There are so many ways to make money via your newsletter. You can sell subscriptions or memberships. You can ask for donations. You can sell ebooks or merch.

And then there's advertising. This is one of those things that’s long been misunderstood — I often talk with readers who tell me, “I really thought bringing in advertisers was going to be easier than this!”

So today, we’ve got a case study about Moby — a startup focused on dissecting the day’s financial news and offering advice on where to invest — and how they built a million-dollar ad strategy.

There’s a lot to learn from their story. Dive in below.

—Dan

When Justin Kramer co-founded Moby, he didn’t set out to build a media company — his focus was on building a product where investors could get smarter and identify what stocks to buy at the right price point.

Part of that strategy involved launching a daily newsletter. In the two years since, their newsletter has grown to over 250,000 subscribers, and native ads have become a significant revenue stream for the brand, bringing in over seven figures.

But here’s the wild part: They never intended to sell ads in their newsletters.

They first built a big, engaged audience, realized the opportunity in front of them — and then found a great partner in Who Sponsors Stuff to help them figure out how to sell ads and which types of advertisers to pitch.

In this case study, Lindsey Stanberry took a closer look at Moby’s story and what other newsletter operators can learn from them.

Some newsletters sell ads based on a set rate per thousand readers who open the newsletter, commonly known as a CPM. But Who Sponsors Stuff’s Ryan Sager highly recommends selling on a flat-fee model — setting rates for each type of ad and then negotiating discounts if an advertiser wants to purchase multiple ads over a longer window of time.

What’s the right rate for your newsletter? Try this free calculator from Who Sponsors Stuff to figure out what you should charge.

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