The Fastest Way to Make Money with Your Newsletter in 2024 📧
Learn from atomic, minimalist writers Jamie Northrup and Evan Kelly.
Long newsletters are out.
Short newsletters are in.
This is the trend
and have seen in the newsletter space over the last few years.Josh Spector is the first creator I know who built a large audience by publishing a short 1–2 sentence newsletter called “For The Interested.”
Christian Collard launched, grew, and sold “8 AM” to Wisdom Media by following the same basic format.
…shared Evan Kelly.
The biggest inspiration for his “Newsletter Alchemy”?
His friend
from “Minimalist Hustler”.
Jamie has been writing and sending his daily (!) newsletter at 8:20 am ET for 850+ issues every day.
He also has a weekly newsletter
.Josh, Christian, Jamie, and Evan create a very specific, short and sweet newsletter that’s called “atomic newsletter”.
What’s an Atomic Newsletter?
I bet you know the concept of atomic essays by
and and their “Ship 30 for 30”.Atomic essays are a way to stay consistent with publishing content daily.
It’s inspired by the NYT bestseller “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.
An atomic essay consists of:
1 single idea.
A maximum of 250 words.
Published via 1 single screenshot.
Participants write 30 atomic essays in 30 days:
What’s the idea of atomic essays?
I love the idea of atomic essays.
As a busy part-time creator with two kids in the house, I embrace minimalist, short-form writing.
So here’s the concept:
Instead of writing a 3000 to 7000-word blog post (the type of stories that get Boosted on Medium, curators love 7000-word posts) and feeling as if you’d talk into the void
…you write a short 250-word essay to gather data points.
This way you can see what type of content resonates with your audience.
Once you've validated your ideas, you can spend the time necessary to produce longer content on topics that have proven to work.
This is a smart, data-driven approach to audience growth and content marketing. And it’s a concept you can easily apply to starting and growing a profitable newsletter, shared Evan.
How do I write an atomic newsletter?
What I love about atomic newsletters is that they are written within only a few minutes (!). This is super fast. And you can make your first dollars with it even faster.
An atomic newsletter is a short 1–2 sentence email that links to either…
a piece of curated content or
created (original) content.
Each newsletter consists of…
short curiosity-driven headlines designed to make your reader click and consume relevant content around their topic of interest.
Based on the number of opens and link clicks, you can make an informed decision about what type of content your readers enjoy.
Every newsletter issue is a data point.
Starting an atomic newsletter is also low friction.
All you need is a reliable email services provider such as Substack or ConvertKit (with a new free plan of up to 1000 subscribers as it’s rebranding to Kit).
How to make money with an atomic newsletter?
Although there are many different ways to monetize an atomic newsletter, the easiest way is with affiliate links, referral links, sponsorships, and participating in specific networks.
In this week’s interview, Jamie and Evan share their insights, tips, and experiences on how to start and monetize an atomic newsletter.
Let’s explore the power of atomic newsletters now:
Table of Contents
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:57 Why Evan Kelly and Jamie Northrup Started Writing Atomic Newsletters
00:07:41 Main Benefits of Atomic Newsletters
00:10:03 What are the Parts of an Atomic Newsletter
00:14:12 How Long Does an Atomic Newsletter Take to Write?
00:16:16 Why Jamie and Evan Joined Substack
00:18:36 What is Jamie’s and Evan’s Newsletter Funnel?
00:23:44 How Jamie and Evan Monetize Their Newsletter
00:29:14 How Much Can Newsletter Sponsorships Make You?
00:32:57 Does Every Newsletter Get a Sponsor?
00:39:10 What is ConvertKit and How to Use It
00:43:44 What the Future of Substack Might Look Like
00:46:12 What is a ConvertKit Ambassador?
00:48:28 Who Has Inspired Evan and Jamie
00:53:38 How to Put Money Back into the Business
01:02:25 Can AI Help with Writing?
01:07:37 Does Jamie Use AI when Writing?
01:09:10 Does Numbering Your Newsletters Help?
01:10:50 Personal Questions for Jamie and Evan
💌Pssst!
Thinking about becoming a member? A membership is this summer really worthwhile because members also can join the Substack Kickstarter Bootcamp starting on July 15 (9 spots left). I made it super affordable for $57.
I’ll send all members an email and you can contact me via DM, or chat. There are two ways to join the Bootcamp. I’ll share #1: It’s directly via Substack by clicking on “Kickstarter Bootcamp” (annual membership + spot inside the BootCamp).💌
Here’s what two of my 11 bootcampers are saying:
❤️🔥Your feedback is just a spark but it’s enough to keep me going.❤️🔥
I hope this interview inspired you.
Your short form Queen (as many on Medium call me)🍋,
P.S. Liked it? Please share, like, and let me know what you think 💗 Your feedback is important and can spark many ideas. Thanks sooooo much!
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Love this episode about atomic, to the point content, Kristina! 250 words are one page in my book where I keep everything as double pages with 500 words - knowing the attention span is limited.
Funny that this trend goes against LinkedIn fostering longer posts. I personally love writing for people who resonate instead of algorithms which don‘t.
I love the idea of an atomic newsletter.
I'm a big fan of minimalism: fewer words, more impact.