Snail Mail Clubs are monthly subscriptions that artists use to make recurring revenue from their work by sending subscribers letters with various products in the mail.

Countless artists (including myself) have started a successful snail mail club without a prior following for recurring revenue.

(Disclaimer: Includes Amazon Affiliate links for products I use)

To start a snail mail club, you'll have to start with a concept, which is essentially what will be in your letter each month regardless of the specific monthly theme.

For example, my mail club is focused on origami kits, so my concept is origami, meaning that my letters include:

I personally also include optional extras for slightly higher prices:

I've seen other artists with different concepts such as:

Next, you'll come up with monthly themes within your concept. This is essentially what unites your letter contents each month as a package as opposed to a random scoop of unrelated goodies.

For example, my concept is origami kits, and my theme each month is what shape the kit will allow members to fold.

Applying this idea to popular mail club concepts, if you were making a print club, your monthly theme could be fantasy, and each month could be a fantasy creature such as a dragon, unicorn, and griffin. Or, your monthly theme could be book genres, so one month would be thriller, horror, and so forth.

Alternatively, if you were making a sticker club, you may want to do a seasonal theme. So spring months would have flowers, other plants, and typical springtime themed stickers, and the same for other seasons.

Of course, all of these are just examples to spark inspiration, there are an infinite number of potential ideas for snail mail club themes.

Once you have your concept and theme, you're ready to get supplies.

The essentials regardless of concept and theme are:

If your club includes stickers, you'll either need to get them printed in bulk or print them yourself.

This is what I use for my stickers:

If you want to offer prints, I would recommend this printer for both stickers and prints. It's such a powerhouse, and an investment, but I'm so glad I got it.

I have my mail club listed on multiple platforms, but have had the most success with Patreon.

There are pros and cons to all platforms and they all take fees, but Patreon has the most name recognition.

Now, this is the part introverts dread, but it really helps with growing your mail club. If you don't already have a following, it's necessary.

The first thing you're going to do is make social media profiles on AT LEAST two sites specific to your mail club. Ensure they have the same username. This will build credibility for your club and give you multiple places to promote your subscription.

Feel free to check out this video for essentially the same information with a bit more yapping:

One aspect of my personal success that I believe is worth mentioning could be attributed to the novelty of the concept I chose.

When I started my snail mail club, there were no origami mail clubs, and that helped me gain initial traction despite not posting everyday and forgetting to do so for weeks at a time (thank you ADHD 😂).

I've compiled a list of snail mail club concepts that have either not been done or not been overdone to help boost your visibility starting out.