Start a newsletter today — the fast way.
Social reach is rented. A newsletter is owned: one topic, one signup form, one issue a week — on a domain you control, with 0% platform fees when you monetize.
Five steps from idea to first send
Topic, name, signup form, first issue, first send — all inside an hour. Need a name? Browse our 101 domain name ideas, then follow our guide on how to write a blog post to draft an issue worth opening.
Pick a topic worth opening
The best newsletters promise one clear outcome: 'a 5-minute SaaS teardown every Tuesday' beats 'my thoughts on tech.' If readers can't repeat your promise in one sentence, tighten it before you write a word.
Name it and claim your home
Short, ownable, spellable. Your newsletter lives on your domain — not a platform subdomain that rents you an audience. A name you own is a brand; a subdomain is a lease.
Put up your signup form
A headline, three bullets on what subscribers get, and one email field. Add a lead magnet — a checklist, template, or free chapter — and every signup lands in a list you can export any time.
Write your first issue
Write in plain markdown: one idea, short paragraphs, a clear H2 skeleton. Your first issue doubles as your archive's first post — every send builds a searchable library that keeps working.
Publish everywhere, grow on purpose
Send issue one, post the archive link on your site and socials, and add the signup to your link-in-bio. Then repeat weekly — consistency is the entire growth strategy for the first 90 days.
Why a newsletter when you could blog?
Different jobs. If you're deciding between starting a blog and starting a newsletter, here's the honest split — and why most serious creators end up with both.
A blog waits for search traffic. A newsletter lands in inboxes on a schedule. Blogs compound through Google; newsletters compound through trust and habit.
Social followers are rented — algorithms decide who sees you. Email subscribers are owned: you can reach all of them, every time, and take the list with you.
The winning move is both: publish every issue as an archived post for SEO, and send it to your list for direct reach. One draft, two distribution channels.
The newsletter platform tax, exposed
Every rented platform charges you for your own growth — a revenue cut or a per-subscriber meter. Owning your list on your domain pays none of it.
Substack
Easy start, 10% tax forever
Free to start, but Substack takes 10% of your paid revenue plus Stripe fees — and your publication lives on their domain unless you fight for a custom one.
Beehiiv
Powerful, priced per subscriber
Great newsletter tooling, but costs scale with your list size. Growth literally raises your bill, and your archive is a second-class citizen for SEO.
ConvertKit
Automation-first, list-metered
Excellent automations for creators who sell, but subscriber-based pricing punishes list growth and there's no real website attached.
Makr
Own it all, 0% fees
Newsletter, archive blog, signup forms, and your own domain in one static-fast site. Direct Stripe checkout with 0% Makr fees — growth never raises your bill.
Four ways your list pays
Paid subscriptions
Gate premium issues behind Stripe checkout. Readers pay you directly — no platform taking a tenth off the top, forever.
Digital products
Your list is a launch list. Sell ebooks, templates, and presets to the audience that already trusts your free issues.
Courses & cohorts
Teach what you write about. A newsletter that proves expertise weekly is the highest-converting course funnel there is.
Consulting & sponsors
A niche list with real open rates sells sponsorships and books 1:1 calls. Attention you own is inventory you can price.
Already selling? Your issues can pitch your digital downloads and online courses to readers who trust you — and promote every issue from your link-in-bio page.
Quick answers
Almost nothing. A static-first site with signup forms costs a fraction of subscriber-priced platforms, and there's no per-subscriber meter — your 10,000th reader costs the same as your 10th. The real investment is one good issue per week.
Substack is fast to start but takes 10% of paid revenue and hosts you on rented land. Your own newsletter on your domain means you own the list, the archive, the SEO, and 100% of revenue. If you plan to write for more than a few months, owning wins.
Weekly is the sweet spot for most topics — frequent enough to build a habit, rare enough to stay good. Consistency matters more than frequency: one excellent issue every Tuesday beats three rushed ones whenever you feel like it.
Tell everyone you know, post your signup link where you already have attention, and offer one lead magnet worth an email address. Then borrow audiences: guest posts, podcast appearances, and cross-promotions with newsletters one size bigger than yours.
Yes — if you own it. Your list should always be exportable as plain emails you control. Never build your only copy of an audience inside a platform that makes exporting painful. Ownership is the whole point.
Yes, and they should be the same thing. Your site hosts your signup form, archives every issue as an SEO-ranked post, and gives sponsors and readers somewhere to land. A newsletter without an archive throws away half its value.