Newsletters are the new hotness. I know, I write one and you might have heard of it. There are a huge number of fantastic ones out there, providing content direct to your inbox and making good money doing it. So as with everything that starts to take off, every one thinks they can write a paid for newsletter now and unfortunately that just isn’t the case.

So many people are starting one up and asking for money straight off the bat it’s become in a bit of a joke. There is absolutely nothing wrong with monetising your product, be it a blog or newsletter, but you have to put some free work in first. Publishing your work should be the first step, getting consistency and pushing out things that people want to read builds the foundations.

How on earth can I get invested in paying for something if I have no confidence in you consistently publishing things. Spending a small amount of money on something you enjoy reading is a great thing to do, but asking for money upfront without content is a pretty crappy thing to even suggest.

It took more than 10 years of writing to even pay for my blog hosting, although I’m a pretty shitty writer, so monetisation will come, but put out the content for the love of doing first. Don’t ask for money too early because it comes off as needy, and may not turn out the way you think.