Earning $100k for Every 1,000 Email Subscribers? Yes, It’s Possible.

While learning how people grew to 50k subscribers is awesome, I thought it would be interesting to hear first-hand from someone who has built up a comparably smaller list, yet who is making an absolute killing from her newsletter.

I immediately thought of long-time Growth In Reverse subscriber and Pro member, Jess Campbell. Jess is in the non-profit space, not exactly the niche most people think of when they want to earn a good living. Yet she is making a great living, earning $100 for every new subscriber she adds to her email list.

I asked her to write about her own story of building a (super) profitable newsletter – and she absolutely nailed it. Take it away Jess!

May 2018.

I’d been freelancing as a nonprofit consultant charging – wait for it – $40/hour – when I thought to myself, “This shit is hard. There has to be an easier way.” 

A few button presses into my keyboard later I find Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher – two female business owners in the online business space. 

After reading a few blog posts and listening to some podcast episodes it became clear: to have a business where I can call in clients *anytime* I want – I needed an email list. 

So, I became obsessed with finding and welcoming my first 1,000 email subscribers.

Here are the 6 steps I took to grow my email list from 0-4,000+ nonprofit fundraisers – each step of the way. 

0-100 Email Subscribers

How to Get Your First 0-100 Email Subscribers

Yes, I had my blog posts and podcast episodes from Jenna and Amy, but I had spent my career as a relationship builder in the nonprofit fundraising space. 

So to start growing my list, I did what felt natural: I sent an email to my professional network of 40-ish nonprofit colleagues and clients and invited them to join my new newsletter.

18 email subscribers signed up.

Chenell’s note: Jess was tracking her weekly email subscriber stats in a simple note on her phone. Remember, as long as you have a decent idea of where your subscribers are coming from, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Especially in the early days.

The screenshots you’ll see throughout this post are how she kept track every week:

As I met new folks – mostly in the DMs on Instagram or over virtual coffee chats, and potential clients – I would invite them to join my newsletter too. It became my follow-up CTA.

More important than growing my list of subscribers, I became dedicated to the art of writing and sending a weekly email. 

Like a lot of new entrepreneurs, in the beginning, I was scared to go deep on one topic – so I went wide. As a former Director of Development who is skilled in a lot of different fundraising methods, I wanted to teach nonprofit fundraisers how to raise more money so I covered allllll the topics:

• Special Events
• Recurring giving
• Campaigns
• Major Gifts
• Stewardship and cultivation

Whatever questions I was getting from nonprofit organizations for the week I would channel into my content.

One week it might be: “How to take your in-person event online” and the next it would be: “5 ways to write an effective fundraising campaign.”

To say I was all over the place is an understatement. 

Malcolm Gladwell introduced us to the concept of 10,000 hours and I was getting in my reps. I almost preferred that my emails, which to be honest weren’t good in the early days, were not being seen by the thousands. 😅

It took a while, but eventually, I found my niche: teaching fundraisers how to write effective fundraising emails.

I figured out that storytelling + entertaining + educating = really great emails. I wanted to show nonprofits that they could do it too. 

I was ready to go deep and I wanted name association. Jess Campbell = Nonprofit Emails. 

Tool: I started on Mailchimp and then two days and a migraine later – I saw FloDesk was in beta for $19/month. I signed up and never looked back. 

Timeline: It took 90 days for me to grow my list to 100 subscribers. 

Chenell’s note: I wanted to add a growth timeline to show you these numbers in one place. That first year or so was, as Jess put it: “really slow.” But then she started finding testing things out and finding her groove.

100-500 Email Subscribers

Is 500 Email Subscribers Good?

After 90 days of sending a weekly email and slowly (emphasis on the slow) growing my email list – I decided to take it up a notch to what I call the “Jenna Kutcher” method. 

Jenna was putting out new weekly content (her podcast, blog, freebies, etc) so I thought I had to do that too. 

I know – I didn’t know better. 🫣

Toolkits, guides, scripts, templates – you name it, I built it.

Floating around the internet I easily have 100+ freebies that include: guides, templates, quizzes, challenges, calculators, scripts, mini-courses, and workshop recordings.

Some of my more successful freebies include: 

An Email Template to Upgrade Donors

Total new subscribers: 261

A Prospect Research Cheat Sheet

Total new subscribers: 272

How to Take Your In-Person Event Online Toolkit

Total New Subscribers: 415

It was the definition of throwing spaghetti at the wall. 🍝

Because I had a very modest social media following across Facebook and Instagram, I would share these freebies via: 

• On my own channels (sadly, I wasn’t using LinkedIn at the time and my audience doesn’t use Twitter/X)
• In Facebook groups
• In Zoom chats
• On Pinterest**

Once again, it was slow growth, but it also taught me a lot about what resources nonprofit fundraisers wanted/would opt-in to in exchange for giving me their email addresses. 

For example, I now know that in most cases for my audience – they want a quick hit that will save them time. Practically, that looks like a fill-in-the-blank template or a script compared to a long E-book or course. 

**Thanks to Jenna Kutcher, I jumped on Pinterest early. Every week when I would make my freebie, I would make 5+ pins to promote said freebie. I then used Tailwind to “loop” the pins to re-post on autopilot. I always say Pinterest is a sleeping giant. It is slow at first, but today, I do less than 1 hour per month of work on Pinterest and I average 120k+ monthly views and it’s my second-best email list growth lever.

500-1,200+ Email Subscribers

How much is an email list of 1,000 subscribers worth? 

Twelve long months after starting my email list, sending a weekly email, creating dozens of freebies, and experimenting with a few launches – I finally said to myself, “Enough is enough!”

One day while out walking my dog and listening to a podcast I was introduced to Krista Miller – the queen of online summits and creator of Summit in a Box. 

A lightbulb went off. I could host my own virtual summit. 

My #1 strength is “Activator” – which means I have a gift for putting ideas into motion fast. In less than 6 weeks I went from not knowing what an online summit was to hosting my first Raise More Together Summit for nonprofit fundraisers featuring 50 speakers. 

It was wild. 

The event was free with a paid VIP upgrade feature. 

During the two-week registration period, I had nearly 800 people join my list and earned about $10k. It was the very first time I got paid to grow my email list. 

My Virtual Summit Strategy: How I Doubled My Email List in 6 Weeks

The main driver of growth? Speakers.

Speakers had the opportunity to earn a 50% affiliate commission on the VIP ticket which incentivized them to share. Plus, speakers always want to let people know what stages they are on, and with a free event packed with a ton of value – it was easy to talk about. 

It had taken me over a year to grow my email list to 500-ish subscribers and then BOOM! I more than doubled my list size through an online summit. 

Finally, my goal of reaching 1,000 email subscribers was achieved.

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From $40/Hour Freelancer to Building a 4,000+ Subscriber Email List

Today, Out in the Boons has an email list of 4,000 nonprofit fundraisers and I’m on track to earn $400k in my business in 2024. 

I still email weekly. And it’s all still hard. 

I’m the eldest daughter and a high achiever. I have a master’s degree and a multi-6-figure business and I always say: the two hardest things I’ve ever learned to do are: teach my kid how to poop in the potty and grow an email list. 

My motto is “I’d rather have an engaged list of buyers compared to a large list of email subscribers.” I scrub my list regularly. 

Now that I’ve seen the power of what attaching myself to other people’s audiences can do – my main list growth strategy is still hosting events and bundles. I don’t do podcast tours, make an effort to speak on other people’s stages, or invest in paid ads.

How I Earned $30k in Sales with a Black Friday Bundle for Nonprofits

Never say never, but being your own host has a high effort, high reward effect. 

For example, I host an annual Black Friday Bundle for Nonprofits that generates $30k+ in sales and adds 300 new buyers and email subscribers to my list in just seven days. 

Earlier this year, I partnered with 30+ other nonprofit consultants to produce a Freebie Extravaganza – a limited-time bundle of freebies.

It yielded almost 800 new subscribers who I then put through a welcome sequence driving people to my Fundraising Template Shop Membership. 

LinkedIn has been a powerful social media tool too. Recently, I shared this post with a rare freebie (I learned from my 2020 mistakes 😉) and so far there have been 179 new opt-ins.

The Power of an Email List: Adding $100k in Revenue to My Business for Every New 1,000 Email Subscribers

I’m less obsessed with growing my email list these days and more focused on earning money from it, but I can say with confidence that it is the most powerful tool in my business. Every 1,000 subscribers I grow seems to add $100k in revenue to my business. 

How have you worked to grow your email list? I’d love to connect and learn more! 

Jess Campbell is the founder and CEO of Out in the Boons which helps nonprofits discover donors in their email list. She’s a former nonprofit fundraiser turned conversion copywriter and host of the Raise More Together summit. When she’s not tapping on her keyboard you can find her mom-ing to her 8-year-old daughter, walking her rescue pup Billy, or enjoying a good book or podcast.

She’s proof you can have a successful business powered by an email newsletter even if that newsletter doesn’t have a name. All nonprofit fundraisers are welcome to sign up here!

Chenell’s note: Thanks again, Jess! Make sure you connect with Jess on LinkedIn to follow her journey.

If you enjoyed this, comment below and let me know. I’d love to include more stories like this if you did. Sure, they help beginners, but I think it’s always helpful to see how others grow even at a smaller scale than the ones that typically get talked about 🙂