A couple weeks ago, I read a mostly mindboggling email from Scott Oldford, who has been buying up newsletters and newsletter-related services.
Scott’s email was all about about an AI newsletter he bought recently for some undisclosed sum.
The acquired newsletter has 22,000 subscribers. Its creators have been running Facebook ads to get new readers, and paying $1.40 per new reader.
So far, so grim. But please pay attention to the next fact, because it’s remarkable:
That AI newsletter was making 3x that ad spend right at signup time, right when people opted in, without selling anything.
Did that last line make you pull down your glasses to the tip of your nose, and look at me with suspicion? It should have.
Direct response logic says that if you can acquire a customer at breakeven or slight loss, you’re doing well.
Granted, these newsletter subscribers aren’t necessarily customers, but they are a list of people who are potential customers, and they are certainly valuable as an audience in other ways.
Now let me repeat the rather shocking point again:
These AI bros are building that list of subscribers, not at a slight loss, not at cost, but actually getting paid 3x what they put in to acquire each new reader.
What tricky flamingos. How are they doing it?
Well, that’s my offer for you today. It’s called Sparkloop. It’s basically a network of coregistration partners.
If you’ve ever signed up for a Substack newsletter, you’ve seen this approach in action. Once you opt in, a window of newsletter recommendations pops up. “Would you like some more, sir?” it says. And there on the plate are 3 or 4 or 20 different other newsletters, which you can opt into with just a click o’ the button.
That’s what Sparkloop does as well, except it’s not limited to Substack newsletters only, but it can be integrated on almost any platform.
That’s how those AI bros were making 3x their ad spend right at optin time, without selling anything. They had Sparkloop installed, and they were recommending a bunch of other Sparkloop-network newsletters.
Now a word of disclosure:
I have been using Sparkloop myself. Its little window pops up when somebody signs up to my new health newsletter. I have made money from Sparkloop. But it’s nowhere close to what this AI newsletter is making.
The fact is, I’m not making $4.20 per new subscriber… but more like $0.36, at least on day 0.
Still, money is money, and Sparkloop is helping me offset the cost of ads I’ve been running.
Plus, Sparkloop allows you to promote newsletters inside your newsletter as well, which means that if you email regularly and promote other newsletters each time you email, you can hope to make a buck or two more per subscriber in the very first month.
So there you go. If you have a newsletter, and have nothing great to promote yet… or you’re simply looking for other ways to monetize your email list… then try out Sparkloop. I’ve done it, it works, and I’m happy to recommend it to others.
You can sign up for Sparkloop at the link below. Yes, that’s an affiliate link. Yes, I will get paid if you sign up. No, you don’t have to use this link, and no, I won’t ever know if you circumvent my link and go straight to Sparkloop and sign up there. But in case you don’t want to do that: