What is it?
Chances are, your subscribers need help discovering service providers or products. And with your audience size and trust, you're in an ideal place to play matchmaker.
You can choose to either charge a fee upfront to list a product/service or take a % commission on the backend once a sale has been made.
Naturally, this works best in niches where higher-value transactions are made. You can justify a higher listing fee for a car than a bicycle, for example.
And if you go the commission route, your earnings are totally uncapped.
The Good and the Bad
- Can be lucrative if the sales in your niche are high value.
- Scalable over time.
- Genuinely helpful for your audience.
- Need a decent audience size to make worthwhile.
- Takes longer to make money than other methods.
- Have to quality control listings.
Examples to Steal
This newsletter expanded into a tool that helps brands to find their next sponsorship opportunity.
All of the sponsors are arranged in a marketplace style, ready to be outreached.
Subscribers pay a monthly fee to access the marketplace.
Flippa is a marketplace that helps entrepreneurs buy their next online business. They send a daily newsletter alerting their subscribers to the latest opportunities.
This is such a lucrative model because they charge a listing fee and a commission on the completion of the sale.
These businesses regularly sell for 6 or 7-figures - and Flippa gets a slice every time!
The Playbook
