Friday, July 10, 2026
Happy Friday!
In my experience, most people struggling to monetize their email list fall into one of two buckets:
The first bucket are the folks missing the raw ingredients.
Most of them have less than 1,000 subscribers…
Little to no email consistency…
And no fleshed out offer suite to speak of.
Doesn't exactly require a PhD in email marketing to diagnose those problems.
But the second bucket is far more interesting to analyze…
Because these are people who DO have the raw ingredients:
10k-20k+ subscribers…
Supported by big audiences on social in many cases…
Validated offers they've sold before…
And have been emailing their list with some level of consistency.
Yet they're still not making anywhere NEAR the amount of money they should be.
I had not one but TWO of these land on my desk this week.
And in both cases, the explanation was the same:
Blurring the lines between free vs paid.
It's the classic content conundrum for coaches, consultants, and anyone else running an info business…
What do you give away for free vs what do you reserve for your paid products?
This is a sticky wicket…
Because effectively, if you’re charging for SOME info but not others…
That boundary needs to be crystal clear.
The paywall needs to make sense to your subscribers.
Luckily, there’s a simple solution:
You tell them what to do for free, but not HOW to do it.
That info can only be unlocked by coughing up their credit card details.
Otherwise, you’re sending mixed signals.
It's like giving someone the recipe AND the groceries for free… then trying to convince them to go out to dinner instead.
Good luck with that!
Ultimately, email marketing is just relationship building at scale.
And your subscribers will take their cues from you as to how to behave in the relationship.
Just like in the real world.
So if you don’t establish clear boundaries and then actually enforce them…
Especially when it comes to what’s available for free vs what they are expected to pay for…
Well, don’t be surprised if they hold out on you.
That’s all I got for ya today, though.
It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Toronto and my wife and I are signing off early to soak up the warm weather.
Enjoy your weekend :)
Jim Hamilton
Learn how to build a profitable daily newsletter with Email Storyselling. Read by 5,000+ subscribers.