EP 546 Newsletter Email Money Secrets: Making $25K Per Email Without Breaking the Law

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AI newsletters are the most profitable
side hustle on the internet right now.

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Yeah, I said what I said.

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And the best ones are simple daily
emails written entirely by AI and

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hosted on platforms like Beehiiv.

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This AI newsletter side hustle feels,
I don't know, almost illegal to know

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if you think about it, and here's why.

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While you're trading hours for dollars
at your job, parents with zero written

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experience are building seven-figure
newsletter empires from their kitchen

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tables using nothing but AI tools and a
platform that takes 0% of their revenue.

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Yeah, nothing.

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The top 12 AI newsletters now reach
over five million combined subscribers.

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Two of them, Rohan Chung's The
Rundown AI and Zain Kahn's Superhuman

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AI, have crossed over two million
and 1.5 million subscribers

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respectively, and are generating
seven figures in annual revenue.

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Superhuman AI hit seven
figures in just four months.

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But here's what no one in the
guru space wants you to know.

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Companies are literally paying millions
of dollars to acquire those email lists.

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HubSpot paid $24 million to Sam Parr's
The High Side Hustle back in 2021.

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HubSpot acquired an AI newsletter called
Mindstream for its 210,000 subscribers,

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and TechnologyAdvice bought The Neuron
for its 500,000 su- subscribers.

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The barrier to entry is essentially zero.

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The tools, they're already built for
you, and I'm about to walk you through

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exactly how this works from zero to
profitable AI newsletter, step-by-step.

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What is up?

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What is up?

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What the hell is up, my Dark
Horse friends and family?

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Welcome back to another episode of the
Dark Horse Entrepreneur AI Escape Plan,

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where we break free from the grind, share
some AI-powered tips and side hustle

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strategies, and support our parents
out there chasing freedom like the

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modern-day trailblazers that they are.

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And if you know someone who dreams of
ditching the grind while still making time

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for those lovable munchkins in their life,
go ahead and forward this episode to them.

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So let's go ahead and get stuck
right in here, and there's three

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things I want you to come away with.

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Obviously, what we're talking
about is how to start a highly

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profitable AI newsletter on Beehiiv.

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This is the side hustle I think
that feels almost illegal to know.

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But the three things I want you to
walk away with are the million-dollar

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subscriber blueprint, how Rowan Cheung's
The AI Rundown and Zane Khan's Superhuman

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AI have each surpassed a million
subscribers, and they're still growing.

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The Rundown AI now is at two
million subscribers, and Superhuman

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AI is at one point five million
as of, what, twenty twenty-five?

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I'm not sure of the updated figures.

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And they're generating seven figures
annually, with Superhuman hitting seven

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figures in revenue in just four months.

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Plus, why Beehiiv just hit thirty
million in annualized revenue.

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These are some very important
numbers I'm gonna share with you.

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Second, the acquisition gold rush.

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Why there are companies out there
that are paying millions for email

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lists, from examples like HubSpot's
twenty-seven million purchase of The

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Hustle to recent acquisitions of AI
newsletters with hundreds of thousands

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of subscribers, and how this proves
newsletters are having their Shopify

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moment, he says with air quotes.

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And then number three, the
zero to money playbook.

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This is the exact four-revenue stream
system that's generating life-changing

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income for newsletter creators out there,
including how two guys went from zero to

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eight-figure acquisition in ten months,
and why some newsletters are growing

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to one point seven million subscribers
without spending a single dollar in ads.

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But before we go down that road,
here's a truth I think that's

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gonna make some people in the
newsletter space very uncomfortable.

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The biggest wealth transfer
happening on the internet right

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now, I don't think it's in crypto.

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I don't think it's in real estate.

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I don't even think it's in AI startups.

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It's the simple email newsletters written
by AI and monetized through platforms

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that most people Have never heard of.

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While everyone's out there changing--
chasing the next shiny object, there

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are parents who are quietly building
million-dollar media empires one email

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at a time inside the booming creator
economy and digital publishing space.

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And the platform sitting at the center
of almost all of this success is Beehiiv.

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Let me tell you three stories I
think are gonna change how you

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think about making money online.

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Story number one: the crypto
newsletter that changed everything.

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I want you to picture this.

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It's January twenty twenty-two.

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Two guys decided they wanted to start
a newsletter about cryptocurrency.

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They have no current archive, they have
no subscribers, they have no audience,

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and they have no credibility in the space.

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Literally nothing.

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A big fat goose egg.

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They're starting from absolute zero
on a platform called Beehiiv that most

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people, maybe you, have not heard of.

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Their plan was simple, but
it was a little audacious.

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They called it The Milk Road, and they're
going to document the entire journey

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that they're gonna go on publicly.

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Let's fast-forward ten months.

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They built over two hundred and fifty
thousand subscribers and just sold their

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entire newsletter in an acquisition
estimated at eight-figure range.

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The Milk Road went from zero
to life-changing exit in less

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than a year, and they documented
every step of the process.

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Here's what makes this
story a bit remarkable.

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They spent about a hundred and eighty
thousand dollars on Facebook and Meta

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ads to drive over a hundred and fifty
thousand subscribers at roughly, what?

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A dollar to a dollar
thirty per sub-subscriber.

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It sounds like a lot of money
until you realize their primary ad

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slot was generating ten thousand
to twenty-five thousand dollars

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per email send at its peak.

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They were making their ad spend back In
every single newsletter that they sent.

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They tested creatives aggressively,
and they found that meme ads and

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social proof ads worked the best.

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But they weren't just
relying on paid advertising.

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One team member spent a few hours creating
a PDF called What Twelve Crypto Whales

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Are Betting On, and they offered it to any
reader who would refer just one person.

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That's it.

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Not ten, not five, not twenty.

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It was a dead simple referral program.

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What marketers called a lead magnet
strategy drove massive organic

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growth across their paid strategy.

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Their founder said it plainly when
he said, "We launched on Beehiiv with

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nothing. We scaled to over two hundred
and fifty thousand subscribers and

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got acquired in all under a year."

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End quote.

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Yeah, there it is.

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So here's story number two,
the AI newsletter millionaires.

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Now let me tell you about these two
newsletters that prove this wasn't

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just about crypto timing or luck.

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Rohan Chung launched The Rundown
AI as a daily five-minute briefing

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about artificial intelligence.

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Today, The Rundown AI has surpassed two
million subscribers, maintains over a

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fifty percent open rate, which is more
than double the industry average, which

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hovers around thirty-four percent, and it
generates seven figures every single year.

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Rohan runs daily five-minute
briefings that busy professionals

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will actually read because they're
practical and not theoretical.

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Let's talk about Zane Khan.

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Zane Khan took a different approach with
Superhuman AI, and he's focusing on how

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to use AI tools to become more productive.

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Superhuman AI has now crossed one point
five million subscribers and generates

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seven figures every single year.

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Now, here's the part that
should get your attention.

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Superhuman AI hit seven
figures in four months.

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Four months from launch
to seven-figure revenue.

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Zero to seven figures.

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Let that sink in for a moment, would you?

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Both of these newsletters follow the
same pattern: daily publishing, three

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to five-minute read times, practical
focus over theory and wah-wah and loo-loo

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stuff out there, and AI-powered content
creation that scales without burning out

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the creator behind the scenes, right?

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Now, here's story number three, the no-ads
success story, 'cause I know you might be

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thinking, "Yeah, that's great, Tracy, but
I don't have money for Facebook ads like

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The Milk Road." Here's the beautiful part.

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You don't need to.

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An AI let- newsletter called There's an
AI for That grew to over one point seven

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million subscribers without spending
one single dollar on paid advertising.

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They built their entire audience through
organic growth, referral programs,

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and platform discovery features.

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Another newsletter called AI with
Vibes got acquired in just seven months

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using similar organic strategies.

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The data backs this up.

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Referral programs boost subscriber
growth about an average of seventeen

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percent, and referred subscribers
have a sixteen percent higher

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retention rate with acquisition costs
up to ninety-two percent lower than

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all the paid channels out there.

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Morning Brew's referral program alone
drove over a million subscribers

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before they sold to Business Insider.

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These aren't just
isolated success stories.

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I think they're proof of a systematic
approach to building wealth through

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email that's now powered by AI tools that
didn't exist just a couple of years ago.

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So now that you've got the numbers and
some of the, uh, the statistics to help

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prove this is not me just blowing smoke
up your butt, let me break down how to

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build this business step by step using
all the data from these success stories.

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One, why should you use
Beehiiv s-specifically?

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Well, Beehiiv was founded in twenty
twenty-one by, by Tyler Denk, who

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joined Morning Brew back in twenty
seventeen, uh, as their second employee.

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He helped scale that newsletter to
three point five million subscribers

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before it sold to Business In-Insider
for seventy-five million bucks.

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Then he took everything he learned
about what works in newsletter growth,

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and he built Beehiiv as the platform
he wished he had at the Morning Brew.

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Today, over a hundred and ten
thousand publishers use Beehiiv,

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including this podcaster here.

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And as of twenty twenty-five, the platform
hit thirty million in annualized revenue.

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In twenty twenty-four alone, Beehiiv
sent over ten billion, with a B, emails,

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with industry-leading deliverability
rates that keep your content Out of

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those pesky spam folders out there.

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Now, that's just not growth, that's
really explosive adoption by serious

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newsletter creators, perhaps like you.

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I know it's certainly like me.

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Here's the key difference between
Beehiiv and competitors like Substack,

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founded by Chris Best, which takes
about ten percent of every paid

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subscription right off the top.

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And then there's ConvertKit,
which has now been rebranded

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as Kit, Mailchimp, and Ghost.

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Beehiiv takes zero percent of
your paid subscription revenue.

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Nothing.

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Zero.

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Nada.

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Big fat goose egg.

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You keep everything you earn.

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Well, you know, of course, minus
any Stripe processing fees.

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The ten percent Substack charges
compounds fast when you're scaling,

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and platforms like Mailchimp and
ConvertKit, now known as Kit, are really

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built for general email marketing,
not for the newsletter creator economy

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the way that Beehiiv specifically is.

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And, and on top of all of that, Beehiiv
gives you a built-in ad network, a

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cross-promotion marketplace, uh, called
Boost, which is referral programs.

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AI writing tools are in
there and SEO optimization.

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This is all under the same roof.

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You don't need to go find all
these tools out there and start

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trying to piece them together.

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The best part for getting started
is this: the free plan gives you up

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to twenty-five hundred subscribers
with unlimited email sends.

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You don't pay a dime until
you're ready to scale past that.

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Okay?

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Step two, the four revenue streams
that create seven-figure newsletters.

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Based on the success stories I've
analyzed, there are four primary

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ways to monetize your AI newsletter
on Beehiiv, and the most successful

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creators out there are using all four.

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Revenue stream number one
is the Beehiiv ad network.

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Once you hit a thousand
subscribers, Beehiiv starts

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sending you ad opportunities
from their premium advertisers.

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They go out there and find the
advertisers, they bring them in,

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and they start sending them to you.

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And you're looking at five
to twenty dollar SCPMs here.

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That's cost per thousand impressions.

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On weekly sends, which translate to maybe,
I don't know, twenty to a hundred and

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sixty bucks a month at just one thousand
subscribers with a good open rate.

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A single ad could bring you
fifty to a hundred bucks.

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Okay?

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That's, I mean, it's not life-changing
money, but certainly good to know.

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I want you to remember
The Milk Road numbers.

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Their primary ad slot was generating
ten thousand to twenty-five thousand

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per cent at its peak when they had two
hundred and fifty thousand subscribers.

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That's the power of this
revenue stream at scale.

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Revenue stream number two.

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This is Boost's cross-promotion.

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Beehiiv's cross-promotion marketplace
is where you get paid to recommend

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other newsletters to your audience.

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The average cost per subscriber in the
Boost network is a buck sixty-three,

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meaning other publishers out there
will pay you every time one of your

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readers subscribes to their newsletter.

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Sounds pretty simple.

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And this is passive income.

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You write one recommendation,
and you get paid every time

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someone clicks and subscribes.

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Revenue stream number
three, paid subscriptions.

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Even at a, let's say, a modest one
to three percent conversion rate from

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a free reader to a paid subscriber
can create substantial recurring

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revenue, and Beehiiv takes none of
that, as I, as I keep telling you.

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Zero.

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Based on the twenty twenty-five data,
paid subscriptions generated about

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eight point seven million across
newsletters on Beehiiv, with a ninety-six

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00:12:03,626 --> 00:12:05,600
point two growth year over year.

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So it's growing.

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It's getting bigger.

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Write with AI is a newsletter on
Substack It reached $400,000 in annual

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recurring revenue in 2025 by launching
quarterly digital products that generated

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$90,000 from a single drop, plus
founding member offers that brought in

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an extra $25,000 in just two months.

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Okay?

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So this-- there's some big numbers
that can go with paid subscriptions.

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And then revenue stream number
four is affiliate marketing.

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Most of us know about this, but
promoting AI tools, uh, software,

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courses to your audience can generate
100 to $1,000 a month, even when

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you only have 1,000 subscribers.

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When you scale this, this
becomes much more significant.

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It has an opportunity to grow even bigger.

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Stack all four of these together, and
the m-math starts to look very, very

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00:12:49,234 --> 00:12:51,626
good, very, very real, very, very fast.

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Step three is the content
strategy, and here's a content

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strategy that actually works.

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The most successful AI newsletters
follow consistent patterns that

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you can replicate, and here are
some of those consistent patterns.

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Number one is brevity.

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My friends, brevity wins.

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A three-to-five-minute read dominates
because busy professionals simply

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don't have time out there anymore.

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They, they won't read
longer content consistently.

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They may read it every once in a while,
but you want them to be reading-- opening

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your emails and reading them consistently.

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Both the Rundown AI and Superhuman
AI stick to this format religiously.

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Daily publishing is another big win.

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Daily publishing builds stronger reader
relationships than weekly publishing

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does because you're creating a habit.

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Your newsletter becomes a part of
their morning routine, their afternoon

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break, whatever it is, not something
they might get to later on, right?

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'Cause we know what happens then.

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They tend not to do it.

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The next piece of the content
strategy is practical focus.

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Practical focus is gonna beat
theory's ass every single time.

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Readers want to know how to
use AI in their work, not just

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what's theoretically possible.

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And if you're not doing a newsletter about
AI, whatever it is you're talking about,

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they wanna know the hows of how they
can use it, not just the theories in it.

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The newsletters that survive and thrive
solve real problems With actionable

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advice in that three-to-minute brief read.

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This is where AI becomes, I
think, your unfair advantage.

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00:14:15,617 --> 00:14:21,078
Beehiiv has built-in AI tools powered by
GPT-4 that can handle draft headlines,

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sections, and even full newsletters.

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00:14:23,982 --> 00:14:27,513
You can use Claude for some long-form
drafting and research, and then edit

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00:14:27,547 --> 00:14:30,043
and refine to keep your authentic voice.

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00:14:30,417 --> 00:14:34,190
The content creation process that
used to take hours with research

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00:14:34,243 --> 00:14:38,104
included now has just been compressed
all the way down to minutes.

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00:14:38,330 --> 00:14:40,365
Okay, maybe let's say 20 minutes.

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All right.

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So you, you see what I'm saying.

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00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,573
You've gone from hours to
almost less than a half hour.

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Now, step number four is growth
without paid advertising.

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Here's where the success stories from
the newsletters There's an AI for

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00:14:51,408 --> 00:14:54,173
that, and AI was vibes become crucial.

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00:14:54,208 --> 00:14:59,120
You don't need $180,000 in ad spend
like The Milk Road to build this massive

300
00:14:59,147 --> 00:15:00,713
subscriber list for your newsletter.

301
00:15:00,721 --> 00:15:02,817
The data on organic growth
is very, very clear.

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00:15:03,147 --> 00:15:07,260
Referral programs boost subscriber
growth an average of 17%.

303
00:15:07,686 --> 00:15:10,313
Referred subscribers have
a higher retention rate.

304
00:15:10,347 --> 00:15:12,346
It's about 16% higher retention rate.

305
00:15:12,556 --> 00:15:17,095
Acquisition costs are up to
92% lower than paid channels.

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00:15:17,321 --> 00:15:17,756
It's cheaper.

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00:15:18,086 --> 00:15:18,260
Get it?

308
00:15:18,539 --> 00:15:19,234
Duh, of course.

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00:15:19,373 --> 00:15:22,713
And then Morning Brew's referral
program alone, in the example I gave you

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00:15:22,973 --> 00:15:25,043
ear-earlier, drove a million subscribers.

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00:15:25,139 --> 00:15:29,547
Set up a referral pr-program on day
one using Beehiiv's built-in tools.

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00:15:29,756 --> 00:15:33,443
Create a simple lead magnet, you know, a,
a PDF checklist, a template, whatever it

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00:15:33,513 --> 00:15:38,243
is, and offer it to anyone that refers and
gets one person to sign up on your list.

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00:15:38,608 --> 00:15:39,304
That's it, right?

315
00:15:39,373 --> 00:15:41,904
That's exactly what Milk Road
did with their What Twelve

316
00:15:42,017 --> 00:15:43,860
Crypto Whales Are Betting On.

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00:15:43,895 --> 00:15:47,286
That, that was their PDF, and
it drove massive organic growth.

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00:15:47,582 --> 00:15:52,939
Write with AI is gaining over 1,000 s-new
subscribers every single week, with 35% of

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00:15:52,973 --> 00:15:57,339
their subscribers coming directly from the
platform's built-in discovery features.

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00:15:57,565 --> 00:16:00,973
That is the power of consistent
quality content on a platform

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00:16:01,304 --> 00:16:02,817
that promotes good newsletters.

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00:16:03,104 --> 00:16:04,208
And that brings us to step five.

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00:16:04,365 --> 00:16:06,678
This is the AI content creation process.

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00:16:07,299 --> 00:16:10,169
Here's where it gets, I know, really
powerful for my busy parents out

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00:16:10,169 --> 00:16:11,482
there, for all my busy entrepreneurs.

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00:16:11,673 --> 00:16:15,691
The content creation process that used
to take hours now gets compressed down

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00:16:15,691 --> 00:16:17,821
into minutes with the right AI flow.

328
00:16:17,856 --> 00:16:21,230
Now, don't get me wrong here, you-- I'm
gonna tout AI's benefits, but you wanna

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00:16:21,230 --> 00:16:23,995
use things right, like I've mentioned
in a, a couple of previous episodes.

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00:16:24,369 --> 00:16:25,404
Gonna have a research phase.

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00:16:25,665 --> 00:16:29,969
Let's use ChatGPT or Claude to
research trending topics and trending

332
00:16:30,030 --> 00:16:32,326
tools and news in your niche.

333
00:16:32,439 --> 00:16:32,647
All right?

334
00:16:33,108 --> 00:16:35,073
Then you're gonna go
into content generation.

335
00:16:35,247 --> 00:16:39,308
Work with AI to draft your newsletter
sections based on your research.

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00:16:39,439 --> 00:16:40,856
Now you need voice refinement.

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00:16:40,986 --> 00:16:45,100
You wanna edit it for your authentic
voice, and then add your human

338
00:16:45,100 --> 00:16:46,952
touch and your personal insights.

339
00:16:47,134 --> 00:16:48,213
And then optimization.

340
00:16:48,256 --> 00:16:53,334
Use AI to create optimized subject
lines, optimize for things like open

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00:16:53,334 --> 00:16:56,560
rates and click-through rates, and
then, of course, you wanna use that als-

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00:16:56,639 --> 00:17:00,352
uh, use AI also to help you generate
some social media promotional content.

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00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:03,317
And here's the key that
separates successful newsletters

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00:17:03,508 --> 00:17:05,091
from AI content mills.

345
00:17:05,152 --> 00:17:07,482
Don't let AI write everything.

346
00:17:07,647 --> 00:17:11,543
The most successful newsletters
continue to this day to maintain a

347
00:17:11,543 --> 00:17:13,360
human voice and a human perspective.

348
00:17:13,578 --> 00:17:15,543
AI, yeah, will handle the research.

349
00:17:15,586 --> 00:17:15,700
Yeah.

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00:17:15,952 --> 00:17:19,517
AI is gonna handle the first
draft, and AI is obviously better

351
00:17:19,517 --> 00:17:20,830
to handle the optimization.

352
00:17:21,065 --> 00:17:23,613
What you should do is you
should handle the strategy, the

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00:17:23,613 --> 00:17:25,334
voice, and the final polish.

354
00:17:25,517 --> 00:17:29,673
Rowan Cheung from The Rundown AI and
Zane Khan from Superhuman AI both

355
00:17:29,699 --> 00:17:34,508
use AI extensively in their content
creation process, but their newsletters

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00:17:34,647 --> 00:17:38,265
feel distinctly human because they add
their own insights, they add their own

357
00:17:38,265 --> 00:17:43,030
experiences, and they add their own
perspectives into every single issue.

358
00:17:43,178 --> 00:17:43,369
All right?

359
00:17:43,647 --> 00:17:46,613
So if you're ready to build an
AI-powered side hustle that could

360
00:17:46,613 --> 00:17:50,786
scale to seven figures or whatever
it is that you need, all while still

361
00:17:50,786 --> 00:17:54,795
protecting your family time, the AI
Escape Plan Newsletter is your roadmap.

362
00:17:54,795 --> 00:17:56,126
What a perfect match this is, right?

363
00:17:56,169 --> 00:17:59,978
Each issue delivers practical, tested
strategies to start and grow and

364
00:17:59,978 --> 00:18:03,830
streamline side hustles using AI,
artificial intelligence, all designed

365
00:18:03,830 --> 00:18:07,917
to help work around your parenting
schedule, not despite that schedule.

366
00:18:07,952 --> 00:18:10,621
We cover everything from, from AI
newsletter strategies like the one

367
00:18:10,621 --> 00:18:13,604
we're discussing today, to automation
tools that can save you hours, to

368
00:18:13,604 --> 00:18:17,160
au- monetization methods that can
generate income while you're sleeping.

369
00:18:17,221 --> 00:18:18,126
Actually, it's even better.

370
00:18:18,126 --> 00:18:20,517
It can generate you income while
you're outside playing with your kids.

371
00:18:20,795 --> 00:18:23,021
It is your complete guide to
more money, more freedom, and

372
00:18:23,021 --> 00:18:24,613
more of what truly matters.

373
00:18:24,882 --> 00:18:28,665
The entrepreneurs who build AI
newsletters the right way Aren't

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00:18:28,708 --> 00:18:29,943
just creating side income.

375
00:18:30,299 --> 00:18:34,030
They're building mini media companies
and digital publishing empires

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00:18:34,317 --> 00:18:37,421
that could potentially be sold
for millions while they're still

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00:18:37,421 --> 00:18:38,447
working from their kitchen table.

378
00:18:38,447 --> 00:18:42,517
So whether you're writing to ten people or
ten million, it's the same amount of work.

379
00:18:42,830 --> 00:18:46,334
That's the leverage of newsletters
that Taylor Dink discovered in the

380
00:18:46,334 --> 00:18:48,369
Morning Brew and built into Beehive.

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00:18:48,656 --> 00:18:51,908
So let's step back for a moment and,
and talk about what's really happening

382
00:18:51,908 --> 00:18:55,865
here at a macro level and why I
think this opportunity isn't gonna

383
00:18:55,865 --> 00:18:57,934
last forever in its current form.

384
00:18:58,013 --> 00:19:01,691
Now, as Packy McCormick, the founder
of the Not Boring newsletter, put it,

385
00:19:01,873 --> 00:19:06,265
"Email newsletters are having their
Shopify moment. Just as Shopify made it

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00:19:06,265 --> 00:19:10,056
easy for anyone to open up an e-commerce
store, newsletter platforms are

387
00:19:10,056 --> 00:19:12,795
democratizing media ownership." Unquote.

388
00:19:12,978 --> 00:19:13,152
Right?

389
00:19:13,421 --> 00:19:16,778
We're witnessing the collision of
several massive trends right now.

390
00:19:17,108 --> 00:19:19,995
The acquisition trend, there are
companies that understand that email

391
00:19:19,995 --> 00:19:24,273
lists are the highest ROI marketing
channel that exists on the planet, have

392
00:19:24,273 --> 00:19:25,865
been for a long time, continue to be so.

393
00:19:26,195 --> 00:19:29,308
HubSpot paid twenty-seven million
for Sam Parr's Dossel back in

394
00:19:29,308 --> 00:19:32,204
twenty-twenty-one, proving that
newsletters are valuable assets.

395
00:19:32,308 --> 00:19:36,465
More recently, HubSpot acquired another
AI newsletter called Mindstream for its

396
00:19:36,465 --> 00:19:40,665
two hundred and ten thousand subscribers,
and TechnologyAdvice bought The Neuron

397
00:19:40,665 --> 00:19:42,804
for its five hundred thousand subscribers.

398
00:19:42,969 --> 00:19:47,282
Every email address is worth
approximately one to three bucks in

399
00:19:47,282 --> 00:19:52,621
acquisition value, but the lifetime
value can be ten to fifty x that amount.

400
00:19:52,882 --> 00:19:54,952
Then there's a growth
expansion trend going on.

401
00:19:54,952 --> 00:19:57,360
The newsletter industry grew
ninety-six percent year over

402
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:00,221
year between twenty-twenty-three
and twenty-twenty-five.

403
00:20:00,317 --> 00:20:03,943
Over three thousand AI newsletters have
been launched in the past two years,

404
00:20:04,169 --> 00:20:07,978
but only five have cracked a hundred
thousand subscribers consistently.

405
00:20:08,252 --> 00:20:10,695
The opportunity is massive,
and the competition at the

406
00:20:10,695 --> 00:20:12,678
top is really thin right now.

407
00:20:12,965 --> 00:20:14,460
And then there's the AI advantage.

408
00:20:14,591 --> 00:20:18,539
AI tools have collapsed the content
creation barrier that used to

409
00:20:18,539 --> 00:20:21,800
keep most people like you and me
out of the newsletter business.

410
00:20:21,826 --> 00:20:22,591
It takes time.

411
00:20:22,834 --> 00:20:26,069
I started two newsletters way back
in the late '90s and would dedicate

412
00:20:26,104 --> 00:20:29,678
hours to getting good content
out there, so it was just weekly.

413
00:20:29,756 --> 00:20:30,495
I couldn't do it daily.

414
00:20:30,791 --> 00:20:31,704
Now it's a lot easier.

415
00:20:31,852 --> 00:20:35,469
What used to require a team of writers
and researchers can now be done by

416
00:20:35,495 --> 00:20:38,356
one person with the right AI workflow.

417
00:20:38,678 --> 00:20:42,869
And I think finally, the last factor
here is the platforms have matured.

418
00:20:43,365 --> 00:20:46,504
Beehiiv's growth to thirty million
in annualized revenue as of

419
00:20:46,739 --> 00:20:52,652
last year, 2025, and ten billion
emails sent in 2024 shows that the

420
00:20:52,652 --> 00:20:57,130
infrastructure for newsletter success
is now mature, and it's now proven.

421
00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:00,513
Compare that to building on,
say, MailChimp or ConvertKit,

422
00:21:00,573 --> 00:21:01,756
which I've built on both.

423
00:21:01,878 --> 00:21:03,260
Night and day, trust me on this one.

424
00:21:03,504 --> 00:21:08,086
They simply aren't designed for the
creator economy model as it sits today.

425
00:21:08,286 --> 00:21:11,356
All these factors create this massive
opportunity for entrepreneurs or

426
00:21:11,356 --> 00:21:15,295
parents like you and me who understand
how to build AI newsletters correctly.

427
00:21:15,513 --> 00:21:19,626
While the market gets flooded with
all the low-quality AI slop content

428
00:21:19,626 --> 00:21:24,086
out there, there is a growing
demand for trustworthy, practical AI

429
00:21:24,086 --> 00:21:25,956
newsletters that you could create.

430
00:21:26,208 --> 00:21:30,521
The parents who position themselves as
that reliable, valuable alternative,

431
00:21:30,930 --> 00:21:34,913
they're not just building businesses,
they're building monopolies in markets

432
00:21:34,939 --> 00:21:37,973
desperate for honest, helpful content.

433
00:21:37,973 --> 00:21:41,399
So all that said, here's your
Whiskered Wisdom for this episode.

434
00:21:41,652 --> 00:21:45,878
Tyler Denk captured why this model
is so powerful when he said, "Whether

435
00:21:45,878 --> 00:21:48,852
you're writing to ten people or ten
million people, it's the same amount of

436
00:21:48,852 --> 00:21:53,217
work." That, my friends, as I repeat to
myself, is the leverage of newsletters.

437
00:21:53,382 --> 00:21:58,147
Your effort stays constant while your
income scales with your audience.

438
00:21:58,365 --> 00:22:00,513
But here's what Tyler learned
at The Morning Brew that

439
00:22:00,547 --> 00:22:02,173
most people are gonna miss.

440
00:22:02,339 --> 00:22:05,826
Consistency beats perfection's
butt every single time.

441
00:22:06,078 --> 00:22:10,930
The Rundown AI, Superhuman AI, The
Milk Road, they all succeed because

442
00:22:11,147 --> 00:22:15,530
they showed up every single day with
valuable content, not because they waited

443
00:22:15,530 --> 00:22:17,043
until they had the perfect newsletter.

444
00:22:17,226 --> 00:22:19,339
So here's your specific
action for this week.

445
00:22:19,695 --> 00:22:22,886
Go out there, sign up for
Beehiiv's free launch plan today.

446
00:22:22,886 --> 00:22:24,800
I'll drop a link for it
down in the show notes.

447
00:22:25,139 --> 00:22:30,617
Pick your AI newsletter angle, whether
it's AI tool roundups or industry-specific

448
00:22:30,617 --> 00:22:33,982
applications, tutorials or daily news,
or maybe you're gonna go off on an

449
00:22:33,982 --> 00:22:35,391
entirely different topic altogether.

450
00:22:35,521 --> 00:22:39,217
Find your lane and then
commit to it for ninety days.

451
00:22:39,591 --> 00:22:43,321
Use AI tools like ChatGPT, uh,
or Claude, I like Claude a little

452
00:22:43,321 --> 00:22:47,773
bit better, to help you curate and
create your first week of content.

453
00:22:47,921 --> 00:22:50,721
Keep it short, keep it practical,
and keep it consistent.

454
00:22:51,165 --> 00:22:54,626
And then set up a simple referral
program offering a valuable lead

455
00:22:54,626 --> 00:22:58,765
magnet to anyone who refers one person
that signs up to your newsletter.

456
00:22:59,052 --> 00:23:02,234
That single action could be the
difference between slow organic

457
00:23:02,234 --> 00:23:05,304
growth or explosive viral growth.

458
00:23:05,365 --> 00:23:09,999
The most consistent creators reach 10,000
subscribers within six to 12 months.

459
00:23:10,086 --> 00:23:13,417
At that level, with the multiple
monetization streams that

460
00:23:13,417 --> 00:23:16,208
I've mentioned earlier, you're
generating real side income.

461
00:23:16,408 --> 00:23:19,313
At scale, the numbers get
genuinely life-changing.

462
00:23:20,208 --> 00:23:21,469
Remember Superhuman AI?

463
00:23:21,747 --> 00:23:24,173
They hit seven figures within four months.

464
00:23:24,365 --> 00:23:28,469
The only question is whether you start
today or you go ahead and you watch

465
00:23:28,469 --> 00:23:31,878
someone else build the l- the newsletter
that you could've built, or that

466
00:23:31,878 --> 00:23:32,991
you're thinking of building right now.

467
00:23:33,252 --> 00:23:36,704
Look, the, the newsletter revolution
is happening right this minute,

468
00:23:37,034 --> 00:23:40,269
and it's powered by AI tools that
make content creation faster, and

469
00:23:40,269 --> 00:23:43,982
it has platforms like Beehiiv that
make monetization almost automatic.

470
00:23:44,295 --> 00:23:47,469
While everyone else is chasing the
latest trend, I want you to be one of

471
00:23:47,469 --> 00:23:50,173
the smart entrepreneurs, one of the
smart, smart parents out there that

472
00:23:50,173 --> 00:23:53,808
are quietly building their own little
media empire one email at a time.

473
00:23:54,121 --> 00:23:57,643
This side hustle feels almost
illegal to know because the barrier

474
00:23:57,643 --> 00:23:59,382
to entry is essentially zero.

475
00:23:59,643 --> 00:24:01,113
The tools are already built for you.

476
00:24:01,139 --> 00:24:05,243
The market is growing faster than anyone
can keep up with, and companies are paying

477
00:24:05,243 --> 00:24:09,321
millions for email lists because they
already understand what most people miss.

478
00:24:09,504 --> 00:24:14,973
Email is the highest ROI marketing channel
that exists today, and AI just made it

479
00:24:14,973 --> 00:24:17,199
completely accessible to you, to everyone.

480
00:24:17,530 --> 00:24:18,973
The opportunity is massive.

481
00:24:19,130 --> 00:24:22,217
The competition is thin, and
the potential for life-changing

482
00:24:22,217 --> 00:24:23,573
income, I think it's real.

483
00:24:23,808 --> 00:24:27,747
Rohan Chung, Zain Khan, and the founders
of Milk Road, they weren't special.

484
00:24:27,991 --> 00:24:31,756
They just started before everyone else
realized what was actually possible.

485
00:24:32,069 --> 00:24:35,017
But like every real
opportunity, it requires action.

486
00:24:35,417 --> 00:24:39,391
It re- and it, it, yeah, it requires
consistency, and yeah, it requires

487
00:24:39,391 --> 00:24:41,478
starting before you feel ready.

488
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,713
The entrepreneurs and parents who start
their AI newsletters this week will be

489
00:24:45,713 --> 00:24:49,939
the ones celebrating their first thousand
subscribers, their first ad revenue check,

490
00:24:50,269 --> 00:24:53,791
and their first acquisition offer, while
everyone else is still out there going,

491
00:24:54,034 --> 00:24:55,678
"Hmm, I wonder if I should do it or not."

492
00:24:55,782 --> 00:24:57,026
Yeah, they'll still be thinking about it.

493
00:24:57,260 --> 00:24:57,973
You get going.

494
00:24:58,486 --> 00:25:00,878
You think successfully,
and you take action.