Brand partnerships: A smarter monetization strategy
Brands are ready to pay for access to your readers.
Let’s talk about brand deals! I recently took a course about brand deals and sponsorships to learn how I could diversify and grow my revenue as a newsletter creator. The course itself was a little meh, but I did learn a lot about what’s involved.
I’ve been thinking about how they offer creators a different way to earn money, without locking content behind a paywall (or you can use the two techniques together).
Put simply, a brand sponsorship is when a company pays you to feature their product or service in your newsletter, usually through a placement, endorsed message or live event that fits your voice and tone.
You’re often working directly with brands to create content that resonates with your specific audience, and the partnerships can be far more lucrative when done right.
Do paywalls have limits?
Yes, they do.
Paywalls create pressure. You have to deliver content on schedule because people are paying monthly. That can turn writing from something you love into an obligation that drains you (been there, believe it or not).
You’ve also got to consider the math, as my American friends would say. If you charge $6 per month and want to earn $600, you need 100 paying subscribers. After losing 10% to Substack and 3% to Stripe, you’re left with roughly $520 before taxes. For many creators, that doesn’t justify the volume of work and constant promotion required. Even hitting 100 paid subscribers is harder than most people realise when starting out (and it’s why lots of Substack bestsellers don’t live off their Substack income).
Brand deals sidestep this problem entirely. They give you a way to keep your content free, which means your audience can grow without friction. Sponsors pay you based on the value you deliver to them, not on how many readers you can convince to pull out their wallets each month.
You can start sooner than you think
Most creators assume they need tens of thousands of subscribers before brands will even look their way. Wrong! For B2B or professional newsletters, you can start landing sponsors with just a few thousand subscribers. The value is in the audience and engagement, not sheer numbers.
If your engagement is strong, you can start even smaller. Brands care most about your audience. An AI-news focused newsletter with 3,000 highly engaged readers can outperform a generic one with 15,000 passive subscribers who barely open emails. Quality, and crucially specificity, always beats quantity.
Value > subscriber count
Brands want access to the right people. A newsletter with 10,000 subscribers could charge hundreds of dollars and up for a sponsorship, depending on engagement and niche (Passionfroot estimated a sponsorship slot for the FWN’s 16,000 subscribers should start at $450). The who matters far more than the how many.
Brands will pay premium rates if they know your entire audience is tuned to exactly what they’re selling.
This means a parenting newsletter with 5,000 readers is gold to a company selling baby products or educational apps. Those readers are hyper-focused on a specific set of needs. A brand wants engaged eyeballs attached to wallets that care about what they offer. When your niche is tight and your audience trusts you, brands will pay more than you’d think for that access.
Engagement metrics like open rates and click-through rates prove your audience is paying attention. High engagement signals an active, loyal group of readers who actually care about what you send to them. That’s what brands are buying.
The money can be serious
Newsletter sponsorships can become genuinely lucrative. Publications can charge thousands for these partnerships, and creators use the income to live off. As your audience grows and engagement stays strong, those numbers climb. Some newsletters charge far more too, especially in high-value niches like finance, tech or B2B.
But there’s a catch. You have to provide value to your readers, not just the sponsor. A parenting newsletter should only partner with brands selling things parents actually need, like childcare products or family travel services. If the fit feels forced, readers will notice. And they will lose trust in you.
And once trust is gone, engagement drops. Then the brands disappear too.
The best sponsorships are more like recommendations, rather than interruptions. Your tone is crucial here. The product or service must genuinely help your audience.
The idea is that everyone wins. The brand gets conversions. Your readers discover something useful. You earn money without destroying the relationship you’ve built.
You can keep it free & still get paid
This is the real magic of brand deals. You can earn from your audience without charging them a penny. Isn’t that cool? It removes all the friction paywalls create. People can share your newsletter freely. New readers can discover your work without hitting a subscription wall. Your list grows faster because there’s no barrier to entry.
For creators who love writing but hate the pressure of monthly obligations, this route makes more sense. You’re not locked into a publishing schedule dictated by paying subscribers. You write when you like, and brands can pay based on the value your engaged audience provides them. Some creators earn far more through sponsorships than they ever could with paid subscriptions.
It also gives you more flexibility. You can mix revenue streams, combining sponsorships with digital products, coaching or other offerings (like a paywall if you wanted to keep one).
Crucially, it means you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket. If one income source dips, others help sustain your work.
How to get started?
Start by tracking your metrics. Know your open rate, click-through rate and audience demographics. Brands will ask for these numbers. If your engagement is strong, reach out to companies that align with your content. Pitch them directly, explaining who your audience is (value focused first!) and why they’d care about the brand’s product.
Don’t wait until you have a massive list. If you’re driving solid engagement with a few thousand subscribers, test the waters. The worst they can say is no. The best case? You land your first deal and realise you’ve been sitting on a potential revenue stream this entire time.
Brand deals aren’t a get rich quick scheme, though. They require delivering real value to both sponsors and readers. But if you’ve built a loyal, engaged audience around a clear niche, you’re probably halfway there.
The money is waiting. You just have to ask for it.
More on brand deals coming soon.
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I wonder if this is happening with others: lately I'm getting a ton of new followers but not subscribers. I'm confused as to why someone who doesn't know me would follow me vs. subscribe, and I actually don't understand where the followers are coming from since my notes get very little attention.