Stop renting attention: the case for sellers owning an email channel

Ad costs have risen 48 percent since 2022 and social reach keeps tightening, yet most sellers and founders keep pouring money into platforms and ad networks able to ban them, or break them, without warning. The counterargument gaining ground in e-commerce circles: own the channel algorithms cannot touch: an email newsletter.

The economics cited are striking. One Amazon-seller newsletter operator reports earning $271,000 in 2024 from about 31,000 readers while working under ten hours a week, on track for $500,000-plus in 2025, which works out to more than $16 per reader per year.

The tactics behind such results: acquiring buyer-ready leads for under 77 cents each, story-driven email formats said to lift open rates to 56 percent, and stacking revenue from sponsors, affiliates, products and coupon books. For brands, a newsletter also doubles as a testing ground for product ideas and a lever around peak events like Prime Day.