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Hey — Matt here.

$10k per month is a magic number.

Maybe it's revenue number you need to quit your job and go full-time on your business.

So what's the fastest way to reach $10k per month with a newsletter?

Let's break it down:

If you send 1 newsletter per week
At 100,000 subscribers and a 50% open rate
Sell 1 sponsorship in each newsletter at a $50 CPM (cost per 1,000 opens)

You'll make $10,000 per month.

This is why sponsorships suck.

100k subscribers can take years to reach.

Luckily, there are better ways to monetize we'll cover soon.

Let's break down the same sponsorships model but with more newsletter sends and more ad slots…

If you send 5 newsletters per week
At 27,000 subscribers and a 50% open rate
Sell 15 sponsorships per month (75% ad fill rate) at a $50 CPM (cost per 1,000 opens)

You'll make $10,125 per month.

Better, but growing to 27k subscribers and sending 5 times a week is hard.

If you send 2 newsletters per week (1 free, 1 paid)
Have 25,000 subscribers and a 50% open rate
Sell 4 sponsorships per month at a $50 CPM (cost per 1,000 opens)
Convert 3% of subscribers to a $10 per month paid subscription

You'll make $10,000 per month.

Now we start to see the value of selling your own product.

At this level, you'll make $7,500 in MRR with a paid subscription.

Recurring revenue is much more valuable than 1-off sponsorship sales.

I'm being conservative with the math here.

You'll be better off selling annual subscriptions only at a higher price like $99-$299 per year.

Plus, some newsletters convert 5%-10% of free subscribers to paid.

If you send 1 newsletter per week
Have 7,000 subscribers and a 50% open rate
Sell 2 sponsorships per month at a $50 CPM (cost per 1,000 opens)
Convert 1% of subscribers per month to a $150 course (70 buyers per month)

You'll make $10,850 per month.

Based on this math, you can make $10k per month with 7,000 subscribers.

That's way fewer subscribers than the other models.

Plus, it's easier to sell a one-off product than a subscription.

If you have 3,500 subscribers
Convert 0.3% of subscribers per month to a $999 course (10.5 buyers per month)

You'll make $10,490 per month.

This is the power of high-ticket products.

You can make more money with a smaller audience and lower conversion rates.

However, the audience you build needs to be niche.

And a course at this price point must deliver massive value (help people make 10X more than their $999 investment).

If you have 2,000 subscribers
Convert 0.2% of subscribers a month to a $2,500 coaching program (4 buyers per month)

You'll make $10,000 per month.

By the way, a coaching program can mean a lot of things…

In this case, I'm talking about a done-with-you service that helps clients get from A to B over a set time.

With a coaching program, you'll likely deliver 1on1 calls, weekly group calls, async Q&As, and resources to your clients.

Coaching programs can be recurring monthly too (rates range from $1,000-$5,000 per month).

If you have 1,000 subscribers
Convert 0.3% of subscribers a month to a $3,500 per month service (3 buyers per month)

You'll make $10,500 per month.

A done-for-you service is the fastest way to hit $10k per month.

It requires the smallest audience because the price and value are the highest.

In this model, I used a 0.3% conversion rate – higher than the coaching model and equal to the high-ticket course model.

That's because the service is "done-for-you". The clients get the value you create, with little to no work required from them.

Courses are "do-it-yourself" and coaching is "done-with-you".

The value the customer gets is lower and the likelihood of success is lower too.

Now, of course, there are cons to a service or agency business.

They're harder to scale, have lower margins at scale, and can take more work.