Haiden Hibbert
As a content creator, you’ve worked hard to build a loyal and engaged email list. Now, it’s time to leverage that list and turn it into a valuable source of income!
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through how to monetize your email list. Let’s get started!
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Table of Contents
1. Offer a paid newsletter subscription
Do your newsletters provide high-end value to readers? If yes, you’d be surprised that many will be willing to pay for it.
So, another way to monetize your email list is to create a high-value newsletter and offer paid subscriptions. If you have a large audience, even a small fee from a paid subscription model can yield big results.
2. Sell digital products
Selling digital products such as ebooks, guides, and templates is one of the most popular ways to monetize your email list. And for good reason—it’s one of the most lucrative.
Unlike advertising and affiliate marketing, 100% of the sales go into your pocket. Plus, you can sell a digital product over and over again without additional production expenses.
With minimal production costs and instant access for your subscribers, digital products are the most lucrative way to tap into your audience’s potential.
Here are a few reasons why…
- You’ve already built a targeted audience – Your email list is full of people already interested in you and your niche, making them more likely to purchase your digital products.
- There’s tons of passive income potential – Once created, digital products can be sold again and again without additional expenses, providing a continuous source of passive income.
- You can establish expertise – Selling digital products enables you to establish yourself as an expert or authority in your niche, building trust and credibility with your audience.
- You’ll build relationships with your subscribers – By offering exclusive access or promotions to your email list, you create a sense of community among your audience and foster long-term customer loyalty.
3. Use affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is very popular among content creators for making passive income. Once you find affiliate partners, you’ll promote their products and services by including their affiliate links in email newsletters to your subscribers. You may be paid for every click on the affiliate link, lead, or sale. It depends on the program!
4. Offer sponsored content
For sponsored content, brands will pay you to present their content (such as a blog post or video) to your email audience. This is a great way to monetize your email list because you don’t have to create new content yourself!
5. Provide consultation services
Do you have expertise in a particular field? Then, offer your expertise to your email audience via one-on-one consultation services.
This is a great way to monetize your email list because it gives you insights into your audience, which you can use to optimize other monetization methods. Consultations are also a high-ticket item that you can charge a lot for. However, you’re essentially selling your time, so there’s a limit to how much you can scale.
6. Launch a membership
If you have a lot of existing content, you can monetize it by starting a membership program and charging a recurring fee for access. Get subscribers interested by enticing them with exclusive benefits like access to premium content, member-only events, etc.
With membership programs, you can reach more people (than you would in one-on-one consulting) while offering personalized help (that online courses lack).
7. Host paid webinars
Hosting paid webinars is another good way to monetize your email list. Organize virtual classrooms to share your expertise or some other valuable content.
Promote the webinars to your email audience and charge them for admission.
8. Sell physical products
Another way to monetize your email list is to use it to drive sales for the physical products you sell. Simply promote your products in email communication to your subscribers.
If your subscribers trust you, you’ll be surprised how well your own product will sell. Don’t forget to add discounts and other freebies that will encourage them to make a purchase!
9. Sell branded merch
Do people feel a sense of belonging in your online community? If yes, a great way to monetize your email audience is to sell branded merchandise. Create items with your logo or slogan and promote these in your email communication to your subscribers.
10. Build a content library
If you have a lot of valuable content, another way to monetize your email list is to offer paid subscriptions to an online digital library.
That is, create an online library of resources (such as videos, templates, or guides). Then, use your email marketing platform to send personalized messages to your subscribers, promoting the digital library. Charge them a small access fee.
11. Create a paid podcast
Another way to use your email list to generate income is by monetizing your podcasts.
If you have a recording of audio discussions on topics your audience enjoys, make them downloadable for a fee. Then, promote them to your email subscribers.
Step 1: Ask your subscribers what they need
There are countless digital products that you could create and sell, from newsletters to podcasts, but you want to launch something that’s going to really resonate with your target audience. So, why not go directly to your email subscribers and ask them what they want to see? This will help you feel confident that you’re launching something your audience will love. Surveying your email list shouldn’t be complicated – simply use a tool like Typeform or Survey Monkey to ask a few questions, like:- What topics do you want to learn more about?
- What kind of content do you want to see more?
- Are you interested in connecting with a community around this topic?
- Would you rather see a podcast or a newsletter? (Or whatever products you’re considering)
Step 2: Based on your survey responses, pick one digital product to focus on
Yes, just one! You can launch as much as you want later, but staying laser-focused on your first one will make this process go much quicker.
With MemberSpace, you can sell access to any kind of digital product, membership, or online community and take advantage of tons of features to help you manage and grow your business. Some of the top-selling products our customers sell include:
- Newsletters
- Memberships
- Community access
- Paid podcasts
- Content library
- Videos
- Online courses
- Digital downloads
- Paid Zoom calls
- Digital magazines
Membership Access – Biz Birthday Bash
Content Library (Templates, Online Courses, Guides) – The Ladies of Real Estate
Online Community Access – Oak + Pine
Step 3: Create a simple website where you’ll sell your products
Once you have a clearer idea of what your email subscribers are interested in and what digital products you’re going to focus on, it’s time to set up a place to sell those products.
- First, create a simple website. This is where you’ll sell access to your exclusive digital products, accept payments, and build your online community. If you already have a website, skip to the next step. If not, don’t panic! You don’t need to create anything fancy. Just follow our guide on How to Create a Membership Site in 4 Easy Steps to get started.
- Then, sign up for MemberSpace and add it to your website. This will make selling access to your product extremely quick and easy, so you don’t have to go through the hassle of setting up a full-blown e-commerce store or payment gateway.
Step 4: Sell access to your digital products
You’re almost there! Once you’ve added MemberSpace to your website, you’ll need to create a couple of simple landing pages.
- A sales page that includes an image or video previewing your digital product, a short description of the product, a call-to-action button that is linked to the product page, and pricing information. Here’s an example of a sales page for an online course from one of our customers, Kolder Creative.
- A product page where you will add a download to your digital product.
- Protect the URL for the digital product page you just created.
- Decide how you plan to accept payments. This all depends on your product. If you’re selling access to a community or membership program, you’ll want to collect a monthly recurring payment. But if your digital product is something like an ebook or PDF guide, a one-time payment will suffice. For higher priced products like online courses or coaching programs, you might want to offer a multiple payment plan.
Once you’ve completed this step, your product page will be protected and will require a customer to fill out a form like this and pay before they can view the page. You’ll get a link to this sign up form that you can use throughout your website and to collect future email signups!
Step 4: Send email blasts to promote your product
Once you have your website and digital product launched, let’s circle back to your email list. After all, they’re the ones who helped inspire everything you just created! So, let’s promote the heck out of it and reward your email subscribers for being your very first customers.
Here are a few ways to do this:
- Send teaser emails to your list, giving them a sneak preview of what they’ll get access to if they purchase your digital product.
- Provide them with time-sensitive offers, like Get 20% off an annual membership – today only!
- Encourage your email list to sign up on your website and get access to free downloads, like an ebook or PDF guide. This will get them in the door so you can encourage them to purchase other digital products in the future.
- Offer additional discounts for things like holidays, birthdays, etc.
Step 5: Update your email signup form
Lastly, you’ll want to revisit your old email signup form and replace it with a link to a MemberSpace signup form. This ensures that you can manage all future email signups and their purchases from the MemberSpace dashboard. To do this, you’ll just need to create a new plan under “Member Plans.”
Final Thoughts
Monetizing your email list is one of the most effective ways to earn recurring revenue as a content creator or entrepreneur. Whether you have a short ebook, a membership program, a newsletter or something in between, you can launch your product in just a few minutes with MemberSpace. Sign up for a free account today!
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