5 Genius Ways to Make Money with a Tiny Email List

This post contains affiliate links to some of the products I use and love. That means if you make a purchase from one of my affiliate partners I will receive a small commission. Thank you for helping to support this blog.

Everyone says that the money is in the list. What list are they talking about? Your email list of course. But a lot of people think that you need to have thousands of subscribers to actually make any money. This isn’t the case and today I’m going to show you 5 genius ways to make money from a tiny email list.

The following will show you how you can start to monetize your email list so you can start making money right away, even if you don’t have anything of your own to offer yet.

#1 Promote Your Affiliates

This is called affiliate marketing. Most people think that the only way you can promote affiliate links is by adding them to blog posts or promoting them on social media. While this is the most common way to make money with affiliates… you can also promote your affiliate links in emails. This is a great way to start making money with your email list.

You could even create a free 5-day email course providing a ton of value and sharing the tools you use to run your business. Add your affiliate links in the emails and watch your income grow. This works amazingly well.

Some people even create a whole launch campaign around their affiliate partners. I’m sure you’ve gotten emails from influencers promoting other people’s course launches or digital products in a series of emails. You’ll want to do this if it’s a time-sensitive offer. 

In my Better Pins Course, I add some of my affiliate links (where they’re relevant) to the products and services I use. As I said earlier, you could create your own free 5-day email course (or free guide) and weave your affiliate links throughout.

#2 Set Up a Tripwire Offer

I could literally do a whole post on tripwires. Oh wait, I already did! You can read that post right here if you have no idea what a Tripwire is and want to learn how I use tripwires in my business.

You’ve probably seen them at some point when you’ve signed up for someone’s freebie. After you sign up, you’re immediately taken to a page that gives you an offer for a special discount for a very limited time. 

This is a great way to get paid to build your list. A tripwire is usually a very low-cost offer between $5 and $49 dollars. You could use an ebook you wrote, a training, a swipe file, or even templates and offer them for a 50%-70% discount.

This works well and also helps you get more paying customers. Because, when someone purchases something from you once they’re way more likely to buy from you again than a subscriber that hasn’t. It’s also a great way to get your feet wet with selling.

#3 Offer a Service

This is one of the easiest ways to start making money with your blog. You could start making money immediately by offering a sought-after service and promoting it to your list. I offer Pinterest services like 1:1 strategy sessions and account audits.

These are so helpful to my audience and I love working one-on-one with them. You can offer VA services, copywriting, coaching, freelance services, etc. Then promote them with a series of emails to your small list. 

#4 Sell a Live Workshop

Maybe you’re thinking about creating your first eBook or an online course. A live workshop is a great way to see if it will sell and make a few bucks at the same time.

Figure out what your audience is struggling with and if you have a quick solution that can be solved with a 1-hour or 2-hour workshop. Then, promote it to your list before you even create it.

If no one signs up, all you’ve lost is the time you spent writing a couple of promotional emails. But, if this is something that your small audience is looking for, you could easily make a few hundred dollars with a minimal amount of work. #winwin

#5 Create a sales funnel

This is related to a few of the steps above. In fact, you could probably incorporate all of the above into a profitable sales funnel. All you need is 5-7 emails that will take your new subscribers on a journey and lead them to a purchase. This could be a welcome series of emails that you send to new subscribers.

You can offer new subscribers a tripwire product and then send them an automated series of emails that help you sell more of your own or your affiliate products. I use ConvertKit to set up my automated emails and it couldn’t be easier.

Want to build your own profitable sales funnel but don’t know where to start? Get your hands on my FREE Pinterest Funnel Blueprint and you’ll know exactly what emails you should be sending and in what order they need to be sent. Grab your FREE funnel blueprint below.