Part of a larger guide
This article belongs to our complete guide Substack Unfiltered: The Good, the Bad, and What Nobody Tells You, where we analyze the platform in depth for LATAM creators.
There are 29 categories on Substack. Only 7 generate real money. The other 22 have audience, engagement, and passionate creators. But when you look at who’s actually paying their bills with newsletter subscriptions, the concentration is brutal.
If you’re choosing a niche for your newsletter (or evaluating whether your current niche has direct monetization potential), you need this data before deciding.
Where the Money Is: Data From the 52 Most Successful Newsletters
Of the 52 highest-earning publications on Substack, the distribution looks like this:
US politics leads with 46% of top-earner revenue, equivalent to $18.4 million per year. Heather Cox Richardson, Bari Weiss, and Jim Acosta are the obvious names. It’s the largest niche by an enormous margin.
Finance ranks second, with prices that would seem absurd in other niches. Citrini Research charges up to $1,200/year. Why does anyone pay that? Because if a single investment recommendation generates returns, the subscription cost is irrelevant.
Technology and business complete the podium. Lenny Rachitsky (product management) and Ben Thompson (Stratechery, tech analysis) are the reference points, both building audiences of hundreds of thousands from positions of demonstrable expertise.
The 45 publications earning over one million dollars annually come from just 7 of Substack’s 29 categories. The other 22 categories don’t have a single newsletter at the million-dollar mark.
The Pattern: Direct ROI for the Reader
If you look at what connects the niches that pay, there’s a common denominator that has nothing to do with content quality.
The niches that thrive offer content where the reader can calculate a direct return on investment:
- Financial ROI: An investment newsletter that makes you money pays for its subscription many times over.
- Professional ROI: A product strategy or management newsletter that improves your job performance gets justified as professional development. Many subscribers expense it through their employer.
- Identity ROI: A politics newsletter that reinforces your worldview and gives you arguments for conversations becomes part of how you define yourself. That generates loyalty (and willingness to pay) that entertainment can’t match.
The niches that struggle with monetization offer something different: entertainment, inspiration, curiosity. Valuable, yes. But they compete against infinite free options: YouTube, podcasts, articles, social media.
When someone decides to pay $8/month for a newsletter, the implicit question is “What do I get that I can’t get for free?” In finance or professional strategy, the answer is clear. In literature or lifestyle, it’s harder to articulate.
The Niches That Don’t Pay (But Have Audience)
Creative, literary, food, travel, and lifestyle categories have huge audiences but significantly lower revenue per subscription. It’s not that they’re bad niches for a newsletter. It’s that they’re bad niches for directly paid newsletters.
These niches can work well with alternative models:
- Sponsors and advertising: If you have 30,000 free subscribers interested in cooking, food brands will pay to be in your newsletter.
- Affiliates: Product recommendations with commissions.
- Your own products: Courses, books, events, merchandise.
- Services: The newsletter as a lead generation tool for consulting, coaching, or creative services.
Samuel Gil in Spain has it figured out: with 29,000 tech subscribers, he monetizes through sponsors at ~€900 per edition. He doesn’t charge subscriptions. His model generates more stable revenue than most newsletters with paywalls.
What This Means for LATAM Creators
The most profitable niches globally are inherently anglophone. US politics doesn’t translate. US financial markets have their own English-language audience. But there are real opportunities if you find the right intersection.
Niches with potential in Spanish
Personal finance for LATAM. Financial education in Spanish has enormous demand and little quality supply. Regulatory, tax, and instrument differences mean English content doesn’t apply directly. A newsletter that translates financial expertise to the Mexican or Latin American context has a market.
LATAM tech and startups. The region’s startup ecosystem has grown, but serious coverage in Spanish remains fragmented. A newsletter offering deep analysis of the Latin American tech ecosystem (not TechCrunch translations) fills a real gap.
Regional business strategy. Executives and founders in LATAM consume a lot of English-language management and strategy content. A newsletter that contextualizes those insights for the Latin American market, with regional examples and data, has professional monetization potential.
Digital marketing and content. The digital marketing market in LATAM continues growing at double digits. Professionals need updated, contextualized content, not just translations of what works in the US.
The key question for your niche
Before choosing, ask yourself: can my reader justify the subscription cost as an investment (financial, professional, or business)? If the answer is yes, you have a niche with direct monetization potential. If the answer is “it’s interesting and valuable content,” you probably need an indirect monetization model.
Both are valid. But they require different strategies.
Choose Your Niche With Data, Not Hope
From Niche to Monetization Strategy
The right niche without the right strategy doesn’t generate revenue. The right strategy in the wrong niche doesn’t either. At Mazkara Studio we help creators and executives in LATAM identify the intersection between their expertise, the needs of the Spanish-speaking market, and the monetization model that actually works.
Have the expertise but not sure if your niche pays? Sometimes the difference between a newsletter that generates revenue and one that doesn’t is how you position the same content. Let’s talk about your strategy.