You’re going to want to see my recommendation at the end…the newsletter platform I found is awesome.
Newsletters are growing in popularity
This actually surprised me a bit because you don’t really hear about newsletters much. At least I hadn’t…until I started researching them. It’s a bit like when you research a certain model car and then you start seeing it everywhere.
I guess that is called the BaaderâMeinhof phenomenon – or frequency bias.
It makes sense though.
You need to “own” your audience
With all of these social platforms making it so easy to grow an audience, the thing people don’t realize is that they don’t really “own their audience”. That means that if Instagram went belly up and that is where your audience was…you would lose them forever.
Newsletters essentially cut out the middle man and let you publish directly to your core followers. You have the emails and those emails go directly to the people.
Audience “owned”.
Newsletters are another revenue stream potential
Diversifying your revenue streams is almost cliche at this point…but perhaps that is my own recency bias talking.
If you’re on YouTube you can’t (or shouldn’t) rely completely on Adsense to make money. If you produce a podcast then you should think beyond whatever sponsorships you can secure.
You get the idea. Diversification keeps your business safe. If one piece falls down, then the rest can keep you afloat.
The #Historic Newsletter
I’ve written about our Walk with History YouTube channel and our Talk with History podcast. So let me introduce the #Historic newsletter!

I was inspired by the Colin and Samir newsletter…The Publish Press. These two run a YouTube channel that covers the creator economy and they talk to people across the YouTube, Podcast, and online media industry. I listen to their podcast and it is honestly one of my current favorites.
All that to say, they have a VERY successful newsletter that even I read each time I get it. (3 times a week right now) They have regular sponsors, constantly preach revenue stream diversification, and give great advice on growing an online creator centric business.
They use BeeHiiv.com. I did some research and saw that Substack was pretty popular and used by some pretty big newsletters…but BeeHiiv was geared towards flate rates (if over 2,500 subscribers) vs 10% commission from Substack.
The main difference is that Substack keeps 10% of the revenue from each newsletter membership, while beehiiv doesn’t charge these fees. Instead, they use fixed pricing, which is cheaper for writers after they charge more than $3000 per year in memberships.
thestackjunction.com
For me…it’s all about the look, feel, and future customization. I think that beehiiv (which only started in 2021) has that and I’m excited to see where it goes. Plus, Colin and Samir use and I LOVE the look of their newsletter.
Should I start a newsletter?
Well if you have every blogged regularly…then I say go for it. You can create paid newsletter memberships so if you already have a blog, this could be your “premier” option that people pay for.
If you are on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or you’re a Podcaster…this is a great way to get some control of your audience and take out that platform middle man.
If you enjoy history, travel, and interesting articles…the #Historic newsletter is free! (if you follow below you can see what our welcome email looks like đ)
Plus…how cool is it when you get the .com you want? www.hashtaghistoric.com