As a business owner, your email list is one of your most important assets, connecting you directly to your target audience. In fact, email marketing has the highest Return On Investment (ROI) among all channels, with estimates of about $36 for every $1 invested. These nine tactics will help you monetize email lists and grow a passive income stream.
What is an email list?
An email list is a list of contacts who have shown their interest in your business by signing up for your newsletter. It typically includes first and last names and email addresses, but can also be extended to phone numbers, countries, and more. Perks like free ebooks, printables, and webinars (“lead magnets”) are often offered in exchange for a user’s email address.
Building an email list is the first step toward newsletter monetization. It might take time, but with the right techniques, you can gather email addresses from your target audience and start earning from email monetization.
Here are a few guidelines for building a list:
- Make sure the signup form on your page is easy to find.
- Limit the number of fields to two or three so visitors don’t have time to change their mind!
- Choose a lead magnet and highlight it: coupons, free content, access to free trials, etc.
Once you’ve gathered some contacts, it’s time to monetize your list.
How to monetize your email list
Before going over how you can make money with email, let’s make a disclaimer.
Even though email marketing boasts an impressive ROI, it’s a long-term game: building an engaged email audience takes time and effort, and that’s only part of the equation.
So if you ever hear someone promising that you’ll make $5k in 30 days, simply ignore them.
With that out of the way, let’s look at the key ways of making money with email marketing.
1. Affiliate marketing
This method involves promoting products or services from companies in exchange for a commission on sales or clicks you generate through affiliate links.
By leveraging the trust you’ve built with your email subscribers, you can recommend travel-related products, accommodations, tours, and insurance that genuinely benefit your readers.
How it works for travel bloggers:
- Sign up for affiliate programs: Join travel-focused affiliate platforms like Travelpayouts, which offers access to 100+ brands and provides you with various affiliate marketing opportunities.
- Integrate affiliate links into your emails: Include links in your email content once you’ve joined relevant affiliate programs. You can incorporate these links naturally, whether sending out travel guides, tips, or destination reviews. For example, if you’re sharing a travel guide to Paris, you can include affiliate links for recommended hotels or tours there.
- Provide value to your subscribers: The key to successful affiliate marketing is offering your subscribers real value. Recommend products and services that you trust and have experience with. Personal recommendations carry more weight and can lead to higher conversion rates.
- Monitor your performance: Use the tools provided by Travelpayouts to track your clicks and conversions. This data will help you understand what resonates with your audience, allowing you to optimize future campaigns.
The key to success with affiliate marketing in travel blogging is to focus on relevance and trust. This trust extends to transparency. Remember to always disclose your affiliate relationships to your subscribers.
Be prepared to experiment with different products, messaging, and email formats to find what works best.
One word of caution: Not all affiliate programs allow email links. A great example is Amazon, whose terms and conditions clearly state that affiliates cannot use product links in emails. Double-check the terms of each affiliate program before linking to it..
2. Paid memberships/community
This method involves creating exclusive content or offering unique experiences only accessible to members who pay a subscription fee. It’s a model that fosters a closer relationship between bloggers and their most dedicated followers while ensuring a regular income stream.
Creating a paid membership or community involves curating exclusive offerings that resonate with your subscribers’ interests and needs. This could range from advanced travel guides and personalized advice to members-only webinars and special discounts.
The key is to ensure that the content or perks provided are perceived as valuable enough to justify the subscription cost. The best platforms for these membership types include Slack, Patreon, Facebook groups, and Instagram subscription groups.
An example is TravelBeans, founded by Emma and Alex, two travel content creators who create travel videos. In addition to a YouTube channel and an Instagram account, they have a Patreon page.
Subscribers can choose between three subscription options, which include perks like Patreon-only updates, behind-the-scenes content, and even a personal thank-you video from Alex and Emma.
How does email marketing play a role here? Well, if you already have an email list, use it. Start with a segmented email campaign targeting the most engaged subscribers. These individuals are more likely to see the value in upgrading to a paid subscription.
Highlight the benefits of membership, such as exclusive content, special offers, and direct access to travel advice.
For example, a travel blogger could send a series of emails detailing the perks of their membership program, including access to a monthly live webinar discussing travel hacks, a downloadable guide on avoiding tourist traps in popular destinations, or early booking opportunities for group trips organized by the blogger.
3. Advertising & sponsorships
This involves partnering with brands that identify with your travel-focused content, allowing you to introduce products, services, or experiences through email.
For this to work effectively, having an engaged email list, ideally with at least 2,000 subscribers, is key, as it makes your platform attractive to potential partners.
Sponsored content or advertisements in emails can take various forms, including display ads (banners or images) and native ads, which are designed to blend seamlessly with the email’s content, offering a less intrusive experience.
Solo ads
Solo ads are a type of email marketing in which a brand pays to send their advertisement (usually promoting a product, service, or event) to another person’s email list.
Essentially, a brand rents your email list with an established subscriber base to directly reach potential customers interested in your niche. This approach can produce targeted exposure and drive traffic to the brand’s offers.
The con? There’s a risk that your audience might not like this type of take-over, especially if the brand doesn’t match up with what your subscribers would be interested in. It can also be seen as spammy or less than genuine.
Primary sponsorship
Primary sponsorship emails, like those labeled “brought to you by,” involve email content sponsored by a single advertiser that aligns closely with the sender’s focus. For travel bloggers, this means working with brands directly related to travel, such as gear companies or tourism boards.
The pros include potentially higher revenue from dedicated sponsorships and enhanced trust through relevant partnerships. Th cons include the challenge of finding fitting sponsors and the risk of over-commercializing your content, which could turn off some of your readers.
Secondary sponsorship
Ads from secondary sponsors take up less space and are often positioned in the lower third of the email. Their format may mimic primary sponsorships and might include images depending on the newsletter’s style.
The brand or business doesn’t sponsor the entire email; instead, they just buy some space there to promote their own products or services.
Text-only sponsorships
Text-only sponsorships involve promoting a sponsor’s product or service solely through written content, without elements such as images, videos, or graphics.
Text-only sponsorships are valued for their ability to deliver targeted messaging in a natural and non-intrusive manner, resonating with audiences who appreciate authentic endorsements within the context of valuable content. An example might be a thoughtfully written paragraph promoting a backpack that you’ve used and loved and now have partnered with the company to promote.
4. Info products
Knowledge is power, and money, too. Whether in an ebook, webinar, template, or course, you can package and bundle your expertise and sell it to your followers.
Earn money by email by focusing on creating both low-ticket and high-ticket offers to provide more options to your audience. For example, you can include an ebook or a blog post template, as Shelley Marmour, founder of TravelBlogging 101, does, while sprinkling in higher-end offers like courses.
Achieving success with info products hinges on creating content that addresses your audience’s specific needs, so ask them for information. What questions do they have? What is it that they’re looking for? What are their pain points?
Have conversations with the people who sign up for your email list. Ask for feedback, and if feedback is limited, offer incentives for them to respond like early access or bonus features.
The idea is to find ways to create a genuine relationship and connection between you, your brand, and your followers.
5. Paid newsletters
In the realm of travel blogging, paid newsletters offer subscribers exclusive access to insider tips, destination guides, travel hacks, and personalized recommendations for a recurring fee.
Here, you can try one of two things:
- Completely transform your free newsletter into a paid newsletter
- Supplement your free newsletter with a premium version where you offer exclusive information and tips to paying subscribers
Paid newsletters work better when they cater to niche interests such as luxury travel, budget travel, solo travel, or family-friendly destinations, providing tailored content for subscribers’ specific needs and preferences.
When creating a paid newsletter, it is important to consider platform fees, especially when determining the price. Some leading platforms and fee structures are:
- Substack: Takes 10% of revenue plus credit card fees
- ConvertKit: Charges 3.5% plus 30 cents per transaction
- Ghost: Requires a monthly platform fee and doesn’t charge transaction fees
Below is an example of a Substack newsletter from Kaila Krayewski, a Canadian copywriter currently living and working in Thailand. She talks about her life there and tips and tricks for women who want to live abroad.
You can charge either monthly or annually. You can even add a pared-down free version where people can get a taste of what you offer in your subscriptions.
6. Consulting & сoaching
Consulting and coaching can be a lucrative way for travel bloggers to monetize their expertise. By offering personalized advice, trip planning services, or blogging strategy consultations, you can directly leverage your knowledge and experience to generate income.
This approach allows for deep engagement with your audience and provides them with tailored solutions, enhancing their travel experiences or helping them grow their own travel blogs.
Monetizing email lists is easy when you have something unique to offer. Consulting and coaching diversify your revenue streams while adding value to your subscriber base.
7. Tripwire offers
Tripwire offers are promotions designed to attract customers by offering low-cost initial products or services. These offers act as triggers that lead customers into a sales funnel, where businesses aim to upsell or retain them long-term.
For travel bloggers, this can be as simple as offering an ebook for a discounted price: foro example, you could offer a detailed, city-specific travel guide with a special price of $2.99 for a limited time. Once customers have paid, you can upsell them with a more extensive ebook, a course, or even travel planning services.
Implementing tripwire offers in email marketing involves crafting compelling messages highlighting the offer’s value and potential benefits. Include persuasive call-to-action buttons or links to encourage recipients to take advantage of the offer. Additionally, segmenting email lists based on customer preferences or behaviors allows for targeted offers that resonate with specific audience segments.
How do you segment your audience? Yvonne runs Now in Portugal, a travel website about Portugal. In her introductory email, she allows her audience to self-segment themselves.
Finally, regular follow-up emails can nurture leads and guide customers through the sales funnel, ultimately leading to conversions and long-term customer relationships.
8. Email courses
Email courses involve sharing knowledge and expertise with your audience directly in their inbox. These mini-courses, spanning several days or weeks, cover various topics in digestible segments. You can offer them for free, attracting new subscribers and providing valuable content, or as paid offerings, directly monetizing your list.
For example, Sharon Gourlay offers a free link building challenge, demonstrating the potential of email courses to engage and grow your audience.
9. Getting traffic back to your website
Last but certainly not least, utilizing your email list to drive traffic (that is, people) back to your website is essential for maintaining engagement and promoting your content. You can significantly increase your site’s visitation by strategically including links to your latest blog posts, exclusive deals, or compelling content that requires a visit.
How can you make money with this? Let’s say you have an affiliate marketing blog post that needs a boost in clicks (and sales). You can create an email, directing people to click and read your latest article.
Tips for monetizing your email list
Here are some best practices to follow if you want to get paid for emails.
Interact with your audience
Monetizing an email list is only possible if people open your emails, which is why building an engaged and active following is crucial. Start by understanding your target audience –their wants, needs, and interests.
It is equally important to promptly respond to your subscribers’ questions and comments and stay in close touch. If your following is active on social media, consider building your presence on relevant platforms. This additional step will help keep people engaged and prevent unsubscribes.
Consistently deliver valuable content
Valuable content serves as a bridge between brands and customers. Focus on providing informative and relevant content that helps your subscribers solve their pain points. As a result, they will look forward to your emails and be more likely to click links.
Consider asking for feedback and doing surveys if you don’t know where to start. This step will help you learn about your audience’s needs and wants and adjust your strategy.
Provide discounts and special offers
Sharing coupons and discounts is a wonderful way to engage your audience. Who doesn’tlike freebies? Make sure to mention the promo in the email subject line to maximize clicks.
You can also create loyalty programs and reward subscribers for joining your email list, maybe with a special discount, free trial, or printable materials. If you don’t know where to start, check out your competitors and their strategies for inspiration.
Experiment with various offers
Finding the best way to monetize a newsletter will require some trial and error. Try out various affiliate offers, adjust sending time, share different content formats, and consider running A/B testing to find what brings value to your subscribers and generates revenue..
Utilize segmentation
Segmentation allows you to reach target customers with the most relevant offers. In fact, a vast majority of users say they will only interact with an email offer if it is personalized according to their interaction history with the brand.
You can segment your subscribers based on their location, language, behavior, purchase history, or other factors. By approaching the right person with the right message, you will optimize your campaign and increase open and click-through rates. You can start by addressing subscribers with their name.
If this sounds rather complicated, consider using email marketing tools that will automate your segmentation process, eliminate human errors, and take your campaigns to the next level.
Continuously track and measure results
To optimize your emails and make sure they generate revenue, you need to track your analytics. Depending on your goals, consider checking the following metrics:
- Open rate (how many emails get opened)
- Click-through r(how many recipients click your links)
- Conversion rate (how many people complete desired actions)
- Bounce rate (how many messages got blocked by spam filters)
- Unsubscribe rate
If you don’t know where to start, start by focusing on your open and click-through rates. These two metrics are considered crucial by most marketing professionals and give good insights into your campaign performance.
Reconnect with subscribers at risk of churn
Retaining existing customers is four to ten times cheaper than acquiring new ones. If you carefully monitor email campaign metrics, you’ll see patterns in behavior and notice reduced activity from certain subscribers (lower open rates, lack of engagement, downgrading their subscriptions if you run paid membership plans, etc.).
Once you identify inactive subscribers, try to personalize your newsletter for them. Consider offering a personal demo or call, a free trial, or another opportunity to boost their activity.
Refresh your email list before monetization
To ensure high open rates, it’s important to keep your email list clean. Every few months, take time to review and prune your database by identifying inactive subscribers. If re-engaging them didn’t work, it might be better to remove them completely from your list. Remember that your goal is to focus on your target audience.
This step will not only improve your open rates, but also enhance the overall performance of your marketing campaigns.
FAQ
How many email addresses do you need to make money?
The exact number of email addresses varies depending on your business and niche. You can make money with email lists even if you have only a hundred subscribers, as long as they’re engaged and interested.
How much money can you make from a newsletter?
Email marketing offers potentially unlimited profits, which makes it a preferred marketing channel for many companies. The more clicks and conversions you get, the more you earn. The key here is to target your audience precisely, focusing on quality as much as quantity.
Can you buy a list of email addresses?
This isn’t recommended for many reasons. First, such lists usually have low-quality addresses. Second, you will risk having a high spam score if you target people without their previous consent, which might undermine your overall campaign performance. Finally, you will risk being fined for violating anti-spam laws.
It is much, much better to organically grow your own email list by sharing valuable content and staying in close touch with your audience.
Is it legal to sell your list?
If you promised your subscribers to keep their data private, selling an email list will be illegal. It will also destroy you audience’s trust, which takes so long to build. This is hardly worth a couple of hundred dollars, and it’s definitely unethical.
If you find yourself struggling financially, consider changing your marketing strategy, using free marketing tools instead of expensive platforms, or promoting different affiliate offers.
Final thoughts: make money with your email list
As always, there’s no way to get rich quick. The success of your email monetization will depend on how much effort you put into building an audience, connecting with them, and targeting your offers. Above all, don’t get discouraged: if something doesn’t work, try something else! And who knows – maybe soon you’ll be offering us tips on making money from email lists.