If you’re serious about your Substack monetization, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your posts, then read and join the conversation in the comments of the other members’ posts. This is how we grow!

If you’re not yet in the Writing Challenge, NOW IS the best time to join.

VIPs: You have new gifts, so that you write for engagement, for conversion and for discoverability 👇

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker, so that you have a chance to win the award (a spotlight with me to get more exposure of your Substack)

2. Share a link to your posts in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and share it!

3. Make this challenge for your daily engagement workflow - Check other people’s posts in the comments of this post. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment and share - that’s how you grow faster (and you help others grow too).

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Let’s do this!!

Subscribe now

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you haven’t already, Join the Writing Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Challenges, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

If you’re serious about your Substack growth, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your Notes, then read and join the conversation in the comments on the other members’ Notes. It will help you and them grow.

Notes are essential for your Substack growth. If you’re not yet in the Notes Challenge, NOW is the best time to join.

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker so that I consider you for the prizes.

2. Share a link to your Notes in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and restock it!

3. Check other people’s Notes in the comments. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment, and share. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps you, as well as the other members in the community, grow faster.

PLUS: if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, so that I can add it in the Unplugged Hall of Fame :)

You can share your Notes here throughout the whole week, until the next sharing post on Saturday.

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Subscribe now

Let’s do this!!

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If you haven’t already, Join the Notes30 Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Notes Challenge, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

Two years ago, when I came to Substack I was frustrated about Medium’s AI policing (yes, not just policy). It’s not that they were against AI slop, that’s fine. It’s that they said they don’t allow AI writing but they didn’t have clear rules on how to determine whether the writing is AI or not. They still don’t.

Fast forward till today.

I never thought I’d come to a moment when I’d wonder if Substack is becoming Medium (in the bad way). Today I did.

When I read this post, I immediately got one of these “oh no” moments.

When I came to Substack I felt relief. Finally there was a place without stupid rules no one follows, AND with the highest level of quality I have ever seen online. I was convinced the platform, probably because of the paid memberships, had found a way to self-regulate quality.

I believed it served like a glue for a community that doesn’t exist elsewhere - with genuine connections, with real conversations and with human connection.

But not anymore…

What happened?

Substack just gave every reader a scan button for AI writing. In partnership with Pangram.

The reactions? Writers panicking in DMs. Writers posting their opinions. Writers announcing they’ll quit before a robot gets to accuse them of anything.

Lots of emotions. I saw the exact same polarity I saw on Medium before I decided to leave and join Substack.

That was my “oh no” moment.

So tell me…

I did what I always do.

I tested it.

I ran my latest post (which I wrote using my AI minions) through the detector. It said it’s 100% human.

Look. I used AI on that post.

And I’ll get to it, but first, let’s take the temperature down, because most of the panic I’m seeing comes from people who haven’t read what actually launched.

What Substack actually launched

On July 21, Substack CEO Chris Best published “Against Claudefishing” and announced the Pangram integration inside Substack.

“Claudefishing” is his word for the deception when you think you’re getting a human connection but there’s no one on the other end.

So readers can now scan posts, notes, replies, and comments to see an estimate of how much of the text was written by AI.

That’s the headline.

Now the small print, because the small print is where the blood pressure drops:

It only works on text published from July 21 onwards. Nobody can scan your archive. Your old posts are untouchable.

Also, it only works on text longer than 100 words. Phew, my Notes are safe 😏

Also, only the reader who requests a scan sees the result. There’s no public AI badge slapped on your post.

Also, paid posts can only be scanned by paid subscribers. I tested this myself: even when the paywall sits at the very bottom and nothing is hidden behind it, free readers are not able to scan.

Also, you can run it for each of your posts before publishing so you know what you’re putting out there. It’s at the bottom of the screen before you hit publish:

Also, you can switch it off. Not a global setting, you have to do it per post, from the very same place, and it only appears after you scan your own post - you have to click the three dots:

The worst place ever, I know. But it is what it is.

Edit: today - one day after I published this post, the placement of this setting changed so now it’s more visible and you don’t have to scan first:

Also, we got a new tool: a “How I make this” statement - your own words about your process, shown to anyone who checks your content.

So what Substack did is way better than what Medium tried to do.

We have a real tool, not some vague rules.

We also have the choice to use it or not.

And the freedom to state what we actually do.

I honestly believe that if not all, at least our paid members deserve to know what do they pay for.

So I’m cool with it.

And here my AI minion wanted to say that the actual damage is none, but I don’t feel like it.

The damage is HUGE, and it’s in the polarized community.

The emotions are running about 10 times bigger than the feature.

And for a good reason.

Because think about it: it’s not always black and white.

Non-native speakers use AI all the time, and it’s not always “slop” (Daniel said this out loud in this post).

And what about new writers who didn’t find their true voice yet - they don’t use AI, but their writing is inevitably blending with the slop, so they get miscategorized as AI.

Not to mention authors. I’ve talked to I don’t know how many best-selling writers (some pretty famous) whose writing was flagged as AI-generated just because AI was trained on their work.

How does Pangram work?

I also found that there’s a new Substack publication called Pangram, and they tried to bring in some clarity in this post.

My read?

It is a classifier, a neural network that reads a piece of text and asks one question: who does this sound like?

The main difference (and why they say they’re the best) is that they don’t try to guess how LLMs work, but they actually train it with real human and AI written texts.

Their dataset of known human text stops at 2021, before AI flooded the internet. For every human text in it, they generate an AI “double” - same length, same tone, same topic, machine-made. The model trains on those pairs until it can tell them apart.

And it needs a minimum word count, because more words mean a more precise spot on the map. That’s why the 100-word rule is there.

This approach is smarter than the old detectors, the ones that flagged the Declaration of Independence as AI-generated. Credit where due.

Can you trust the verdict?

Not fully, no.

Ruben Hassid, who writes about AI to 800,000+ readers, spent 3 hours and $34 of Claude Code credits trying to beat Pangram. He built a dedicated skill just to bypass it. Mostly, he lost. Pangram caught rewrite after rewrite.

Then he swapped a single character in the text.

100% human.

One edit. That’s the distance between “AI generated, confidence high” and “fully human-written.”

Here’s his post and his free skill if you want to test it.

As for me?

I make data-driven decisions and my data says: treat any scan as an estimate, never as proof.

Which brings me back to my 100% human score.

Why my AI-assisted post scans 100% human

Because the post is mine.

Because of course I use AI and I don’t hide it.

But I use AI in (what I believe to be) the right way.

Every post starts in my head, not in a bot.

It’s ALL my idea, my strategy, my numbers from my stats, and the stories from my life.

Then my AI minions do the typing: custom skills and GPTs loaded with years of my data and instructions. I now give them to my paid members, and for my coaching clients I create personalized versions.

AI never thinks, decides, or has opinions for me. I use AI the way it’s actually made to be used: to do the typing, so I can do the writing.

That’s how I built a 6-figure business on the side of my 9-5 job now making $20k a month. That’s also why many others who use AI the wrong way couldn’t do it. Even when many of them tried to reverse-engineer what I do.

They never will.

AI is leverage. Anyone who doesn’t use it will eventually be outrun by their competitor who’s faster, cheaper, easier to use.

There’s a lot of proof in the past for businesses who rejected new technology and failed. History repeats itself for those who are blind to see it.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow we lost” said Nokia CEO on the announcement of the acquisition by Microsoft.

And that’s the exact problem: they didn’t do anything. At all.

So yes, I believe EVERYONE should use AI. The right way.

Used lazily, AI speaks instead of you, and readers feel it in 2 words.

Used properly, it gets you ahead in the game faster.

And Substack knows the difference. Chris Best wrote it in the announcement: they use AI at Substack all the time, for software, research, and product features. Substack is fighting slop, not the use of AI. Two different problems.

Slop is content nobody wrote, for nobody. Fire away at it, I say.

I use AI a lot but I don’t produce slop.

Which is why I’m adding my “How I make this” note today. Anyone who checks my content will read my view of it, in my words:

Of course I use AI, and I don’t hide it. But every post starts in my head, not in a bot. My idea, my strategy, my numbers from my stats, and the stories from my life. Then my AI minions do the typing: custom skills and GPTs loaded with years of my data and instructions. AI never thinks, decides, or has opinions for me. I use AI in (what I believe to be) the right way to use it: to do the typing, so I can do the writing.

Steal the format if you like.

What else will I do now?

Two things.

First: the next QUEST LABs video is exactly about this and it perfectly aligns with the timing. I announced it months ago and now I’m ready with it (finally, phew).

It’s about how to make AI write like you - my most complex AI protocol for ChatGPT and Claude, finally revealed, start to finish. Stay tuned, I’ll probably publish it tomorrow.

Second, and this one is for today: I’m giving you my personal writing rules skill for Claude.

It’s the rulebook all my minions load before writing a single word for me. The anti-AI rules: banned words, banned patterns, the full list. Plus my signature style, the moves that make you know it’s me by line 2.

But please use it with caution. One of me is enough. Personalize it before you run it. It’s also not perfect - sometimes it will feel not like me, because it’s AI, models change all the time, it can’t NEVER be 100% like me.

I always edit.

But my protocol allows to publish high quality content faster.

Brings my work at levels impossible to reach without AI.

So use it with caution.

As of today, the same rules are now into the CREATIVETECH Writer PRO, my custom GPT that writes like me.

Both live in my Gumroad, and they’re 100% free for paid members, as usual. The only thing behind the paywall below is the 100% off discount code. Nothing else.

Upgrade to get access to this priceless Claude skill, as well as all of my other AI minions for free and so much more in the QUEST:

Subscribe now

Quick Q&A my AI minions wrote for me

Can readers scan my old Substack posts for AI? No. The scan works only on text published from July 21, 2026 onwards, and only on text longer than 100 words. Your archive stays untouched.

Can free subscribers scan a paid post? No. I tested this: even when the paywall sits at the bottom and hides nothing, only paid subscribers get the scan option.

Can I turn the AI scan off on my posts? Yes, per post. Scan your own post with Pangram first, then the switch appears at the bottom of that post’s settings.

Is the Substack AI detector accurate? It’s the best detector out there and still beatable. Ruben Hassid flipped a verdict from 100% AI to 100% human by changing a single character. Treat every scan as an estimate, not proof.

Does using AI mean my post scans as AI-generated? No. My AI-assisted post scanned 100% human, because the ideas, the data, and the final writing are mine. The verdict follows the workflow, and lazy prompting is what gets caught.

Yana

P.S. By the way, this post also scanned 100% human and guess how I wrote it 😎 I left the Q&A part untouched intentionally and it still says 100% human. I create personalized versions of my AI minions for my VIP members and coaching clients, so let me know if you want one.

I f*ckin’ DID IT!

I actually made a post go viral on Substack and it brought me 731 new subscribers so far, and this is delivering. 20 of them are paid. As I shared in my latest roundup, this post was one of the major growth levers that helped me scale from $5k a month to $20k a month.

Look. This is NOT some luck, the algorithm didn’t pick me. I made it happen.

How do I know?

Two things:

1. The post did NOT take off at the start. It actually flopped - good that we have stats for the first few days after publishing so I can prove it. See for yourself:

   

2. Once I saw this, I decided to test what I’ve never tested (and I knew it worked for others ever since I started writing online) - to manually drive its distribution, i.e. promote my post.

Why? Because I knew posts like this have the potential. I wrote it with the intention to not only take off but also convert. I researched what it takes to write such a post and I strategically designed it that way.

Only…it didn’t…

Now. If this was some ordinary post I’d usually publish, no matter how deep it is, I wouldn’t even bother to push its growth that way (although it would probably work).

But this post? I had to give everything I had. I was curious whether this will work for me the way I saw it work for others, I had to do it.

And it did.

So if you haven’t had a post go viral (or at least get more traction) and bring you subscribers, know this: you can make this happen. On Substack you can. This is your proof.

And today I’m giving you the exact steps I took to make this happen, why and how I took them, and my actual SOP with a checklist inside of it so that you can replicate what I did, step by step, to the letter.

I’m doing this in two parts because they’re equally important:

1. How do you write the post, and why

2. What you do, why, and how to get it distributed

I already published my engagement SOP - it’s already a big part of point 2, but not all of it. Today I’ll reveal the rest.

And no, it’s not just “here’s how to share your post” type of thing. I went far beyond that, using 13 different tactics on and off Substack, starting from the very basics - how to actually write a post that is set to go viral and convert.

Here they are…

Read more

If you’re serious about your Substack monetization, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your posts, then read and join the conversation in the comments of the other members’ posts. This is how we grow!

If you’re not yet in the Writing Challenge, NOW IS the best time to join.

VIPs: You have new gifts, so that you write for engagement, for conversion and for discoverability 👇

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker, so that you have a chance to win the award (a spotlight with me to get more exposure of your Substack)

2. Share a link to your posts in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and share it!

3. Make this challenge for your daily engagement workflow - Check other people’s posts in the comments of this post. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment and share - that’s how you grow faster (and you help others grow too).

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Let’s do this!!

Subscribe now

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you haven’t already, Join the Writing Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Challenges, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

If you’re serious about your Substack growth, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your Notes, then read and join the conversation in the comments on the other members’ Notes. It will help you and them grow.

Notes are essential for your Substack growth. If you’re not yet in the Notes Challenge, NOW is the best time to join.

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker so that I consider you for the prizes.

2. Share a link to your Notes in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and restock it!

3. Check other people’s Notes in the comments. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment, and share. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps you, as well as the other members in the community, grow faster.

PLUS: if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, so that I can add it in the Unplugged Hall of Fame :)

You can share your Notes here throughout the whole week, until the next sharing post on Saturday.

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Subscribe now

Let’s do this!!

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If you haven’t already, Join the Notes30 Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Notes Challenge, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

Judith writes The Love Stack. She is 69. She grew up in a family of teachers, as I did. She started her career writing press releases on Madison Avenue in New York, then studied education and human development, taught children, parents, and teachers, and published four books. Now she writes on Substack about aging. But not the way most people write about aging.

She calls it entirement. It’s a word she invented. And the reason she needed a new word is at the heart of everything she’s built.

Before I get to that word, I want to give you the single sentence that shapes how we should think about creator authenticity.

It’s Judith’s motto and it goes like this: “You have to live it to give it.”

She said it about her writing. She said it about her rebrand. She said it about why she waited to introduce a paid tier. And every time she said it, I found myself thinking about how many Substack creators are trying to skip this step.

You can’t write about a life you haven’t lived. You can perform it. You can research it. You can borrow it from those who did. But when your readers get to the other end of the page, they can feel whether the writer is standing where they’re pointing.

Judith’s whole Substack is built on this rule. Here’s what it actually looks like in practice.

The rebrand that only happened when she became who she was writing about

Judith started her Substack calling it “The Treasures Within”. She’s an introvert. She does everything from the inside out, as she put it. That felt like an accurate description of her writing at the time.

Then she read a book. Bell Hooks’ All About Love. And she came across a definition of love in that book that reframed everything for her.

“Their definition of love is that it’s supporting the spiritual development in the other. And I never heard a definition like that. That means it’s an action. It’s a verb. It’s not a noun.”

That reframe didn’t just change what Judith thought about love. It changed what she thought her Substack was actually about.

So she started calling it “The Love Stack”.

She’d come to understand that love, as an active verb-based support of another person’s growth, was the actual through-line of her writing, her teaching, her books, her grandmothering, and her life.

Most people do the opposite. They pick a positioning first and try to grow into it. Judith grew into her positioning and then updated the label to match.

The word she invented

Now to entirement.

Judith’s Substack is about the wisdom years as an opportunity to return to the authentic self we were in childhood.

Her exact words:

“It’s the person we were before we learned to perform, pretend, or please others.”

Sit with that for a second. If you’ve ever noticed how much of adult life is spent maintaining various performances (the professional self, the parent self, the online self), you know how important that sentence is.

Entirement is her word for stepping back into the version of you that existed before the performances started.

It’s a play on retirement. But she’s not talking about the end of work. She’s talking about the return to wholeness. The full circle.

“I decided to bring it all together, and it all makes sense as a whole,” she told me.

Here’s why this matters for creator positioning. Judith could have written about aging using any of the standard vocabulary. Retirement. Senior years. Third act. Wisdom years. Golden years. Every one of those phrases has audience overlap and existing search volume. Any SEO expert would have told her to pick one and commit.

She invented her own word instead.

And the invented word is what makes her Substack stand out in a crowded niche.

Why she waited to introduce paid

Judith didn’t turn on paid subscription until she could deliver on it authentically.

She now offers three tiers. Free subscribers get the weekly posts. Paid subscribers get an entirement manifesto she just updated, the opportunity to write an “Ask Omi” letter (Omi is what her grandchildren call her) that she may publish with permission, subscriber chats, and bonus writing when it shows up. Founding members get a copy of her book Where Wisdom Meets Wonder plus everything above.

Every tier maps to something she can actually provide.

She said this explicitly on the call:

“I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver. Whatever I say I’m going to do, I have to be sure I can do it. I know a lot of people say jump in there and say you’re going to do it, but unless I really know I can do it, I’ll feel stressed about it.”

Most Substack advice tells you to turn on paid immediately, and I do too, but only when you have enough of it already published. For Judith this was a bit later.

The right question isn’t “am I ready to charge?” The right question is “can I keep the promise I’m about to make, immediately after purchase?”

If your paid tier requires four posts a month and you can sustainably deliver two and you haven’t published anything yet, don’t turn it on. If your paid tier requires a monthly workshop and your energy doesn’t sustain that, don’t offer it. If your paid tier requires you to be someone you haven’t become yet, definitely don’t announce it.

The gardener metaphor she extended to Substack

Judith mentioned a book by Alison Gopnik called The Gardener and the Carpenter. Gopnik argues that parenting isn’t like carpentry. A carpenter has tools, wood, and a blueprint, and produces something that matches the plan. Parenting is more like gardening. You plant seeds without knowing what will come up. You tend the garden. You wonder.

Judith extended this to Substack:

“I think that’s kind of like what writing on Substack is like. It’s tending your garden. You go in and give it some water. Tend to it, take care of it. And then see what develops.”

That’s the whole model for growing a Substack.

Most creators approach their Substack like a carpenter approaches a build. Blueprint. Plan. Execute. Deliver. And when the numbers don’t match the plan, they conclude something is broken.

Judith approaches it like a gardener. Consistent tending. Some things bloom. Some don’t. The overall garden gets richer over time. She’s not forcing it, she just keeps showing up.

Both approaches produce results. But the carpenter approach burns creators out. The gardener approach sustains them.

The TLDR version

If you take one thing from this spotlight with Judith, take this.

You have to live it to give it. Your writing on Substack will always land with the emotional weight of whether or not you’re actually living what you’re writing about. Readers can feel this. It’s the difference between a piece that resonates and a piece that reads well but leaves nothing behind.

Rebrand when you outgrow your positioning, not when you’re chasing a better market. Judith moved from The Treasures Within to The Love Stack only after she’d embodied a new definition of love. The name change followed the transformation. It didn’t manufacture it.

Invent your own vocabulary in saturated niches. Entirement isn’t a better SEO play than retirement. It’s a signal to readers that the writer has a specific worldview worth understanding. That signal is worth more than search volume in a crowded category.

Don’t turn on paid before you can deliver on it. The right question isn’t “am I ready to charge?” It’s “can I keep the promise I’m about to make?” Small promises kept build more trust than big promises broken.

Tend your Substack like a garden, not a construction project. Consistent care. Some blooms. Some don’t. The overall garden gets richer over time. This approach sustains creators. The other one burns them out.

Watch the full spotlight session above for the parts I couldn’t fit in here. Judith goes deeper on the Bell Hooks reframe of love, her “Ask Omi” letters, how she stopped comparing herself to other creators, and how she uses AI as a check-in tool for her drafts.

Subscribe to Judith here:

Subscribe to Judith

Watch on YouTube here:

Yana

P.S. Judith shared three books that shaped her, plus her own four (affiliate links):

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings

• All About Love by Bell Hooks: Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces

• The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

Judith has also written four books of her own:

• Words for Parents in Small Doses

• Words for Teachers in Small Doses

• Unpacking Guilt: A Mother’s Journey to Freedom

• Where Wisdom Meets Wonder: 40 Stories of Grandma Love

Wanna have your own Spotlight Session?

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• Complete the Notes or the Writing Challenge for one month

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Every month I choose two winners - one for the Notes and one for the Writing Challenge. Watch all spotlight sessions here.

If you’re still a free subscriber, become a member and get your spotlight session with me!

Watch All Spotlight Sessions Here

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Wall of Love

One of their Notes had 138 likes. Zero subscribers.

Another Note had 4 likes. One subscriber.

We both went quiet for a second. Because that little dashboard just exposed the thing most writers get wrong about how to grow on Substack: likes and subscribers are two different games. You can win one and lose the other for months without noticing.

Their growth had stalled at 200-ish subscribers. He was publishing twice a week, every week. Good posts. Deep posts. And almost nobody new was showing up to read them.

Sound familiar?

If you’re publishing consistently and your subscriber chart still looks like a flatline, the problem is usually the same this person had. Your writing isn’t the problem, it’s probably great.

Your visibility is what you need to fix.

New people can’t subscribe to a newsletter they never see.

And there’s exactly one reliable way to fix that without ads, without a viral miracle, and without an existing audience somewhere else. It’s the same system that helped me scale from consistent $5k months to consistent $10k-$20k months. And it’s one word:

Engagement.

Why engagement is the #1 Substack growth engine

Here’s what happens when you comment on another writer’s Note.

Your name and profile appear in front of their audience. Every reader who opens that Note sees you. Some click through. Some subscribe.

Your comments on other people’s content directly feed your own growth.

The problem?

Most people find it tedious…you know, it’s one of these things you have to do but you don’t really like it.

Let me tell you something: it is. But only for as long as you think of it that way.

Substack has a huge collection of high-quality content and that’s rare. I haven’t seen that on any other platform.

So when you go out there and leave some likes on things you find useful, you actually help yourself, and the person who wrote it, grow faster.

It’s not some “like for like”, “sub for sub”, follow for follow” game you can play on social media or platforms like Medium.

On Substack it actually starts meaningful conversations that lead to connections that help you and the other person grow.

And it’s what you need to do at every stage of growth. That’s also why I run my monthly growth challenges - you can use them as a vehicle of your engagement protocol.

If you still don’t like the idea, consider it “the engagement tax” you need to pay daily for your growth.

I named mine the 5-Block Engagement System, and I’ve been running it every day for quite a while now. April this year to be exact. People have been asking me, and I’ve shared parts of it on some lives but never actually documented it.

So today I’m going to reveal it for the first time ever, step by step, and I’m also gonna give you my exact SOP you can download, print and replicate.

It works. Here’s my proof.

The proof

I grew with 783 new subscribers in the last 30 days from Substack alone. From all types of Substack channels. And this is not some kind of spike or viral moment. It’s stable ever since I incorporated this new system in April this year. Here’s the proof:

Now I’m filtering only Substack channels, because it’s a direct result of this engagement protocol. If you read my latest monthly roundups you’ll know that I actually grow with much higher rates, mostly due to my paid ads which is part of my scaling strategy, which I’ll share in another post in the near future.

Now. In the last roundup I also shared I had a viral post and a viral Note. To make this clear: this “viral post” was actually kind of “engineered”, not luck. I made it get more traction and this engagement protocol helped A LOT. I published this post in April and it still delivers new subscribers. I already posted how I engineered this, check it out here:

As for the Note - much like any viral Note the effect stayed for two weeks and it’s already gone.

Look. This system works and I proved it with myself. I gave it to some of my paid members and it worked for them too. If you’re one of them, share your experience in the comments. If not, try it and let me know how it works for you.

It works at any size. Actually, it works fastest when you’re small.

What to expect before you start

Full disclosure: this takes 4 to 6 weeks of daily consistency before your content start picking up meaningful distribution and subscribers start growing. The algorithm needs time to learn you’re worth amplifying.

Weeks 1 and 2 feel like shouting into a void. That’s normal. That’s the tax you pay. Most people stop here and that’s why they stall.

Because it’s f*cking hard to keep showing up when nothing moves yet. But the writers who push through those first weeks are the ones whose charts bend upward. Might be in week 5, might be in week 10 or 18. The point is that they do.

Ok, let’s get to it.

Read more

If you’re serious about your Substack monetization, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your posts, then read and join the conversation in the comments of the other members’ posts. This is how we grow!

If you’re not yet in the Writing Challenge, NOW IS the best time to join.

VIPs: You have new gifts, so that you write for engagement, for conversion and for discoverability 👇

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker, so that you have a chance to win the award (a spotlight with me to get more exposure of your Substack)

2. Share a link to your posts in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and share it!

3. Make this challenge for your daily engagement workflow - Check other people’s posts in the comments of this post. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment and share - that’s how you grow faster (and you help others grow too).

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Let’s do this!!

Subscribe now

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you haven’t already, Join the Writing Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Challenges, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

If you’re serious about your Substack growth, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your Notes, then read and join the conversation in the comments on the other members’ Notes. It will help you and them grow.

Notes are essential for your Substack growth. If you’re not yet in the Notes Challenge, NOW is the best time to join.

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker so that I consider you for the prizes.

2. Share a link to your Notes in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and restock it!

3. Check other people’s Notes in the comments. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment, and share. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps you, as well as the other members in the community, grow faster.

PLUS: if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, so that I can add it in the Unplugged Hall of Fame :)

You can share your Notes here throughout the whole week, until the next sharing post on Saturday.

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Subscribe now

Let’s do this!!

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If you haven’t already, Join the Notes30 Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Notes Challenge, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

My first $20K month in May. $19K last month.

All on the side of my 9-5.

I built it from scratch. No external audience or social media following (like most big newsletters here).

I made this happen with just 3 income streams, and they’re all simple: paid subscriptions, courses, coaching.

Today I figured out the one thing that made all of it work.

It’s probably the opposite of what you’d expect.

The one thing that made this work

I started all of this out of curiosity.

Yes, that’s it!

I had one question in my mind. All of the time.

Can I actually build my own business?

I wasn’t chasing income. I wasn’t planning my escape from my corporate job. I just wanted to know if I could pull it off.

Because I was chasing money and fast results for more than 15 years before I came to Substack. I’ve tried everything you can think of to make money online.

Nothing ever worked. And it never will if you approach it with the wrong mindset.

So with Substack I changed my approach.

I ran it as a series of tiny experiments.

Experiment 1:

I started a paid newsletter to see if I could become a bestseller fast.

I did. It took about 3 months. I wrote how I did it here:

Back then I was getting 30 paid subscribers per month.

Today I get 100+ and I kept pretty much everything the same. Just built on top of the foundations I’ve build when I launched it.

And it works because people achieve great results with my strategies and my AI tools, here’s proof.

Experiment 2:

Then I built my courses to see if I could design a format that actually helps people, not one that just fills a curriculum.

Not another mega course that no one touches after purchase.

I wanted something different.

And so I did. I poured all of my 15+ years of experience building and selling subscriptions in my 9-5 into something I called the SUBSTACK QUEST.

That’s what I used to grow my newsletter, but I wasn’t sure if people can replicate it to other niches.

They could.

People love the QUEST.

I’ve watched it work for wellness writers, finance writers, people writing about parenting and productivity and grief.

Having someone finish it and change how they run their whole newsletter is still my favorite part of this.

Here’s where to start your QUEST if you haven’t already:

Experiment 3:

Then I started coaching to see if I could help people who needed to skip the learning curve replicate my model.

I didn’t want to just talk to people on meetings. I didn’t want to sell “access” to me. I didn’t want a “cohort” that scales my money, but people feel lost and unseen because half of what they get is not relevant to them.

This is not helpful enough, not for my standards.

I wanted to actually help people get results faster.

And so I did.

I created a program that focuses on results. And it worked.

Every “a-ha” moment I see during these meetings brings me infinite joy. Every milestone brings me proof.

Here’s where you can book me for a free call to talk about my program:

The part nobody screenshots

People think it was easy for me to build because I already knew how from my 9-5. That’s true, but it wasn’t easy, it was simple.

Building this on the side of a demanding corporate job?

I felt exhausted. I still do some weeks.

I wanted to quit more than once, and there was one point where I almost did.

Because it’s f*cking hard.

Even though I built a system in with QUEST and my AI tools and automations, which you can support in just 2 hours a day.

My curiosity and probably my ambition carried me through those weeks in a way money never would have.

I’m writing this in my early morning, because I felt exhausted to write it yesterday. but it doesn’t matter. The point is that I write it.

If I’d been doing this only for the income, I’d have burned out and blamed everything.

And I still see people give up because they see no results.

So I write this to tell you I see you. I was there too. It won’t work immediately, but it will work if you just do the work that needs to be done.

The only competitor that ever mattered

There’s one more thing I most want you to take with you.

The whole time, I thought I was competing in a crowded space. Thousands of newsletters. Bigger names. Better numbers. Faster growers.

Truth is I wasn’t. The only person I was ever competing with was me. The version of me who almost quit. The one who was tired and wanted to stop refreshing the stats. Every month, the job was simply to beat her. Not the big accounts. Her.

And I’m confident it’ll be like that going forward too.

So if you’re just starting out on Substack and you’re scanning the leaderboard feeling small: look in the mirror instead. That’s your competition.

Yana

P.S. If you want to skip the Substack learning curve, this is where to start.

Kickstart Your Substack Growth:

• Get Your FREE High Converting Substack Blueprint

• Get a FREE 10-Day Substack crash course to grow your first 1000 subscribers

• Join my FREE Masterclass on how to start making consistent $5,000/month

• Join the One and Only Substack Quest to build a high-converting Substack

• Work with me to get your Substack up and growing

Save Tons of Time! Use My Custom GPTs:

• The Title Generator that gives me headlines that stop the scroll

• The Notes Writer that writes Viral Notes, bringing me and my paid members hundreds of subs

• The Writer Pro that turns my Notes into >90% human drafts (here’s the free version).

Or get the bundle with all the tools, now at a very special price ;)

Become an Affiliate:

Earn 30% from each sale. Apply below, I approve everyone.

• Apply here for my AI tools & templates

• Apply here for the SUBSTACK QUEST courses

Become a sponsor:

• Reach thousands of engaged buyers.

More from me:

• FREE Daily BiTES: A daily mail with just 3 bullets from the most helpful things I read about writing and making money online with AI

• Unplugged: The place to be if you want to grow an AI-powered paid newsletter and create content that sells itself.

• My Curated Collection of Books that changed how I think and shaped who I am

Wall of Love

If you’re serious about your Substack monetization, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your posts, then read and join the conversation in the comments of the other members’ posts. This is how we grow!

If you’re not yet in the Writing Challenge, NOW IS the best time to join.

VIPs: You have new gifts, so that you write for engagement, for conversion and for discoverability 👇

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker, so that you have a chance to win the award (a spotlight with me to get more exposure of your Substack)

2. Share a link to your posts in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and share it!

3. Make this challenge for your daily engagement workflow - Check other people’s posts in the comments of this post. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment and share - that’s how you grow faster (and you help others grow too).

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Let’s do this!!

Subscribe now

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you haven’t already, Join the Writing Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Challenges, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

How about some Notes BOOST?

If you’re serious about your Substack growth, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your Notes, then read and join the conversation in the comments on the other members’ Notes. It will help you and them grow.

Notes are essential for your Substack growth. If you’re not yet in the Notes Challenge, NOW is the best time to join.

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker so that I consider you for the prizes.

2. Share a link to your Notes in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and restock it!

3. Check other people’s Notes in the comments. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment, and share. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps you, as well as the other members in the community, grow faster.

PLUS: if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, so that I can add it in the Unplugged Hall of Fame :)

You can share your Notes here throughout the whole week, until the next sharing post on Saturday.

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Subscribe now

Let’s do this!!

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If you haven’t already, Join the Notes30 Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Notes Challenge, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

So I’ll keep saying this: Posts are going viral like Notes. No matter if you have a paid or a free newsletter, your posts are the ones to bring you (unlike Notes) FREE AND PAID subscribers.

That’s why this Challenge exists.

Now let’s now announce the winner from last month!

WINNER AWARDS

First, I want to personally congratulate all of the members who took their growth seriously last month and were active:

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Congrats to all of you! You’re ABSOLUTELY amazing!

Now, to select the winners, I have to see you in the Accountability tracker AND in the comment section of the weekly sharing posts, and since not all of you added yourselves to the tracker, I’m gonna honor that and select ONLY among the ones who did.

Ok, so the winner is….

….drumrolls please.…

Winner from last month Writing Challenge:

→ ←

BIG Congrats to VIP Member Monica !!! I can’t wait to jump into the session with her and talk about her amazing Substack! Looking forward to it!

The Spotlight Session Award

→ #1 Award is a Spotlight Session to talk about your Substack and more. To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share this session:

• all subscribers

• my YouTube channel

• my BiTES atomic newsletter

• my other social media accounts

→ Watch all previous spotlight sessions here.

Subscribe now

Time to kick off the ALL-NEW WRITING Challenge!

If you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing course to convert at higher rates and make your writing contagious:

And the all-new data-driven copywriting course to make your paid offer sell itself:

As well as the all-new data-driven SEO & AI SEO course to get AI recommended:

This new Challenge comes with a trio bundle of my all-new Data-Driven Courses designed to help you sell (without selling). It’s short, it’s essential, and it’s zero fluff. For you, if you’re still struggling to “find your voice” or to get high-quality output from AI.

Why a Writing Challenge?

It’s clear: posts do get you new subscribers. And sales.

But it might be challenging to stay consistent.

And it’s often hard to find who or what to engage with to grow faster, especially when you search for a good read.

That’s why this challenge exists.

Within Unplugged, you have everything you need to build a high-converting Substack:

• the monthly Notes30 Challenge where you grow your free subscribers,

• the weekly Write2Sell column where you convert them to paid and keep them paying,

• the Substack Quest to bring you to your first (or next) bestseller badge faster,

• the QUEST LABS with all the AI and automations, which helps you grow while you sleep, and…

• this monthly Writing Challenge where you apply the knowledge from the Write2Sell column and the Quest in practice and actually work to grow your paid subscribers,

• the new trio of data-driven courses - to write for engagement, for conversion, and for discoverability from AI and search engines,

• and: the AI tools you can use to grow easier and faster (find the links below). I’m enabling all my custom GPTs for Claude, with Notes writer being the first, more coming soon.

What is it?

It’s a challenge for writing.

But not just writing.

It’s built to help you convert more subscribers, applying everything from the Write2Sell column, and the Quest in practice, and feed your automations with more sales. Because learning how to do things is nothing if you don’t take action.

So, in this challenge, we’ll take action.

The Challenge:

PARTICIPANTS:

The weekly sharing boost posts are for ALL UNPLUGGED MEMBERS - you can all add yourself to the accountability tracker and participate in the sharing posts, but all training materials, AI tools, and AWARDS are reserved for PAID MEMBERS ONLY.

As usual, Paid and V.I.P. members have their private access to the GPTs, and the Data-Driven Online Writing Course, the Data-Driven Copywriting Course and the Data-Driven SEO & AI SEO Course with all templates, cheat sheets, formulas, checklists, data banks, and supporting materials.

What you need to do:

• Write and publish at least 1 post per week.

• Join the challenge by adding yourself to the Accountability tracker

• Make this challenge your daily engagement workflow: share your posts in the weekly thread (you can do that every day until the next post comes on Sunday), read, like and comment on other people’s posts - it helps them, AND YOU grow.

How to do that (faster)?

• Take the ALL-NEW Data-Driven, NLP-infused, Online Writing Course, the Data-Driven Copywriting Course, and the Data-Driven SEO & AI SEO Course to make your writing contagious, AND make sure it sells for you (without selling).

• Watch the Positioning, the Product, and the Content Strategies from the QUEST: to make sure your content matches your audience's needs.

• Use my custom GPT the CREATIVETECH Writer Pro (free for paid members - use the link below) for outlines. I give my GPT one of my notes and ask it to expand it into a 1000-word article. I then edit and post for free. It works.

• Make sure you add links to other posts, so that people keep reading (or start buying if they are paywalled - that’s what I did)

• Add a compelling headline, one that opens a curiosity gap. Use my custom GPT the TITLE Generator (link below) - give it your entire article and it will come up with 10 titles suggestions.

• Make sure you have a CTA at the end of your post, selling your product in a non-salesy way. How? Use my brand new custom GPT High Converting CTAs Writer (link below). Just give it the product description and it will generate you 10 non-salesy CTAs that convert. If you don’t have products to sell, become my affiliate and earn 30% from each sale. Apply here for my AI tools and here for the SUBSTACK QUEST (I approve everyone).

• Make the weekly boost posts your daily engaging routine:

  • Share a quote from your post on Notes (select some shareable sentence & restack quote)

  • Share a link to it on the Weekly Writing Challenge Sharing post: I will publish one every Sunday - it will arrive in your inbox.

  • Read, like, comment and restack some of the other posts you like. Make this Challenge your daily engagement routine - it will help YOU and other Unplugged members grow faster.

• Track your consistency: add yourself to the Accountability Tracker. I have a Prize for the most active!

The GOAL?

Real CA$H!!

Sales is what I do best, and in this newsletter, I help you do it too, without the fear of failure or alienating our audience. It’s all in the Quest.

WINNERS AWARDS:

Spotlight Session with me to talk about you and your Substack.

Rules for the winners’ selection:

• I’ll select one of the most active participants in the Challenge based on the Accountability Tracker and your activity in the sharing posts. Rules:

  • 1. must be in the Accountability tracker and stay active in the weekly sharing posts

  • 2. must have completed the challenge (at least one post a week)

  • 3. you can win the same challenge more than once but in different months

  • 4. you can’t win both Writing and Notes challenges in the same month. If you do, I’ll invite the next most active person for a session

• Priority of selecting winners:

  • 1. most active among the VIP members

  • 2. most active among the annual paid members

  • 3. most active among the monthly paid members

• Announcement of the winners: start of next Challenge - 2nd day of next month

• When do we do the spotlight: during next month upon your availability. We’ll do the session only if you’re willing to. If not, I’ll invite the next most active member until I get a “yes”.

• How do we do the spotlight: over Zoom. I ask you questions (we initially agree on the list), and we discuss :). You can prepare slides if you want to (not a must, nobody did so far :D). I’ll do the spotlight sessions monthly after the Challenge finishes.

• To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share the spotlight session:

  • all subscribers

  • my YouTube channel

  • my BiTES atomic newsletter

  • my other social media accounts

The Challenge includes (download links at the end of this post):

• Link to the Accountability Tracker. If you haven’t already, add yourself now!

• ALL-NEW Data-Driven, NLP-infused, Online Writing Course and the Data-Driven Copywriting Course to make your writing contagious, AND make sure it sells for you (without selling)

• Training courses from the Substack Quest: everything you need to nail positioning, product, growth, and sales.

• A mini workshop on how to Generate Stunning Midjourney Images without Prompting (link below)

• My custom personalized GPT CREATIVETECH Writer PRO trained on my viral stories to write high-quality long-form articles. Just updated with new training data. (link below)

• My custom GPT TITLE Generator 2.0 trained on 1000+ viral titles on Medium to generate titles that drive clicks. Just updated with new training data. (link below)

• My custom GPT High Converting CTAs Writer trained to turn your product descriptions into non-salesy CTAs you can use in your posts. Just updated with new training data. (link below)

• Dedicated Weekly Writing Challenge Sharing Post. I’ll ask you to share links to your posts, so that it can get even more traction. Comes every Sunday, you can share through the entire week. Make sure you also check other’s posts - that’s how we grow together!

Find the links below. Use this knowledge. Adapt the templates and guidelines to your niche and style.

Ready?

Let’s do this!

Here’s your Challenge pack of resources:

Link to Challenge Resources

• The Data-Driven Online Writing Course

• The Data-Driven Copywriting Course

• The Data-Driven SEO & AI SEO Course

Read more

Notes are crushing it for many Unplugged members right now. I just got another viral Note bringing me 265+ subscribers and still going. Nothing special - just sharing milestones - same thing that worked in 2024 works today.

Now, this viral Note got me hundreds, but I have hundreds of Notes that got me just one subscriber. Don’t overthink it. Just post. Each Note is an opportunity for one new subscriber.

That’s why this challenge exists.

To make it easier, the Viral Notes Writer GPT is now available on Claude, and you can schedule your Notes directly from the chat thanks to (it already brought new subscribers to the most committed members). Here’s where to find it:

Ok, first things first - let’s announce the WINNER from the previous month 🤩

WINNERS AWARDS

As usual, I want to personally congratulate all of the members who took their growth seriously last month and were so active:

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Congrats to ALL of you! I see you! You ARE ALL AMAZING!

Now, to select the winner, I also have to see you in the Accountability tracker, and since not all of you added yourselves, I’m gonna honor that and select ONLY among the ones who did.

As a reminder, I select the winners based on the Accountability tracker AND activity on the weekly sharing posts. Thanks to and his StackContacts I can now very easily extract the data and see who was the most active in my comment section.

Ok, so the winner is….

….drumrolls please.…

Winner from last month’s Notes Challenge:

→ ←

BIG Congrats to VIP member Dave!!! I see him so active for so long in my challenges, and NOW was about time to make it to the TOP! I can’t wait to jump into the session to talk about his newly revamped Substack! Looking forward to it!

The Spotlight Session Award

→ A Spotlight Session to talk about your Substack and more. To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share this session:

• all subscribers

• my YouTube channel

• my BiTES atomic newsletter

• my other social media accounts

→ Watch all previous spotlight sessions here.

Time to kick off the new Challenge!

Challenge PARTICIPANTS:

The weekly sharing boost posts are for ALL UNPLUGGED MEMBERS - you can all add yourself to the accountability tracker and participate in the sharing posts, but all training materials, AI tools, and AWARDS are reserved for PAID MEMBERS ONLY.

As usual, Paid and V.I.P. members also have their private access to the GPT, Claude Skill, and the Viral Notes Writer Course with EVERYTHING below.

So this month, you have a fully automated workflow for Notes (paid members only):

1. [NEW] Write and schedule Notes directly from the chat in Claude using my brand-new skill and the tool from Finn Tropy.

2. You can also write with my custom GPT and Claude skill using the Viral Notes Writer System

3. You can also schedule using Orel’s Write Stack or Finn’s Studio Pro - now you don’t have to keep your PC active.

4. Automatically re-post to social media using my automation app so you can grow even beyond Substack

What you need to do (short version):

• Join the challenge by adding yourself to the Accountability tracker

• Use my Claude skill or custom GPT to write and publish at least 3 Notes per day.

• Share your Notes in the weekly thread posts and make them your daily engagement routine - interact with others (you can do that every day until the next post comes on Saturday). The more activity, the greater the chances to win a Spotlight.

WINNERS AWARDS:

I’m gonna select 1 from the most active people who will win a Spotlight with me.

Rules for the winners selection:

• I’ll select the most active participants in the Challenge based on the Accountability Tracker and the activity on the sharing posts. Rules:

  • 1. must be in the Accountability tracker AND be active in the sharing posts (the more you share AND interact with others, the higher chances you have). I now extract data automatically (thanks to ), so there’s zero chance for error.

  • 2. must have completed the challenge (at least three Notes every day)

  • 3. you can win the same challenge more than once but in different months

  • 4. you can’t win both Writing and Notes challenges in the same month. If you do, I’ll invite the next most active person for a session

• Priority of selecting winners:

  • 1. most active among the VIP members

  • 2. most active among the annual paid members

  • 3. most active among the monthly paid members

• Announcement of the winners: start of next Challenge - 1st day of next month

• When do we do the spotlight: during next month upon your availability. We’ll do the session only if you’re willing to. If not, I’ll invite the next most active member until I get a “yes”.

• How do we do the spotlight: over Zoom or Substack Live — whichever you prefer. I ask you questions (we initially agree on the list), and we discuss :). You can prepare slides if you want to (not a must, nobody did so far :D). I’ll do the spotlight sessions monthly after the Challenge finishes.

• To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share the spotlight session:

  • all subscribers

  • my YouTube channel

  • my BiTES atomic newsletter

  • my other social media accounts

The Substack Notes30 Monthly Challenge - Full Description

Your fully automated Notes Growth Engine step by step:

• Add yourself to the Accountability tracker.

• Post at least THREE Notes every day. One is not enough, especially if you’re new to the platform. If you have a few thousand subscribers, you can do one/day - you’ll still grow, but you’ll grow much FASTER if you post more. The effect compounds. As you saw in my examples from above, I get just a few subscribers from each Note => MORE Notes = MORE Subscribers!

• Take the Viral Notes Writer course. It’s beginner-friendly and it’s only 3 hours of bite-sized easy to digest lessons.

• Take the SUBSTACK QUEST Growth strategies - because it all works together as one engine.

• Use my brand new Claude skill or custom Viral Notes Writer GPT the way I described in this video. It will turn your idea into multiple viral-ready Notes, you only need to edit and publish. Takes less than 15 minutes/day. Brings you subscribers (as many of you reported).

• Use the Notes for Claude bundle, Write Stack, or Substack Pro Studio GPT Bundle to schedule and analyze, optimize and schedule your Notes. Posting in the right times is crucial. No need to keep your computer active.

• Engage daily with at least 5 to 10 Substack members. Apply everything described in this video from the course, and this video from the QUEST.

• Share your Notes in the weekly Notes boost post: I will post one each Saturday, you’ll get it in your inbox. The next one comes next Saturday (post on the most recent one till then). I also share it in the chat. And remember to read, like, comment and restack some of the other Notes you like. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps YOU and other members grow faster.

• Use this automation to repost them to social media, so that you grow even more from external sources (as recommended by Substack).

• And if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, and I’ll add you to the Unplugged Hall of Fame.

If you follow all of the above, I’m confident you’ll pump your subscriber growth and you’ll see the effect immediately. People who do already report significant progress.

The goal?

To gain subscribers who are engaged with your writing and who can (and will) be converted to paid subscribers later.

How?

Follow my system from this short but powerful course: The Viral Notes Writer System. I created it for you. It’s how I get to that high conversion rate. It now runs on both - ChatGPT and Claude.

The Challenge includes (links at the end of this post):

We’ll simplify everything with the course, now you have only 3 things:

• Link to the Accountability Tracker. Add yourself now!

• PAID MEMBERS ONLY: The Unplugged Hall of Fame (link at the end of the post) - I’ve set a place to display all Notes from the Unplugged paid member community that received 100+ likes. If you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, and I’ll add you.

• PAID MEMBERS ONLY: Link to the The Viral Notes Writer System course - it’s only 3 hours, and it has EVERYTHING you need to implement my system. In it you’ll find:

  • My exact system I used to triple my subscribers growth in a month (takes just 15 minutes per day to write the Notes).

  • How to use my custom GPT to adapt it to your niche and audience (+ prompts)

  • How to use my custom GPT to grow outside of Substack (+ prompts)

  • As well as:

    • [NEW] My brand new Claude skill for writing viral Notes

    • My custom GPT Notes Writer trained to write Substack Notes that go viral. I just upgraded its training using tons of data to sharpen it even more.

    • The right way to use the Notes Writer in order to turn likes into subscribers (like me, Jeff and Daniel and many more). Three SIMPLE steps to achieve it (you do the first two only once).

    • AI Prompting Strategy to help you write more relatable Notes based on data collected for your audience.

    • My Content Strategy: what type of Notes get the most traction - I incorporated this in the custom GPT.

    • My Engagement Strategy to attract new subscribers that are convertible to paid. You’ll have three modes:

      • EASY: engage with at least 5 new accounts per day

      • HARD: engage with at least 10 new accounts per day

      • TURBO: engage with at least 15 new accounts per day

    • A set of 11 Notes Templates (including the one that got me 10 200 likes and 167 subscribers) I’m using with a short guide on how to write them and an example from my Notes:

      • Image [with Canva template]

      • Opinion

      • Mini story

      • Mini listicle

      • Mini how-to

      • Mini analysis

      • Success story

      • Personal update

      • Personal Story (based on my first viral Note with 10k+ likes)

      • Journey (based on my second viral Note with 2k+ likes)

      • Comparison

      • Plus all the templates I incorporate in the Viral Notes Writer Claude skill

      Image with simple text are performing well. They are highly re-stackable. I’ve prepared a Canva template you can easily edit (see resources below).

    • My Notes Guiding Principles on how to use Notes to gain convertible subscribers. A set of short rules about:

      • How to write powerful hooks

      • What types of Notes to write currently

      • How to engage with others on the platform

    • List of 17 types of Notes Ideas you can easily craft. If you don’t want to stick to my templates, you can use these as references in case you get stuck.

    • My list of 17 Rules of Short Form Writing I’ve proven to be working on Substack. I used them to train the GPT and to create the Claude skill. The majority of these rules also work on Medium, X, LinkedIn, Quora. You can use them anywhere.

    • And how to use the Viral Notes Writer for X, Bluesky and LinkedIn

• Link to the automation template that helps you automatically repost Notes to social media.

You have all this packed in The Viral Notes Writer System course (value $197).

Here’s your Challenge pack of resources:

Links to Resources for Paid Members:

Read more

If you’re serious about your Substack monetization, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your posts, then read and join the conversation in the comments of the other members’ posts. This is how we grow!

If you’re not yet in the Writing Challenge, NOW IS the best time to join.

VIPs: You have new gifts, so that you write for engagement, for conversion and for discoverability 👇

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker, so that you have a chance to win the award (a spotlight with me to get more exposure of your Substack)

2. Share a link to your posts in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and share it!

3. Make this challenge for your daily engagement workflow - Check other people’s posts in the comments of this post. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment and share - that’s how you grow faster (and you help others grow too).

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Let’s do this!!

Subscribe now

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you haven’t already, Join the Writing Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Challenges, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

If you’re serious about your Substack growth, make this post your daily engagement routine. Share your Notes, then read and join the conversation in the comments on the other members’ Notes. It will help you and them grow.

Notes are essential for your Substack growth. If you’re not yet in the Notes Challenge, NOW is the best time to join.

Here’s what you need to do now:

1. Add yourself to the Accountability tracker so that I consider you for the prizes.

2. Share a link to your Notes in the comments below so that we can find it, read, comment, like, and restock it!

3. Check other people’s Notes in the comments. Find something you like to read more about and give it a like, comment, and share. Make this challenge your daily engagement routine - it helps you, as well as the other members in the community, grow faster.

PLUS: if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, so that I can add it in the Unplugged Hall of Fame :)

You can share your Notes here throughout the whole week, until the next sharing post on Saturday.

Anyone from the Unplugged community can participate.

Subscribe now

Let’s do this!!

Share your link now 👇

P.S. If you haven’t already, Join the Notes30 Challenge if you’re serious about growing on Substack.

P.S.S. If you’re not taking the Notes Challenge, you can opt-out from receiving these weekly posts without unsubscribing for the rest of the content - do this from your settings here:

I already told you about that, but what I didn’t share is this:

I tried to “engineer” virality with this post.

And it worked.

It’s now my most read, liked and shared post, bringing me the most free subscribers ever since I started this Substack, look at this:

How I “engineered” virality? This post didn’t take off in the beginning. But I wrote it intentionally to take off, it had the meat. So I implemented multiple tactics to drive more eyeballs and engagement to it so that Substack algorithm can pick it up. And it did. I’m gonna publish a case study soon in my Write2Sell column.

The more important question for this post is: what $$$ did it bring?

Because when you run a business on Substack you have three major jobs:

1. To get consistent new subscribers

2. To convert them to buyers

3. To keep them paying

That’s what I cover in the QUEST in great detail. It’s my exact strategy of how I started, grew and scaled this business to 6 figures.

This post’s job was to work on point 1.

Now let me tell you what else I did on point 1, as well as points 2 and 3:

• How I reached three new milestones: 700 paid subscribers, $20k a month revenue, $100k in total earnings from my Substack biz.

• About this one viral post, and a new viral Note.

• And the scaling engine finally delivering.

Yes, I hit my first $20k month. $20k!!!! My scaling strategy, which I mentioned in the previous post, now delivers. I promised the next round-up should have some real results, so here they are - stay with me.

I’ll reveal everything I did, plus the exact revenue breakdown with monthly trends.

Spoiler: this will turn into a new domain in the QUEST - Scaling strategy. I’m already working on it. So excited!

As usual, this is what I have for you today:

• Content: strategies I implemented and their outcome

• Distribution: platforms I used and how they performed and why

• Monetization: what I did to sell, how much I earned (total & by channel)

• Outlook: what I plan to start, stop, change or continue in the future, and why

Let’s goooo!

Read more

In a nutshell:

• How to make a come back after a pause on Substack - had her baby with us on the call while we talked about the best approach to return back on track.

• How to incorporate YouTube videos with Substack - best approach for growth, visibility & SEO and how to reuse Substack lives.

• The importance of having an email list - shared how YouTube deleted ~24.2K accounts and how people lost their work built in years.

• Substack new content policy - and how the platform is evolving.

• We walked through:

  • my results of May’26 - revenues and channels, and what specifically worked for Meta paid ads - we also exchanged ideas and strategies about how Meta paid ads can work for Substack growth

  • new features of Substack - now we can lock content behind a free subscription and let everyone comment on a post for paid members (finally!!)

  • Substack automations - yep, they’re now called “Automations”, they have new functionalities (some we don’t have in Kit) and it’s a big WHY everyone should aim to get to the bestseller badge

  • we also saw how Substack sponsorships look like and the brand new feature Kit just launched - Kit Signals

• and so much more…

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

Read more

Now he’s on Substack helping people sell more. And he has some interesting things to share about Notes and how they convert.

Hope you enjoy it.

Subscribe to David

The Hook

Two creators, with the same topic. Writing on the same Saturday morning.

One publishes a Note about consistency why showing up every week is the key to Substack growth. Solid take with clean writing. The response? Three likes. No replies.

The other publishes a Note on the same topic. Same argument, roughly. Ends with this: “What’s the one thing that keeps pulling you off your publishing schedule?” The response there? Fourteen replies and four DM conversations, plus two paid conversions that week.

Similar follower counts going through the same algorithm. One question is different.

Here’s what most creators miss: your Notes aren’t getting ignored because of your content. They’re getting ignored because they’re written for the feed not for the person reading them.

The shift that I’ve seen change this is: The difference between declaring and diagnosing.

The Broadcast Trap

Most Substack Notes are written for one audience: other creators.

You share a lesson. You make a point. You demonstrate that you know your topic. Then you hit publish and wait for the algorithm to do something with it.

That’s broadcasting and broadcasting has a ceiling.

It feels productive because you showed up, you posted, you stayed consistent. But consistency without connection is just noise with a schedule.

Your readers scroll past it the same way they scroll past everything else competing for their attention.

The tell is in the replies or the lack of them.

When a Note gets no replies, the instinct is to blame reach. Not enough followers. Wrong time of day. The algorithm buried it.

Sometimes that’s true. But more often, the Note was written for the feed instead of a specific person with a specific problem.

Here’s the real cost: a Note that doesn’t start a conversation can’t start a conversion.

Broadcasting optimizes for impressions. Without conversation, you have an audience. You’re not building momentum. And momentum is what drives paid conversions.

Diagnosing vs. Declaring

The creators getting consistent replies aren’t posting better content. They’re asking better questions.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

The broadcast version:

“Consistency is the most underrated growth strategy on Substack. Show up every week and the algorithm rewards you.”

Accurate. Forgettable. Nothing to drive momentum toward paid.

The diagnosing version:

“Consistency is the most underrated growth strategy on Substack. But most creators I talk to aren’t struggling with the advice they’re struggling with the week that everything falls apart. What knocks you off your schedule?”

Completely different energy.

The second version opens the door to a deeper conversation.

The diagnosing version works because it’s written for one person, the reader who nodded at the first sentence and immediately thought about last Tuesday when they missed their publish date. That person has something to say. You just gave them permission to say it.

When I made this shift, the change wasn’t gradual. Readers who used to open and scroll started replying within days. Then started reaching out between issues without me asking. That only happens when someone feels like you wrote it to them.

The traffic data confirmed it. From September 2025 through February 2026, my weekly Substack views were flat — averaging 50 to 150 views per week. Starting in March, when I shifted to consistent diagnostic Notes tied to one framework and leaned into collaborations, traffic climbed to 300+ views per week. The last 30 days alone showed a 372-view increase. I changed what I posted and how I ended it, that was the key.

I learned from doing a monthly analytics review. I collected some of my best performing Notes and ask Claude:

💡Here are more Notes that I wrote over the last 30 days. Review and add them to this analysis. I included screenshots of specific Notes that did well and did poorly.

Start writing for the person who most needs to read it.

That person, when they feel found, is also the person most likely to upgrade.

The One Question That Changes Everything

The mechanics are simple. The discipline is harder.

Not every Note needs to end with a question. But at least one per day should invite the conversation. Not “what do you think?” that’s too open, too easy to skip.

A specific question that invites the reader to locate themselves in the problem.

The formula: name the friction point, then ask them to confirm it.

Here are three real Notes I’ve published using this structure:

I noticed the pattern drove more comments than I had been seeing before. Each Note names a real friction point first, then invites the reader to confirm whether it’s theirs (some with a question, some with a statement). The invitation to confirm the problem is what separates a declaration from a diagnosis. It shows you understand the struggle, makes replying feel low-effort, and tells you exactly what your audience needs next.

That last part is where the monetization signal lives.

When readers tell you what they’re stuck on, they’re handing you your next ten Notes, your next paid offer, and the exact language your paid tier should use to convert them. You stop guessing what resonates and start building from what they actually said.

One question. Every Note. That’s the whole system.

The Same System. Different Platform.

I help technical founders turn customer relationships into compounding revenue. The system I use is called the Revenue Flywheel three drivers that replace the traditional sales funnel with something that actually builds momentum.

The first driver is Customer Engagement.

It runs on one principle: diagnose first, prescribe second.

The most effective first touch in sales isn’t a pitch. It names a problem the buyer already feels but hasn’t articulated yet. When your opening move shows the buyer you understand their world before you’ve asked them for anything trust starts forming immediately.

That’s exactly what a diagnostic Note does.

When you end a Note with “What’s the one thing that keeps pulling you off your publishing schedule?” you’re not asking for engagement. You’re showing your reader that you already know what they’re struggling with. The question confirms it and invites them into the conversation.

That confirmation is the moment trust starts.

In sales, a buyer who feels understood moves toward a proposal. On Substack, a reader who feels found moves toward paid.

The platform may be different, but the pattern is identical.

The loop tightens with every exchange: a diagnostic question generates a reply, that reply tells you exactly what to write next, your next Note feels even more specific, and trust compounds until the paid conversion happens naturally.

That’s a compounding engagement system.

The creators building real paid momentum on Substack aren’t just publishing more. They’re running the same engagement loop that the best sales teams run: diagnose the problem, show you understand it, earn the right to prescribe the next step.

Your Notes are the first touch. Make them feel like a diagnosis not a broadcast.

Take Action

Don’t wait for your next publish date. Pull up your last three Notes today.

Rewrite the final line of each one as a diagnostic question specific friction point, direct ask.

Publish one every other day this week.When a reply opens a real conversation, follow it. Ask one more question.

That conversation is where your next paid subscriber is.

In that reply you asked them to send.

I write Eng Sales — a weekly newsletter for technical (non-sales) founders who became their own first sales rep by default. Applying the Revenue Flywheel System to daily challenges going sales.

If you want to know where your biggest gap is right now, take the Revenue Flywheel Assessment. It’ll show you which driver is leaking momentum.

Kickstart Your Substack Growth:

• Get a FREE 10-Day Substack crash course to grow your first 1000 subscribers

• Join my FREE Masterclass on how to start making consistent $5,000/month

• Join the One and Only Substack Quest to build a high-converting Substack

• Work with me to get your Substack up and growing

Save Tons of Time! Use My Custom GPTs & Claude Skills:

• The Title Generator that gives me headlines that stop the scroll

• The Notes Writer Claude skill that writes Viral Notes, bringing me and my paid members hundreds of subs

• The Writer Pro that turns my Notes into >90% human drafts (here’s the free version).

Or get the bundle with all the tools, now at a very special price ;)

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