🥊 Newsletter Platforms Duke It Out

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📰 Industry Roundup

Round 1 - 3 Unethical Ways (Not) To Grow Your List: On 9/25, Louis Nicholls, co-founder of Sparkloop (now owned by Kit), shared an article about how unscrupulous newsletter operators can (but should not) use certain tactics to grow their newsletter. The article was inspired by the social media posts of 2 prominent Kit creators and investors, all of whom suggest that these nefarious tactics are being used mainly by beehiiv-based newsletters. Despite being an interesting read, it’s also a provocative one given that it was released the week before Kit’s big rebranding announcement… Read

Round 2 - ConvertKit Completes Kit Rebrand: On 10/1, ConvertKit completed its months-long public rebrand process to embrace its new name of Kit. In addition to a new name and logo, the Kit website and user experience received upgrades. Kit is positioning itself as the email-first operating system for creators, and here’s what that means… Read

Round 3 - Kit Launches New Affiliate Program: On 10/1, Kit also launched a new affiliate program along with its rebrand which matched beehiiv’s affiliate program (50% commission for 12 months) and also introduced a recurring component of an extra 10-20% beyond 12 months depending on affiliate tier status. Existing affiliates can also opt out of the new program, presumably to stay on the previous 30% commission for 24 months plan. Check out the full details of what is currently the most potentially lucrative BSK affiliate program, especially since Substack does not have an affiliate program… Read

Round 4 - The Convert To beehiiv Kit: On 10/1, beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk wasted no time announcing its “Convert To beehiiv Kit” with a cheeky video contrasting the merits of rebranding efforts vs. building useful new features. The “Convert To beehiiv Kit” offers free VIP migration to beehiiv, 6 months free platform use, Boost credits and more… Read

⚒️ Letter Ops

beehiiv CASE STUDY - How Last Money In Is Generating $500K+ ARR: Newsletter operators Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis have capitalized on a lucrative investing niche (special purpose vehicles, or SPVs) and an existing audience of investors to monetize two beehiiv-based newsletter offerings: 1) Last Money In, a free newsletter that covers SPV topics in detail and generates six-figure sponsorships, and 2) Deal Sheet, a paid newsletter that offers a curated list of available SPV deals and generates over $500K in annual subscriptions. Another great example of riches in the niches… Read

SUBSTACK CASE STUDY - No Code Exits Sells For $35K: Katt Risen sold her Substack-based newsletter No Code Exits for $35K in August 2024. She provides a thorough retelling of her journey, detailing what inspired her to start a newsletter in the growing “no code” movement, how she monetized the newsletter, and why she decided to sell the newsletter and for how much. As it turns out, her no code journey isn’t over… Read

KIT CASE STUDY - Mother Of Five Makes $480K Working 20 Hours/Week: Gillian Perkins leverages Kit’s automation and tagging capabilities to target her product validation newsletter subscribers at the right point in the buying cycle. She has used these capabilities to monetize her newsletter via courses, memberships, ads and affiliate sales, and this is how she does it… Read

9 Newsletter Platforms To Consider: As mentioned in the Welcome section, there are many email platforms to consider for launching and operating your newsletter. While beehiiv / Substack / Kit (BSK) likely have the most newsletter-centric features, email platforms are very versatile and your needs can be met by other options. One of the challenges is that the features and pricing change frequently in this space; this recent roundup by BigMailer gives a fairly thorough roundup of options to consider… Read

🧠 Get Smart

It’s rumored that life is more than newsletters (gasp), and so we need to seek inspiration from a variety of sources to breathe new life into our newsletter offerings…here’s what I’m reading:

• Marketing Machine: Twice weekly marketing deep dives and roundups to maximize your marketing channel strategies.

• The Affiliate Wire: Weekly tips illustrating how to leverage affiliate marketing in a variety of channels from social to email.

• Monetization Monthly - The Online Business Memo: Weekly insights from an expert affiliate marketer and coach that is using all of the marketing and tech tools at their disposal.

• AI Daybreak: Daily AI highlights to stay on top of the fastest moving technology arena.

🎉 Just For Fun

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Disclaimer: Not financial or business advice. This newsletter is strictly for information and education purposes and may contain affiliate links or sponsored content from a variety of partners to keep this newsletter free of charge.

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