You’ve probably heard the saying “the money is in the list.” Well, in this post, we’re putting that theory to the ultimate test! If you want to know about how to make money online with an email list, keep reading because we’re doing a semi deep dive into the pool of monetizing your audience.
Table of Contents
First - Get an Email Marketing Platform
Why is this the first step, you ask? Simple! If you were to just start emailing people from your email service provider such as Gmail or Yahoo, or even from an email address with your own domain odds are your emails would never get delivered. The reason is that inboxes filter for spam and junk more than ever before.
Without an email marketing platform like SendX on your side, your emails won’t have the proper protocols in place to prevent your correspondence from landing in the old junk folder. Once you sign up for an email platform, then you can start working towards making money online.
Make Money Online Starting With $0?
Yes! In her video The $10k/ Month Side Hustle No One Talks About, multimillionaire and Contrarian Thinker Codie Sanchez says that monetizing an email list is a safe way to make money online. In fact, she specifically states that you can launch an email list for $0 and grow it to generate thousands and eventually millions of dollars if you choose to.
Sounds pretty good right? But how does it work? There are a few generally accepted ways to make money from an email list. These include:
- Selling Other People’s Products
- Selling Your Products/Services
- Selling Premium Emails (Paywalled Content).
While there are likely lots of other ways to make money online with your email list, these are the most popular.
Sell Other People’s Products
We covered this pretty extensively in our post, Email Marketing Strategy for Affiliate Marketers, but here’s the gist of what you need to know about using your email marketing platform of choice to make money online selling other people’s products:
If you have an audience, and you share products you love with that audience, you could make money. The most basic way to describe how affiliate marketing works is that you share affiliate links with your audience, and if they buy anything using your unique link, you get a commission.
The bigger your email list, the more likely it is that people will click through and purchase whatever you’re promoting.
The trick to affiliate marketing via email
Only recommend products your target audience is already likely to purchase. This is why you don’t just add anyone and everyone to your email list.
When you niche down, or at least segment your list, you can send products that are better targeted to the people in that list. For example, let’s say your newsletter is about how to stay organized as a work from home parent. Your recommended products could include:
- Organization containers
- Labeling gadgets (i.e. Cricut or old school label makers)
- Project management system to keep projects organized (i.e. ClickUp has an affiliate program)
The point is you wouldn’t want to suddenly start recommending products that don’t make sense for your audience.
If you decide to go the affiliate marketing route you must:
- First, disclose your affiliation - not only does it promote transparency, it’s also the law
- Second, choose your affiliate partners very carefully. Make sure the company you’re indirectly selling for has a good reputation and solid customer service.
Take time to test and review products before endorsing them. Focus on how they benefit your audience rather than monetization. Remember, when people are reading your emails they are always thinking “What’s in it for me?”
This is why it’s important you don’t make every email a sales pitch. As you begin pitching affiliate products to your email list, it’s critical that you aren’t overly promotional. Instead, your focus should be on providing value and education first.
Just because your goal might ultimately be to monetize your list, if every email is loaded with affiliate links, you are going to lose a lot of subscribers. In the worst cases, they might just start sending your emails to the Spam folder and nobody wants that! It can damage the reputation of your email address and/or your business overall.
By the way, did you know SendX has an affiliate program? Click here to learn more!
Sell Your Products and Services Directly
One of the most direct ways to make money from your email list is by promoting and selling your own products and services. With an engaged subscriber base, you have a built-in customer base ready to purchase relevant offers.
You could start by driving traffic to your website through links in your emails. Promote new product launches, sales, or special deals to entice subscribers to visit your shop. These products can be digital or physical. Just make sure your email templates, checkout process, and website are optimized for seamless user experience.
Alternatively, you can showcase services that you offer such as coaching, consulting, group classes, etc… If you’re a service based business you could sell your time to perform services such as photography, accounting, web design, freelance writing, etc…
As with the affiliate emails, make sure your correspondence isn’t overly “salesy.” Short mentions at the end of your emails showcasing products and services are usually acceptable as long as your content is more focused on giving than asking for the sale.
The exception to this is sending an occasional email heavily focused on selling because you’re offering a special promotion for something like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, new year offers, holidays, etc… And, offering special discounts, coupon codes, and exclusive deals to your email list members is always a good idea. It’s a wonderful way to reward your loyal subscribers with perks that new customers can’t access.
Your best bet whether you’re selling your products and services or someone else’s is to nurture the relationship with your audience by building trust and consistently delivering helpful information.
Deliver Paid Content
Finally, you can make money online by offering exclusive paid content to your email subscribers. This leverages your expertise while delivering premium value. Think of this as a paywalled email that you send separately from your standard newsletters.
In your paid emails you can offer additional tips, training, education, private links to courses, additional discounts, etc… Consider topics most relevant to their interests and needs. Bring your unique perspective and experience.
You can even create exclusive communities on Facebook/other platforms for paid email list members. Set up online discussion forums or live webinars for ongoing learning. Enable members to interact and network as they dive deeper into your niche.
To get new paid email subscribers you could occasionally offer some of your paid content for free as well. This helps build trust and perceived value. Promoting both free and paid education provides flexibility.
When done right, paid email subscribers become raving fans happy to pay for your expertise. Just ensure paid promotions remain ethical and low pressure. As always, nurture relationships first!
Ready to generate income from home with your email list? Click here to get started and before you know it you can make money online too!
