Ask HN: I have a 3,500 subscriber email newsletter. How do I make $50/mo off it?

The details:

I have a daily emails newsletter which, basically, acts like a blog. I write a story sharing some true, typically unknown item (Abe Lincoln created the Secret Service the day he was shot, for example) with the readers. I'm not putting the URL here because I want to be clear that this question isn't intended as a promotional vehicle.

The email costs me $50/mo to send. (I'm using Mailchimp and that's their monthly fee.) It'll cost me $75 when/if I break the 5,000 subscriber plateau. It's not expensive, but I'd like to break even, and I'm looking for easy ways to get there. (The list is waaaaaaaay too small to consider direct sales brand advertising.)

I can't run AdWords or, for that matter, any standard ad network's banners, because the content is delivered via email. I occasionally drop in an Amazon affiliate link but I don't want to overdo it. (Perhaps a "Book of the Day" line would be good, or "Related Reading.")

I'm looking for ideas which are out of the box. Anyone?

If it is a daily email, I'd put a little note that says something like "Advertise here for $5 a day and be seen by over 3000 viewers!" If I was an active reader of the newsletter, and owned a small website somewhat related to what you email about, I'd spend 1/10th of a penny per eyeball.

You could do a number of things depending on your subscriber demographics.

If you want to go the advertising route, it's best to go directly to relevant businesses. See this - http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/78967452/want-to-get-advertis...

The other way is to just sell something directly to your readers. First test a few different products (some rare history book, photobook etc) by adding a link to the bottom of your email and seeing which one gets the most clicks. Once you know what's popular, buy it in bulk and sell.

Hi Dan, You can partner up with startups that are really hungry for reviews and exposure... just like us www.quoteroller.com :) A little blog post and paragraph about our app won't hurt while would be happy to pay a little fee for it.

provide good content and (most likely) no one will mind affiliate links, even if there are a few per email. people will only start to care once you start generating content specifically for the ability to link.

just keep doing what you're doing and don't shoehorn them in. only insert them where relevant.