Community Newsletter Business Success Stories [2024]
Starting a community newsletter business can transform how local stories and events are shared.
At its core, this business involves creating, curating, and distributing newsletters that keep residents informed about what's happening in their neighborhoods. You'll gather news, highlight local businesses, feature community events, and provide a platform for voices that might otherwise go unheard.
This idea not only taps into the growing demand for hyper-local news but also creates a sense of connection and belonging among readers. Setting up involves gathering a list of subscribers, tailoring content to community interests, and leveraging local advertising to monetize the newsletter. With dedication, this can turn into a rewarding venture that helps knit together the fabric of your community.
Consider this business if you have a passion for journalism, an eye for detail, and the drive to continually engage with your local area.
In this list, you'll find real-world community newsletter business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a community newsletter business that makes money.
1. Digital Procurement World (DPW) ($1.95M/year)
Matthias Gutzmann, the CEO and Founder of DPW, came up with the idea for his business when he realized that existing procurement conferences were expensive, lacked diversity, and failed to attract startups and investors. He left his job in New York, moved back to Germany, and invested his personal savings to launch DPW. Leveraging his extensive network and applying social selling techniques, Matthias successfully created a buzz and attracted sponsors, delegates, and startups to his conference, leading to exponential growth and €1.8M in revenue in 2022.
How much money it makes: $1.95M/year
How much did it cost to start: $10.8K
How many people on the team: 6
DPW (Digital Procurement World) is a fast-growing conference and community in procurement that has more than tripled in revenue since launching in 2019, capping out the year at €1.8 million, with 95% of their growth coming from inbound traffic leveraging LinkedIn and applying social selling techniques.
2. Stacked ($720K/year)
Druce, one of the co-founders of Stacked, initially started the business as a platform to cut out the middleman in the real estate industry. However, they realized that the market wasn't ready for their product and shifted their focus to creating comprehensive and objective condo reviews, which set them apart from the competition. Their strategy of doubling down on content, including long-tail keywords, has resulted in immediate growth for the business.
How much money it makes: $720K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 10
A real estate media company in Singapore skyrocketed its monthly revenue to $60k by providing in-depth condo reviews and leveraging high-quality multimedia content, gaining 700k page views, 43k Instagram followers, and 17k YouTube subscribers.
3. Warrior Lodge Media ($252K/year)
Wes O'Donnell came up with the idea for Warrior Lodge Media out of frustration with the lack of simple military information online. He wanted to create a website that compiled every piece of unclassified U.S. military information in existence, and with the help of his network of military and veteran writers, he built Warrior Lodge slowly and organically. Today, the site earns between $18,000-$22,000 per month through ads, t-shirt sales, and affiliate links, and is almost completely hands-off, generating passive income for O'Donnell.
How much money it makes: $252K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 2
This case study is about the founder of Warrior Lodge Media, Wes O'Donnell, who started an all-in-one informational website for military and veterans and turned it into a $21k/month media company and eCommerce store, almost completely hands-off and generating true passive income.
4. Book Club Chat ($48K/year)
Heather Caliendo, a journalist with a passion for reading, turned her love for books into a profitable business with Book Club Chat. Despite the saturation of the book blogging market, Heather stood out by creating a beautifully designed website and focusing on providing book club questions tailored to novels. With over 5,000 visitors a day and earning $4,000/month in ad revenue, Book Club Chat has become a go-to resource for book clubs around the world.
How much money it makes: $48K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50
How many people on the team: 0
Book Club Chat founder Heather Caliendo started a website dedicated to book club questions, reviews, and book lists with no upfront costs by dedicating a lot of time to reading and writing high-quality content that attracts over 5,000 daily visitors and has made $4,000 per month in ad revenue alone by focusing on organic search, SEO, and Mediavine.
5. The Mallorcan ($29.4K/year)
Art has also been a great resource for overcoming creative resistance. In terms of podcasts, I love listening to How I Built This with Guy Raz. It's inspiring to hear the stories of successful entrepreneurs and how they built their businesses from the ground up. Lastly, I find a lot of value in online communities like Indie Hackers and Starter Story. These platforms provide a wealth of information and support for aspiring founders.
How much money it makes: $29.4K/year
How much did it cost to start: $200
How many people on the team: 1
The Mallorcan is a local media brand in Mallorca, Spain generating $2.5k per month revenue, offering a weekly newsletter supported by web and social content, attracting over 2.5k subscribers across its website, newsletter, and Instagram.
6. Indie Worldwide ($24K/year)
Anthony came up with the idea for Indie Worldwide after experiencing setbacks in his career and freelancing. He leveraged his experience in running events and his desire to be like other successful founders in the indie hacking community to create a virtual meetup for indie hackers. Through organic growth and strategic launches on platforms like Product Hunt, the community has grown to over 2,000 members and has multiple revenue streams, including a successful Founders' Club with $5.5k in ARR and sponsorships.
How much money it makes: $24K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1.2K
How many people on the team: 1
Indie Worldwide has scaled to 2,000 members with revenue streams generating $5.5k ARR and $3k in sponsorships, offering aspiring founders a blueprint for creating profitable virtual communities.
7. Foundation for a Human Internet ($1.2K/year)
In 2019, Bastian, leveraging his decade-long experience in digital marketing, witnessed rampant bot-generated misinformation during Indonesia's presidential elections, inspiring him to create humanID—an anonymous Single Sign-On solution, now supported by Harvard Business School and Mozilla.
How much money it makes: $1.2K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
HumanID, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting online privacy and fighting fake news, has created an anonymous online and anonymous Single Sign-On (SSO) service to block spam and automated accounts, charging just 1 cent to run it, and has already attracted hundreds of users across various sites.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
