Is It Time to Start a Mail Side Hustle?

Do you check your mail every day? If so, why? I go to my mailbox every day because yes, looking at mail has been part of my career for 20-plus years. But it’s also fun, that mail moment, when I might get a personally-curated item like a fanzine or a tiny drawing.

Creators and entrepreneurs are building side businesses around something very simple: sending interesting things through the mail every month.

These aren’t traditional direct mail campaigns. They’re subscription experiences delivered through the mailbox. That people are paying for them says something important about the enduring power of print and mail.

Here are three examples that have caught my attention.

Lucky Duck Mail Club

The Lucky Duck Mail Club is a monthly service created by artist KiKi Klassen. Members receive a personal letter, an art print, and a quote or reflection designed to provide encouragement and mindfulness. The focus is simple: a thoughtful piece of physical mail that brightens someone’s day.

This is proof that simplicity works. A well-written letter and a small printed piece can create an emotional connection. The value comes from the experience of opening the envelope.

Bunny Mail Club

Illustrator Sophie Czark Lee’s Bunny Mail Club sends subscribers a monthly mailer filled with cheerful printed items like a letter, postcard, sticker sheet, and other small illustrated pieces. The subscription is inexpensive, but the playful design and tangible materials make each delivery feel like a small creative gift.

Printed items become collectible when they’re well-designed. They may be small, but they reinforce the idea that print can be something people want to keep rather than discard.

A Crossing Guard’s Mail Club

In a story reported by The Wall Street Journal, Vermont crossing guard Christine Tyler Hill turned her daily observations into a printed subscription publication. For about $8 a month, people receive a small illustrated booklet sharing stories from the intersection where she works. Within weeks, the project attracted thousands of subscribers and generated significant monthly revenue.

People will absolutely pay for printed content when it feels unique and authentic. A small booklet arriving in the mail creates a kind of visual storytelling that social media posts simply can’t match.

Why These Subscriptions Work

None of these ideas rely on massive mailing volumes or complex campaigns. Instead, they succeed because they treat the mailbox as a place where experiences arrive and begin for the recipient.
Several lessons stand out for me:

• Mail Creates Anticipation: A subscription envelope is something people look forward to receiving. It creates an emotional moment of discovery even when you know it’s coming on a regular schedule or you see it in your Informed Delivery notification.
• Print Can Be Content: Letters, mini-booklets, art prints, and serialized stories show that printed pieces can stand on their own as media. They don’t always have to be tied to a traditional marketing campaign.
• Small Formats Work: Postcards, inserts, stickers, and short publications can be inexpensive to produce yet highly memorable when used creatively.
• Being Human Matters: All of these examples succeed because they feel personal and organic. They remind us that mail is at its best when it delivers something authentic and tangible.

In a world dominated by screens, the mailbox remains one of the few places where a message can arrive physically, personally, and be saved as a small treasure.