Why newsletters are set to be the hottest side hustle of 2023

Have you noticed that at the end of almost every Tweet, LinkedIn post, or Instagram post, creators seem to be asking their audience to subscribe to their newsletter?

Newsletters have been around for decades, but have recently resurged in popularity and skyrocketed in value. In 2020, Insider purchased a majority stake in Morning Brew (which at the time had 4 million subscribers), valuing its business at $75 million. And in 2021, Hubspot acquired The Hustle (which had some 1.5 million subscribers) in a deal worth $27 million.

This trend of companies acquiring niche newsletters appears to be accelerating. This year, a crypto newsletter, Milk Road and its 250,000 subscribers was acquired, just 10 months after launching.

And newsletter distribution giants, such as LinkedIn, say the category is growing significantly. According to LinkedIn editor-in-chief Daniel Roth, “LinkedIn has 284 million total subscriptions (up 3x year-over-year) to 90 thousand different newsletters (up 5x year-over-year) among 64 million individual newsletter subscribers (up 2x year-over-year).”

Here’s why newsletters are set to be the hottest side hustle of 2023.

Newsletters give readers more intimacy

To put it simply, there is no marketing channel more intimate than a newsletter.

Newsletter audiences pay more attention than social media audiences, said Josh Kaplan, cofounder of The Publish Press newsletter, which covers topics impacting digital creators. “Newsletters offer 1-on-1 private communication with the creator (since you can just hit reply via email), whereas social media offers a public communication channel and is not as intimate,” said Kaplan via email.

In a world of increasingly cluttered marketing channels, newsletters offer a unique opportunity to reach your audience directly. Unlike banner ads or social media campaigns, which are often seen by a wide range of people, newsletters are delivered directly to the inboxes of people who have opted in to receive them.

Newsletters are being supercharged with brand money

The intimacy that newsletters offer is leading brands to invest heavily in newsletters through sponsorships and acquisitions.

Kaplan has seen a “huge appetite from brands wanting to sponsor our newsletter since brands see creators as the next class of small to midsize businesses. We are able to sponsor about 70% of our newsletter editions.”

The Publish Press (which has 60,000 subscribers) charges $7,000 for a primary ad slot and $2,000 for a listed ad, shared Kaplan.

The Rundown newsletter, which gives its 160,000 daily readers “the rundown” on the latest developments in AI, charges $2,000 for a main ad and $1,000 for a trending ad. Founder Rowan Cheung says there is “significant appetite for AI-specific sponsorships.”

Brands also love sponsoring newsletters due to guaranteed distribution—meaning, brands know their message will be received by consumers. Alex Valaitis, founder of the Big Brain newsletter, says there is “definitely a market out there for brand sponsorships, especially since with email you have guaranteed distribution versus unclear distribution with social media.”

Newsletters give writers ownership

This guaranteed distribution gives newsletter creators a unique level of ownership, which can be rare in the world of digital-content creation. Many creators have shifted to writing newsletters this year because of the allure of independence, said Kaplan.

“2023 brings a new class of creators . . . ones who don’t want to build solely on rented land,” he explained. “Owning an email newsletter offers more ownership over your audience, whereas social media platforms control your distribution and can be unstable.”

To be sure, many social media platforms have been especially unstable this year. From the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter to Montana banning TikTok, creators need to be extra cautious about relying too heavily on one platform. “It all comes down to ownership, which you can’t do with most social media platforms,” argues Valaitis. “Especially with all the turmoil going on with social media platforms, creators are preparing for the worst.”

Newsletters offer monetization options

Many creators are also focusing on diversifying monetization options outside of brand sponsorships, paid subscriptions, affiliates, and community memberships.

Cheung shares that “there are more monetization options today for newsletters. For example, Sparkloop enables newsletters to earn revenue for every subscriber they receive from another newsletter.”

Newsletters also give creators opportunities to sell physical products. Look no further than Gemma Roberts, founder of the Mindset Matters newsletter, who provides her 600,000 subscribers with tools and advice to help people thrive at work. Roberts turned her newsletter hustle into a physical book launch that’s a direct spin off of her newsletter.

Even newsletter distribution platforms have weighed in on the multitude of monetization options newsletter creators have today. Tyler Denk, CEO of Beehiiv, says that “there are several ways to monetize newsletters. With just a few subscriptions and an occasional ad, you can quickly turn a profit for your newsletter.”

Beehiiv helps creators monetize their newsletters through premium subscriptions. Denk shared that Beehiiv has facilitated $1 million in earnings paid out to newsletters in paid subscriptions and $100k paid out to newsletters for ads. The largest newsletters source their own ads, says Denk, adding that he believes these newsletters generated up to seven-figures in ad revenue in just the past year.

Having more intimacy with an audience, brand money flocking to this space, more ownership, and the ability to offer several monetization options are all reasons why I started my own newsletter, the Knockout Newsletter.

Creating a quality newsletter takes relentless consistency and dedication, yet the opportunity could not be hotter—it’s up to you whether you “subscribe” to the hype and take the leap.