You might be aware of the potential to earn thousands of dollars through email writing, but what distinguishes an email copywriter making a few thousand dollars monthly from one generating well over $50,000 per month?

Undoubtedly, your proficiency in email copywriting is a significant factor influencing your earning potential. However, it is just one among several variables determining your income as an email copywriter.

Interestingly, the email marketing opportunities you choose to pursue may have an even more pronounced impact on your earning potential compared to your writing skills. This post will introduce you to various methods to monetize your email writing skills, outlining the pros and cons of each. By doing so, even if you’re a novice copywriter, you can maximize your earning potential, potentially out earning many experienced counterparts by selecting the most lucrative opportunity for applying your writing skills.

What Income Potential Exists for Email Writers?

Statistics from Salary.com indicate that the average copywriter earns approximately $100,000 annually.

However, exceptional cases exist, such as email copywriters like Justin Goff, who have surpassed $2 million in a single year.

So, what sets Justin Goff apart from the average email writer?

In essence, Goff opted for a more lucrative avenue than traditional in-house copywriting. Instead of settling for a fixed salary, he entered into a partnership with an entrepreneur selling a greens powder, earning a percentage of the sales generated through his emails. By contributing to multiple millions of dollars in sales for the company, Goff reaped around $2.2 million in profits.

Nevertheless, in the event that the offer failed to generate any sales, he wouldn’t have earned any money.

Hence, we’ll outline the advantages and disadvantages of each category of email marketing opportunity, along with the corresponding earning potential. This way, you can make an informed choice based on your specific circumstances.

Strategies for Monetizing Email Writing

Here are the most lucrative ways to earn money online as an email writer.

Secure a Full-Time Position as an Email Writer

Many prominent companies opt to employ in-house email copywriters for tasks such as sending engagement emails, crafting autoresponders, and promoting the latest products or sales.

A full-time job offers the advantage of income stability, providing a predictable monthly earnings. However, the drawback is the relatively limited ceiling on earning potential. As noted earlier, in-house copywriters typically do not surpass an annual income of around $100,000.

Example

Email copywriters find employment with B2B, B2C, e-commerce entities, and even personal brands, tasked with composing a variety of emails ranging from nurture sequences and autoresponders to sales emails and newsletters. A simple search on Google or LinkedIn will unveil numerous opportunities for email marketing jobs.

Advantages

•  Steady income provided by a full-time job.
•  Opportunity to enhance writing skills while being financially supported by an employer.

Disadvantages

• Restricted earning capacity
• Constrained autonomy compared to freelancers
• Limited chances for experimentation
• In-house email writers often have a broad skill set, making it challenging to specialize and command higher pay.

Compose emails for clientele

Numerous companies enlist freelance email copywriters to craft tailored email campaigns for their products or services. If you’re embarking on your journey as an email writer, this presents a swift avenue to earn income. You have the flexibility to maintain it as a side gig or expand it into a full-time endeavor.

Clients may offer recurring monthly retainers, such as $4,000 per month for composing eight emails monthly over six consecutive months, or a one-time fee for a particular project, like $20,000 for an email autoresponder.

Clients may hire you to craft various types of emails, such as:

• Emails for lead generation
• Autoresponder emails (nurturing, onboarding, abandoned cart sequences, etc.)
• Weekly email newsletters
• General news/announcement and content promotion emails

Regarding income potential, the fees you can command from clients are contingent on the monetary value your emails generate for them.

While your proficiency as a freelance writer is a factor influencing the Return on Investment (ROI) you can deliver, other variables (which are not entirely within your control) encompass

• The offer’s relevance to the email list audience
• The engagement and loyalty of the email list
• The profit margin of the offer

Furthermore, crafting lead generation emails is more lucrative compared to composing weekly email newsletters, as the Return on Investment (ROI) for a lead generation email tends to be significantly higher than that of a conventional engagement newsletter.

Therefore, it is crucial to thoughtfully assess the clients you choose to collaborate with and the specific email writing niche you opt to specialize in.

Example

Brands such as Vshred, Credit Secrets, and MiamiMD are examples of companies that heavily invest in email marketing, compensating their copywriters with substantial five-figure payments for crafting high-quality email marketing campaigns.

Advantage

• Immediate cash flow with the freedom benefits of freelance writing
• Moderate earning potential

Disadvantage

• You need to identify and secure clients.
• Less stability compared to a full-time position.
• Managing clients can pose challenges.

Provide Exclusive Content or Subscription Services

Newsletters are gaining popularity, and many individuals are willing to pay for content created by their favorite writers. While some brands or influencers hire ghostwriters for email creation, the most lucrative long-term strategy involves establishing your own newsletter.

For those starting their careers without an email list, offering to ghostwrite a newsletter for an influencer allows you to earn while learning and simultaneously commence building your newsletter as a side venture.

Once your newsletter gains traction, provide a portion of the content for free and offer exclusive premium content to paid subscribers. For instance, you could present a weekly newsletter with tips and tricks, reserving in-depth dives, data, or other premium resources for those subscribing to the premium tier.

Example

Category Pirates serves as a notable illustration of a newsletter that generates revenue by providing premium content. Although the newsletter itself is freely accessible, they provide a repository of exclusive resources for subscribers who pay $20 per month.

Advantage

• You maintain complete control over the monetization without the need to handle clients.
• This monetization strategy is genuinely passive, even though consistent email writing is still required.

Disadvantage

• Monetizing through paid subscriptions typically lacks the scalability and profitability of providing a product or service to your audience.
• Immediate Return on Investment (ROI) is not guaranteed, as you must first accumulate a significant number of subscribers before capitalizing on your audience for monetization.

Promote Email Offers as an Affiliate

If you possess your own email list, you can collaborate with other businesses to introduce their products or services to your audience. Subsequently, when your audience makes purchases of those products or services, you can earn a commission on the sale.

The key to success in affiliate email marketing lies in choosing products and services that resonate well with your audience’s concerns and interests. Otherwise, without generating sales, you won’t generate income.

Moreover, maintaining a balance between the number of affiliate marketing offers you promote and delivering valuable content is crucial. Constantly promoting products and services without providing valuable content may erode trust with your audience, leading them to unsubscribe from your email list eventually.

Example

Thomas DeLauer serves as a notable health and wellness influencer with a flourishing email list. He consistently shares emails containing tips and tricks, occasionally incorporating affiliate links to products he endorses.

Here’s a noteworthy instance in action: