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How to Start a Newsletter on LinkedIn (and Which Platform Actually Runs It)

Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Steps below describe LinkedIn's publishing flow generically because its interface changes; the platform advice is sourced from official pricing pages checked September 2026.

Most "start a newsletter on LinkedIn" guides stop at the button. That's the least important part. The real decision is structural: LinkedIn's native newsletter tool and a dedicated email platform solve different problems, and the creators who grow fastest run both deliberately instead of picking one and hoping.

By the end you'll know what LinkedIn's tool can and can't do, which external platform (if any) to pair it with, and the exact setup order that avoids rebuilding everything later. Time: about an hour for the core setup, plus writing time you already planned to spend.

First, understand what LinkedIn's newsletter tool is

LinkedIn newsletters are published natively: subscribers get notified in-app, the archive lives on your profile or company page, and the audience is LinkedIn's own. The trade-offs follow from that:

That doesn't make it bad. It makes it a top-of-funnel engine with a company-owned audience, not an email business. The creators doing this well use LinkedIn's tool for reach and a platform like Kit or beehiiv for ownership and monetization. The rest of this guide covers the setup order for that combined play — and the pure-LinkedIn path if you want to start with zero tooling decisions.

What you need before starting

Step 1: Define the newsletter's job before touching any tool

One decision, three outcomes, and it determines everything downstream:

You should see: one written sentence describing the job. If your answer is "audience, I guess," go back to the topic sentence from prerequisites.

Note: The most common failure here is copying a big creator's setup without their constraints. Someone with 80k followers can run a pure-LinkedIn play; someone starting at 400 connections usually needs the owned-list layer sooner.

Step 2: Create the LinkedIn newsletter shell

From your LinkedIn posting surface, use the newsletter creation option where offered (LinkedIn's UI labels and placement for this change over time — follow the in-app prompts, and check the help center if the option doesn't appear). You'll pick a name, a description, a cadence, and a cover image.

Keep the name searchable, not clever: "[Topic] Weekly" beats a pun both for LinkedIn search and for the day you cross-post it elsewhere. Commit to a cadence you can hold for 10 issues, not one you can hold for 3.

You should see: an unpublished newsletter shell attached to your profile, ready for its first issue.

Step 3: Set up the owned-list layer in parallel

This is the step most LinkedIn-newsletter guides skip, and it's where the durable value lives.

  1. Pick the platform by your revenue model — the full decision matrix is in our beehiiv vs Kit vs Substack comparison, but the short version: products/courses → Kit, sponsorships → beehiiv.
  2. Create the free account (no card needed on either).
  3. Build one landing page offering the same newsletter as email. The pitch is the honest version: "Read it on LinkedIn, or get it by email — same content, and email subscribers get [the extra thing you'll actually deliver: a template, a checklist, early access]."

You should see: a working signup URL for your own list. This is the asset LinkedIn can't take away.

Note: If you're torn between platforms, the free-plan math decides it for most people starting out — we compared the caps and growth rates here. At 250 subscribers a month, Kit's free tier lasts ~40 months; beehiiv's ~10.

Step 4: Publish issue one in both places

  1. Write the issue in your external platform's editor (you'll thank yourself when issue five needs past issues).
  2. Export/copy the same content into LinkedIn's newsletter composer and publish natively.
  3. In the external version, add a line linking to your signup page, not just to follow you on LinkedIn.

You should see: one issue live on LinkedIn and archived in your own platform, with a working email-capture path.

The double-publishing feels redundant. It isn't: LinkedIn's copy harvests in-app reach (notifications, profile discovery); your platform's copy builds the owned list. Same writing effort, two compounding assets. (The year-one cost of running both free tiers is currently $0 — the full cost breakdown shows where paid tiers eventually enter.)

Step 5: Route new readers deliberately

Every issue, both copies, end with the same routing: LinkedIn readers → "get it by email too" (your signup page); email readers → "follow on LinkedIn for the in-app version" (your profile). Each list cross-feeds the other, and you can measure which converts better by giving each direction its own link.

You should see: a repeatable loop where neither audience is captive to one platform's whims.

Step 6: Review reach versus ownership at issue ten

After ten issues (roughly 10 weeks at weekly cadence), run one review:

The pattern to expect, based on how these platforms behave: LinkedIn grows faster early (the network does the distribution), the owned list monetizes better later (you control the relationship). If your owned list is growing at all, keep investing in it — it's the part with resale value, in both the literal and strategic sense.

Troubleshooting

"I don't see the newsletter option on LinkedIn." Eligibility and placement change; check LinkedIn's official help center for the current requirements rather than a third-party tutorial's screenshots.

"My LinkedIn newsletter grows but my email list doesn't." The offer is wrong, not the funnel. "Get it by email too" converts nobody; a concrete extra (template, resource list, the archive searchable) converts some. Test the incentive, not the button color.

"I have no time for two copies." Write once in the external platform, paste into LinkedIn. The double-publish cost is minutes per issue once the habit forms. If it's still too much, the owned list outranks the LinkedIn archive in long-term value — prioritize accordingly.

Next steps

FAQ

Do I need a paid LinkedIn account to run a newsletter? Newsletter creation availability has varied over time and by account type; check LinkedIn's current help documentation rather than relying on older guides. The strategies in this article don't depend on Premium.

Should I use LinkedIn's newsletter tool or Kit/beehiiv? Different jobs. LinkedIn's tool = in-app reach on LinkedIn's terms, no exportable list. Kit/beehiiv = owned email list you can monetize and move. The strongest setup runs both: LinkedIn for discovery, the external platform for ownership.

Which external platform pairs best with a LinkedIn newsletter? By revenue model: sponsorships → beehiiv; products/courses → Kit; small paid publication → Substack (with the 10% trade-off). Full comparison here.

Is the combined setup free? Yes at the start: LinkedIn publishing plus Kit free (to 10,000 subscribers) or beehiiv Launch free (to 2,500) is $0/month. Paid tiers enter on your schedule, not the platform's — caps and crossover math are in our cost guide.

How long until a LinkedIn newsletter gets traction? Unknowable in advance and highly variable by niche and starting network. What's measurable: subscriber growth per issue on both lists. Set the ten-issue review (Step 6) instead of a vanity deadline.