Craig Swerdloff

Last week, Digiday reported, "Email overtakes programmatic as most-used display ad channel." lnkd.in/e3NCzGzM 💥 Programmatic advertising: ~$85B ✉️ Newsletter advertising: Maybe $3B This is like David vs. Goliath (I started watching the House of David on Amazon Prime last night). Programmatic is massive, but filled with noise, fraud, and brand safety issues. Newsletter ads? They land in spaces people actually opted into. No cookies. No chaos. Just attention. And for the first time, marketers are shifting budget from the behemoth to the quaint. This isn't just a trend. It's a recalibration of trust. I wrote at length about it here: lnkd.in/ewiS_Cfg? But the most exciting part was this: "Barely more than half of marketer pros (51%) told Digiday in Q1 2024 that they were using email newsletter sponsorships or ads. In Q1 2025, just shy of two-thirds of marketers (64%) said the same." Bam! Boom! LFG! How big do you think the newsletter advertising industry is today? Given the broader economic concerns, will it grow in 2025? I'd love to hear what you think of the Digiday research. #newslettersponsorships #newsletter #adtech @wellput_io How big is the newsletter advertising market in 2025?

Confessions of an Entrepreneur: Nighttime Craig vs. Daytime Craig: Who Will be Victorious? linkedin.com/pulse/nighttim… via @LinkedIn

@BenMullin Where's the final page of the memo?

scoop: Business Insider is reducing staff by 21% as it reduces its reliance on “traffic-sensitive businesses.” Memo from CEO Barbara Peng:

Let’s get real about newsletter sponsorship click-through rates! We see an average CTR of 0.2% (unique clicks ÷ total subscribers × 100). Not total clicks. Not clicks ÷ opens. Some folks inflate CTR with funny math. It misleads sponsors. Nobody wins. Be transparent. Be consistent. Publishers and advertisers can do lots of things to increase sponsor click-through rates, including collaborating on creative. What have you tried to increase CTR for your newsletter sponsors? #emailmarketing #newsletters #CTR #sponsorships #digitalads

@performcb @wellput_io will be there as well. Let's meet if you're looking to scale newsletter sponsorships as a new growth channel!

Ready to turn your affiliate program up a notch? Our affiliate management team is heading to Carlsbad, CA for Rakuten Optimism in just a few weeks! If you’re looking for a partner that treats your brand like the unique business it is, let’s catch up: links.performcb.com/trade-show-req…

@rrmdp @jobboardsrch It's the only à la carte sponsorship platform for newsletters. They select from relevant brands to fill sponsorship inventory whenever available. All of our campaigns are priced on a cost-per-click pricing model. Want to see it?

@swerd @jobboardsrch Thanks, never heard about it, how does it works?

Thursday next week is the @jobboardsrch's sponsorship changeover day - Gold 🥇 → Taken - Silver 🥈 → AVAILABLE - Bronze 🥉 → Taken Any job board wanting to promote? Some of the perks: • Mention at the top of the weekly newsletter 4x (13,825 job seekers) • Pinned post on the subreddit (13,729 members) • Pinned post with user notifications on the Telegram Group: (7,300) members • Fixed top placement at the top of the home and search pages of the website • Dofollow backlink (DR 40)

@BijouConcierge @DiBrander @arunchandrac5 I'm the CEO at Wellput.io. We help newsletters fully monetize their sponsorship inventory through the industry's only a la carte sponsorship platform. Want to see it?!

@swerd @DiBrander @arunchandrac5 About 45 but I've only just launched it and obviously need to promote it a bit more! Do you have a newsletter? :-)

Are all the big creators going to move to Substack and you have to pay to read their newsletters? The greedy bastards! 🤣

@LachCartwright @ravisomaiya @LachCartwright, congrats! I'm the CEO at Wellput.io, a newsletter sponsorship platform for brands and publishers. If you're interested in newsletter sponsorships, let's connect!

Some personal news — excited to announce that I'm joining forces with @ravisomaiya to launch Breaker Media. A new publication that will cover money, scandal, media, entertainment, tech, art, fashion and the deeply weird: semafor.com/article/02/02/…

@LeArielleSimone @Mikaaalove51 @LeArielleSimone, just signed up for the newsletter. I'm the CEO at Wellput.io. How many subscribers does your newsletter have?

@Mikaaalove51 omg, yes! i drop a weekly newsletter with wellness tips, events and retreat updates. this retreat was a brand sponsorship so i was invited but i am hosting a retreat in costa rica soon! (also hosting a few wellness pop ups in nyc and chicago next month.) ariellesimone.co

@BijouConcierge @DiBrander @arunchandrac5 @BijouConcierge, how many subscribers are on your newsletter?

@DiBrander @arunchandrac5 I'm fed up with all this monetisation & gated content. I get newsletters with sponsorship. But not charging people to read your newsletter unless there is loads of extra benefits like discounts etc. I'm clearly not business minded enough! 🤣

@ShannonJean @ShannonJean, the newsletter looks like a great fit for many of our sponsors. Sign up here and I'll approve you: wellput.io/newsletters?

@jfberke @jfberke how did it perform?

@nathanbarry @kit @nathanbarry, integrated demand for sponsorships via Wellput.

Wishing for a new feature in @kit? You can build it. The Kit App Store enables any creator to build and extend the platform. We're adding new endpoints and APIs to enable more functionality all the time. What are you going to build?

@LucasTheWalter @businessbarista Lucas, which company?

@businessbarista We would say yes to this if approached

Huge newsletter opportunity... Partner with companies who have huge email lists, but no editorial email newsletter & form a new co-owned email newsletter biz. They offer the upfront distribution. You offer launch & day-to-day operations of the newsletter. Here's what it could look like in practice... Let's say I think there should be a daily newsletter for the luxury watch collector. - high value audience that spends 5-7 figures/yr on their passion - attractive to luxury brands - ability to monetize audience directly via events, watch sales, etc But I don't want to start building this audience from scratch (it'll take 2-4 years to get it to scale). Instead, I reach out to a company that serves luxury watch collectors & has a qualified email list of 100,000+ people in this audience. Think @Sothebys, @getbezel, @chrono24, @_Luxurybazaar_. My pitch to them is simple: "You have a ton of qualified emails, but no email newsletter. You're leaving a ton of money on the table & missing out on a potentially 8-figure, 80% margin asset. You're busy with your business so this will never be your top priority, but it will be mine. So how about my team owns this new email newsletter biz. Your responsibility is to get as many of your existing subscribers to opt-in to this newsletter. Our responsibility is to build a great editorial product & a killer biz. P.S. anytime we aren't monetizing it with ads, we can use the newsletter as a house ad for your business. P.P.S. this newsletter will not only capture demand for you, but also generate top of funnel to build more awareness around your biz" This is how you can build the next great email newsletter without waiting 5+ years to build up distribution.

@Kent_Wilson @businessbarista Kent, which company?

@businessbarista We want to do this w/ our company.

@TravisHoium @businessbarista Travi, reach out if you need help monetizing the newsletters. Wellput.io

@businessbarista Literally working on this now and it’s such a potential win-win.

@VivanVatsa @businessbarista @iKyu_HQ Vivan, your newsletter looks great! How are you monetizing it? Check out Wellput.io.

@businessbarista This is really fascinating. I can try this for my flagship premium newsletter @iKyu_HQ @businessbarista Got a quick question: "What's the ideal open rate/conversion I could quote in order to make them understand the impact of this?"

@ianmatthewroth @businessbarista Ian, how many subscribers? Let's talk about monetization.

@businessbarista I write a weekly watch newsletter and am open to execute this idea! haha ownthewatch.com/subscribe

When pricing newsletter sponsorships, consider: 1. Audience engagement with ads. 2. How valuable is your audience? 3. How hard will you work for it? 4. Are you willing to take risks? Start with CPC or CPA to gain insights, then go after long-term partnerships with brands.