Creating a paid newsletter in WordPress is a fantastic way to build additional recurring reader revenue or add more value to an existing paid subscription. We have publishers running the following setup to not only add value and revenue, but also to save themselves hours of newsletter creation time.
In addition, by using native WordPress solutions, your data remains easy to access and easy to export at any time. You are in control.
You can also check out this podcast on how to create your premium newsletter and monetize it.
In this article we use 3 tools:
- Leaky Paywall to grow subscriptions
- Newsletter Glue for managing your newsletter within WordPress (faster workflow)
- Mailchimp to handle the actual sending and metrics (you can use other email platforms such as Sendy, etc if you prefer)
How to set things up
To begin, install Leaky Paywall and install the Leaky Paywall – MailChimp addon.
After installing the Leaky Paywall – MailChimp plugin, go to Leaky Paywall > Settings > MailChimp in your WordPress admin. Enter your MailChimp API key and click “Save Settings”. If you need help finding your API key, click here.
Once you have MailChimp connected, it’s time to set up a paid Leaky Paywall subscription level. Go to Leaky Paywall > Settings > Subscriptions and create a new paid subscription level.
Connect the subscription level to your MailChimp list.
When someone subscribes to this paid plan, they’ll be automatically added to your MailChimp account.
Next, it’s time to set up Newsletter Glue
With Newsletter Glue, you can publish newsletters inside of the WordPress dashboard without ever having to go to MailChimp. Install the Newsletter Glue plugin to get started and enter your license key.
Connect your MailChimp via the API key that we used earlier.
Set up the default audience in MailChimp you’d like to send your premium newsletters.
From here, you can now send newsletters using the WordPress native NewsletterGlue builder. Once your newsletter is ready to send using NewsletterGlue, choose your paid newsletter list and send away!
A few things to note:
- If a subscriber cancels their subscription in Leaky Paywall, by default, a “canceled” tag is added for this user in MailChimp.
- If a subscriber’s payment fails in Leaky Paywall, by default, a “failed payment” tag is added for this user in MailChimp.
- If a subscriber changes levels in Leaky Paywall, by default, the subscriber is removed from the MailChimp list associated with the previous level.
You can customize the scenario above in Leaky Paywall > Settings > MailChimp.
Learn more about creating a premium newsletter for your subscribers.
