An email marketing side hustle is one of the most accessible and profitable ways to earn income outside of a 9-to-5. You can offer services to businesses, build and monetize your own newsletter, earn affiliate commissions, or sell digital products, all with a laptop and a few hours per week. The path you choose depends on your skills and goals, but the underlying asset is the same: a direct, owned communication channel with an engaged audience.
With nearly 40% of Americans running a side hustle, email marketing offers a low-cost way to turn gig work into real income. The difference between email and most other side hustle vehicles is control. Your social followers can disappear overnight, with no way to reach them again. Your email list is something you always own.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing generates between $36 and $40 for every dollar spent, translating to a 3,600% to 4,000% return on investment and outperforming most other marketing channels.
Freelance email marketers earn around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity.
Email marketing is a natural fit for retainer contracts, since companies send newsletters and product emails on a regular basis, giving you predictable monthly income.
Newsletter sponsorships can work even with smaller audiences; newsletters targeting specific niches can start monetizing with as few as 500 to 1,000 readers.
An email marketing side hustle is a real opportunity, but not an overnight one. It takes skill, effort, and consistency.
Why Email Marketing Is the Right Side Hustle Right Now
The numbers make a compelling case before you even start. Nearly 4.5 billion people use email worldwide in 2025, and this number is projected to reach over 4.8 billion by 2027. That scale means the demand for skilled email marketers is not going away.
The global digital marketing industry was valued at an impressive $780 billion in 2023, and it is estimated to have a compound annual growth rate of 11.1% from 2025 to 2030. Email sits at the center of that growth. Eighty-seven percent of marketing leaders say email marketing is critical to the success of their company, and 90% of marketers say that delivering targeted messages to email users boosts performance.
For anyone with existing marketing knowledge, this creates a clear gap. Businesses need email expertise. You can tackle most digital marketing tasks on a laptop with an internet connection, and virtually every business needs an online presence in the current era. Entering this space as a side hustler, rather than a full-time employee, gives you flexibility to pick your clients and set your own rates.
An email marketing side hustle is one of the most accessible and profitable ways to earn income outside of a 9-to-5. You can offer services to businesses, build and monetize your own newsletter, earn affiliate commissions, or sell digital products, all with a laptop and a few hours per week. The path you choose depends on your skills and goals, but the underlying asset is the same: a direct, owned communication channel with an engaged audience.
With nearly 40% of Americans running a side hustle, email marketing offers a low-cost way to turn gig work into real income. The difference between email and most other side hustle vehicles is control. Your social followers can disappear overnight, with no way to reach them again. Your email list is something you always own.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing generates between $36 and $40 for every dollar spent, translating to a 3,600% to 4,000% return on investment and outperforming most other marketing channels.
Freelance email marketers earn around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity.
Email marketing is a natural fit for retainer contracts, since companies send newsletters and product emails on a regular basis, giving you predictable monthly income.
Newsletter sponsorships can work even with smaller audiences; newsletters targeting specific niches can start monetizing with as few as 500 to 1,000 readers.
An email marketing side hustle is a real opportunity, but not an overnight one. It takes skill, effort, and consistency.
Why Email Marketing Is the Right Side Hustle Right Now
The numbers make a compelling case before you even start. Nearly 4.5 billion people use email worldwide in 2025, and this number is projected to reach over 4.8 billion by 2027. That scale means the demand for skilled email marketers is not going away.
The global digital marketing industry was valued at an impressive $780 billion in 2023, and it is estimated to have a compound annual growth rate of 11.1% from 2025 to 2030. Email sits at the center of that growth. Eighty-seven percent of marketing leaders say email marketing is critical to the success of their company, and 90% of marketers say that delivering targeted messages to email users boosts performance.
For anyone with existing marketing knowledge, this creates a clear gap. Businesses need email expertise. You can tackle most digital marketing tasks on a laptop with an internet connection, and virtually every business needs an online presence in the current era. Entering this space as a side hustler, rather than a full-time employee, gives you flexibility to pick your clients and set your own rates.
The 4 Core Ways to Earn from an Email Marketing Side Hustle
1. Freelance Email Marketing Services
The most direct path is offering services to clients who need campaigns built, copy written, automations set up, or strategy developed.
Email marketers need to know about segmentation, A/B testing, automation, and analysis. They should also be comfortable with content marketing, graphic design, and general marketing strategy.
As of April 2025, the average annual salary for a self-employed email marketer is $82,714, which translates to approximately $40 per hour. Salaries typically range from $69,889 to $93,790. At the higher end, freelance email marketers can earn around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity.
Email marketing is a great service to offer as a freelance retainer. A retainer contract guarantees a set amount of work for a set rate on a monthly basis. Since email marketing is something companies do regularly, working with clients on a retainer basis lets you offer your expertise on an ongoing schedule.
Alternatively, if you do not want to go the retainer route, consider offering email marketing on a project basis, charging a flat rate per email campaign or agreeing to provide a certain number of emails per month at a fixed price.
Where to find clients:
Sign up for freelance marketplaces like Upwork to get started.
Ask your network for referrals, especially if you already have a reputation in marketing.
Use LinkedIn, cold outreach, and niche audits to identify businesses with weak email programs.
2. Building and Monetizing Your Own Newsletter
A newsletter you own can become a standalone income source with multiple revenue layers.
Paid newsletters are like regular newsletters but you charge people to access your content. They are a great model for writers, industry experts, or influencers with a loyal following, and can be lucrative side hustles if you find an audience willing to pay.
The newsletter economy ranges from modest side incomes to large media businesses. The Hustle made $2 million yearly from premium subscriptions prior to its $27 million acquisition, while Superpower Daily, delivering AI updates, reached $150,000 in annual revenue within five months of launch.
You do not need a large list to start monetizing. Small newsletters under 1,000 subscribers can start with indirect monetization or affiliate marketing, since these do not require large audiences to generate income.
3. Affiliate Marketing Through Email
Affiliate email marketing allows content creators to monetize their recommendations for products and services, generating passive income. High customer retention rates and recurring commissions make this a steady revenue opportunity.
Newsletters are a high-intent environment where your recommendations actually convert, your audience trusts what you say, and you can escape the constant algorithm chase.
Placing unique tracking links in your content earns commissions from resulting sales. According to Glassdoor, many affiliate marketers earn between $42,000 and $83,000 annually. Some affiliate programs pay $200 or more per sale, and even smaller commissions add up quickly at volume.
FTC guidelines require you to disclose affiliate relationships in your emails. Research shows that 66% of American consumers actually trust influencers more when they disclose their relationship with a brand, so transparency here works in your favor.
4. Selling Digital Products Through Email
Email is the best distribution channel for selling digital products because you control the audience. Selling digital products involves creating and selling goods such as ebooks, courses, or templates. It is ideal for experts who can leverage their knowledge, and high scalability means you create your product once and sell it as many times as you want.
Your email list segmentation strategies become a direct lever on product sales. Segmented campaigns deliver more relevant offers to the right buyers, which directly affects conversion rates.
What Skills You Need to Start
You do not need a marketing degree to run an email marketing side hustle. You need a practical working knowledge of a handful of core areas.
Email marketers need to know about email strategy, segmentation, A/B testing, automation, and analysis. Most of these skills are learnable in a few weeks using free resources.
HubSpot, for instance, offers a free Email Marketing Certification Course that teaches the fundamentals of building an email strategy. Getting a certification like this can help legitimize your freelance business, especially if you are just getting started and do not have a portfolio yet.
Key skills to develop:
Copywriting: Writing subject lines and email body copy that get opens and clicks. Strong subject lines directly move the needle on open rates. Check out email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27% to sharpen this skill quickly.
Automation setup: Building welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and behavioral triggers. Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
Segmentation: Grouping subscribers based on behavior, preferences, or demographics to send relevant messages.
Analytics: Reading campaign data to improve future sends. Understanding open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates is table stakes for any client-facing work.
Platform proficiency: Working in tools like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Brevo.
How to Price Your Services
Pricing is where many beginners undercharge. Start by anchoring to market rates, then adjust for your experience and the value you deliver to clients.
The median hourly rate for email marketers on Upwork is $25, with typical rates ranging from $15 to $40 per hour. More experienced specialists charge significantly more. In the first six months, expect to earn $20 to $40 per hour. As you gain experience and reputation over six to twelve months, you can increase your rates to $50 to $80 per hour.
For project-based pricing, consider charging per deliverable:
Welcome sequence (5 emails): $300 to $800
Monthly newsletter management (4 campaigns): $500 to $2,000
Full automation build (onboarding, re-engagement, abandoned cart): $1,500 to $5,000+
Retainers offer priority access to your time, consistent support, and often a slight discount compared to hourly rates. For the freelancer, retainers provide predictable income, which many are willing to exchange for a lower effective rate.
Building Your Portfolio Before You Have Clients
No portfolio is the most common barrier beginners cite. It is a solvable problem.
Build spec work: Create sample campaigns for fictional or real brands you admire. Show the strategy, the copy, and the expected outcome.
Offer a free audit: Identify a business with a weak email program, audit their current approach, and share your findings. This demonstrates expertise and creates a natural client conversation.
Help a nonprofit or local business: Running a real campaign, even unpaid, gives you case study material and measurable results to show future clients. Nonprofits in particular often have no dedicated email support.
Document your own newsletter: If you build a newsletter and grow it, that is live proof of your skills.
A solid foundation in email marketing fundamentals, top-notch content creation skills, and sharp data analysis abilities are essential. Build and continually update a portfolio to demonstrate your expertise, stay current with industry trends, and commit to ongoing learning to refine your strategies.
Common Mistakes That Stall Progress
Many new marketers expect set-it-and-forget-it income. The reality is that digital is a huge opportunity to start a business with almost no money, but after that, it is still a business.
Specific mistakes to avoid:
Niching too broadly: Positioning yourself as a general email marketer is harder to sell than specializing in, say, e-commerce, SaaS, or service businesses. E-commerce, SaaS, and coaches are the top niches for freelance email marketers.
Ignoring deliverability: Email service providers have strong filters to weed out spam, and sending emails to invalid contacts signals spammy behavior, which can kill your email program before it takes off.
Skipping personalization: 75% of consumers prefer customized emails, and personalized subject lines boost open rates by up to 20 to 29%. Clients will notice if you are not implementing this.
Underpricing and burning out: Starting too low creates a client base that resists rate increases. Price based on the value you deliver, not just the hours you work.
Scaling From Side Hustle to Serious Income
Once you have two or three retainer clients, the structure of your email marketing side hustle becomes a repeatable system. From there, scaling follows a few clear paths.
Successful freelance email marketers who establish a strong client base and demonstrate proven results can achieve high earnings. Freelancers also have the potential to scale their operations by forming an agency, broadening services, or building a team, thus increasing business scope and revenue.
Alternatively, your newsletter itself can scale without client work. Many successful newsletter creators do not rely exclusively on one revenue source. They gradually build diversified income channels that complement each other and their audience's needs.
The most important thing is that the skills you build for your side hustle are the same skills businesses pay full-time salaries for. Running an email marketing side hustle is not just a way to earn extra income. It is a compounding investment in a high-demand skillset.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you realistically earn with an email marketing side hustle?
Income from a digital marketing side hustle varies by service type, experience, and demand. These gigs can bring in anywhere from $500 to over $10,000 a month. Freelance specialists at the higher end of the skill spectrum command around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity. Newsletter monetization can add passive income layers on top of client work.
Do you need prior email marketing experience to start?
Not necessarily. Your first step is to determine your skill level. Do you already have a background in email marketing, or do you just dabble with emails on the side? Determine how much knowledge you currently have to figure out whether you need to seek out more experience. Free certifications from HubSpot and other platforms can close the gap quickly for beginners.
What is the best way to get your first email marketing client?
Promote your services on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, and use cold emailing and networking to connect with potential clients. A targeted audit of a prospective client's current email program is one of the most effective cold outreach tools because it shows expertise before any conversation begins.
How do you build a newsletter audience from zero?
Test a short free resource first. Check your social media metrics to see what topics spark interest, then use that data to create a concise guide or checklist. You should not spend more than a few hours writing and designing it using free tools like Canva. Promote the lead magnet through your existing social channels or website, and then use a welcome email sequence to convert new subscribers into engaged readers from day one.
The 4 Core Ways to Earn from an Email Marketing Side Hustle
1. Freelance Email Marketing Services
The most direct path is offering services to clients who need campaigns built, copy written, automations set up, or strategy developed.
Email marketers need to know about segmentation, A/B testing, automation, and analysis. They should also be comfortable with content marketing, graphic design, and general marketing strategy.
As of April 2025, the average annual salary for a self-employed email marketer is $82,714, which translates to approximately $40 per hour. Salaries typically range from $69,889 to $93,790. At the higher end, freelance email marketers can earn around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity.
Email marketing is a great service to offer as a freelance retainer. A retainer contract guarantees a set amount of work for a set rate on a monthly basis. Since email marketing is something companies do regularly, working with clients on a retainer basis lets you offer your expertise on an ongoing schedule.
Alternatively, if you do not want to go the retainer route, consider offering email marketing on a project basis, charging a flat rate per email campaign or agreeing to provide a certain number of emails per month at a fixed price.
Where to find clients:
Sign up for freelance marketplaces like Upwork to get started.
Ask your network for referrals, especially if you already have a reputation in marketing.
Use LinkedIn, cold outreach, and niche audits to identify businesses with weak email programs.
2. Building and Monetizing Your Own Newsletter
A newsletter you own can become a standalone income source with multiple revenue layers.
Paid newsletters are like regular newsletters but you charge people to access your content. They are a great model for writers, industry experts, or influencers with a loyal following, and can be lucrative side hustles if you find an audience willing to pay.
The newsletter economy ranges from modest side incomes to large media businesses. The Hustle made $2 million yearly from premium subscriptions prior to its $27 million acquisition, while Superpower Daily, delivering AI updates, reached $150,000 in annual revenue within five months of launch.
You do not need a large list to start monetizing. Small newsletters under 1,000 subscribers can start with indirect monetization or affiliate marketing, since these do not require large audiences to generate income.
3. Affiliate Marketing Through Email
Affiliate email marketing allows content creators to monetize their recommendations for products and services, generating passive income. High customer retention rates and recurring commissions make this a steady revenue opportunity.
Newsletters are a high-intent environment where your recommendations actually convert, your audience trusts what you say, and you can escape the constant algorithm chase.
Placing unique tracking links in your content earns commissions from resulting sales. According to Glassdoor, many affiliate marketers earn between $42,000 and $83,000 annually. Some affiliate programs pay $200 or more per sale, and even smaller commissions add up quickly at volume.
FTC guidelines require you to disclose affiliate relationships in your emails. Research shows that 66% of American consumers actually trust influencers more when they disclose their relationship with a brand, so transparency here works in your favor.
4. Selling Digital Products Through Email
Email is the best distribution channel for selling digital products because you control the audience. Selling digital products involves creating and selling goods such as ebooks, courses, or templates. It is ideal for experts who can leverage their knowledge, and high scalability means you create your product once and sell it as many times as you want.
Your email list segmentation strategies become a direct lever on product sales. Segmented campaigns deliver more relevant offers to the right buyers, which directly affects conversion rates.
What Skills You Need to Start
You do not need a marketing degree to run an email marketing side hustle. You need a practical working knowledge of a handful of core areas.
Email marketers need to know about email strategy, segmentation, A/B testing, automation, and analysis. Most of these skills are learnable in a few weeks using free resources.
HubSpot, for instance, offers a free Email Marketing Certification Course that teaches the fundamentals of building an email strategy. Getting a certification like this can help legitimize your freelance business, especially if you are just getting started and do not have a portfolio yet.
Key skills to develop:
Copywriting: Writing subject lines and email body copy that get opens and clicks. Strong subject lines directly move the needle on open rates. Check out email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27% to sharpen this skill quickly.
Automation setup: Building welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and behavioral triggers. Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
Segmentation: Grouping subscribers based on behavior, preferences, or demographics to send relevant messages.
Analytics: Reading campaign data to improve future sends. Understanding open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates is table stakes for any client-facing work.
Platform proficiency: Working in tools like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Brevo.
How to Price Your Services
Pricing is where many beginners undercharge. Start by anchoring to market rates, then adjust for your experience and the value you deliver to clients.
The median hourly rate for email marketers on Upwork is $25, with typical rates ranging from $15 to $40 per hour. More experienced specialists charge significantly more. In the first six months, expect to earn $20 to $40 per hour. As you gain experience and reputation over six to twelve months, you can increase your rates to $50 to $80 per hour.
For project-based pricing, consider charging per deliverable:
Welcome sequence (5 emails): $300 to $800
Monthly newsletter management (4 campaigns): $500 to $2,000
Full automation build (onboarding, re-engagement, abandoned cart): $1,500 to $5,000+
Retainers offer priority access to your time, consistent support, and often a slight discount compared to hourly rates. For the freelancer, retainers provide predictable income, which many are willing to exchange for a lower effective rate.
Building Your Portfolio Before You Have Clients
No portfolio is the most common barrier beginners cite. It is a solvable problem.
Build spec work: Create sample campaigns for fictional or real brands you admire. Show the strategy, the copy, and the expected outcome.
Offer a free audit: Identify a business with a weak email program, audit their current approach, and share your findings. This demonstrates expertise and creates a natural client conversation.
Help a nonprofit or local business: Running a real campaign, even unpaid, gives you case study material and measurable results to show future clients. Nonprofits in particular often have no dedicated email support.
Document your own newsletter: If you build a newsletter and grow it, that is live proof of your skills.
A solid foundation in email marketing fundamentals, top-notch content creation skills, and sharp data analysis abilities are essential. Build and continually update a portfolio to demonstrate your expertise, stay current with industry trends, and commit to ongoing learning to refine your strategies.
Common Mistakes That Stall Progress
Many new marketers expect set-it-and-forget-it income. The reality is that digital is a huge opportunity to start a business with almost no money, but after that, it is still a business.
Specific mistakes to avoid:
Niching too broadly: Positioning yourself as a general email marketer is harder to sell than specializing in, say, e-commerce, SaaS, or service businesses. E-commerce, SaaS, and coaches are the top niches for freelance email marketers.
Ignoring deliverability: Email service providers have strong filters to weed out spam, and sending emails to invalid contacts signals spammy behavior, which can kill your email program before it takes off.
Skipping personalization: 75% of consumers prefer customized emails, and personalized subject lines boost open rates by up to 20 to 29%. Clients will notice if you are not implementing this.
Underpricing and burning out: Starting too low creates a client base that resists rate increases. Price based on the value you deliver, not just the hours you work.
Scaling From Side Hustle to Serious Income
Once you have two or three retainer clients, the structure of your email marketing side hustle becomes a repeatable system. From there, scaling follows a few clear paths.
Successful freelance email marketers who establish a strong client base and demonstrate proven results can achieve high earnings. Freelancers also have the potential to scale their operations by forming an agency, broadening services, or building a team, thus increasing business scope and revenue.
Alternatively, your newsletter itself can scale without client work. Many successful newsletter creators do not rely exclusively on one revenue source. They gradually build diversified income channels that complement each other and their audience's needs.
The most important thing is that the skills you build for your side hustle are the same skills businesses pay full-time salaries for. Running an email marketing side hustle is not just a way to earn extra income. It is a compounding investment in a high-demand skillset.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you realistically earn with an email marketing side hustle?
Income from a digital marketing side hustle varies by service type, experience, and demand. These gigs can bring in anywhere from $500 to over $10,000 a month. Freelance specialists at the higher end of the skill spectrum command around $40 to $120 per hour depending on campaign complexity. Newsletter monetization can add passive income layers on top of client work.
Do you need prior email marketing experience to start?
Not necessarily. Your first step is to determine your skill level. Do you already have a background in email marketing, or do you just dabble with emails on the side? Determine how much knowledge you currently have to figure out whether you need to seek out more experience. Free certifications from HubSpot and other platforms can close the gap quickly for beginners.
What is the best way to get your first email marketing client?
Promote your services on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, and use cold emailing and networking to connect with potential clients. A targeted audit of a prospective client's current email program is one of the most effective cold outreach tools because it shows expertise before any conversation begins.
How do you build a newsletter audience from zero?
Test a short free resource first. Check your social media metrics to see what topics spark interest, then use that data to create a concise guide or checklist. You should not spend more than a few hours writing and designing it using free tools like Canva. Promote the lead magnet through your existing social channels or website, and then use a welcome email sequence to convert new subscribers into engaged readers from day one.
