Can you make money with a newsletter?
The short answer
Yes, in four ways: selling your own products or services (most common), paid subscriptions, sponsorships, and affiliate recommendations. A small, engaged list in a clear niche often earns more than a big anonymous one.
In detail
The most underrated route is the first, a newsletter as the sales channel for what you already offer. A list of five hundred people who trust you outperforms thousands of social followers at launch time, because email is direct and personal. This is why almost every business builds a list.
Paid subscriptions are the second route. Readers pay monthly for premium editions. The platform choice matters here, because Substack takes 10% of paid revenue, while beehiiv and Ghost let you keep everything on their paid plans. Expect single-digit percentages of free readers to convert, so this really works once you have thousands of subscribers or a tightly specialized niche. Sponsorships (an advertiser buys a slot) become interesting from a few thousand engaged readers in a recognizable audience. beehiiv even has a built-in ad network for this.
Affiliate recommendations work at any size, as long as you stay honest and disclose them. The common thread is that trust is your capital. Never promote anything you would not genuinely recommend. A list burns down faster than it was built.