Hello, Life of Scoop. I haven’t sent one of these in 2 months. That’s the exact same way I opened the last one. Since then the list has grown by 33% completely organically. Awesome. Today, we’re talking about everyone’s favorite topic: Monetization. Here’s how I monetize my local newsletter.

It’s (almost) all ads

I sell five ads per newsletter in 3 different placements. Here they are in the order they appear in my newsletters.

• Headline – includes: logo, picture, 150 words

• Feature - includes: picture, 100 words

• Baseline - includes: 70 words

All of them include links and all photos/logos are linked too. Easiest way to explain is to show you examples.

Here’s the headline ad. It’s the first thing in the newsletter unless we have a top story (newspaper equivalent: front page story). Today we don’t.

Got it? On to the feature ad. This picture is actually a gif which is a really cool way to get extra bang for your buck in newsletter ads. Wait for it. This is about a 10-second gif.

Lastly we have the humble baseline. I sell 3 per newsletter but we only have 1 today.

Remember how I said it was almost all ads? Well these are basically ads but I call them sponsorships. Basically you sponsor a section that’s relevant to your business. Our local boat show sponsors our weather section (because boaters are always checking the weather) and the music festival in today’s feature ad sponsors our music section because well, isn’t it obvious?

Both of those images are affiliate links to each show’s ticket page so we can know how successful the campaign is.

That’s also an affiliate link because part of our payment for the deal is 10% of the ticket sales we generate.

We also have a membership program for our biggest supporters that generates just shy of $8,000 per year.

Oh yeah, and you probably want to know how much each ad costs. Here’s the starter pricing. I offer volume discounts starting at 12 ads. For perspective, we have 20,000 subscribers and a 60% open rate.

• Headline: $812.50

• Feature: $625

• Baseline: $500

So that’s it. Still have questions about monetization? The best thing to do is schedule a consultation (link below).

Does anyone here care about toilets?

I’ve got a side hustle. One that’ll likely become the main hustle before too long. I rent luxury portable toilets. These guys.

Are you interested in hearing how that’s going too? If so, respond to this email with the phrase, “Yes. I want the Poop Scoop.”

Life of Scoop’s referral program

If you share Life of Scoop, I’ll reward you.

• Get 2 folks to join and I’ll send you a PDF of all the tools I use to run my local newsletter.

• Get 15 and I’ll evaluate a writing sample and tell you how to improve.

• Get 100 and I’ll give you a free hour of local newsletter consulting ($350 value).

• And if you somehow get 1,000 I will fly you out to my newsletter’s annual party, put you up in a hotel, and make you the guest of honor.

Life of Scoop stuff

• I do local newsletter consulting. Get on the schedule.

• You can sponsor this newsletter. 1,368 hungry entrepreneurs, 70% open rate. Email me to sponsor.

• Beehiv referral link (gets you 20% off)

• 5-Day Local Newsletter Starter Kit