3 Simple Ways to Start an Email List and Earn Money

Did you know that you can earn money from your email list?

You can earn money from your email list through affiliate marketing and promoting your existing offers. 

According to Hubspot, “Email marketing revenue is estimated to reach almost 11 billion by the end of 2023.”

If you’re a small business owner and you don’t have an email list, add it to your to-do list right now. There are tons of reasons why small businesses are missing out on the rewards of having an engaged email list. First of all, some business owners simply don’t know where to start. Secondly, many business owners believe they don’t have the time to write emails and send them to their lists. Finally, some small business owners are not aware that they can nurture leads and make sales using their email lists.

Whatever the reason is, we’re here to help you start an email list and earn money. Here are three simple ways you can do that. 

This blog post may contain affiliate links which means we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no extra cost to you.

1. Sign Up For an Email Marketing Service

Gone are the days of typing individual emails into the “to” section before sending. If you’re going to have an email list as a small business owner, you have to sign up for an email marketing service. 

Email marketing services make it easy for you to manage your email list, write, schedule, and send emails as well as analyze your stats. 

While there are tons of email marketing services out there, at various price points, we recommend Mailerlite. 

Mailerlite is an excellent email marketing tool and the company we have trusted to send emails to our list. 

We are able to group our subscribers, track sales, check out important analytics, and schedule emails easily.  

When you’re going about picking an email marketing service for your business, consider the following questions:

• Is this service cost-effective for my business?
• Can I integrate this service on my website?
• Is this service easy for me to use? 
• Can I easily export my email list to another platform?
• Do they provide helpful resources?

2. Start Collecting Emails 

You can’t make money from your email list if you have no emails in your email list, right? It’s time to start building an email list.

The great news is there are many ways that you can collect emails. Here are our favorite ways:

• Create a lead magnet
• Use a pop-up
• Create a sign-up page 

Before we dive into these ways, it’s important that you take the time to promote your email list and its value. For example, if you have a lead magnet, you have to create content that promotes it to your audience. That will lead to an increase in sign-ups!

Create a Lead Magnet 

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a lead magnet is a digital product, usually free that you offer your audience in exchange for their email address. 

Lead magnets, while very valuable to your audience, do not have to be complicated or time-consuming. You can create a lead magnet in an hour or two and it can be a:

• Checklist
• Guide
• Cheatsheet
• Report

Let’s look at an example. If you’re a marketing company some examples of lead magnets you can offer are:

• 50 Free Marketing Tools
• 2023 Marketing Stats
• Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing

The point of the lead magnet is to give your audience something they would value.

You can make your lead magnet on Google Docs or Canva if you want it to look great. 

Finally, you can host your lead magnet on your website and regularly promote it on your socials to bring awareness and increase sign-ups. 

Use a Pop-Up

Have you ever been to a website and a couple of seconds after the page loads you see a pop-up message? This pop-up message is usually asking for your email in exchange for a reward. 

If you’re going to be putting a pop message on your website, it needs to provide value for your audience. Here are some ideas:

• Free shipping
• A discount code
• A checklist
• A guide

If you’re not sure how to do a pop-up for your specific website or email service provider, try typing in your query to YouTube for a step-by-step guide. 

Create a Sign-Up Page

Another way you can collect emails consistently is by having a sign-up page. Your sign-up page should clearly highlight the benefits of signing up for your email list. Let your audience know what kind of valuable information they expect such as a monthly newsletter with tips. 

If you need help creating a signup page, your email marketing service should be able to help you create one in a couple of minutes. In addition to that, you integrate your email marketing service into your website and make your sign-up page. 

3. Send Regular Emails 

Now that you’ve set up your email marketing service and started to collect email addresses, the next step is to send emails!

Even if you have thousands of subscribers to your email list, you won’t make any money if you don’t actually send them emails.

While crafting emails may seem like another daunting task, it’s super important to nurture your email list and send them regular emails. 

Here are some emails you can consider sending to your email list:

• Newsletters- These can be weekly, biweekly, or monthly. What goes into your newsletter depends on what your audience values. 
• Sales emails- These emails are solely for selling your offer or product. This should not make up the majority of the emails that you send but should be sent regularly. 
• Welcome email- Once set up, welcome emails will automatically go to your new subscribers. In your welcome email, you can include a brief summary of your business and how you’re helping your target audience as well as direct them to prime resources that you offer. 
• Announcements- If you’re launching a new product or have a general announcement it’s okay to send that to your email list.
• Email course- You can actually set up an email course. Some entrepreneurs use this as a lead magnet. Once set up, your email marketing service will send whoever signed up emails at the interval you choose. 
• Surveys- If you want to get your audience’s input, you can create a form.
• Blog posts- You can send excerpts from your blog post and the link to your blog to your email list.  

Next Steps

Now that you have set up your email marketing service, started building your email list, and are sending out consistent emails it’s only a matter of time before you start cashing in. The truth is, you don’t need a lot of subscribers to make money, what you do need are engaged subscribers. 

You can keep your subscribers engaged by sending them valuable information consistently and not just popping up when you want to send something. 

However, when it comes to selling products or services in your emails, be sure to always highlight the benefits. You’re free to sell your own products and services as well as affiliate products. Make sure you check out the rules of your affiliate program to make sure you’re allowed to advertise that specific product in your email. 
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, we recommend our Affiliate Marketing Masterclass to fast-track your learning so you can start earning ASAP.