How To Make $1,000 a Month From a Beehiiv Newsletter

It's going to be two years since we started our newsletter.

To be honest, the first few months were a little tough. We were still figuring out how to make the newsletter better and more useful for our audience.

This is because no product or content is perfect from day one. It gets better over time.

So, the main reason we started the newsletter was that we wanted a direct connection with our targeted audience.

At first, we just focused on providing valuable content. Monetization was not our primary goal.

But eventually, we learned about the different monetization opportunities available for newsletters.

We use Beehiiv to run our newsletter, and the platform itself offers a couple of built-in monetization features.

For example, the screenshot below shows our Notion page, where we track newsletter sponsorship opportunities and revenue.

We earned the above amount previously. Since then, our newsletter has grown, and we are earning more than this.

So, in this guide, I will show you how we earned $1,000+ a month from our newsletter using Beehiiv, and how many subscribers you may need to reach to earn this amount.

Let's get started.

How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Make $1,000 a Month Using Beehiiv?

To be honest, there is no fixed number of subscribers you need to make $1,000 per month from a newsletter.

You could earn that with 5,000, 10,000, or even 20,000 subscribers.

It depends on how you monetize your newsletter and the quality of your audience.

In our case, we focused on content first. So until we reached 10,000 subscribers, we didn't focus on monetization.

Only after that we started monetizing through sponsorships.

But here are the important things you should know.

Subscriber count alone does not determine how much you can earn from a newsletter.

There are a few other factors that can have a major impact on your earnings.

• You need a clear niche instead of publishing random content
• Open rates and click-through rates are important for sponsors
• If most of your audience is from Tier 1 countries, you may have a better chance of attracting higher-paying sponsors.

These factors are especially important for sponsorships, where brands or services pay you to feature or talk about their products in your newsletter.

For example, if you have 5,000 highly relevant subscribers with a good open rate, you may still be able to attract sponsors and charge based on the value of your audience rather than audience size.

So far, we have only talked about direct sponsorships, right?

But direct sponsorships aren't your only option.

Beehiiv also has several built-in monetization features that you can use.

Let me walk you through them one by one.

Beehiiv Monetization Opportunities

In this section, I will discuss three built-in Beehiiv Monetization options.

1. Beehiiv Ad Network

Beehiiv Ad Network helps to connect you, the publisher, with advertisers who want to promote their products or services to your audience.

Here is what the Ad Network page looks like.

According to Beehiiv, publishers have earned $37,872,727 through its ad network monetization method.

Now, let me explain the math behind how much you can potentially earn.

There are two main payment models in the ad network,

1. Cost-per-click (CPC)
2. Cost-per-mille (CPM)

First, let's look at CPC.

Let's say you add an ElevenLabs advertisement to your newsletter.

When your readers click the sponsored link, you can earn money from those clicks.

For example, if the CPC rate is $2.02 per click, one eligible click can earn you $2.02.

What if 100 readers click the link?

If you calculate $2.02 x 100 = $202.

Pretty cool, right?

Yeah, and the other model is CPM.

This one works like this: if you get 1,000 unique opens, you'll get paid for it.

For example, if the CPM rate is $10 per 1000 unique opens, and if you get 10,000 unique opens, you could earn up to $100. (10 x $10 = $100)

But here is the important part.

It is not enough if you simply grow.

You should grow your audience in a niche-specific way.

For example, if you run an AI Marketing newsletter, promoting an AI marketing tool will probably make much more sense than promoting a completely unrelated product.

The relevance will help you get more clicks and engagement, ultimately helping you earn more from the Beehiiv Ad Network.

2. Paid Recommendations

Beehiiv Paid Recommendations helps you earn money by recommending other newsletters to your new subscribers.

I know that might sound a little confusing, so let me explain how it works

When someone subscribes to your newsletter, you can show them a list of other newsletters that are relevant to your niche.

If that person also subscribes to one of the newsletters you recommended, you can earn a referral payout from that newsletter.

For example, in the image below, you can see two newsletter recommendation opportunities. One pays $1.60 per approved subscriber, while the other pays $2.40.

So, just take the $2.40 payout as an example.

If 50 of your subscribers also subscribe to the newsletter you recommend, you could earn $2.40 x 50 = $120.

The best part is that you don't have to manually recommend these newsletters every time.

Once you add a newsletter to your recommendation section, Beehiiv can automatically show it to your new subscribers during the signup flow.

So, as your newsletter continues to grow, paid recommendations can become another way to generate revenue from the audience you are already building.

So the next method is to make subscribers pay for your premium content.

3. Paid Subscriptions

With the Beehiiv Paid Subscriptions method, you can create premium content and make it accessible only to paying subscribers.

Here is the math.

Let's say you charge $10 per month for your paid subscription.

If you get 100 paid subscribers, you could earn $1,000 per month($10 x 100).

This is why I mentioned earlier that you don't necessarily need a huge subscriber base to earn $1,000 per month.

You need a smaller group of people who trust your content and are willing to pay for the value you provide.

Here is the important part when it comes to content.

People will only pay for your content if you give them something valuable, useful, and actionable. Something that can genuinely help them in their work or solve a specific problem.

So, if you are planning to use paid subscriptions, put some effort into creating content that people feel is worth paying for.

Oops..!

Here is one very important thing you need to know about Beehiiv's built-in monetization.

You need to create a Stripe Express account and connect it to your Beehiiv account to receive payouts.

As part of the setup, Stripe will ask you to verify your identity using your personal details.

The verification process usually takes 2-3 minutes to complete.

If you want to know more details about Stripe, here is the official document.

Conclusion

I believe you now have a clear answer from this guide.

Before I end, there is one thing I want to remind you of again.

Don't start a newsletter just because you want to make $1,000 or more per month.

Your primary goal should be to build an audience.

Once you consistently provide useful content, people will start trusting you.

And when the trust grows, they are more likely to open your newsletters, read what you publish, and eventually pay attention to what you recommend.

But all of that starts with one thing: Good Content.

Even if your newsletter becomes a big brand one day, never compromise on the quality of your content.

Once you have your audience's attention and trust, monetization becomes much easier.

If you have any questions about anything covered in this guide, drop them in the comments.

I will be happy to help you :)