Sponsors email assets at midnight
A sponsor sends a logo, a banner, copy doc, and a tracking link to your inbox at 11:47pm. Three weeks later you discover their creative never made it into the issue — and the deal quietly downgrades to a refund.
Sponsor CRM for solo creators
Manage sponsor relationships without the spreadsheet chaos.
Automated CRM for solo newsletter and podcast creators — a sponsor pipeline, a magic-link portal where sponsors upload their own assets, automated renewal reminders, and one-page performance reports. Replace three manual workflows with one system. No percentage of your revenue, ever.
No credit card required · 14-day free trial · Cancel anytime
app.keelstack.me
Welcome to KeelStack
The sponsor operations layer for solo creators. Take the 60-second tour.
No sponsor accounts
Automated reminders
No % of revenue
1 / 5
See how KeelStack works
A 60-second tour. Watch the workflow that replaces your sponsor spreadsheet — no fluff.
Built for production, day one.
Enterprise-grade security
Your data is isolated per account and exportable anytime. Every query is tenant-scoped, and sponsor portal links are single-sponsor scoped.
Secure sponsor access
Magic links are encrypted, single-use, and expire within 24 hours. Issuing a new link invalidates the previous one. Sponsors never need a password — they click a link once and get a limited, secure session.
Professional email delivery
Notifications are sent through a verified sending domain (SPF + DKIM + DMARC) with a documented DMARC policy — the fundamentals of reliable delivery.
Sponsor ops is the unglamorous work
that decides whether you renew.
Three quiet failures that quietly cost solo creators the most money — none of them about your content.
You miss renewals because you forgot
Across the sponsorship industry, renewing an existing sponsor is consistently reported as far more likely than closing a cold one — commonly cited benchmark ranges put renewal at 60–70% versus 5–20% for new prospects. But with no reminders in your calendar, the 30/14/7-day windows pass and a $1,200 sponsor simply lapses — quietly the most expensive miss you have.
Your reports look like a pasted email
Sponsors ask "how did it perform?" You paste open rate, clicks, and CTR into a reply at the end of the campaign. It reads like an intern wrote it, and renewal conversations stall because nobody sees a real report.
Automated sponsor workflows, so the busywork stops eating your week.
Every sponsor gets a magic link. They land on a branded portal branded to your publication, upload their own assets, paste a tracking link, and watch the deal move from Confirmed to Active. No account. No password. No 11pm emails to chase.
On your side: a sponsor pipeline you can actually read, renewal reminders at 30 / 14 / 7 days out, invoice tracking, and one-page performance reports that look like a real brand sent them.
- Sponsors upload their own assets — no account, no friction, no chasing
- Automated reminders at 30, 14, and 7 days before each renewal
- One-page branded performance reports your sponsors will actually read
S
The Briefing
Sponsor portal · Aug 2026 issue
Secured by magic link
Welcome, Acme Analytics. Upload your assets below — KeelStack handles the rest.
Logo
SVG or PNG · 512px+
acme-logo.svg
Banner
1200×240 · JPG
acme-banner.jpg
Sponsor copy
≤80 words · plain text
copy.txt
Tracking link
UTM-ready URL
acme.io/offer?utm=...
Deal status
Link sent to sponsor
Jul 14 · 9:02am
Logo & banner uploaded
Jul 14 · 11:21am
Sponsor copy submitted
Jul 15 · 8:45am
Tracking link added
In progress
- 5
Approved & scheduled
Waiting
Everything a solo creator needs
to run direct sponsorships.
Six tools that replace your spreadsheet, your inbox, and the calendar reminders you keep forgetting to set.
Sponsor pipeline
A Kanban board that maps every deal from Pitched → Confirmed → Active → Renewed → Churned. Drag, filter by quarter, and see total committed revenue at a glance.
Magic-link portal
Send a sponsor one link. They upload their logo, banner, copy, and tracking URL themselves — no account, no friction, no midnight email chains to chase.
Renewal reminders
Automatic 30, 14, and 7-day reminders for every active sponsorship. You stop losing $500–$2,000 renewals because a date slipped past you.
Invoice tracking
Mark each deal as invoiced, paid, or overdue. Automatic KS-numbered invoice records per sponsor with due dates and payment status. Never lose track of who still owes you.
Performance reports
Paste your opens, clicks, and conversions from any platform. KeelStack produces a one-page branded, print-ready report you can send to sponsors without apology.
Revenue dashboard
See MRR, renewal rate, average deal size, and quarterly trend. Know which sponsors are worth a renewal pitch and which to gently let lapse.
From signed contract to renewed sponsor
in four steps.
No migration, no CRM admin, no new workflow for your sponsor. The whole loop fits inside a normal week.
01
Add your sponsor
Create a deal in your pipeline. Add the sponsor name, the agreed rate, and the campaign dates. Takes 30 seconds.
02
Send the portal link
KeelStack generates a magic link for that sponsor. Email it, DM it, paste it in your contract — however you talk to them already.
03
Sponsor uploads assets
They land on a branded page and upload their logo, banner, sponsor copy, and tracking link. No account. You get a notification when they finish.
04
Generate the report & renew
After the campaign, paste your opens & clicks from any platform. KeelStack produces a one-page branded, print-ready report you send to the sponsor. Then the renewal reminder fires.
Start free trial
Step 1 takes 30 seconds · no credit card required
The honest comparison
for solo creators.
Other tools are built for sponsor agencies or take a cut of your revenue. KeelStack is built for one person running direct deals.
| Feature | KeelStack Solo creator | Spreadsheets DIY | Sponsy Team-focused | Passionfroot Marketplace | SponsorKit Deal pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor portal | Magic-link portal, no account | Build your own | Team portal, login required | Marketplace-style | No — sponsors get a Stripe link |
| Renewal automation | 30 / 14 / 7-day auto reminders | Manual calendar entries | Manual | Limited | No renewals |
| Invoices | Auto-numbered, status-tracked | DIY templates | Yes, team workflow | Manual | Stripe invoicing |
| Performance reports | One-page branded, print-ready | A pasted email | Yes, standard templates | Limited | No post-campaign report |
| Price for solo creator | $39/mo | Free (your time isn’t) | $79–109/mo | Free + 5–15% cut | $29–$149/mo |
| % of revenue cut | 0% — never | 0% | 0% | 5–15% per deal | 0% |
| Platform-agnostic | Yes — Substack, Ghost, Kit, Beehiiv, podcast | Yes | Yes | Marketplace listings only | Yes — not tied to an ESP |
Competitor prices as publicly listed at the time of writing — see the full comparison for details and current pricing links.
One saved renewal pays for 8.5–51 months of KeelStack.
A single $500–$2,000 renewal you would have missed more than covers a full year of either tier.
Flat pricing. No percentage of your revenue, ever.
Three tiers. All ship with the magic-link portal and the renewal cadence. No credit card to start, cancel anytime.
Annual billing — save 2 months on every plan. Cancel anytime.
Starter
For the solo creator running 3–8 sponsor deals a quarter.
$33/mo, billed annually
$390 per year · 2 months free
Start free trial- Up to 10 active sponsors
- Secure magic-link sponsor portal
- Automated 30/14/7 renewal reminders
- 20 invoices / month
- 500 MB asset storage
- One-page performance reports (standard branding)
- Revenue dashboard: MRR, cohort retention, per-sponsor LTV, 90-day forecast
- 1 brand · solo creator workspace
- Email support · 2–3 business days
Pro
For the creator scaling past a dozen deals and ready to prove ROI.
$49/mo, billed annually
$590 per year · 2 months free
Start free trial- Up to 25 active sponsors
- Everything in Starter
- 50 invoices / month
- 2 GB asset storage
- Custom report branding (logo, colors)
- Custom renewal reminder cadence
- Remove "Powered by KeelStack" badge
- Priority support · 2–3 business days
Business
For creators running 50+ deals a year who need audit exports and API access.
$83/mo, billed annually
$990 per year · 2 months free
Start free trial- Up to 100 active sponsors
- Everything in Pro
- 200 invoices / month
- 10 GB asset storage
- Audit log export (CSV/JSON)
- Read-only REST API with full documentation
- Priority support · 2–3 business days
No credit card required · 14-day free trial · Cancel anytime
No percentage of your revenue, ever. Need more? Contact us for custom limits.
Questions, answered directly.
Everything a solo creator asks before signing up. Can’t find your question? Email support@keelstack.me.
Free tools for the business side of your newsletter.
No account required. Build the artifact, check the market rate, then decide whether you need the rest of KeelStack.
Stop losing sponsors to messy email threads.
Run your next 3–15 sponsor deals in KeelStack. The 14-day free trial is enough to close one renewal and pay for the next year.
No credit card required · 14-day free trial · No percentage of your revenue, ever