I have been publishing UK Legal AI Brief for 8 weeks now (time flies!). The newsletter has continued to grow and now pays for itself in terms of platform fee. I am hopeful that the weekly email on AI developments is proving useful for UK lawyers.

This post is an extra post to talk about my experience of trying to get a newsletter going, and how to make sure it keeps going.

The platform I use is beehiiv. This has worked very well for that, mainly because it feels like an all in one home for writing, publishing, and running a basic site.

I am a lawyer by trade. I knew next to nothing about starting a newsletter, just that I had an idea of a small gap in the current newsletters out there.

I knew I wanted my writing to be as streamlined as possible. I did not want to engage with multiple platforms in a toolbox. I wanted one place to:

beehiiv stood out because it combines the newsletter and the website in the same workflow, with templates and a no code website builder that is genuinely usable.

Most creators start with email, then bolt on a site later. I did the opposite (whether that was right or not!). I wanted the web archive and the “home” for the newsletter to be solid from the first day.

beehiiv’s Website Builder and post editor are powerful but straightforward. You can start from templates, customise the basics (layout, fonts, colours), and keep everything connected to your subscriber list without extra setup.

I was quite impressed with the speed at which I managed to get my posts looking as I had envisaged, and I hope they are easy to read.

That matters if you are busy and you want consistency. It is very easy to lose weeks to “platform tinkering” that does nothing for the reader and simply delays producing your content.

My newsletter is templated. I reuse the same structure each week so I am not reinventing a format I decided on.

My workflow is as follows:

All of this means the newsletter is produced within 30 minutes of me deciding the content I want to publish. I do not waste hours trying to get a post looking just right.

I am still early days on the broader monetisation side, but I have used the beehiiv Ad Network, and it has been the most straightforward “switch it on and test it” option I have seen.

In short, beehiiv presents you with ad opportunities, you choose what to run, and they provide reporting and payouts after the send.

The adding of an advert to a post is a simple as typing a command and putting it where you want it. I personally prefer to add a bit more context for my readers.

There are settings that help match ads to your publication, like publication tags and preferences. I understand that the platform will learn from the newsletter and what my readers like, and present me with more relevant opportunities as time goes on.

For me, the key point is that this newsletter is not intended to “get rich”. Rather the advert opportunities let me offset the platform and hosting costs without turning the newsletter into a second job.

I am very pleased (and somewhat surprised) to report that the newsletter is growing at a steady rate and that the adverts covered the monthly platform fee in the first paid month.

It also helps that beehiiv offer a feature rich trial of the paid for plans, letting you test these features before you pull the trigger.

I have not hit any major negatives yet but this is still very early days. There is a learning curve, as with any platform, but I found I could get comfortable with the core parts quickly.

In fact, this newsletter was brought to life whilst I was on holiday and mulling the idea over. I believe I conceived the idea before lunch time and, entirely on my iPad Mini, had the domain and website up and running by sunset.

There are worst places in the world to learn a new platform than poolside but the process was very easy if you are at all familiar with any modern UI design.

I am very conscious that I have not stress tested everything (segmentation, automations, paid subscriptions). This is simply a snapshot of what I am using today.

The newsletter has some segmentation set up (but I have not yet sent any posts to different readers) and there is a signup automation. These features seem very powerful and I am slowly implementing more of them.

I looked at Substack and Ghost. Both have strong reputations and may be better fits depending on what you are building. I chose beehiiv because I wanted the “newsletter plus website plus growth and monetisation tools” approach in one place, with minimal setup.

It has proven a success for me, but I encourage people to compare the key platforms for their own needs.

I have multiple friends who have said to me that they want to start a blog or similar. My experience with beehiiv has shown me that this can actually be a lot simpler than you would expect.

Many people have good ideas but are unsure how to practically implement them. If you are stuck in the loop of “I should start something, but I need the perfect setup”, my practical suggestion is to pick a platform and simply start. Your second issue will be better than your first, and your tenth will be better than your second.

If you want to explore beehiiv, you can browse it by clicking the advert below. If it looks like a fit and you sign up, please use my referral link. I may earn a commission on paid subscribers who sign up with the link (which is separate to the advert beehiiv are running on this newsletter).

There are a few good ways to support this newsletter.

Firstly, please click and review adverts you see in posts. I am trying to be selective on what I choose to run. For example, please click the advert for beehiiv below, and check out the platform.

If you do think you want to start a newsletter/blog of your own, sign up for beehiiv using my referral link (https://www.beehiiv.com?via=Serhan-Handani). This will likely earn me commission.

Finally, of course, please spread the work and refer people you know to subscribe to this newsletter. The url, as always, is https://uklegalaibrief.co.uk/

Thank you again to all subscribers for the continued support in the newsletter. So many of you regularly click and read through the email (and click the further reading links) and that really helps the opportunities for the newsletter.

Serhan, UK Legal AI Brief