Beehiiv Review (2024): How I Make 4 Figures from Beehiiv

What is Beehiiv?

Beehiiv is a newsletter growth platform launched in 2021 by Benjamin Hargett, Jacob Hurd, and Tyler Denk, who was formerly a product manager at Google. 

The founders claim that the primary goal of the platform is to help you easily build, grow, and monetize your newsletter.

Beehiiv is positioned as “the most creator-friendly newsletters platform.” However, many other newsletter platforms also have a clear UI and powerful functionality. So, what’s special about Beehiiv?

So, what’s special about Beehiiv?

Here is how Tyler Denk, the platform co-founder, explains it:

Despite being relatively young, Beehiiv already functions as a decent newsletter platform that has the potential to become a market giant one day. 

Beehiiv has been operating for four years and has already made so much buzz on the web and Twitter to attract novice and well-established creators, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Miss Excel, and more!

Apart from its rather bizarre name (I believe the name and the logo are associated with “beehive”), the platform is easy to understand and navigate around. 

Furthermore, Beehiiv has a broad functionality for landing page creation, blogging, and monetization, making it much bigger than conventional newsletter software.

How Beehiiv works

Once you register on Beehiiv, you’ll be redirected to the main dashboard with the subscribers’ statistics and the overall performance of your email campaigns for the last 30 days. 

You can see the number of active subscribers (in my case, it’s 76), the average open rate (the percentage of your active subscribers who opened your newsletter), and the average click rate (the percentage of your active subscribers who clicked on any links in your newsletter).

If you are new to Beehiiv, you might wonder how to get started. The menu in the left sidebar has plenty of options, which might seem overwhelming from the beginning. 

If you are just starting, I recommend creating a landing page where your target audience can subscribe to your newsletter.

Many content creators ask me, “How do I create a landing page on Beehiiv?” Here is how you can do it step-by-step.

Navigate to Settings > Publication > General to create a dedicated landing page for your target audience. 

It takes a few minutes to fillout the required information, upload images, and indicate the response email to make your landing page work. If you upgrade to the Grow plan ($49 if billed monthly, free trial 14 days), you will be able to use a custom domain.

Using a free plan, you can only create one landing page, which Beehiiv calls a “Publication.” Hosting more than one publication is possible under the Scale plan, which is $99 if billed monthly. 

The customization features are somewhat limited for publications. However, the cluttered-free design helps focus your users’ attention on the most important element — the subscription form.

Here is how my publication looks on Beehiiv. I use a free plan.

If you are a website owner, like me, or manage a blog on any other platform, like Medium, Beehiiv offers several forms depending on your needs: full width, fixed width, slim embed (email field only, without header, background, or description), and advanced configuration with attribution tracking. It’s a beneficial feature to grow your email list.

The screenshot below shows the fixed and slim-width form options you can embed directly on your website.

Here is what an embedded Beehiiv sign up form looks like on my website. It took me a few seconds to copy and add the code to this web page via WordPress. 

If you also manage your website through a content management system (CMS), you won’t need a developer to insert contact forms, such as the ones from Beehiiv. 

I’ve shown you how to create a simple landing page to collect email addresses and various embed forms for your website.

What’s next?

At this point, you can already create posts and newsletters to share with your target audience. 

A big button, “Start Writing,” in the top-right corner of the creator dashboard will redirect you to the content editor, where you can create a post, an email, or a Beehiiv SEO optimized website page.

In my example below, I used a content editor to create an email. It’s super easy to understand and use. The only con I’ve noticed is a lack of email personalization. That’s why all my subscribers will get an email starting with “Hello there.”

You can also use the preview feature to see how your content will look after it is published or emailed.

In my opinion, Beehiiv is an excellent newsletter platform if you are starting your online business. Many essential features are available for free to help content creators “taste” the platform before upgrading to the paid plan. 

If you want to start with a free plan, here is what you should know:

• The Beehiiv free plan is unavailable for content creators with over 5,000 subscribers.
• You will only be able to create 3 audience segments.
• Automation is unavailable, so you won’t be able to create automated email campaigns. Good news, newsletter scheduling is available.
• Popular Beehiiv features, such as a referral program, boosts, paid subscriptions, and 3D analytics, are unavailable. 

However, there are some Beehiiv features new content creators and established businesses will benefit from. 

You’ll find the following paragraph insightful if you look for ways to monetize your newsletter regardless of size.

Beehiiv monetization opportunities

According to the Litmus guide, email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, which is higher than any other channel.

This is mindblowing information indicating the massive potential of newsletters for content creators! 

Let me share a few proven-to-work methods on how you can monetize your email list and make money with Beehiiv. 

1. Beehiiv Partner Program

Beehiiv partner program is one of the best ways to earn money that Beehiiv has in store for content creators. 

The logic is simple:

1. Register as a Beehiiv partner
2. Promote Beehiiv among your target audience
3. Earn 50% commission from every sale during the first year for referring new paid customers to Beehiiv

I’ve made $2,300+ from the Beehiiv Partner Program in 1.5 years without actively promoting the brand.

All I did was mention Beehiiv on my website and in my newsletter. Nevertheless, many people got interested in growing their email lists using the Beehiiv newsletter platform and joined via my registration link. 

I only used my website and this Beehiiv review to promote the platform through organic search results. The outcome is promising! 

Beehiiv sends your commissions every month to your PayPal account. They used Wise in the past, but due to many issues with the payout processing, Beehiiv switched to PayPal.

2. Boosts

Boosts is another way to grow your email list faster and create an additional revenue source.

For those looking to grow an email list faster, Beehiiv offers an opportunity to promote your newsletter among thousands of qualified Beehiiv newsletters to reach your target audience. According to the Beehiiv Boosts page, the average cost of one active subscriber is $1.63.

If you want to monetize your newsletter on Beehiiv, you can apply to boost other newsletters and get paid for every new subscriber. Please, note you’ll have to set up a Stripe account to get your Boost earnings. 

You can learn more about making money with Boosts in this video.

3. Ad network

The Beehiiv ad network allows newsletter creators to connect with premium brands and earn revenue by featuring ads in their newsletters. The network matches brands with newsletters based on audience demographics and interests so that the right people see ads.

To join the Beehiiv ad network, you must have more than 1,000 subscribers and be actively sending emails on beehiiv. 

Once approved, you’ll receive inbound ad opportunities from the beehiiv team. You can choose to accept or decline any placement, and you’ll be paid a portion of the ad revenue generated.

It is a great way to monetize your newsletter and reach a wider audience. It’s also a hands-off way to manage your ad sales, as Beehiiv handles all the ad placement and reporting.

4. Subscriptions

As an email newsletter platform, Beehiiv offers content creators an opportunity to create recurring revenue through paid subscriptions. 

Beehiiv doesn’t charge any fees for paid newsletters, and they only take a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee from Stripe, their payment processor.

With subscriptions, you can:

• Set up a paywall to protect your premium content
• Offer different pricing plans
• Offer monthly and yearly plans
• Create custom offers and free trials directly on the platform
• Track your subscription revenue
• Promote your paid newsletter

Here is how much you can earn from Beehiiv paid subscriptions over a year if you have 100 paid subscribers paying $7/m — it’s my email monetization plan.

The path toward monetizing an email list is not easy, even for established content creators. Therefore I encourage you to try different monetization options to determine what works for you.

Beehiiv pricing 

I hope this Beehiiv review has been helpful to you by now. 

In this paragraph, I want to discuss Beehiiv’s pricing in detail. Even though many features are free on Beehiiv, most essential functionalities, including monetization options, are only available for users of the Grow, Scale, and Enterprise plans.

I’ve created the following table to help you better understand what each Beehiiv plan offers and which is most suitable for you.

Beehiiv offers a customized plan for content creators and companies having over 100,000 subscribers. If it’s your case and you want to learn about what Beehiiv can offer, you can inquire about the enterprise plan here.

Beehiiv vs. Convertkit

I’ve seen so many Twitter posts about Beehiiv and Convertkit. 

I sometimes think people post the question: “Beehiiv vs.Convertkit – What’s better?” only to create buzz. 

The discussion is so active because Convertkit and Beehiiv are both powerful newsletter platforms for content creators. 

I’ve been using Convertkit since March 2020, when I started growing my Medium blog. 

Back then, Convertkit seemed to be the best newsletter growth platform among available options on the market. Convertkit is a much more user-friendly and straightforward platform than Mailchimp and Drip, for example.

I am still an active Convertkit user, paying $5o monthly for running a newsletter with 2k subscribers. 

There is only one reason why I and many other established creators don’t switch to Beehiiv or don’t entirely switch to Beehiiv.

Changing a newsletter growth platform requires time and energy. Moreover, it is unnecessary if your current email software meets your needs. 

ConvertKit is a more established platform known for its powerful automation capabilities. It is also a good choice for creators who want to integrate their email marketing with other platforms, such as WordPress and Teachable. 

If I were to start a newsletter today, I’d choose Beehiiv because:

1. Everyone talks about this platform, so it must be good 
2. Beehiiv actively works on improving existing features and launching new ones 
3. Beehiiv’s new features help content creators make money

Beehiiv vs. Substack

Beehiiv and Substack are two of the most popular platforms for creating and publishing newsletters. Both platforms offer a variety of features, including email marketing, landing pages, and monetization options.

Exec Sum put together an illustrative table that compares the costs and benefits of Beehiiv and Substack as your revenue growth.

It turns out that paying a flat fee can benefit you more, especially once your earnings start to grow. 

FAQ

Have you already tried Beehiiv? Feel free to share your experience and opinion about Beehiiv in the comments below.

I’ve also collected a few frequently-asked questions about Beehiiv that people actively search for.