Brokering sponsorships between newsletters and B2B advertisers
You don't own the audience. You own the rolodex. 15% of every deal, closed over email.
How it works
Small-to-mid newsletters (10k-100k subscribers) hate selling ads. Advertisers hate hunting them down one at a time. A broker who curates 30-50 newsletters in one vertical and matches them to advertisers takes 15-20% of gross ad spend without publishing anything.
Step by step
- 1Pick one vertical: dev tools, marketing, fintech, HR, healthcare. Narrow verticals command higher CPMs and easier matching.
- 2Build a list of 40-60 newsletters in that vertical with 10k-100k subscribers. Note publishing cadence, sponsor slots per issue, past sponsors and rough CPM.
- 3Cold-email each newsletter operator: 'I broker sponsorships in [vertical]. If you have open slots in the next 60 days, I bring the buyers. 15% commission, invoiced through you.'
- 4Aim to sign 20 newsletters non-exclusively in the first 90 days. Non-exclusive is fine — you win on hit rate, not lockup.
- 5Build a simple Notion page listing available slots by month, price, and audience demographics. This is your product.
- 6Build the advertiser side: list 100 B2B companies in the same vertical actively running ads. Use SparkToro, LinkedIn Ads Library and the sponsor mentions in the newsletters themselves.
- 7Pitch advertisers with a 3-line email and a link to the Notion inventory page. Never send a PDF — friction kills deals.
- 8Close deals over email. Invoice the advertiser through the newsletter; you receive your 15% from the newsletter after ad runs and clears.
- 9Track every deal in a spreadsheet: newsletter, advertiser, slot date, gross, commission, click-through data if shared. Renew rate is the real metric.
- 10After 90 days, publish an anonymized quarterly benchmark report — average CPM, best-performing formats. It doubles as marketing for both sides.
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