beehiiv Scale runs $43/month, Kit Creator $33/month, Ghost Publisher $29/month — all on their pricing pages, checked 2026-09-26 — and Substack takes 10% of paid revenue. Every platform ships the pipe: forms, dashboards, automation builders. The system — whether your niche survives contact with real life, what your first 12 issues are, how the welcome sequence sounds, what you do every week to grow — stays your job, and on Hacker News it still hurts: the 361-point AMA “My newsletter is making $2k a month” proves the business is real, and “stuck at 130 subscribers” proves the pipe was never the problem. This kit is that system: the fit → foundation → content → welcome → growth → launch → metrics → monetize loop as 30 files you own — with a worked example beside every template. One payment of $42 — no subscription.
Get the kit — $42One zip, 30 working files — the eight-step loop (fit → foundation → content → welcome → growth → launch → metrics → monetize) with a worked example (a fictional weekly newsletter called The Sunday Standup) beside every template. No software to install, nothing to subscribe to, any platform — or none.
The niche-fit decision asks four questions honestly and can end with “a newsletter is the wrong vehicle — do this instead”. Plus the positioning one-pager with its stranger test, and the naming worksheet with six tests and a decision rule.
The platform-choice matrix compares beehiiv, Kit, Ghost, Substack and self-hosting with prices read on 2026-09-26 — plus a blank update log to re-check them yourself. Then the 12-step sender setup in plain language (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and the consent checklist.
A 12-issue calendar with real dates and two spare slots, six reusable issue templates (practical play, teardown, curation, Q&A, interview, news-analysis), an idea-bank CSV with worked rows, and a voice guide with a banned-words list.
The welcome sequence every new subscriber gets — promise, best-of, origin, one question, soft invitation — each with a filled Sunday Standup twin, plus the automation wiring checklist for beehiiv, Kit, Ghost, Substack or generic, and the universal test that proves it fires.
The 30-day growth runway (15–45 minutes a day, with a keep/drop scoreboard), the cross-promo swap SOP with outreach and tracking, referral and social templates, the lead-magnet planner — and the launch week SOP from D-7 to D+3 with the first-500 playbook.
The one-table dashboard with honest formulas, three rules and health flags; the 10-minute Friday-10 review; the weekly publishing SOP with a bad-week protocol; quarterly reviews with burnout guardrails — and the monetization decision tree that waits for evidence (and hands sponsorship to the store's Newsletter Sponsor Kit).
Three real files from the kit, trimmed: the niche-fit decision, the welcome sequence, and the launch-week SOP. Instant download — no email needed.
Download the free sample (zip) Read what's inside first →Verified against the vendors' own pricing pages at the time of writing (2026-09-26). Prices change — check before any purchase, including this one.
| What you get | beehiiv | Kit (ex-ConvertKit) | Ghost / Substack | This kit ($42 once) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Launch $0 ≤2,500 subs · Scale $43/mo billed annually ($517/yr) · Max $96/mo ($1,151/yr) · Enterprise custom | Free ≤10,000 subs · Creator $33/mo ($390/yr) · Pro $66/mo ($790/yr) · 0.6% commerce fee · paid recommendations 23.5% | Ghost: self-host $0 · Starter $18/mo (no paid subs) · Publisher $29/mo · Business $199/mo — Substack: 10% of paid revenue (per beehiiv's FAQ; their own page was blocked 2026-09-26) | $42 once, printed on this page |
| Cost of month 12 | Bills again — $516–1,152/year at the popular tiers | Bills again — $396–792/year, plus per-revenue fees on paid tiers | Ghost bills again ($216–2,388/yr) or you run the server yourself — Substack skims every payout | $0 more — the files are yours |
| What ships in the box | The pipe — forms, dashboards, automations, AI credits capped by tier; the niche, the issues and the growth loop stay yours | The pipe — sequences, tagging, scoring; what to write in issue #7 is not a feature | The pipe or the network — publishing tools and discovery; the launch system still arrives as your job | The system: niche fit, platform matrix, sender setup, 12-issue calendar, welcome sequence, 30-day runway, launch week, metrics rituals, monetization tree |
| If the platform changes | Tiers get renamed and repriced (Kit itself used to be ConvertKit) — your subscription follows their roadmap | Fees and programs change — 0.6% and 23.5% are today's numbers, read 2026-09-26 | Ghost self-host is free but “you're the one who loses sleep”, per their own page | Markdown + CSV — the system moves with you anywhere, even to a $0 platform |
Sources: beehiiv.com/pricing · kit.com/pricing · ghost.org/pricing (all read 2026-09-26); substack.com/pricing returned 404 and their support page 403 on the same day — the 10% figure is quoted from beehiiv's FAQ. Demand anchors: HN “My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA” (2022-07-28, 361 points) and “I'm still stuck at 130 subscribers” (2022-01-28).
Designed for someone who has never run a newsletter. Every step in the SETUP guide ends with a “what success looks like” check.
One folder, 30 files, a manifest that matches. Open START-HERE, see the eight-step loop on one page.
Four questions decide whether a newsletter is even the right vehicle (four honest paths — including “not now”). Then the platform matrix with dated prices, the sender setup to all-green, the 12-issue calendar, and the welcome sequence wired and tested — the fictional Sunday Standup example sits beside every blank.
The 30-day growth runway one move at a time, launch week from D-7 to D+3, then ~2–3 hours a week: one issue, one 10-minute review, one growth batch. Monetization waits until the evidence says so.
Under one month of the popular tiers on every platform we checked — and the files outlive every platform switch, down to a $0 one.
Secure checkout via Stripe · 14-day refund, no forms · sample above if you want to look first
Thirty files that take a newsletter from idea to launch to a growth loop that survives bad weeks — with the welcome sequence, the runway, and the rituals built in. $42 once.
Get the kit — $42