I’m so excited to finally welcome you to the QUEST LIVEs - the missing part of the Substack QUEST where we optimize Substack for a high conversion rate:

• your offer

• your messaging

• how your Substack looks

• how you use Substack automations

I’m obsessed with the customer journey, and in this part of the QUEST I help you NAIL it. I use everything I know from my 9-5 with 20+ years in telco, now in banking, building products on subscriptions that people want to buy.

This part of the QUEST will always be live on Zoom, not recorded videos, and will happen every 3 months - that is to make sure we use the latest features of Substack in the best possible way.

I just got my orange bestseller badge.

I’m now one of the only 3 Substack growth coaches with an orange badge and more than 1,000 paid subscribers, and the ONLY one who does this on the side of my 9-5 job, starting with zero external audience.

My methods work.

Proof?

We worked together with VIP member to optimize his Substack for better conversion, including his Substack-native automations. Luke is in one of the most competitive niches, but now he also just got his orange bestseller badge, and here’s what he shared with me:

So it’s time for you to get your badge.

What’s inside the QUEST LIVEs?

Every 3 months for about 6 weeks we go on a weekly live on Zoom where I help VIP members optimize their Substack for a high conversion rate.

This is the missing piece of the QUEST - the hands-on implementation, walk through the settings and application of all strategies in the QUEST.

I do this live & regularly every 3 months to make sure we’re up to date and cover all new Substack features.

• The weekly Zoom calls will follow the structure and the framework of the QUEST for VIPs:

  • #1 Build a powerful paid membership

  • #2 Build a visually appealing Substack

  • #3 Optimize for high free-to-paid conversion rate

  • #4 Grow free subscribers - content & growth tactics

  • #5 Convert paid subscribers - content & growth tactics & automations

  • #6 Retention & x-sell - keep buyers buying

• The QUEST sparring group chat on Substack for VIPs - private space to spar on the Quest. As it has limitations, I’ll keep only people who are actively working on the QUEST.

• The QUEST Sparring Partner & Coach Custom GPT for VIPs - a custom GPT, which is trained on all strategies in the QUEST. Also a coaching partner who has knowledge of everything I built online. A virtual Yana to spar with you on your QUEST journey :). Comes in three modes:

  • Quest Sparring Partner - to spar with you on your Quest

  • Quest Optimizer - to help optimize Substack for high conversion rate

  • Quest Coach - to guide you all along the way of your Substack journey as I would

Think of this as the fast track of the QUEST, where you implement with my eyes on your work, plus the help of the amazing VIP club.

At the end of this you’ll know exactly how you can build an audience of buyers and get to your first/next bestseller badge.

Who is this for?

Join it if you:

• have a paid membership on Substack or want to build one, or

• run a free newsletter and want to monetize with products/services, and

• solve a problem for your buyers and have enough clarity about that problem

Skip it if you:

• write for fun, not for business, or

• are into poetry, news, or the entertainment business, or

• look for sponsorships, donations or other ways of monetization, or

• you have no idea what problems you can solve - take the QUEST first and join the next LIVEs when you figure out positioning. Work with me on that if you’re VIP.

What’s the schedule?

What date do we start: 16th of September 2026

What’s the time: 8:30 pm CEST Europe / 2:30 pm EDT US

How long is the call: about 2 hours, but I’m flexible to stay more cover all your questions or finish early if we’re done for the day

What’s the format:

• each call will have two parts - first I show you how to implement, then I open to Q&A and discussions. Make sure you join with camera on and be active.

• between the calls you’ll have homework to do till the next call.

• use the Sparring/Coach GPT to refine your work.

• use the Sparring group chat to get feedback on your work.

Before the first call: prepare your problem you can solve for your buyers.

How to join?

1. Join the group calls: I’ve set a group call where you can select which of the 6 weeks to join. You can join all of them, or some of them and watch the recordings of the rest. Book them using the link below and add them to your calendar:

Become a VIP member to get he link to book your LIVEs:

Become VIP

Before every session starts, I’ll also share the Zoom link in the VIP Club on WhatsApp. Join here if you haven’t already.

2. Join the Sparring Group chat: DM me if you want to join. I’ll set it up before the first call and invite you.

3. Get the Sparring/Coach GPT: It will be in the VIP edition of the Unplugged Toolbox right before the first call.

How much is it?

No extra charges, like always. It’s included in your VIP membership.

The only way to join the QUEST LIVEs is to become a VIP member.

Become a VIP member and join us on the LIVEs:

Become VIP

We start live on Zoom, recordings will be available on the dedicated section in the QUEST here.

What’s inside of the VIP Membership?

In the VIP membership you have:

• All of my growth content, including the Write2Sell column

• All of my AI tools in the Unplugged Toolbox - some are for VIPs only

• The Quest, including bonus courses that are for VIPs only

• The Viral Notes Writer System - some videos are for VIPs only

• The Quest Labs - some videos are for VIPs only

• Growth Challenges - for Notes and Posts, running monthly

• Monthly live Q&A on Zoom with me

• 30-minute 1:1 call with me per year

• DM me in the Substack chat

• Start a chat in the Unplugged community

• VIP ONLY paid member benefits, on top of the above:

  - a personalized video review of your Substack from me, per year

  - additional 60-minute 1:1 call with me, per year

  - talk to me in WhatsApp / Signal app - you get my mobile and if you need we can talk on a phone call

  - I build a personalized custom GPT or a Claude skill that writes like you (or teach you how to do it)

  - the QUEST VIP experience - I can be your sparring partner

  - the Quest Lives - my group coaching program, including the sparring group chat and the Sparring/Coach custom GPT

  - monthly live Mastermind calls with all VIPs

  - private WhatsApp group with all VIPs

  - be the first to know about the new Substack features what I’m launching next (I share these on the monthly Masterminds)

Get more details about all benefits here:

I see you inside the QUEST LIVEs!

Yana

P.S. The most committed of my paid members who use my methods in the QUEST and my AI tools report amazing results:

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.

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

1. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

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:

When a post goes viral, it brings new subscribers for months. Notes are quick burners, you get a viral effect for 1-2 weeks and then silence. But posts? One post can become your growth engine for months!

And if you approach your writing strategically, it can become your money-making machine that brings a predictable income. One that compounds.

This is what I used to grow my Substack to 1,000+ paid subscribers, get my orange badge and turn this into a six-figure business on the side of my 9-5.

It’s also what I use to help you - my paid, VIP members and my coaching clients.

I wrote about how I do it here:

That’s why this Challenge exists.

To help you replicate my methods and grow your revenues.

First, let’s now announce the winner from last month.

WINNER AWARDS

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 Jen!!! 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.

Time to kick off the ALL-NEW WRITING Challenge!

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

2. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

The Challenge Rules:

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)?

• [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts, it will help you grow faster.

• [NEW] Use my engagement SOP with this challenge, it will get you more eyeballs.

• [NEW] Write a pillar post and use my method to get more visibility - it will bring you consistent new subscribers for months.

• 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.

• [NEW] Create your own custom GPT or Claude skill and use my AI writing protocol to get 100% human checks on Pangram.

• Or use my custom GPT or Claude Skill 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 - 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 - I publish them every Sunday:

  • 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

Ready?

Let’s do this!

Here’s your Challenge pack of resources:

Links to Challenge Resources

• Use this trick to personalize your posts

• Use my engagement SOP

Read more

Notes keep crushing it for many Unplugged members right now. I just got another viral Note bringing me 320+ subscribers and still going:

And shared hers in our last VIP mastermind - she got more than 650 subscribers from it:

My Note? Nothing special - just sharing milestones, this time with a story - 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. I shared the ONLY 5 Notes templates you need to turn likes into subscribers here:

Lisa’s Note? She used my AI tools from the Viral Notes Writer system course. That’s all you need to know. It also has my most powerful custom GPT and the Claude skill that helps write Notes that get subscribers. That’s what Lisa used for her Note.

That’s why this challenge exists.

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….

… .drumroll please.…

Winner from last month’s Notes Challenge:

→ ←

BIG Congrats to Sean!!! I can’t wait to jump into the session to talk about his amazing 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.

[NEW] So from this month, you have a fully automated workflow for Notes with all new Paid Member Perks:

1. 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 (you got 50% off)

3. You can also schedule using Orel’s Write Stack (you’ve got 30-day free) or Finn’s Studio Pro (you got 50% off) - 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 Finn and his StackContacts), 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:

  • Notes for Claude bundle (you have 50% off perk),

  • Write Stack (you have 30 day free perk), or

  • Substack Pro Studio GPT Bundle (you have 50% off perk) to schedule and analyze, optimize and schedule your Notes. Posting in the right times is crucial. No need to keep your computer active.

• Or use these 5 templates if you want to write Notes by yourself.

• 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 (part of the Unplugged Toolbox)

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 - in the Unplugged Toolbox - 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. [NEW] It also includes all of my viral Notes.

• 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:

    • My brand new Claude skill for writing viral Notes

    • [NEW] The only 5 Notes templates you need to turn likes into subs

    • 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:

• Link to The Unplugged Toolbox where you’ll find the Unplugged Hall of Fame - a swipe file with Paid Member Notes that got 100+ likes as well as all of my viral Notes

• Link to the Viral Notes Writer Claude skill and scheduling tool bundle (you got 50% off).

• Link to the custom GPT Viral Notes Writer and a training how to use it. Also link to the entire course The Viral Notes Writer System - it’s a must watch.

• Link to the Substack Pro Studio GPT Bundle and a training how to use it (you got 50% off).

• Link to WriteStack to schedule and analyze your Notes (you got 30 days free).

• [From the LABS] Link to the automation template that helps you automatically repost Notes to social media.

• Link to the entire SUBSTACK QUEST - a must watch (and absorb) if you want to convert these subscribers at higher conversion rates.

Happy Noting!

May this month bring you many new subscribers!

Yana

P.S. If you need a personalized Claude skill to write Notes that sound like you, I can build one for you.

The Unplugged is growing. We’re now 1,000+ paid members strong!

So it’s time for me to add even more in your Unplugged paid member benefits.

Here’s what’s new:

• [NEW] The Unplugged TOOLBOX - with all my custom GPTs (including the Strategy GPT trained on the QUEST), Claude skills, prompts library, tools, templates, SOPs and VIPs also get my personal Claude Skill library and all assets from the QUEST courses in one place. Get it here.

• [NEW] Paid Member Perks - Discounts from products I create or collaborate with other Substacksers and from the offers of VIP members. If you're a VIP - send me a DM with your offer. I’ll promote it as part of my perks. was the first to join, and I already took her impressive assessment.

• [NEW] Monthly Live Q&A on Zoom where I answer all of your questions about your Substack. Look for more details, and the links to join in your inbox as well as the Unplugged chat space.

• [NEW] The VIP QUEST Lives - Every 3 months I run weekly live calls on Zoom for about 6 weeks to help VIP members optimize your Substack for a high conversion rate. This is the missing piece of the QUEST - the hands-on implementation, walk though the settings and application of all strategies in the QUEST. I do this live & regularly to make sure we’re up to date and cover all new Substack features. This is my group Substack coaching service, which includes:

  • 1 weekly live call on Zoom for about 6 weeks, held every 3 months, where we cover the entire optimization of your Substack for high conversion rate:

    • how to use new features like Substack Automations for better conversion

    • your messaging on every step of the subscriber journey

    • key Substack settings for conversion & retention

    • how to design a visually appealing Substack & more

  • [NEW] QUEST Sparring Group Chat - private space to spar on the Quest.

  • [NEW] QUEST Sparring Partner Custom GPT - a custom GPT, which is trained on all strategies in the QUEST. A virtual Yana to spar with you on your QUEST journey :)

We’re starting this month.

Look for more details, and the links to join the LIVES in your inbox as well as the Unplugged chat space.

So excited about this!

I already updated your paid member benefits, you can check them here:

So excited to get hands on with you and help you optimize your Substack for a high conversion rate!

And I can’t wait for it.

See you inside!

Yana

P.S. Join the paid membership if you haven’t already. It will pay back within a month after you optimize your Substack using my tactics.

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.

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

1. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

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 just got mine and it still feels surreal a bit. There are only three of us in our niche who reached that level on Substack.

Here’s what we covered in a nutshell:

Start with the product, not the audience.

That’s the one thing Philip and I did the same, and neither of us had a viral post or paid ads to thank for the badge. I built my paid offers first and then started growing subscribers.

Growing an audience before you have an offer is like advertising a shop with no products inside of it. Don’t do this!

After that you have 3 jobs:

• grow new subscribers,

• convert them,

• keep them paying.

I covered all of these in detail in this post:

Retention is the name of the game.

I said this in our first live together over a year ago and it sounded strange, because in year one especially if you sell mostly annual subscriptions (like me), churn is not a problem standing in front of you. Yet.

I spent 15 years in telecom, a market with an average 2 SIM cards per person, so retention is the whole business.

Substack is the same. So design the subscription for retention from day one.

My 3 ways:

• keep adding new things to the paid tier so people see what’s coming,

• solve a problem that comes back every month, and

• build a community people don’t want to leave.

Philip’s add: onboarding. In their Substack Accelerator you can’t unlock the other spaces until you’ve read the values and introduced yourself. The Teachable team told him in Rome that 90% of people who buy a course never even start it. People who don’t use what they bought don’t renew.

Two different growth engines, both worked.

Philip’s approach: a strategic launch every 2 to 3 months, each one a spike, and the curve got steeper with every launch.

Me: launches make me sick, so I automated the promotion of the paid tier with a 30-day sequence in Kit. Different approach, same badge. Find your way, but you have to ask. Nobody buys what they don’t know exists.

What changed for me in April.

I finally got strategic about content and connected it to my paid offers. I went from 30 new paid subscribers a month to more than 130. That’s what got me to 1,000.

Notes vs posts.

Posts convert. Notes are the signposts that get people to your profile. Which is why your profile description has to say what you do for your paid members. It’s not a CV.

On AI.

Someone in the chat said “please no AI for notes.” I don’t recommend dumping a prompt into ChatGPT. I built a tool called the Viral Notes Writer with 2+ years of my own data and templates inside of it, and from my VIP members who also ways in the live shared she got 650 subscribers from one note written with it, using her own context.

You can get the Viral Notes Writer from the Unplugged toolbox in my perks.

One last thing…

Philip and I are cooking something up together. We’ll share more on that soon.

Until then, remember: becoming a bestseller is all about three things:

• grow new subscribers,

• convert them,

• keep them paying.

and I both cover this in our publications, so join us if you haven’t already. We’re two of the ONLY three on Substack with more than 1,000 paid subscribers. You can join the here:

Write • Build • Scale

Learn how to write online, build your audience, and scale your income.

By Sinem Günel

There’s no better proof than that!

Yana

P.S. I’m starting QUEST LIVES in September, where we go on Zoom every week for about 6 weeks to optimize Substack for a high conversion rate. And I’m increasing the prices, this time significantly, as my VIP will become my group coaching. Join my VIP and lock the current price forever.

Join the VIP Club

And we just got one more amazing VIP Mastermind. We had so many new faces, tons of takeaways, and again some new Substack features. Here’s a brief summary:

In a nutshell:

• How to write a viral note - shared how she went from 190 to 1,022 free subscribers (plus her first 9 paid) in two weeks. One note hit 107k impressions and ~10k likes. Her method: the Viral Notes Writer (which you can now get from the Unplugged Toolbox) fed with deep, vulnerable, voice-texted context - plus doing the work of replying to every comment like a friend, not just “thanks”.

• The best time to post notes - shared that her biggest growth spikes happen when she’s active during US prime time (her midnight), and Ruth confirmed the same pattern from LinkedIn. We also covered WriteStack as a tool that analyzes your own audience for optimal posting times.

• How the notes algorithm really behaves - unpredictable by design. Some notes take off instantly, some sit dead for weeks and then explode (Shagoon’s silly “self-love” note got ~500 restacks a week later). My take: comments, not restacks, are the best predictor of growth. And restacking your own note a few days later can extend its life.

• Why small accounts get zero traction on notes - shared her experience and we talked about how when you’re below roughly 500-1,000 subscribers you’ll have to manually trigger visibility through engagement with others.

• Note boosts and restacking comments - shared how boost groups keep her notes alive, and how she even got book sales from a note with a link - proving me wrong on “never put links in notes”. Test everything.

• Give AI a permanent brain - Shagoon’s engineer tip: maintain a one-pager .txt file about you, your newsletter, and your milestones, so you never re-explain yourself when a chat fills up.

• Converting free to paid - Lisa’s honest “wall” around asking for money opened a discussion. I shared the High-Converting CTA Writer (very underrated in our community - get it from the Unplugged Toolbox) that frames offers as problem-solution-outcome instead of “buy my thing”.

• When to start notes and payments - raised one very good question - if she should go all-in on notes with only one post published. It’s not about subscriber count - it’s about having something inside your Substack worth landing on first (5-10 posts minimum).

• Again we also walked through the new Substack features:

  • Group chats - private chats with up to 50 people, a native alternative to School/Circle. This sparked a full discussion with and Shagoon about School: why pulling people off-platform breaks (no automation, manual access management, zero discoverability) and why the only School model that works is tangible assets + a serious YouTube channel.

  • Automations - still bestseller-only but rolling out, and a legitimate partial Kit replacement for free-to-paid conversion flows.

  • Creator Match - see the creators with the highest audience overlap (your “competitors”) and turn them into collaborators - guest posts, lives, recommendation swaps. Marylee asked how to open that conversation, and I shared my exact approach.

  • Metering - let free readers unlock a set number of paid posts per month, and you choose which posts are metered. More selective than the 7-day trial - though I’m skeptical it converts better.

• Email overwhelm on both sides - and raised subscriber fatigue. We covered following instead of subscribing, disabling email notifications in the app (and why that quietly kills senders’ open rates), Shagoon’s audit ritual for over-promotional newsletters, and why I send promos from Kit instead of Substack - so people can unsubscribe from promotions without leaving my publication.

• Why recommendations bring followers, not subscribers - I finally answered Marylee’s question: Substack’s new subscribe flow defaults people into “follow all” with only three actual subscribes - so our job is converting followers through content and direct connection.

and so much more…

I also shared shared that The Unplugged Toolbox is now available in Perks, plus some exciting things that come up in September for VIP members only - the QUEST goes LIVE every week where we optimize your Substack for a high conversion rate.

And we’ll have a QUEST Sparring group chat for VIPs only - it’s decided.

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

And I added more than $10k in ARR to my Substack in the last 30 days. It’s the first month to cash out $10k from paid subscriptions only. It’s now a $50k/year recurring revenue paid newsletter - that’s only from paid subscriptions.

And $240k/year in total when I add all of the other sales I make. It’s now a six-figure business I run entirely on the side of my 9-5 job.

I finally reached the next Bestseller level and got my orange badge.

And I sooooo love how it looks on my profile.

But I honestly thought this would take me much much longer…That’s what the data said for months. If you look at the chart above you’ll see it.

My estimations showed a minimum of 3 years (if not more) to reach 1,000 paid members. It depressed me every time I did that estimation.

With every churned subscriber this period became longer and longer…

Until I wrapped up my scaling strategy, implemented in April this year and voila!

Things happen when you make them happen.

Now. This might look like a huge success.

You might think it’s easy for me, but not for most people - after all, I do product, sales and marketing at work. I’ve been in telecom 15+ years, so I know the ins and outs of a paid membership business.

Easy?

It’s not.

It took me almost two years to get here.

Two years of doing all sorts of things wrong before doing a few things right.

So before you even think about scrolling past this as another “look at my numbers” post (I know, I know I have a lot of them), stay with me on this one, because the beginning of this story probably looks a lot like where you are right now.

So tell me, I’m curious:

How it all started

I started with zero external audience.

No huge email list, zero followers, not famous on the TV.

My social media accounts barely have 500 followers now. Back then they didn’t exist. I never fixed that part, I didn’t want to. Just the thought of it made me frustrated.

And it turned out I never needed to.

I had zero experience in online writing.

Just my boring corporate style, absolutely no one wanted to read. 15+ years in product and marketing, and every draft still sounded like an internal memo.

Correct, structured, and plain boring.

I barely knew how to use AI.

I learned everything on the go.

And it was all messy.

I probably changed my about page and welcome emails that were supposed to sell more than 10 times. Every version felt like THE one. Until I saw the stats and decided it’s not working. Again.

My Notes barely passed 20 likes, for months. Months, not weeks. I wrote something I was proud of, posted it, and watched it flop while someone else’s two-line note exploded.

At some point I almost quit.

I actually wanted to quit every time my growth charts flattened as I watched others explode, but somehow pushed though it.

Lesson learned: Compare yourself with yourself from yesterday, not with someone 10 steps ahead. It will only distract you from the right path.

I almost did quit one time. It was the month after I hit 100 paid subscribers and after the promotion I did to celebrate, growth slowed down. At the same time I had a very intense 2 weeks on my job - had to prepare and present a strategy to the executive board of the group for 6 countries in our footprint.

They tear you apart on those meetings, and for a good reason - after all I was aiming to set their targets. So I had to prepare.

You can guess - I had zero time to write or answer comments or engage. Even though I managed to at least post a bunch of things, just for the sake of posting.

And I can tell you, this never works.

Lesson learned: Content doesn’t build a business unless you design it to do so. You have to post intentionally. Every post needs a purpose - mostly to convert, but also to help your people. Not just say “hi”.

And so it hit me…

The wall that every new writer faces.

“It doesn’t work for me” I thought.

“I have my job, I can quit”

But that’s a lie. An excuse most people tell themselves.

You’ll never be free on a salary designed to be intentionally low. Just enough to cover your monthly expenses, but never enough to build financial freedom.

It’s a false feeling of “security”.

As you grow older you’ll see it more clearly.

Corporations want slaves they can control more easily. People with families and huge debt, who have no choice but to work for a salary that barely covers it. And comply with stupid “internal policies” that literally tell you they own you.

You have to report if you do something on the side, sometimes it’s even considered a conflict of interest. You can find all sorts of fancy words in your employment contract.

But this is your life.

You don’t owe anything to anyone.

You should use your salary to build something on your own. Not just consume it.

I knew that.

So I didn’t quit.

I also didn’t quit because I saw progress. People were engaging, my conversion rate was above average, I got my first viral Note in that very same month.

Lesson learned: When you think of quitting, focus on the small wins you already have. Acknowledge the progress, don’t think how far away are you from your goal. You’re one step closer than yesterday.

So I kept pushing.

I kept looking for the way to make this work for me.

Even when it felt impossible.

Even when I had to write at night.

Even when I had to skip dinner.

Even with my dog begging to take her out for a walk.

Because it’s f*cking hard to build a paid newsletter after a full day of work. Nobody says that part out loud.

Everyone shows you the badge, nobody shows you the 11pm drafts that never met the public.

I just kept pushing.

Until I finally figured it out.

And I built a paid newsletter that converted at above-average rates, brought me to consistent $5k/months and I finally saw exactly how I could scale it.

And so I did.

If you’re curious, it’s quite simple to scale - you just need to figure how to get more new subscribers and the ways are only two - organically or paid ads. I did both.

I described in these two how I did the organic part:

• how to write posts intentionally to grow subscribers

• how to engage intentionally to grow subscribers

And so I started growing with 100+ paid subscribers per month. Making $20k a month in total revenue.

I broke down a full month of that, number by number, here:

But this post is for the part before the scaling.

Because you can easily scale something that works. The hard part is to make it work.

The ONLY 3 things that grow your paid subscribers on Substack

And it all boils down to three things:

1. Make sure you grow new subscribers.

This is where I see most writers stuck: they publish good posts to the same 200 people and wonder why nothing moves. Your posts or Notes don’t grow your list, your new subscribers do.

If Notes and posts don’t work, you focus to make them work. Do something differently. Experiment.

What worked for others might not work for you, but the opposite is also valid. So don’t always listen to what others say. Experiment.

Notes are Substack’s built-in growth engine, and most writers use them like a diary instead of a doorway. I use them as data points.

Here’s my latest analysis with 5 templates that WILL bring you subscribers:

Don’t stop with Notes.

Collaborate, grow your recommendations, engage with others - stay active on the platform. Unlike social media, Substack grows you a real asset - an email list you own. Take advantage of it.

Here’s my engagement protocol again:

2. Make sure you convert them to buyers.

One of the biggest pains of most Substackers - convert to paid.

Free subscribers convert when your content shows them what the paid side does for them. You don’t have to hard sell, just show them the next step and tell them what problem it solves.

The key here is that you have to sell.

I know you might not like the word, so you can call it whichever word you want - ask, offer, promote - but the truth is you have to SELL.

And you have to do it FAST.

Why?

Because (as I said above) when someone joins your list they’re most likely to convert within the first 30 days. That is where my free-to-paid automation came to play.

Running promotions on top of paid content, community, engagement and Notes was way too much for me, so I automated it.

Now 50% of my paid members come from that automation. In this guest post I explained exactly how you can implement it, and you have the templates in the QUEST LABS here:

3. Make sure you show up for your buyers.

The part everyone skips.

Retention. Retention. Retention.

That’s the name of the game with paid subscriptions.

That’s how you keep them paying.

If you overlook it when you start (which is completely normal for all newbies), you’ll face it hard at month 12 (if not earlier).

What works really well to keep them paying is this (and that’s also why I say you have to start with retention):

• create a strong paid membership that solves a recurring problem

• make that solution tangible - give them tools, templates, workbooks, chat sheets, you get the idea

• create a community around that solution - this creates a sense of belonging. It’s in our human DNA - people might leave you but they won’t leave the group they belong to.

Your paid subscribers didn’t buy your archive, they bought YOU showing up regularly.

Answer their questions. Look at their Substacks. Give them the next step when they’re stuck. My churn stays low because my paid subscribers get me, not just my PDFs and courses.

How long did it take? (the question I get most)

From launch to the orange badge? 23 months exactly.

From launch to scaling readiness? 19 months exactly.

See, it’s not about the number.

It can be much faster - if you’re full time on this, if you get a crazy viral post or Note, if you figure how to get external traffic - social media or SEO or both or even paid ads. I did none of that in the beginning.

But it can be also much longer - three years, five maybe, never?

Most people never get there.

Because it’s all about WHAT you do to make it work, how fast you implement, and what decisions you make.

It’s true that I have decades of experience from my 9-5 so I do this almost intuitively.

But now anyone can do it.

Because I added ALL of it in the QUEST.

And people who implement it see real results:

The QUEST goes LIVE

In September I’m starting QUEST Lives - the next chapter of the QUEST program.

Live group sessions for VIP Members only where we work through the QUEST together, on real Substacks. I’ll share more details very soon.

For now just know that my V.I.P. membership becomes my group coaching, and so the price will rise with it.

Here’s everything a V.I.P. member gets:

• full access to the Quest, including bonus courses that are for VIPs only

• full access to the Viral Notes Writer system - some videos are for VIPs only

• full access to the Quest Labs - some videos are for VIPs only

• full access to all of my growth content, including the Write2Sell column

• full access to all of my AI tools - some are for VIPs only

• full access to the growth challenges - for Notes and Posts, monthly

• VIP member benefits:

  • a video review of your Substack from me, per year

  • 30-minute call and a 60-minute additional call with me, per year

  • access to me in the Substack chat - you can DM me for Substack help anytime

  • access to me in WhatsApp / Signal app - you get my mobile and if you need we can talk on a phone call

  • access to the Unplugged community chat on Substack

  • I build a personalized custom GPT or a Claude skill that writes like you (or teach you how to do it)

  • the QUEST VIP experience - I can be your sparring partner

  • [NEW] the QUEST LIVES - starting in September, we meet in Zoom to optimize Substack for high conversion rate

  • monthly live Mastermind calls with all VIPs

  • private WhatsApp group with all VIPs

  • be the first to know what I’m launching next

Join as a V.I.P. member before the price goes up here:

Subscribe now

I can’t wait to see you inside!

Yana

P.S. If you want to take the fastest route to a high converting Substack that brings you consistent revenue, this is where it starts.

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.

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

1. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

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:

Stable $20k-ish months.

It’s officially a six-figure business.

I’ve built entirely on the side of my 9-5 job.

Entirely by my own, of course with the help of my AI minions.

How?

Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.

When you ask me how I do all this, know that whatever I say, the data is always at the core of this.

All of your answers hide in your data.

You just have to look.

Even if you think you know business.

If you don’t know your numbers, you’re set to fail.

I tell you this because I’ve seen too many “business people” stammering when you ask about their numbers. If you’re a 9-5-er, you know what I mean, especially if you’re in corporate.

But the few of them who don’t? They are the rainmakers.

So learn to love them if you don’t. They’ll love you back, I promise.

Or study these reports if you want to reverse-engineer what I do - I hold nothing back, it’s all here.

I scaled from consistent $5k/month to consistent $20k/month with exactly the same offers, funnel, and volume of content.

Without someone to help me. Without leaving my job, or working more.

And in this round-up I’m gonna show you exactly what I did.

In a nutshell, this is what happened in the last two months:

1. Content & engagement strategies that:

   1. deliver new subscribers consistently, even in the slow months.

   2. convert them to paid, even without heavy promotions.

2. External growth (outside of Substack) stabilizing.

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 in September and what’s still cooking

Let me deep dive you into it!

Content & Distribution

This brings new subscribers literally “on demand”. Even in the slow months.

I’m serious: if your growth is slow, it’s almost always, 80% of the time - your content. The other 20% is optimization for conversion rate.

Here’s what I did in a nutshell:

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.

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

1. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

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.

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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:

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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.

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Usually, I get around 15–30 new subscribers per day and right now it’s slow. What’s your observation?

On the positive side: my conversion rate is up to 6.5% and I love it :)”

Wait wait wait…

That was the opening of my previous Notes analysis I did one year ago.

I’m actually NOT seeing any slowdown this summer and many Unplugged members who use my Viral Notes Writer tools to grow too.

Proof?

A few days ago sent me this:

One of her Notes just hit 22,997 views and brought her 134 new subscribers. And now most of her notes are taking off too. Edit 28th of August: she already has 650 subscribers from this Note.

My Notes?

I opened my own stats from WriteStack and saw this:

I got 1M views on my Notes since the beginning of 2025.

Yeah, I know…that’s vanity.

So here’s the actual result…

I had two almost viral Notes recently, each bringing hundreds of subscribers. They never reached 1k likes, but look at this:

The first one got me 262 subs out of 763 likes. That’s 34 subscribers per 100 likes. The other one brought 346 subs from 509 likes. That’s even more - 68 per 100 likes! Both Notes also brought paid members.

Here’s proof:

Now compare that to my most viral Note ever - the “my mom” story. 10,000 likes. 164 subscribers. Not even 2 per 100 likes. Zero paid subscribers.

See the difference?

You don’t have to go viral.

You have to write the right type of Notes. The ones that bring subscribers that are ready to become paid members. And don’t get me wrong - paid subscribers come when you have a strong offer and you work with your free subscribers in the first 30 days after subscribing. They don’t come directly from Notes, although it happens - like with those two Notes above.

So. Write the right type of Notes to get subscribers, not likes.

I realized that a while ago and changed my entire Notes strategy. I also updated the Viral Notes Writer so that my paid members can replicate what I do.

I got 786 subscribers from my Notes in the last 30 days.

Yes, there’s one peak from the second viral Note. But that’s not important. Look at the chart BEFORE and AFTER the peak - that’s the important part. Consistent subscribers, every single day, from ordinary Notes. Most of them bring just a couple each.

Which is why this game is also about quantity, not only quality.

So. In this post I’m gonna show you the only 5 templates you need to make Notes deliver subscribers that convert to paid. Consistently.

Now, before I show you the analysis, l have to tell you this wasn’t always like this. You saw my previous analysis intro, I had many many slowdowns.

When I first started on Substack Notes didn’t work for me. For months.

I posted every day into the void. No replies. No likes. No subs. Every day I thought about quitting. Just another social media that I can’t make work because of my stupid corporate writing.

Then my “my mom” Note blew up. 10,000 likes! I thought I cracked it.

164 subscribers. No conversions, even on the backend…

And my next Notes? Straight back to nothing.

I was guessing. Writing what felt good, copying what looked viral, hoping.

Then I remembered my corporate brain is actually a leverage.

So last year I exported everything and analyzed my 1,611 Notes with ChatGPT. It helped. Until it didn’t. Substack changed.

October 2025. Notes brought me 92 subscribers. The WHOLE month:

I was desperate….I thought I lost it…Substack changed and I lost track of how it works.

So I did what I always do when that happens.

I looked at the data with AI.

And I found the patterns that deliver subscribers.

That was the moment I switched my strategy focus from virality to subscriptions. And those analyses became regular. Almost monthly.

And in this post I’m giving you the most recent analysis - the one from this week.

I gave Claude my full Notes data, all 4,553 of them, and asked the question I should’ve asked from day one: which Notes actually bring subscribers?

The deep teardown covers 2,146 Notes out of 4,553 - the ones I published from January 1 to August 10, 2026.

And before you ask - YES, the data revealed some shocking truths:

• 1,891 of my Notes brought zero subscribers - proof it’s a quality game.

• 13 of my 31 most-liked Notes brought ZERO subscribers - proof you don’t need virality.

• My list grew on 210 quiet Notes I can repeat on purpose - proof it’s also a quantity game.

• Plus the almost viral two designed to explode in subscriptions, not likes - proof these templates work.

Let me show you.

One important thing: this will only work if you approach Substack the right way and build it for conversion (free subscription is a conversion too). Here’s how I did it:

How I got the data (this changes everything)

Substack standard Notes analytics are not enough. Likes, restacks, replies. That’s about it in the app. And you have to look one by one. It’s literally impossible to see patterns.

So I connected StackContacts (Finn Tropy’s tool) to Claude. It pulls the full metrics behind every Note. For each of my 2,146 Notes I can now see:

• Impressions, split by source (feed, outside my bubble, search, notifications)

• Profile visits the Note generated

• Follows, likes, comments

• Free subscribers it brought

• Paid subscribers it brought

That last two are the the name of the game.

Because a like is someone tapping a heart and scrolling on. A subscriber is someone handing you their email.

Substack’s algorithm optimizes for the second one. There’s a one-tap Subscribe button right next to your Note. Not Follow. Subscribe. That’s intentional. The entire platform is designed to help you grow.

You have to stop asking “which Notes got the most likes” and start asking “which Notes actually grew my list”.

Likes and subscribers are barely related

Months ago, I’d expect my most-liked Notes to be my best subscriber magnets. That’s literally the premise of my post from last year. Now I know it’s….

Wrong.

I asked Claude to run the correlation between likes and subscribers across all my Notes. Once I remove the two viral peaks (more on those in a minute), it’s 0.29.

Weak. More likes did almost nothing to predict more subscribers.

Restacks? 0.13. Basically ZERO.

Most Substack gurus will tell you restacks are key. My data shows they’re not. They lean on gut feelings, I look at data. Restacks don’t bring subscribers.

31 of my Notes got 50+ likes. 13 of them brought zero subscribers.

Here are a few of those popular, zero-subscriber notes, word for word:

“The scariest moment as a writer? Pressing publish. The second scariest? Waiting to see if anyone cares. Keep publishing anyway.” 58 likes. 0 subscribers.

“Write like you explain things to a friend. Not like you’re submitting homework. Nobody subscribes to homework.” 52 likes. 0 subscribers.

“A lot of beginners think successful writers wake up inspired. They don’t. They sit down uncertain. Write anyway. Doubt half of it. Publish anyway.” 51 likes. 0 subscribers.

Good Notes. People liked them, felt seen, tapped the heart, scrolled on.

Nobody cared who wrote them.

That would hurt a newbie. For me it’s data point.

What a Note actually does before someone subscribes

Claude helped me map the funnel. It’s stupidly simple once you see it.

Note creates impressions. Some impressions become profile visits. Some profile visits become subscribers.

My numbers for that path:

• 567,867 impressions turned into 9,289 profile visits. That’s 1.64%.

• 9,289 profile visits turned into 929 subscribers. That’s exactly 10%.

Look at that second number. 1 in 10 people who land on my profile subscribes. My profile converts like crazy. That’s why I keep repeating to my VIPs and coaching clients that your profile description matters A LOT, and it’s not a bio or diary.

Back to the data.

Let’s go one step back. Only 1.64% of people who SEE a Note bother to visit the profile. 61 impressions for one profile visit. 611 impressions for one subscriber.

So here’s the rule: the job of a Note is to earn the profile tap. Your profile description does the work to get a subscriber.

Hint: a hover over of your profile name on top of the Note also displays your profile description. Don’t think people have to click to see it.

A like happens in the feed and dies in the feed. A profile visit means your Note made someone curious enough to think “who is this person?”

Two different behaviors. And I’d been optimizing for the wrong one for too long.

So which Notes earn the tap? I split all 2,146 into 4 types and compared them.

The 4 types of Notes, ranked by what they actually do

Those are not the templates, we’re still analyzing here.

Claude gave me two rates, side by side: likes per 1,000 impressions, and subscribers per 1,000 impressions. Here’s the shocking truth:

Read that table slowly.

The aphorisms - the little wisdom lines - are 75% of everything I post. Solid likes per impression. And the WORST subscriber conversion: 0.42 per 1,000 impressions.

The image and community Notes get fewer likes. And they bring 10 to 20+ TIMES more subscribers for the same reach. That’s why we see a flood of “drop your like here” type of Notes. I tried it, it worked, and then I stopped doing it. Changed my community invites completely.

You don’t have to do things you don’t like to get results.

Read that again.

It’s true.

What then? Just get creative. I’ll show you below in the templates, but before that let’s break down what drove the most subscribers for me:

The whales: my 2 almost viral Notes (huge, rare, but unrepeatable)

Two Notes did almost all the work. The two viral notes from the intro.

“Woke up to 700 paid members today 🥳” Posted June 2 with a screenshot of the milestone. 763 likes, 13 restacks, 164 replies, 23,965 impressions, 2,514 profile visits, and 262 new subscribers.

“I’ve got 823 paid subscribers on Substack. I reached my first $20k month in May...” Posted July 4 with a screenshot, telling the honest story behind the numbers. 509 likes, 17 restacks, 117 replies, 26,164 impressions, 3,053 profile visits, and 346 new subscribers.

608 subscribers from 2 Notes.

When I take those two out, and look at the other 85 image Notes - they brought 24 subscribers. Twenty-four. Total.

So milestone screenshots can be enormous. But you can’t schedule “hit 700 paid members” for every other Tuesday. And you have to hit that milestone.

Post them every single time something real happens - a genuine milestone, a genuine screenshot.

“But Yana I’m not writing about Substack growth”

I know. Do it anyway.

Most people here are writing but they are also humans. When they see your milestones, they get curious. If you grow, they think you must be good, so they subscribe.

It’s human nature.

Problem is, you can’t manufacture these Notes.

The repeatable engine is the other one.

The tempting one: community invite Notes (I stopped doing these)

These are the Notes where I invite people to drop their link and promote themselves.

Here’s what they look like:

“Substackers with less than 500 subscribers. Drop your link below. Let’s help you grow. ✨” 46 likes, 33 replies, 23 subscribers.

“New writers under 1,000 subscribers. Drop your link below. Let’s help you grow. ✨” 90 likes, 80 replies, 9 subscribers.

“In 1 sentence: Who do you help with your Substack? Here’s your chance to promote your work. Let’s connect, follow and recommend.” 58 likes, 43 replies, 4 subscribers.

But I stopped doing these.

Look closer at the numbers. My best one brought 23 subscribers. The next: 9. Then 4. And behind them, a tail of the same Note that brought almost nothing - 31 to be exact. A few hit. Most didn’t.

And the ones that hit? It’s an engagement pod not a real Note.

Everyone hates these Notes in their feed, me included. I had to try. And I stopped.

People reply with their link and scroll on. The subscribers you get subscribe to be subscribed back, not to read you or pay you.

It’s just not who I am.

And it’s also NOT serving my goal - get subscribers who convert.

I sell without selling, and I’m not going to grow without growing. Not that type of growing at least :D

But the data inside these Notes is gold:

Look at the reply counts. 33. 80. 43. My average Note gets barely 2 replies.

That’s the MECHANISM is real. Replies pull people to your profile.

It’s not restacks.

Conversation converts.

A link drop engagement pod is just the cheap way to trigger it.

The honest way to trigger it?

Ask a real question people actually want to answer. Think not just people, but your buyers.

My raccoon Note (you’ll meet it in Template 4 below) got 10 replies and a subscriber with zero engagement bait. Same mechanism, done clean.

So no, I’m not telling you to run engagement pods. I’m just showing you what they accidentally proved to me.

The 2 Notes that fooled me. And the 210 that didn’t.

There’s a trap hiding in my own data.

I had to work with Claude for days to come up to the final version of this analysis.

My two viral Notes brought me 608 subscribers.

If I only studied the top of the list (like I used to do when I optimized for likes), I’d learn the wrong lesson. Go viral! Post milestones! Both worked.

But neither repeats consistently. I hit 700 paid members exactly once. I hit my first $20k month exactly once. You can’t build a weekly schedule out of once-in-a-lifetime moments.

Now the other end of that list.

1,891 of my 2,121 Notes brought zero subscribers. That’s 89%.

Ouch again.

Most were the wisdom lines from earlier. Likes, then nothing.

The real story is in the middle.

210 Notes each brought 1 or 2 subscribers. 232 subscribers in total. Quiet, ordinary Notes. No screenshot or milestones. No “drop your link below”. Just normal Notes that made a few people curious enough to subscribe.

That middle matters more than the spikes for one simple reason: You can repeat it.

Strip out the milestones and every engagement invite, and 189 plain content Notes still brought 206 subscribers. So I asked Claude to read ALL of them and looked for what repeats.

Patterns. They become templates.

Those 189 Notes are your Notes content strategy. Add a milestone here and there and you have it.

That’s where the consistent growth of subscribers is.

The goal is simple: turn some of your zero-sub Notes into 1-2-sub Notes. That’s the whole game.

Claude helped me get the 5 best patterns and turn them into templates - they’re near the end of this post.

But before we get to them, few important things…because these templates won’t work without them.

When to post

Last year I told you timing matters, post in peak windows. I have to correct myself, because I have better data now.

For ordinary Notes? Timing does almost nothing.

My daytime aphorisms convert at 0.47 subscribers per 1,000 impressions. Overnight: 0.41. Same nothing, different hour.

A Note that doesn’t earn the profile tap won’t earn it at 9am or 9pm.

But for subscriber-type Notes? Timing matters A LOT.

Community and milestone Notes posted between midnight and 5am my time (that’s US evening - I’m in Europe) converted at 4.47 subscribers per 1,000 impressions. The same types during my daytime: 1.50. Triple.

By day of week: Tuesday wins (0.83 subs per 1k impressions), Saturday flops (0.43). Tuesday doubles Saturday.

My rule now: timing won’t rescue a weak Note, but it multiplies a strong one. Schedule your best Notes into US evening. Don’t bother timing the throwaways - they perform the same whenever.

And yes, I schedule in advance. Substack now has a native Notes scheduler, but it’s still not easy to use, so I use this Claude MCP and WriteStack.

What gets likes vs what gets subscribers, side by side

Here’s pretty much the whole analysis in one table:

There’s nothing wrong or right here. Neither column is bad. Likes signal the algorithm and they feel nice. But so do comments and subscriptions. That’s how my 2 whales happened.

So if you’re posting to grow a real business? The right column pays. The left one just feels like it does.

Still, it’s ok to have some mindset shifts that get thousands of likes every time.

How to write Notes that get subscribers

Before you get to the templates, you need to know this. It’s key to getting subscribers that are likely to become customers.

1. First and Foremost: Write the Note to earn the profile tap, not the heart. Before you post, ask: does this make someone curious about NOT who I am and what I do on Substack, but what I sell in my paid tier - that’s KEY! Your Notes content and topics have to come from your Substack paid tier, not from what happened to you today (unless you sell that, of course). If you take just one thing from this analysis - let that one be it. Even Substack themselves recommended it to Bestsellers.

2. Start conversations. Replies predict subscribers, not likes. Ask a real question people want to answer. Start a genuine conversation, as if you’re in a cafe talking to a friend over a cappuccino.

3. Skip the engagement bait. “Drop your link below” threads convert, but they are not authentic. I ran 34 of them, a few hit, most flopped, and the subscribers they bring come for a subscribe-back, not to buy. I stopped. Get the replies honestly instead: a real question beats a link thread, and nobody rolls their eyes at it.

4. Post your milestones with a screenshot, every single time. 100 subscribers, a bestseller badge, a revenue month, first paid subscriber, anything goes - post the screenshot. My “700 paid members” Note has brought 262 subscribers so far. You won’t hit a milestone every week, but never let one pass quietly. Few days ago I hit 1,000 paid members so I posted another milestone. And today I saw myself #1 Rising on the bestseller chart, so I posted another one. These Notes work. Even if you don’t write about Substack growth, this works. DO IT, here’s proof:

5. Put real numbers in, and show them. Plain-text proof (”I added $4,014 in ARR last month”) converts about twice as well as a smart sentence. Add the screenshot and it jumps even more. Specificity sells, vagueness doesn’t - it’s just how human brain works.

6. Schedule your best Notes into US afternoon and evening. For me that’s evening to midnight and a bit beyond. Can’t post it live, so I schedule. I wasted too much time overlooking time slots, don’t do this. It matters. I know this from my previous analysis and it popped up here as well.

7. Reply to every comment on these Notes. Every reply is a person one tap away from your profile. I get a visible bump in subscriber growth on the days I clear my comments. It’s free growth sitting in your notifications. No excuses! I have almost 20k subscribers now, and more than 1k paid members and I still manage to answer every comment. Don’t overlook this, don’t roll your eyes on it. It will pay you back.

8. Keep the aphorisms, but demote them. They warm up the feed, they keep you visible, they occasionally land. I keep getting “Oh I needed to read this today” type of comments and every time I see them I smile. Dopamine - we all need it. Just don’t call them a growth strategy - think of them more like a seasoning, not the meal.

9. Last but not least - volume. About 10 Notes a day, on the side of my 9-5 job? Yes, it’s possible. Does it worth it? Yes. If a Note gets 1-2 subs, 10 Notes can get 10-20 subs. It’s quality but it’s also quantity game. Substack themselves recommend 3 to 5 Notes per day. I’m an overachiever.

And no, I don’t write them from scratch. My AI minions do the typing.

I built the Viral Notes Writer for exactly this. It’s trained on this analysis, my templates, and my voice rules, and it writes my daily batch of subscriber-getting Notes in about 15 minutes. It’s the tool Lisa and hundreds of my most committed paid member are using.

It’s a custom GPT and a Claude skill, and it’s 100% free for my paid members, as usual, together with all my other AI tools. That’s what I do: I test, I prove with data, then I hand my people the tools.

What to stop, and what to do instead

This is the part I couldn’t write in the analysis last year, because I didn’t have enough data to know I was wrong. Side by side:

I did every single thing in the left column. For months! Don’t do this. I dare you!

5 Note templates that bring subscribers consistently

Ok, time to get to the main course - the actual 5 templates you can copy today.

They don’t come from the whales or the link threads. I removed both on purpose - you can’t repeat a milestone, and the link threads I quit for good reasons you just read.

They come from the 189 plain content Notes that quietly brought 1 or 2 subscribers each. Claude helped reading all of them, find the patterns and make templates out of them.

Each one below comes with a real Note of mine that brought subscribers - its actual numbers.

Use these templates to wrote your Notes, or give them to Claude or ChatGPT.

Or simply use my Viral Notes Writer like Lisa and many others did, here’s the download link again:

Template 1. The build-in-public number drop

A specific real number, infused with your identity, no bragging.

Why it works: the exact figure stops the scroll, and “normal person with a job” makes people want the backstory. So they tap your profile.

Real Note example (20 profile visits, 1 subscriber):

“$5,512/month from 393 people. 8 hours/week of work. Still have my 9-to-5. Because I love it.”

Skeleton:

[Specific $ or subscriber number] from [small, real base].
[How little time you spend]. [Your ordinary constraint, e.g. still have my 9-to-5].
[One honest line about why you do it.]

Note that this is also the exact shape of the viral Note that brought me 346 subscribers. It opened with 823 paid subscribers and a $20k month on the side of my 9-5, then told the honest story behind the numbers. Same template, just bigger moment that somehow provoked more emotion and went almost viral.

Template 2. The “what actually drove [result]” list

A short numbered list tied to a real result you got.

Why it works: the list promises a takeaway people can copy, the number makes it proof, and they check who you are.

Real Note (19 profile visits, 1 subscriber):

“The top 3 features that drove me 51 paid subs: a good welcome page, an AI tool, an engaged community. This is what sells.”

Skeleton:

The [number] things that drove [specific result I got]:
1. [thing]
2. [thing]
3. [thing]
[One blunt closing line.]

Template 3. The turning-point micro-story

Your before state with a number, the one change, the after number, a short lesson.

Why it works: a real before and after reads as proof, and the numbers pull people in to see the full story.

Real Note (9 profile visits, 1 subscriber):

“September ‘24, I had 20 paid subscribers. I was invisible. Then I rewrote my offer in one sentence. Today? 465 paid subs.”

Skeleton:

[Date]. I had [small number or low state].
[The one thing you changed.]
Today? [Bigger number.]
[Short lesson, said plainly.]

Template 4. The honest confession plus a question

A real, slightly funny admission about your own process, then a question inviting readers to share theirs.

Why it works: the confession makes you human, and the question drives replies. And replies are what pull people to your profile, remember?

Real Note (9 profile visits, 1 subscriber):

“Sometimes I know exactly what I need to write. And I still go reorganize my drafts like a raccoon arranging shiny trash. What’s your weirdest writing procrastination habit?”

Skeleton:

[An honest, specific, slightly funny thing you do instead of the work].
[Why it's a little embarrassing.]
[A question inviting readers to share theirs.]

Note that this does the exact same thing like the “drop your links” type of Notes. The only BIG difference is that it invites real conversations, drives comments and profile visits, and bring subscribers that actually convert.

Template 5. The belief and its consequence

Name a line your readers say to themselves, then give the concrete consequence and a plain fix.

Why it works: it’s useful, a little contrarian, and it shows you understand the mechanics. People want more of that, so they check your profile.

Real Note (8 profile visits, 1 subscriber):

“’I give so much for free, I can’t charge now.’ Happens when you deliver everything for free for too long. You trained your readers to value free. Stop it.”

Skeleton:

"[A belief your reader holds, in their own words]."
[The concrete consequence of holding it.]
[The plain fix.]

None of these need a milestone or a lucky day. You can write 2 or 3 of them this afternoon. That’s the point. The reliable growth lives in the repeatable middle, and now you have the 5 shapes it runs on.

“But Yana, I’m just starting, I have 40 subscribers...”

I hear you. I get this question every day, in DMs, in comments, everywhere.

Everything above works at your size too. But you have to translate my numbers to yours first. And you have to one more thing, here it is:

Do the math on YOUR reach. My data says roughly 611 impressions per subscriber. If your Notes get 100 impressions each, that’s about 1 subscriber per 6 Notes. Read that again. One per six. That’s not failure, that’s the math working. Most people quit at Note 30 thinking Notes don’t work for them. Notes were working. Their expectations weren’t. Just keep working.

Fix your profile BEFORE you chase the tap. Exactly 1 in 10 people who visit my profile subscribe, and that number is earned. My bio says who I help and with what. My pinned post sells. If your profile doesn’t name the problem you solve, every profile tap you earn is wasted. Fix that first, it takes 20 minutes. Here’s proof this works:

If you find this a pain, become a VIP members, I’ll help you do this the same way I did for Luke.

Post 3-5 Notes a day, not 10. I do 10 because I have my AI minions. Start with 3 good ones from the templates above. Templates 4 and 5 work from day one, you need zero numbers for them. And for templates 1-3: small honest numbers count too. “Day 30 on Substack. 18 subscribers. Here’s the one thing that surprised me” is a number drop. Being at the start IS your story, use it.

Engage for real, not in pods. Skip the “drop your link” or “sub for sub” threads - I DARE YOU! These will bring you subscribers who WON’T CONVERT!! Instead: comment genuinely on bigger Notes in your niche (a real answer, not “great post!”), and reply to every single comment you get on your own Notes. Remember: replies predict subscribers almost twice as well as likes. That’s true at 40 subscribers and at 14,000. Here’s my exact engagement SOP if you want to replicate it:

The system is the same at every size. Find what converts. Repeat it on purpose. You just start smaller.

How to use this analysis

Save this post as a PDF and give it to your AI. Ask it to adapt the Note types to your niche and your audience’s language.

Then get your own numbers. If you’re serious about Notes, connect StackContacts to Claude and look at your subscribers per Note, not just your likes. Your winning Note types might differ from mine. The method is what transfers: find what earns the profile tap, then make more of that.

I’ve mapped the full Notes system, the subscriber funnel, and my scheduling setup inside the QUEST.

And if you want the shortcut: the Viral Notes Writer does all of the above for you. You tell it your niche and your numbers, it writes subscriber-getting Notes in your voice using the templates and rules from this analysis. It takes my Notes task from hours to about 15 minutes a day, and it’s what brought Lisa her first take-off Notes.

Bottom line

I spent a year optimizing my Notes for likes. But likes and subscribers correlate at 0.27. Let that sink in.

1,891 of my 2,121 Notes brought zero subscribers. My 2 almost viral ones brought 608, and I can’t repeat either. But they both follow the 5 templates I gave you above.

What I CAN repeat: the 210 quiet Notes that brought 1-2 each, built on the 5 templates above.

Replies predict subscribers twice as well as likes. Profile visits predict them best of all. So: fewer wisdom lines, more of the 5 shapes, more real questions, screenshots when I earn them, scheduled into US afternoon and evening.

From 92 to 786 subscribers a month in under a year - this happened with the same effort, just different Notes.

Notes built for likes get you likes. Notes built to convert get you subscribers. And when one of those goes almost viral? You get a very good month.

Yana

P.S. You don’t have to figure Notes alone, I can build an customized AI minion for you that brings you subscribers on autopilot. Here’s where to start.

I help them with their 9-5 job.

They’re doing great with sales, but not growing in the company.

They seemed to know what they want and how to get it, but somehow they don’t get it. So they hired me to help.

Somewhere on the 4th meeting, our conversation revealed something I didn’t expect.

They wanted to get a share in the company. They were promised this share years ago, but they’re not getting it. Common problem, I know.

What surprised me is that they never asked for it.

Why?

Because they believed they’ll be rewarded for their efforts so they don’t have to ask.

Can you imagine?!

I immediately said, you have to ask to get the things you want.

The baby gets fed when it starts crying, not before. No one will think about you and your needs, people think about their own problems most of the time.

Your boss won’t reward you with a bonus or company share just because you’re doing great, that’s what you get a salary for.

My words made this person pause. Think and see things differently.

I could literally feel his brain rewiring in front of my eyes as we spoke.

It’s the same with online business.

Most people don’t make money because they don’t ask for it. They keep burning themselves out with more writing, more content, more engagement. Meanwhile no one knows about their offers.

You have to ask.

How do you think I got almost 1000 paid subscribers and scaled from $5k/month to a $20k/month consistent revenue in less than two years? Here’s proof:

So now you might be thinking, ok, Yana, I’ll ask….

But then you ask, and nobody buys

You write that email. You add that link. You hit that send button.

And then….silence.

Or worse - the replies come in and they all say a version of the same thing. I don’t have the money right now. I don’t have the time. It’s not the right time for me.

So you do the thing everyone does.

You drop the price.

And…..silence. This time louder.

The price was never the problem.

I’ve seen this in my own numbers and in the numbers of the writers I work with, and dropping a price to fix an offer moves almost nothing except your revenue per buyer.

And your confidence in what you do.

I won’t stop repeating this: People love buying, they just hate being sold to.

Every person who lands on your offer page already wants something, or they wouldn’t be there. You don’t enter the negotiation room if you don’t want the deal.

They have their attention on you. What stops them is never the words they said to you - that’s just the official excuse.

Only two real reasons

Yes, there are just two real reasons why people don’t buy, and they’re both rooted in human psychology.

It’s either a trust problem or a limiting belief.

They might look identical at first sight.

They might create the same “official” excuses.

But they need completely different responses, so if you guess wrong, everything you write next makes it worse.

If it’s a trust problem, no amount of objection handling will save you. You can write the best reassurance of your life and it will bounce back at you like a boomerang.

The person doesn’t believe you. But if they’re still here? Think a free subscriber who checked your paid tier and didn’t upgrade.

You have to go back and fix the foundation: add some proof, show some vulnerability, build the connection you probably skipped.

How? You just optimize your Substack for conversion. It’s what I do in my personalized reviews for my VIP members.

But if it is a limiting belief? The person already trusts you.

They read your posts. They open your emails. They might have been on your free list for eight months. They like you.

They just don’t believe the thing you’re selling applies to them.

And that one you can fix. With words. On every touch point of your Substack subscriber journey.

There are only three of types of limiting beliefs

I can list you fifty objections that come to my mind. I’ve heard all of them, and I’ve said most of them myself before I started selling.

And most gurus will match them to another fifty limiting beliefs that stand behind them. And most probably they’re right.

But every single one of those fifty boils down to just three. It’s human nature. I know it from my NLP coach, I’ve proven it with my team in my 9-5, and I’ve tested it in sales negotiations in my job and also in my online business.

Dealing with those beliefs let me grow in my 9-5 to the director level. It made me comfortable to ask, so I negotiated better than average conditions, some say they’re exceptional. It helped me grow my online business to 6 figures, all on the side of my job.

They are just three. Those three:

1. “It’s not possible.” They don’t believe the outcome is real.

2. “It’s not possible for me.” They believe it’s real, for the special ones.

3. “It’s not worth it.” Time, money, or effort. They think the cost is too much.

Those are the three major roadblocks of the transformation. Buying is the beginning of the transformation you’re trying to lead the person to. It’s a change and change is scary, so the human brain finds reasons to resist.

Powerful reasons.

But when you know them? You can beat them.

And that’s valid for anything in life, but let’s stay on topic.

For Substack specifically: you don’t get to have a conversation, you’re not in a boardroom. There’s no sales call. Most people don’t reply to tell you why they don’t buy, even if you ask them.

So you have to handle these beliefs before they ever show up. On every step of your buyer journey. In advance.

Here’s how.

Note: everything below applies only if you have a strong paid offer. If you’re not sure, take the Substack QUEST and build one.

First: find out which belief you’re dealing with

Ask them before you rewrite anything.

Question 1: Has this reader seen proof someone like them achieved what I promise?

Drop all proof that you’re awesome. Add proof that the outcome happened to a normal person (can be you), with a timeframe, and a name they look up and DM.

Be real - if it took 6 or 12 months, say so, don’t sugarcoat.

If you don’t have such proof yet, you can keep the awesomness, just know it’s weak.

You have to change it the moment you get some proof.

If you don’t have anything, it’s a trust problem. Solve it first.

Question 2: Would they take this offer if it was free?

If yes, it’s belief 3.

If they’d still hesitate at free, it’s belief 1 or 2, and price was never in the room.

So how to deal with them?

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.

Your Challenge Resources:

1. [NEW] Use this trick to personalize your posts - it will help you grow faster:

1. [NEW] Make sure you check my growth SOPs, which I use to get to my first $20k month - these two posts compile all of it:

3. [NEW] And if you’re still struggling to get high-quality output from AI, here’s my most complex protocol for using AI for writing so that I get 100% human checks on Pangram:

4. And if you haven’t already, take my new data-driven online writing courses to convert at high rates and get recommended by AI:

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.

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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 :)

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