The newsletter that recommends tools for free
Every week it points its readers at tools they go on to buy. Every week that value lands in someone else lap for free. This is what the writer is holding without noticing.
The short answer
A newsletter that readers trust is already doing the hardest part of marketing for the tools it mentions: it is vouching for them to people who buy. The missed deal is a partnership with one or two of those tools, where the recommendation stays honest but the writer shares in the result through reach, a revenue share, or a paid collaboration. The trust is the asset, so protecting it comes first.
What you can see from the outside
Here is a pattern you can see in your own inbox. A writer builds a newsletter that people actually open. Along the way they mention the tools they use and like. Readers, who trust the writer, go and try those tools. Some become paying customers.
The software companies on the other end can often see this happening. They notice a cluster of signups that all trace back to one link, one mention, one issue. To them it is some of the best marketing they get, because it arrives pre-trusted. To the writer, it is a throwaway line. All of that value flows one way, for free, week after week.
Who holds what
| Side | What they hold |
|---|---|
| The newsletter | A trusting audience and the power to make a recommendation land |
| The software company | A product, a budget for reach, and a real problem finding trusted buyers |
| What the writer is missing | Any share of the result their recommendation already creates |
The deal hiding in plain sight
The deal here is partnership marketing, not a cheap affiliate link slapped on the end. The writer keeps full control of what they recommend and only ever backs tools they would use anyway. In return, one or two of those companies treat them as a real channel: a proper collaboration, a share of the revenue their readers bring, or reach back to the writer own audience through a swap.
The reason to keep it small and honest is the same reason it works at all. The audience trusts the writer because the recommendations have never felt bought. A deal that quietly turns every issue into an advert would burn the exact asset that made the deal possible. The good version of this makes the writer richer in reach and in revenue without the reader ever feeling sold to.
How to map it yourself
- 1
Find where you already send buyers
Look back at what you have recommended and where readers actually went. The tool you keep mentioning without thinking is the one already treating you as a channel, whether you know it or not.
- 2
Decide your honesty line first
Write down what you will never do, such as recommending something you do not use. This line is what protects the trust, so set it before you talk money.
- 3
Approach the best fit, not the biggest
Go to the company whose product you genuinely like and whose readers overlap with yours. Tell them what you already send them and ask what a real collaboration could look like.
- 4
Start with one honest collaboration
Run a single piece, a shared guide or an honest review, and watch how readers respond. If it helps them and holds your trust, you have the shape of an ongoing deal.
The first move
The first move is one email to one company you already champion. Not a rate card, not a pitch deck. Something as plain as my readers already sign up for you after I mention you, and I would rather do that as a proper partnership than by accident. Would you be open to talking.
Watch two things, not one. Watch whether the collaboration earns you reach or revenue, and watch whether your open rates and replies stay healthy. The first tells you the deal works. The second tells you it is safe to keep doing.
When this deal is the wrong move
When this is the wrong tool
- You do not really use or believe in the product. The moment a recommendation is bought rather than earned, readers feel it and the trust you were trading on starts to drain.
- Your audience is too small to matter to the company yet. That is fine, it just means the honest move is to grow first and revisit later, not to force a deal nobody values.
- The only offer on the table is a bare affiliate link. A pure link with no relationship rarely pays enough to justify the risk to your trust. Hold out for a real collaboration or pass.
Questions people ask
Is this just affiliate marketing with a nicer name?
Will readers feel sold to?
What if my newsletter is small?
Keep going
Partnership marketing
How to reach a new audience through someone who already has its trust.
Affiliate vs partnership marketing
Where a link ends and a real partnership begins.
How to get sponsors
When the deal is a company paying to reach the audience you have built.
Written by Greg Courtepatte
Deal Mapper in Alberta. I find the missing side of a deal and help get it moving. LinkedIn