Can you make money with a newsletter?
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.
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: 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: trust is your capital. Never promote anything you would not genuinely recommend; a list burns down faster than it was built.