How to Start a Newsletter: My Own Setup

To start a newsletter, write down in one sentence what readers get, pick a cadence you can keep, choose a tool with a free plan or open-source software, build a signup form with a confirmation email (double opt-in), write a welcome email, and send your first issue using a fixed structure. Starting for free is realistic: Brevo, Mailchimp and MailerLite all have free plans with limits on contacts or sends. Self-hosted software like Listmonk costs nothing to license, but you pay for the server and the sending, and the technical upkeep is yours.

This is how I run my own. The German edition is called "Aus dem Maschinenraum", the first issue went out on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, and it arrives every Tuesday; the English edition, "From the Engine Room", comes once a week. Both are managed and sent with Listmonk, which we run ourselves on our servers at Hetzner, and the emails go out through the mail servers of the German host All-Inkl. Where it sits in the bigger picture is in Marketing Funnel Examples: Stages in Practice.

How to start a newsletter in six steps

The order matters. Start with the tool and you end up with a nice form and no answer to why anyone should sign up.

1. The promise in one sentence

Write down what every issue contains, concretely enough that a reader knows what next week brings. Mine reads, translated from the German signup page: "Every Tuesday, a real case from my office, the rule I use to lead the AI employee in charge of it, and a template you can adopt directly for yours." Three building blocks, one day. "News and tips about my business" is not a promise.

The test: can you list ten topics for the next ten issues without thinking hard? Then the promise works.

2. A cadence you can keep

Weekly, biweekly or monthly, as long as it is reliable. Put the weekday on the signup page and it becomes a commitment. Mine is Tuesday, and it is on the signup page and in the privacy policy. If you are unsure, start less often: raising the cadence is easier than quietly skipping a rhythm you promised.

3. Choose the tool

A free plan is enough to start. The first decision is whether a provider handles servers and sending, such as Brevo*, Mailchimp or MailerLite, or whether you run open-source software like Listmonk on your own server. Free plans stop at different points, sometimes at contacts, sometimes at emails per day or month, and a weekly newsletter hits both. Check the limits on the provider's pricing page before you sign up.

* Affiliate link: if you sign up with Brevo or buy a plan through this link, I earn a commission. Your price stays the same.

I use both. The newsletter goes out through Listmonk; for individual email series around webinars and for waiting lists we also use Brevo, with servers in the EU. The newsletter itself does not run through Brevo. For most solo business owners a hosted provider is the faster start; self-hosting fits if you already run servers. A full comparison of the options is in Newsletter Platforms Compared: Free Plans. What Brevo costs and where it stops is in Brevo Review: Pricing, Limits, Alternatives. Coming from Mailchimp? Read Mailchimp Alternatives (Free and Paid).

4. A signup form with double opt-in

This is not legal advice, it is the operator's view. The rules depend on where your readers live. In Germany, advertising by email without the recipient's "vorherige ausdrückliche Einwilligung" (prior express consent) counts as an unreasonable nuisance under Section 7(2) no. 2 of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), and a newsletter that mentions your own offers is advertising. In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide asks for a valid physical postal address in every message, a clear way to opt out, and opt-outs honored within 10 business days. A confirmation email covers the strictest case: only the click adds the address, and you can show later who agreed and when.

With me, the confirmation link is valid for seven days and nothing is stored until the click; what is stored after that is in section 7.2 of my privacy policy (in German).

Under the form, one short paragraph says what you get, how often, that notes on my trainings and offers are included, and that you can unsubscribe with one click under every email. I would not shorten it: people should know that offers are part of it before they confirm, not find out in issue three.

If you want a dedicated signup page with a single goal, the rules from Create a Landing Page: Guide and Tools apply. How to set up the confirmation step itself is in Double Opt-In: Email Setup and Legal Basics.

5. Welcome email and a signup bonus

After confirmation, my subscribers get a welcome email, then the weekly issues. It is the email most likely to be read, so say there what the newsletter does and which rules it follows. My first issue refers right back to it, citing "rule 2 from my welcome email". A welcome email to copy is in the Email Newsletter Template and Welcome Email. How to turn it into a sequence of several emails is in Email Automation: Tools and a Welcome Series.

A bonus gives people one more reason to sign up. My free resources page lists eight guides, checks and templates, among them the personnel file pack for a first AI employee, a task catalog, prompt templates, a white paper, an AI privacy check and a hardware decision guide, each sent together with the newsletter. With a bonus, the resource arrives in its own email with a download link, and the welcome email follows the morning after confirmation. The most involved format is a mini-course: five emails over five evenings, the first on the evening after you confirm.

6. The first issue, with a fixed structure

A fixed structure saves you from deciding every week how to begin. My first issue is on the website word for word, in German, and has these parts:

1. Greeting and problem in two sentences: who the topic is for and what doesn't work.
2. The principle: the idea in one paragraph, with an example.
3. How it's built: the building blocks as a short list.
4. Where I am right now: what is done and what isn't.
5. Take-away: one thing the reader can do today without buying anything.
6. On my own behalf: a note about an offer, at the end and clearly separated.
7. Sign-off with my first name.

Copy two things: the offer goes last, and the issue works without it. And put your first issue on your site as a sample, so people can read it before they hand over an address.

Sender, subject line, unsubscribe: what every email needs

A newsletter that lands in spam does not exist. Google's email sender guidelines (as of November 2026) require all senders to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM for their sending domain and keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts also need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, one-click unsubscribe, and a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body. A hosted provider tells you which DNS records to add; when you self-host, it's on you.

On the legal side: German law (section 6(2) of the German Digital Services Act, Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz or DDG) forbids hiding the sender or the commercial nature of a message in the header or subject line, and CAN-SPAM in the US bans false or misleading header information and deceptive subject lines. In practice: a real sender name, a subject that says what's inside, and an unsubscribe link in every email. My readers can unsubscribe through the link at the end of every issue or by replying to an email.

Where AI helps with a newsletter, and where it doesn't

Writing is the part that comes back every week. Conny, my AI employee for content, has tried out a newsletter draft built from the week's notes, calls and posts, with subject line and preview text, in my business. In my task catalog, "tried out" means: run through in my business, but not on a regular schedule. Her page lists newsletter drafts as one example of what she can do beyond Reels.

What she doesn't do applies to any AI on a newsletter: no invented personal facts, no anecdotes, no numbers, no client details; when in doubt, the spot stays blank. And she drafts, I approve.

To start without an AI employee of your own, use template 8 from my prompt templates: a text in your voice from bullet points, for a blog, newsletter or LinkedIn. The whole process with briefing and fact check is in AI Newsletter Generator vs. Claude. Why examples work better than adjectives is in Can AI Write Emails in My Voice?.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start a newsletter for free?

Yes, on a free plan from a provider such as Brevo, Mailchimp or MailerLite, each with limits on contacts or emails (as of November 2026). Listmonk has no license fee but needs your own server and a mail server.

Do I need double opt-in?

For readers in Germany, email advertising needs prior express consent, and a confirmation email is the usual way to prove it. In the US, CAN-SPAM works with opt-out rules instead. How to set up the confirmation flow is something we'll look at together.

How often should a newsletter go out?

As often as you can write it without missing an issue. A fixed day, stated on the signup page, matters more than the interval.

Can AI write my newsletter?

It can draft. Approve it yourself, because it goes out in your name.

Where to go from here

Write your one-sentence promise today and ten topics under it. Once the list holds, pick a free plan and build the form and the welcome email. To see the structure in a real issue, open the sample issue (in German), and to get "From the Engine Room" yourself, pick a resource on my free resources page and sign up there.