Substack Notes30 Challenge: January 2026
Let's Kick-Start 2026 with that ALL-NEW Monthly Notes Challenge + A Fully Automated Notes Workflow + Win Amazing NEW Prizes
New Year - New Growth - New Challenge
Notes are THE MAJOR growth lever for your Substack and with this challenge you have ALL you need to replicate my fully automated Notes workflow. I’ll share in a bit HOW, but before that….
Let me introduce you to the WINNERS from the Last Month Notes30 Challenge - The CHRISTMAS EDITION
WINNERS AWARDS
With the help of Finn Tropy and his brand new StackContacts solution, I’m now able to identify who is the most active in Challenge, using actual data, i.e. your exact activity on the sharing posts. Yes, I now SEE YOU ALL, minus the manual work!
So, before I announce the winners, I want to personally congratulate all of the members who took their growth seriously last month and were active:
Stella Chibuike-Ezike, Larry C. Brown, Marylee Pangman, Author, Charisse Tyson, Meredith Eisenberg, Scott Hughes, Progressionist Women, Chris Humphrey, Chris Craft, Dr Tanya Nizam, Susan Telford, Dr. Alex MK, Invisible Gains, HerLegacyCode | Faceless Biz, Tara, Veronica L Edwards, Kathleen Hall, Kathleen Thorne RN, LMT, Daniel Chadwick Boswell, Nancy H., Rev. Evelyn Bourne (Ambilike), Sara, HYOSANG KIM, Mary Crayston, Christie Sausa, MS, Taste from the Past, Reshmi Sha'uri Ha'nah Purmar, Little Edits Atelier, Swapnil Shinde, itsadoniamar, WENDY TOMLINSON, Omer, Kate Robertson
Congrats to ALL of you! You ARE ALL AMAZING!
Now, to select the winners, I 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.
Ok, so the winners are….
….drumrolls please.…
Winners from last month’s Notes Challenge:
ok, wait, I know I promised I’ll select TOP 3…
BUT!
I decided to give the 6 months free to ALL of you who were active AND added yourselves in the Accountability tracker. Soooo, the winners are:
SPOTLIGHT SESSION + 6 MONTH FREE → Tara ←
1 Additional 60 Minute Strategy Call with me (lifetime members) Marylee Pangman, Author, Charisse Tyson, Scott Hughes, Dr Tanya Nizam, Dr. Alex MK
6 MONTH FREE (paid and free members): Stella Chibuike-Ezike, Larry C. Brown, Meredith Eisenberg, Progressionist Women, Chris Humphrey, Chris Craft, Susan Telford, HerLegacyCode | Faceless Biz, Invisible Gains, Veronica L Edwards, Kathleen Hall
BIG Congrats to all the winners!!! I can’t wait to jump into the session with Tara, I’m sure it’s gonna be lots of fun! 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 BiTES atomic newsletter
my other social media accounts
→ Watch all previous spotlight sessions here.
Time to kick off 2026!
The Challenge PARTICIPANTS:
This month: I’m gonna run the weekly sharing boost posts for ALL UNPLUGGED MEMBERS - you can all add yourself to the accountability tracker and participate in the sharing posts, but AWARDS are reserved for paid members ONLY.
AND, in order to make it even easier, I also have a very special 🎁 GIFT for PAID Members 🎁, brought to you by Orel:
THIS MONTH ONLY: Get 30 DAYS FREE from WriteStack [REDEEM BY 6TH of JANUARY, Find the special link at the end of this post.]
WriteStack is the place where you can schedule Notes, answer comments, run Notes analysis, and more.
As usual, Paid and V.I.P. members also have their private access to the GPT, and the Viral Notes Writer Course with EVERYTHING below.
So this month, you have a fully automated workflow for Notes (paid members only):
Write with my custom GPT using the Viral Notes Writer System
Schedule for FREE using Orel’s Write Stack (link below)
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 custom GPT to Write and publish at least 3 Notes per day. This month, you can schedule FOR FREE with WriteStack - link below.
Share your Notes in the weekly thread and 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.
WINNERS AWARDS: 🎁 NEW GIFTS THIS MONTH ONLY 🎁
I’m gonna select 3 from the most active people who will win the following awards, brought to you by Orel:
Spotlight with me + Another 30 Days of WriteStack Enterprise 🎁
Another 30 Days of WriteStack Enterprise 🎁
Another 30 Days of WriteStack Enterprise 🎁
Rules for the winners selection:
I’ll select three of 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)
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
How do you get the Special Gifts 🎁: I’m gonna DM you with your award
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 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 custom Viral Notes Writer GPT the way I described in this video (the link to the GPT is below the video). It will turn your idea into 5 viral-ready Notes, you only need to edit and publish. Takes less than 15 minutes/day. Brings you subscribers (as many of you reported). Check out the latest update here.
Use Write Stack (get 30 days free - link below) Substack Pro Studio GPT Bundle to analyze, optimize and schedule your Notes. Posting in the right times is crucial.
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. This is how we help each other grow.
Use this automation to repost them to social media, so that you grow even more from external sources.
And if you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, and I’ll add you to the Unplugged Hall of Fame.
If you follow all of the above, I’m confident you’ll pump your subscribers growth and you’ll see the effect immediately. People who do already report significant progress.
It’s time to make the most out of your paid subscription and get a proper return on your investment! Join that challenge!
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.
The Challenge includes (links at the end of this post):
We’ll simplify everything with the course, now you have only 3 things:
Link to the Accountability Tracker. Add yourself now!
PAID MEMBERS ONLY: The Unplugged Hall of Fame (link at the end of the post) - I’ve set a place to display all Notes from the Unplugged paid member community that received 100+ likes. If you have a Note with 100+ likes, DM me with a link, and I’ll add you.
THIS MONTH PAID MEMBERS ONLY: WriteStack 30 Days FREE to schedule your Notes, run analysis, answer comments and more (link at the end of the post).
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 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 GPT Notes Writer in order to turn likes into subscribers (like me, Jeff and Daniel). Three SIMPLE steps to achieve it (you do the first two only once).
ChatGPT Prompting Strategy to help you write more relatable Notes based on data collected for your audience with the standard ChatGPT 4o model.
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
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. The majority of these rules also work on Medium, X, LinkedIn, Quora. You can use them anywhere.
And how to use the Custom GPT 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: