Monetizing newsletter

I just recently wrote about how the Newsletter lifecycle is BS.
The gist is that you can always try to monetize at any stage, or any amount of subscribers.

Your title is monetizing, but your question is advertising. I'll try to give you a few ideas for both.

1. Advertising is specifically getting sponsors and having them pay to reach your audience. go list your site on marketplaces. You might get some interest: letterwell, paved, thoughtleaders.

2. You absolutely can reach out to people you think would benefit from being exposed to your audience. I would reach out to businesses who clearly advertise. Mention that you saw their advertisement and wanted to know if they wanted to sponsor your newsletter.

3. Sell your own stuff. Create a PDF. Create an archive beyond a paywall. Promote your own things and then add a line underneath: "wanna promote your product? email me"

4. Sponsors don't have to be exclusive. They can be classified sections.

5. Think of branded content too. If you think you can create a great piece of work for someone or feature writing about a product you already love. Inquire if they'd pay for that. You can charge a lot more than merely for reach for this.

Regarding Monetizing

1. I'd try affiliate links.

I'll be honest, this didn't work for me. I had done a deal with a couple of products that I thought were 100% bang on for my audience. one event that I knew my readers would attend (in 2019) and had over 100 clicks and 0 sales. It turns out my readers did buy tickets and did go to the event. But my readers are executives. They didn't buy the tickets. Their business bought the tickets. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

2. Drop a buymeacoffee button in. You'd be surprised who donates. Maybe it's a potential sponsor. This happened to me. It's great.

Reach out to them! It doesn't need to be a big audience. I started monetising a very niche newsletter when I had about 300 subscribers because I was providing value to advertisers.

Also, you can offer companies to sponsor it for free. That way some others might realise that there's a possibility of sponsoring it, which is not always totally obvious (make sure you include instructions of what should people do if interested in sponsoring).