Hello, everyone. Welcome to the fourth episode of my Ask Me Anything podcast.
Every month I collect pressing questions about growing and monetizing a newsletter on Substack, and I answer them here.
If you want to have your question answered, reach out to me in the chat or post it here:
Here are the questions for today:
Question 1:
How long do you consider the “beginner hell” season was for you?
What’s the formula to do selling the right way?
How many notes I need to post before I start getting noticed?
Where have you usually felt a blockage in your journey? What strategy worked for you Yana?
How did you started your Substack? I don't have Instagram to bring people. I don’t know how to start finding the right ones. I really believe on my words.
Do you send paywalled post to free subscribers and why?
Do you suggest sending daily emails or just a few times per week?
Do you remember what you asked your audience to pay for first?
What should I write in the chat?
Do you schedule Notes or post randomized throughout the day?
And here are the answers in case you want to read:
Question 1:
How long do you consider the “beginner hell” season was for you?
It depends.
For some people, it’s a few weeks.
For others, it lasts forever.
And the difference isn’t luck.
It’s how much you’re willing to put into it.
If you show up every day.
If you obsess about it.
If you actually do the work instead of endlessly "figuring it out."
You can break out of beginner hell in a matter of weeks.
But if you hesitate.
If you keep consuming and never creating.
If you wait for everything to feel perfect.
You’ll stay stuck.
Beginner hell doesn’t have a timer.
It has an exit door.
You just have to walk through it.
Move fast.
Make mistakes.
Publish.
Learn.
And keep going.
That’s how you leave beginner hell behind.
Question 2:
What’s the formula to do selling the right way?
It’s actually simple.
Help first. Sell always.
Here’s the formula:
Step one:
Be helpful.
Every piece of content you create should solve a problem, answer a question, or give clarity.
Even if it’s small, give them something they can use right now.
Step two:
Turn your help into a product or service.
Don’t just share free advice forever.
Package your knowledge into something structured that goes deeper.
That’s your paid offer.
Step three:
Ask for the sale in every post.
Not in a pushy way.
Not in a desperate way.
Simply remind them:
"If you want to go deeper, subscribe."
"If you want more of this, upgrade."
"If you need the full system, it’s behind the paywall."
You don’t have to convince anyone.
You just have to make the offer visible.
The more people see your offer, the more chances they have to say yes.
That’s how you sell without being salesy.
Help.
Package.
Offer.
Repeat.
Question 3:
How many notes I need to post before I start getting noticed?
There’s no magic number.
But here’s the reality.
Posting alone won’t get you noticed.
Substack Notes aren’t like a slot machine where you just keep pulling and hope you hit.
You have to combine posting with interaction.
The Notes that get traction usually come from two things:
One — you’re active.
Two — you’re visible.
That means:
· Post your Notes daily.
· Restack other people’s Notes.
· Comment where your audience hangs out.
· Subscribe and recommend people in your niche.
· Show up in Chat.
If you do that, you’ll start getting noticed a lot faster—sometimes within days.
If you only post but never engage, you could write 100 Notes and still stay invisible.
The formula is simple.
Post. Interact. Repeat.
The more you show up for others, the faster others show up for you.
Question 4:
Where have you usually felt a blockage in your journey? What strategy worked for you Yana?
The biggest one always came from this:
Starting without clarity on the offer.
When I tried to grow first and sell later, I hit a wall.
Because I was attracting people who liked my content
but weren’t interested in buying anything from me.
Wrong audience. Wrong foundation.
That’s where most writers get stuck.
They write whatever gets engagement.
They build an audience they can’t monetize.
And later they realize they have to either start over or pivot hard.
Both are painful.
The strategy that worked for me?
Start with what you want to sell.
I asked myself:
What am I good at?
Who needs this?
What problem can I solve?
What will I offer them that’s worth paying for?
Once I knew that, my content had a direction.
Every post built trust.
Every post led toward the offer.
The audience I grew was aligned from day one.
And then I stayed consistent.
That’s the secret most people hate to hear.
It’s not hacks.
It’s not tricks.
It’s aligned work, done consistently.
When your content is disconnected from your offers you're building a painful mess, not a business.
Question 5:
How did you started your Substack? I don't have Instagram to bring people. I don’t know how to start finding the right ones. I really believe on my words.
I started simple.
I didn’t bring people from Instagram.
I didn’t have a big audience waiting for me.
I just started spreading my words where my audience was already gathering.
That’s what Substack gives you.
The platform itself has built-in discovery.
But you have to work with it.
Here’s exactly how you start:
First, before writing a single post,
get clear on your strategy and offer.
Who are you writing for?
What problem are you solving?
What do you eventually want to sell?
Once you know that, start writing.
Publish posts.
Post Notes every day.
Notes are where people will first notice you.
They work like tweets but inside Substack.
But don’t just post.
Interact.
Comment on other writers' Notes.
Restack people in your niche.
Join conversations in Chats.
Make yourself visible.
Every interaction brings you into someone’s feed.
Every post gives you one more chance to be discovered.
This is how you find the right people—
by showing up where they already are.
You believe in your words?
Good.
Now start putting them in front of people.
Consistency plus interaction is how you build from zero.
Question 6:
Do you send paywalled post to free subscribers and why?
Yes. Yes and YES!!!
Always.
Here’s why:
If you don’t show them what’s behind the paywall, they have no reason to upgrade.
Free subscribers need to see what they’re missing.
They need to feel the gap.
And that only happens if you give them a taste.
So when I send paywalled posts to free subscribers, I structure them like this:
· The intro and some valuable insights are free.
· The deep dive, the step-by-step, the real "tangible" stuff goes behind the paywall.
That way, free readers get value.
But they also clearly see what they’re not getting.
That’s what triggers conversions.
If you only send paywalled posts to paying subscribers, you’re hiding your best sales tool.
Let your free readers bump into the paywall often.
That’s how you turn free into paid.
Question 7:
Do you suggest sending daily emails or just a few times per week?
If you can do daily, it’s good.
The more you show up, the more chances you give people to read, connect, and convert.
But daily isn’t mandatory for everyone.
It depends on your niche, your content, and your audience.
Some audiences love daily touchpoints.
Others may prefer two or three solid posts per week.
The key is not the exact number.
The key is consistency plus relevance.
If you’re showing up often with valuable, focused content that serves your offer, you’re doing it right.
So if daily feels doable—go for it.
If not, aim for at least twice per week and build from there.
The more you’re present, the harder you are to forget.
And forgotten writers don’t sell.
Question 8:
Do you remember what you asked your audience to pay for first?
Yes.
It was a paywalled article about Medium.
Honestly, the offer wasn’t super clear back then.
But I still managed to sell to about twenty people within three months.
That first small win taught me something important:
you don’t need perfection to start selling.
You just need to start.
But here’s what I’d do differently now:
Get your offer clear first.
Define exactly what your paid subscribers get.
Why it matters.
Why they should pay for it today, not “someday.”
Because when the offer is clear, sales get a lot easier.
Confused people don’t buy.
Clear offers convert.
Question 9:
What should I write in the chat?
There’s no universal script.
It depends on your content and your audience.
But here’s the rule:
Use Chat to create conversations, not lectures.
Look around at what others are doing.
You’ll see people:
· Asking questions
· Sharing behind-the-scenes updates
· Dropping quick thoughts or hot takes
· Starting casual discussions
· Asking for feedback or opinions
The goal is simple.
Engage your audience.
Make them feel like they’re part of something.
Keep them connected to you between posts.
Because the longer they stay close, the more likely they’ll become paying subscribers.
Think of Chat like the lounge.
It’s where people hang out.
Keep it casual, interactive, and on-topic with what you write about.
That’s how you use Chat to strengthen your audience.
Question 10:
Do you schedule Notes or post randomized throughout the day?
I do a mix.
Sometimes I schedule Notes using Finn Tropy’s Chrome extension.
Sometimes I post them live throughout the day.
And sometimes, I batch them and drop several at once.
All of it works.
But if you want the best rhythm, here’s what I’ve seen work well:
Post some in the morning, and some in the evening.
That way you hit different time zones.
You catch different groups of people when they’re most active.
And you stay present inside the Substack feed all day long.
The key isn’t perfect timing.
The key is consistency and volume.
Just keep showing up.
Alright! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed it!
See you next time!
Stay Unplugged!
Yana
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