How to make money sending emails?

The process is a simple one – you join a brand with an affiliate program, sign up for it, and start promoting its products or services to your audience. You receive a commission every time your subscribers purchase through that affiliate link.

The affiliate links are added in emails just as they are added in blogs, video links, or social media links.

For example, if you are an expert in the fitness domain, you can promote gym memberships, specifically planned meals, fitness supplements and the like.

Other affiliate products can include products related to:

Babycare and parenting
Gaming
Email services
Accounting software
Online education
Travel Fashion
Pet care and a lot more.

However, there is an important angle to this. The brand that you sign up with must be credible enough for you to get associated with. If you end up joining hands with a spammy brand, you’ll lose credibility with your audience.

Another factor is that you must have the right knowledge, expertise, and experience about the niche so you can leverage your credit to promote products in the domain.

Note: In an affiliate partnership, conversions might not simply be a sale. As per the brand’s expectations or guidelines, the conversions could also mean a lead, a sale, and an app install.

Redirecting subscribers to other websites

Redirecting your audience to other websites can be a great way to boost your revenue. This works by partnering with companies that pay you to suggest their website to your audience.

These partnerships can be structured based on commissions and can be tied to clicks, leads, and sales generated.

However, it is important to choose a website that aligns with your audience’s preferences and interests. This ensures trust and engagement.

Also, as mentioned above, it also helps focus on high-quality and reputable websites that can provide value to your audience without leading them to a brand that isn’t reputable.

Redirecting subscribers to other websites can be done in the following easy steps:

Monetizing email traffic
Choosing relevant websites for your audience
Negotiating payment terms with partners

Upselling products

Selling your products and services to your audience that has already opted to hear from you makes up for a great way to drive more sales.

But besides fresh sales, it also offers upselling opportunities, selling complementary products, and creating bundle offers.
For example, targeting existing customers with upselling and cross-selling opportunities can significantly increase your revenue.

Here’s how to identify upselling opportunities:

Purchase history
Behavior tracking
Data based on demographics
Creating bundle offers
Identifying complementary products
Different deal versions

A great aspect about selling through your email list is that you own it. You don’t owe anyone anything without having to go through a marketplace or a merchant.

Moreover, as your audience already knows you, it’s easier to build a strong relationship with them and start selling to them and educating them about your product.

Advertising by other brands

Showcase sponsored content or advertisements by other brands.

This can be a great way for marketers who have been in the scene for quite some time and have garnered a list of a few thousand, which pays off really well when advertised in front of such a large audience.

In this case, the bigger the list, the better!

How is it done?

The process starts with advertisers contacting the email list owners (or vice versa) and purchasing a placement for their advertisement. Simply put, this means that a brand will purchase a space and get access to another person’s email list.

However, you must remember the golden rule mentioned above! The product advertisement must align with the preferences and interests of your audience.

Run paid newsletters

It can turn out to be a real challenge to grow our email list.

Then you must wonder, how is it possible to make the audience pay for it?

You’re right! But providing real value to your audience can make monetizing your newsletters a possibility.

You can create a premium version of your newsletter with exclusive content that will only be shared with the members who have paid for the membership.

However, it is important to test the waters before going full scale. This also calls for the need to get more data and their feedback, if they are willing to pay, how much they would pay and what type of content they’d pay for

Sell your product

Wishing to use newsletter marketing to sell your products?

That’s possible!

Your product must solve pain points and be brimming with value, and hence has to be relevant to them.

You can also join hands with an AI tool to create other digital products, such as developing apps, software, Chrome extensions, and a lot more, without having an entire squad of developers.

Also, the best way to learn if your audience needs your product is by doing surveys through autoresponders.

However, making money through emails by this method means sending the right message to the right person at the right point in their customer journey. This can be done through approaches such as segmentation.

Selling your products through a channel that’s completely yours gives you complete control over pricing, branding and the overall customer experience. Additionally, your profit margins are higher when you sell your product on this channel compared to when you sell it on another channel.

Furthermore, the process will be about maintaining consistency. Make sure each campaign offers something interesting and valuable enough to increase your conversions.

Share resources

Doesn’t that sound like a great way to grow and monetize your email list?

You can offer free digital products such as checklists, templates, cheat sheets, or guides to attract subscribers. These resources help you showcase your expertise and immediate value, encouraging people to sign up for your list.

You can also use tools such as:

Polls
Surveys
Chats
Q&A for a direct audience interaction.

This helps you refine your messaging and also sell additional content for your blog or an ebook.

Once you build a thriving relationship with your audience through free content, you can then start offering premium resources such as:

Online courses
Live webinars (You can also use recordings of the previous webinars)
Digital downloads

Creating a paid course

The internet is flooded with courses! But the key to driving traffic and conversions through it is when you market it right!

Paid courses are one of the most profitable and, by far, the most popular ways to make money through emails.

Offering your audience a paid course opens the door to some exclusive and value-driven expertise and new skills. It also means offering advanced knowledge and insights to an audience segment that wishes to upgrade their skillset or learn something valuable that isn’t available anywhere else.

To do so again, you have to consider your audience’s pain points and map out a way for you to solve those problems. The process that follows will look like the following:

Break down the inputs into lessons, videos, quizzes and worksheets.
Creating a landing page with a signup form.
Optimize your landing page with the relevant keywords.
Run a successful email marketing campaign backed by paid social ads to drive traffic to the page.

Conclusion

Thanks to the above options, making money through email marketing is now possible, even without a huge team.

However, a common denominator is to provide high-end value to your subscribers.

Other factors to keep in mind are building a quality email list, creating valuable content, and maintaining trust with your subscribers.

Take the help of automation, segmentation and personalization to further strengthen the foundation. Don’t be one of those who are yet to tap into the full potential of email marketing.

With the right approach and being equipped with the right tool, such as Icegram Express, the sky’s the limit!

FAQ

Do I need a large email list to start making money?
Not necessarily. A small, highly engaged list can outperform a large, unengaged one. Focus on attracting the right audience, nurturing them with value, and segmenting effectively.

Can I use affiliate links in emails legally?
Yes, but always disclose. Include a simple disclaimer like: “This email contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.” This builds trust and keeps you compliant with FTC guidelines.

How do I grow my list with people who are more likely to convert?
Use lead magnets (free guides, discounts, webinars) aligned with the product or niche you’re monetizing. The more targeted your offer, the higher the likelihood that those subscribers will buy from you later.

Should I separate promotional emails from regular content?
Yes, especially for longer-term success. Educate, entertain, or inform 70–80% of the time. Then monetize 20–30% of the time. Or combine the two using hybrid emails: value upfront, CTA at the end.