How to Make Money with Email Marketing, Beehiiv: The Platform Redefining the Newsletter Business

If you’ve been following the content creation market for a while, you’ve likely noticed a clear shift: serious creators are migrating from social media to email. And within this movement, one platform has become the gold standard at an impressive speed. It's called beehiiv, and in this post, you will understand exactly what it does, how the business behind it works, and why it is worth considering using it right now.

(Photo: Beehiiv)

Where Did beehiiv Come From?

beehiiv was born in 2021, created by former employees of Morning Brew, one of the most successful newsletters in the United States. Leading the project was Tyler Denk, who was the second employee at Morning Brew and built much of the technical infrastructure that drove that publication to millions of subscribers.

While working there, Denk realized that newsletters are a highly efficient communication medium and a solid business model on which to build a company. The problem was that the tools available on the market couldn't handle what serious creators needed. So, he and two other Morning Brew engineers decided to build it from scratch.

beehiiv was designed to convert readers into revenue, something Denk had helped revolutionize in his previous career. It wasn't just about sending emails—it was about building a real business on top of a contact list.

What beehiiv Delivers in Practice

beehiiv is not an email marketing tool in the traditional sense. It is a comprehensive platform to publish, grow, and monetize a newsletter. This includes a content editor, a built-in website, advanced analytics, automations, a referral program, a proprietary ad network, and paid subscription tools. Everything is housed within a single dashboard.

CEO Tyler Denk made it clear in a public presentation that what makes newsletter platforms powerful is ownership—owning your audience, your distribution, your brand, and your revenue potential. And that, in the era of AI and algorithms, this ownership is not just desirable; it is essential.

This argument makes perfect sense when you consider the current landscape. An Instagram account can be deactivated. A TikTok profile can be banned. A Twitter feed can be drowned out by algorithmic changes. An email list, however, cannot. It is yours.

Currently, beehiiv powers over 130,000 newsletters, ranging from independent writers to major media brands, reaching more than 400 million readers worldwide.

How the beehiiv Business Model Works

Here is where things get interesting. beehiiv has a two-tier business model that works well for the company and, more importantly, for creators.

The first tier is classic SaaS: monthly plans that charge based on subscriber count. The Launch plan is completely free and supports up to 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited email sends.

If you want to test it right now with no commitment, create your free account here and explore the platform before making any decisions. You can use the platform without paying anything—the plan up to 2,500 subscribers is completely free. And if you decide to upgrade to a paid plan, by using my link you get a 20% discount on your first 3 months.

The Scale plan starts at around $49 per month, unlocking monetization, advanced analytics, automation features, and access to the ad network. The Max plan starts at around $109 per month and is aimed at publications looking to remove beehiiv branding, gain priority support, and manage up to 10 publications within a single workspace. For newsletters with over 100,000 subscribers, there is an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.

One point worth highlighting is that beehiiv charges 0% on revenue from paid subscriptions. Only the standard Stripe fee—2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction—applies. This stands in direct contrast to Substack, which retains 10% of everything you earn from paid subscribers—forever.

The second tier of the model consists of Ads and Boosts. According to market estimates, beehiiv reached approximately $30 million in annualized revenue by mid-2025, with software and subscriptions accounting for $20 million, and ads plus Boosts accounting for the remaining $10 million.

The Ad Network and Boosts: Two Real Ways to Monetize

beehiiv has built its own native ad network, which is rare in the market. Instead of you having to chase down sponsors, the platform connects advertisers to newsletters with relevant audiences.

beehiiv handles everything—from finding advertisers and offering ad opportunities to delivering the creatives and copy, presenting performance reports, and managing payments. This allows creators to focus on producing content while the platform secures sponsors and a revenue stream.

Boosts is a different and highly original feature. It functions as a marketplace for paid recommendations between newsletters. A newsletter looking to grow pays to be recommended in other newsletters. The one making the recommendation gets paid per verified subscriber that signs up.

Beehiiv has paid out over $5 million in total through the Boosts program. And there are concrete examples demonstrating this potential: Matt Navarra, publisher of the *Geekout* newsletter, earned $25,000 from paid referrals via Boosts.

The hybrid SaaS-plus-ads model creates compounding growth cycles: creators reinvest revenue into subscriber acquisition via Boosts, which leads to plan upgrades, which in turn increases total ad inventory. It is a self-reinforcing flywheel.

Growing Within the Platform Makes Sense

A point that many overlook: beehiiv isn't just an email delivery tool. Every newsletter published on the platform also becomes a Google-indexable post.

One creator who started letting their newsletters be indexed by Google reported that, in the first three months, just 20 indexed newsletter pages generated over 9,000 impressions and 82 clicks in search results—without any additional effort.

This means that the content you already create for your reader base can also attract new readers coming from Google searches. Two channels for the effort of one.

Furthermore, beehiiv recently announced a significant expansion of the platform, including AI-driven website creation without needing to write code, podcast hosting and publishing within the same account, email automations, real-time analytics, and the sale of digital products with beehiiv taking absolutely zero commission.

Who Does beehiiv Make Sense For?

Being direct here is important. beehiiv is not the right tool for everyone.

It makes sense for anyone building or planning to build a newsletter as a serious business channel. Whether you are a content creator, a freelancer, a consultant, an entrepreneur, or an independent journalist—if a newsletter is part of your strategy, beehiiv offers an infrastructure that other platforms simply do not deliver at the same level.

For those just starting out and still unsure, creating a beehiiv account immediately grants you access to a trial period of the Scale or Max plans, no credit card required. You can test everything thoroughly before making any decisions.

For those who already have a newsletter elsewhere and want to migrate, beehiiv allows you to import both your existing subscribers and your published content, without emails being forwarded to readers during the process. The migration is seamless.

The Decision is Yours — But it Starts with a Single Step

A newsletter is one of the few digital assets that truly belongs to the person who builds it. No algorithm pulls you away from your readers. No platform change erases what you have built. beehiiv understood this before most and built a solution that respects this logic.

If you have made it this far, you have probably already realized that it is time to take your digital presence seriously. beehiiv offers a free starting point for you to explore the platform with absolutely zero financial commitment.