay to reach my audience made sense. And sometimes we would trade promotions and promote each other. But as an author with a book of your own and a ton of great content, you could monetize through courses, speeches, workshop talks and consulting, you too may find that selling ads isn't going to be your primary goal either. That said, for some authors, it can be a nice little side income that pays for the cost of maintaining the services you need for your website and your newsletter. I'm curious, do you monetize your platform with ads, affiliates, or sponsors? Let's chat about it in the comments below. And after you hit hit that thumbs up button and comment, then. This video right here on making money from your book is definitely a great one to see. And if you've seen that or you're ready for the one YouTube thinks you should see, well, that is right here. Go on and click on over. I'm waiting for you.
