Sponsorship
Reach 10,000+ people who design products for a living
HeyDesigner has been hand-picking design reading since 2012, with a daily list on the site and a weekly newsletter. There’s one sponsor per issue, in first position, in the first block. No rotation, no sidebar, nothing to scroll past.
- 10,250 subscribers
- 54.4% open rate industry-standard measurement
- 150–370 clicks per sponsorship from 147–311 unique readers
Audience
Who reads HeyDesigner
About 10,250 people get the weekly issue, and another 2,900 read the daily list on the site each month. They’re product designers, UX and product people, design engineers, and the PMs and founders sitting next to them.
- Newsletter subscribers
- ~10,250
- Open rate industry-standard measurement
- 54.4%
- Click rate of the full list
- 8.4–11.3%
- Clicks per unique open
- 15.3–20.6%
- Bounce rate
- 0.06–0.09%
- Unsubscribe rate
- 0.16–0.18%
- Monthly unique visitors heydesigner.com
- 2,900
A bounce rate under 0.1% and an unsubscribe rate under 0.2% are what you get from a list that grew organically. Nothing here was bought or scraped.
Where they are
- United States
- 65%
- United Kingdom
- 8%
- Germany
- 6%
- Canada
- 3%
- France
- 3%
- Elsewhere
- 15%
Based on an earlier measurement.
Who they are
- 35–44 years old
- 54%
- 25–34 years old
- 32%
- 45–54 years old
- 9%
Mailchimp’s estimate, not self-reported.
Good fit
What belongs here, and what doesn’t
Every sponsorship is picked by hand, and there’s no self-serve slot to buy. If an offer doesn’t belong next to the week’s hand-picked links, I say no and tell you why.
A good fit
- Design and product tools
- Prototyping, research and usability platforms
- Developer tools designers actually touch
- Courses, books and conferences
- Design-adjacent hiring
- Indie products made by and for designers
Not a fit
- Crypto, NFT and trading offers
- Gambling
- Get-rich-quick and growth-hacking schemes
- Bulk AI content generators
- B2B software with nothing to do with design
Products
What you can book
Weekly Sponsor
One sponsor per issue. Your link opens the first content block of the weekly newsletter, then stays on the site for the week.
$380 per issue. $320 each when you book more than one
- First position in the first content block of the weekly issue
- Your product name and a one-line message, written together
- A full week on heydesigner.com, in the same first position
- A clearly marked “Sponsored” label
- Click numbers from the email report after the issue goes out
Currently booking. Get in touch for dates.
- Your headline, written together with you by Your Product Sponsored
One line about what it does and who it’s for, then your link.
The week’s hand-picked links continue below.
If you’re bootstrapped or building on your own, say so in the inquiry. There’s room to make it work. Prices are in USD, invoiced before the issue goes out.
Performance
What sponsors typically see
- 150–370 clicks per sponsorship newsletter and site combined
- 147–311 unique readers clicking
- ~20% of that comes from the site after the issue has gone out
Over its week, a sponsorship typically earns 150–370 clicks from 147–311 unique readers across the newsletter and the site. Roughly a fifth of that arrives from the site, in the days after the issue lands.
These are ranges measured across recent issues: typical, not guaranteed. What you get depends on the offer, the line we write and the week it runs in.
Past sponsors
Who has run here
No testimonials to quote. The better signal is that sponsors came back: Zeplin ran 46 issues, and UXPin, Chromatic, Readymag and Maze each booked a dozen or more.
- Zeplin 46 issues
- Bugherd 15 issues
- UXPin 14 issues
- Chromatic 13 issues
- Readymag ~13 issues
- Maze ~12 issues
- Figma
- Balsamiq
- Frontify
- Kinsta
- Porkbun
- Overflow
- Divriots
- Backlight
- Ballpark
- Judo
- Pastel
- Useberry
- Tower
- Float
- Jamm
- Manning Publications
- TLDR Newsletter
- Codux
- Dropmark
- Learn UI Design
- Future London Academy
Craft
How to reach these readers
-
Fit is worth roughly double
A design-focused offer picked up 241 unique clicks. A loosely related product got 119, on the same list, in the same position. That gap is why I read every sponsorship before scheduling it.
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Say what it does, not what it stands for
The line runs next to hand-picked articles. “Design handoff without the back-and-forth” lands here; “Empowering teams to unlock their potential” does not.
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Link to the specific thing
A page that continues the sentence beats a homepage. If the line promises a template, the link should open the template.
-
One idea per issue
Readers scan, and two asks in one slot weaken both. Pick the one thing you want them to do.
-
Write like a person
Everything around your link was written by hand. Ad voice sticks out against it.
FAQ
Questions people ask before booking
What exactly do I get?
First position in the first content block of the weekly issue: your product name, a one-line message and your link. You also get the same spot on heydesigner.com for the week. One sponsor per issue, so you’re not sharing the slot with anyone.
What does it cost?
$380 for a single issue, or $320 per issue if you book more than one. If you’re bootstrapped or building on your own, say so in the inquiry. There’s room to make it work.
How do I book?
Send an inquiry with your product and roughly when you’d like to run. I’ll reply with available weeks, and once we agree on one you get a confirmation email with the dates, the price and the short booking terms. Payment happens before the issue goes out.
When do you need the copy and the link?
A week before publication. If you’d rather not write it, send me the product and a sentence about who it’s for. I’ll draft the line and you approve it.
Can I cancel?
Up to two weeks before the publication date, with a full refund. Closer than that the week is usually off the market already, so let’s find another date instead.
What kind of products do you accept?
Things designers would genuinely want to know about: tools, courses, books, conferences, design-adjacent roles. I turn down offers that don’t fit, and I’ll tell you why rather than take the money and bury it in an issue.
Do I get stats?
Yes. After the issue goes out I send you the click numbers from the email report. Site-side click tracking is being built, and when it lands you’ll get that number too.
Will I run next to a competitor?
Never in the same issue, because there’s only one sponsor slot. I don’t promise category exclusivity across a month, because the calendar is run by hand and I’d rather not make a promise I could break.
Inquire
Tell me about your product
Send me what you’ve built, who it’s for, and roughly when you’d like to run. I’ll reply with the weeks that are open, and if it isn’t a fit I’ll tell you that quickly.
Prefer email? [email protected]