Howdy folks 👋 

A few things in this email:

• 📹️ A free workshop you should come to (that I’m not running)

• 🤦 I was today year’s old when I learned…

• 📊 3 ways to monetize a newsletter or email list (and very specific examples I think you’ll love)*

*👀 A TON of value packed into bullet point 3. Well worth your time if you run a business.

📹️ Stop feeling weird on camera + use video to make money

Cam Houser (a client of mine I talked about last week) is running a free workshop this Thursday on how to win more customers and opportunities via video (without any fancy video equipment).

I can honestly say the stuff Cam gives away for free has helped me and my clients…land more clients. And he’s a lot of fun.

I bet it'll be your favorite 60 minutes this week. I'll be there. Cam’s cat might be there. Will you be?

• 💻️ Where: Zoom (register for free here)

• ⏱️ When: 1PM EST this Thursday, 12/14

Event is capped at 100 people and they’re almost gone.

😶 I was today year’s old when I learned…

Many tape measures have certain numbers marked out in red (like the one below). It’s one of those things I immediately recognize, but have never paid attention to. Well, there’s a pattern. The numbers in red are in intervals of 16.

Why?

Because the standard distance between studs (like behind your wall) is 16’’

• If you knew that already, I don’t need your judgment.. 🫠 

• If you didn’t know that, you’re welcome 🫡 

And while we’re at it, 16 × 3 = 48 inches (or 4 ft, the typical width of a piece of drywall)..

💰️ 3 ways to monetize a newsletter

In the last 2 emails, I mentioned I’ve been immersed in growing email lists and newsletters - both for clients like Cam as well as for Malachi Daily.

I also talked about how an email list is an owned audience, which has many advantages over borrowed audiences (like IG, FB, etc.), the #1 advantage being that you get to decide when your subscribers see content, not an ever-changing algorithm.

👇️ Below, I’ll break down 3 ways to monetize an email list/newsletter.

I’ll do this via the most common question I get around newsletters…how does a free newsletter make money?

🤔 So back to business…how can a free newsletter make you/your business money?

In a few ways:

1. Affiliate marketing: Promote some else’s product and get paid commission when someone buys that product

2. Ads: Allow another person or company to recommend their product or service to your audience (the whole basis of “free” social media)

3. Owned products and services: Sell your own products and services (merch, courses, high-ticket services)

Not rocket science. No right or wrong way to monetize (I personally recommend all 3), but they each come with pros and cons in these 3 categories:

• amount of work required

• potential reward

• risk

I’ll do deeper dives on each of these 3 monetization strategies (and when to start with each of them) in future emails, but for now, let’s get into the basic math of why growing an email newsletter makes a ton of cents 🫰

(Plus 2 very specific examples to bring it home)

Buckle up, this is going to be good 🤠 

Let’s talk acronyms 🤠 

There are 2 primary metrics that determine whether your email list will make you money or not:

• CPS (cost per subscriber): How much $ you spend to acquire a new subscriber

  • sometimes referred to as CPL (cost per lead), CPA (cost per acquisition), CAC (customer acquisition cost)

• LTV (lifetime value of a subscriber): How much $ you make on average per subscriber during their lifespan of being a subscriber

  • If you have 1000 subs and made $3k last year, your LTV is $3

The oversimplified equation says if you can get to the point where your: 

LTV (how much $ someone spends while a subscriber) > CPS (how much it cost you to acquire them)

..you have a viable business. And in theory, the more you grow your audience, the more money you will make.

Let’s walk through 2 examples to bring these ideas to life 🤓 

One example for side hustlers and one for full-time entrepreneurs..

Example A: Side Hustle Sam 👩‍🦱

Side Hustle Sam has 2500 email subscribers on a list she grew organically via social media ($0 cost to acquire them).

She sells a $200 self-paced course that 50 people have bought this year (2% of her audience). That’s $10,000 in sales.

👇️ Here’s where this gets fun…

Since she sold $10,000 in courses and has an email list of 2500 subscribers, the LTV of a subscriber $10,000/2500 subs = $4.

Which means she can spend $1.25 to acquire new subscribers and still maintain that 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio I mentioned above💡 

🤔 So why spend $1.25 to acquire a subscriber when you can get them for free?

Simple answer: because it’s easier & you’d make more money. Here’s how..

Sam’s options:

• 🪴 She could continue to grow organically (doable, but slower and less in your control). If she grows her newsletter to 3500 subscribers and converts 2% of them to buyers, that’s 70 course sales for $14,000 next year.

• 🌳 She could invest in paid growth and acquire new subscribers for $1.25 each (doable, faster and more in your control - this is where I can help).

  • If she grows her newsletter to 7500 subscribers and converts the same 2% to buyers, that’s 150 course sales for a total of $30,000 in sales next year. Subtract the $6k spent to acquire those subscribers and you’re left with $24,000 from the course (aka $10k more in her bank)

    • Plus: 

      • She now has 7500 subscribers now, which is when other creators, brands and companies become interested in paying to sponsor your newsletter (new revenue stream unlocked)

      • She has 7500 subscribers, which opens up opportunities for affiliate marketing to drive meaningful revenue

      • She has a bigger audience to sell merch, digital products & higher ticket services to

Long story short for Sam, growing her newsletter will give her more profit and more options.

Example B: Full Time Frank 🧔‍♂️ 

Frank left his day job a few years ago to start a fitness coaching biz. He has 2000 email subscribers.

He sells 2 things:

• An intro course for $500

• A 1:1 coaching package for $4,000

This year, he sold 50 courses ($500 × 50 = $25k) and 25 coaching packages ($4k x 25 = $100k) for a total of $125,000 in sales.

LTV = $125k/2000 subscribers = $62 (not uncommon for it to be this high when you sell high-ticket services)

This means Frank can spend up to $20 to acquire a new subscriber, and he’ll still have above a 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio 🤯 

The Punchline

If Frank doubles his newsletter to 4000 subscribers paying even $5 (which is high) to acquire a new subscriber (5 × 2000 = $10k), he’ll sell $250,000 in courses and coaching packages.

Subtract the $10k spent to double the newsletter and Frank will end the year with $240k in profit.

The best part? He wouldn’t have to be on a content treadmill constantly on social media.

🎁 Wrapping up..

In both of these examples, they had relatively small email audiences to start with and were only using 1-2 revenue streams.

And even then, you can see how growing your audience opens up opportunities in the short and long term to help more people and drive more profit (especially if you sell more than a low-ticket course).

And thanks to tools like Beehiiv and Sparkloop, you can grow extremely fast.

When my new subscribers also subscribe to one of these newsletters, they pay me $1-3 per referral. Which means, as I grow my newsletter…I make money…

I threw a lot at you, but if you’re still reading this, I hope you see why I’m so excited about newsletters and the potential impact it can have on your business.

And I’m just scratching the surface.

📈 If you want help growing your email list or newsletter so you can grow your business, let me know.

💡 Note: There are a number of ways we can structure working together to align our incentives. For example, I’ve done flat fees, consulting retainers, and revenue shares (aka I only make money when you do). Open to chat.

If your interest is piqued, hit reply and let’s talk 🤙 

Until next time,

Kieran ✌️

p.s. if you or your company wants to sponsor the Malachi Daily newsletter and reach our audience, fill out this form. We’re in the early days, so these will be the best rates for sponsorship we’ll ever have 😃 

p.p.s. you/your business doesn’t have to be faith based. We’re open to partnering with Christian and secular brands.