Substack Notes30 Challenge: March 2025
Growth on Notes is EXPLODING! If you want 1000 subscribers in 2025, join this challenge! You've got all you need: the templates, the strategy, the tools and a custom GPT that writes viral Notes.
The February Notes30 Challenge is OVER!
Congrats to all participants who completed the Challenges and who already started to gain traction from Notes and subscribers from the app!!!
We made it!!!
Now let’s announce the winners!
WINNERS AWARDS
Winner from January Notes Challenge:
→ ←
Colleen is one of the most active paid members in the community. She’s just joined, but she’s already getting free and paid subs. For me, it’s no wonder she won that award! Congrats, Colleen!! I can’t wait to jump into our session, I’m sure it’s gonna be so much fun! Looking forward to it!
Award:
→ A spotlight session to talk about your Substack. To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share this session:
all subscribers
my social media accounts
→ Watch all previous spotlight sessions here.
Time to kick off March 2025!
Me and
recently had a live talking about Notes.He used the tools from this Challenge to craft a Note that went viral and got him 200+ new subscribers! I got so excited, that I asked him to do a live about how he turns likes into subscribers. Here’s what Jeff shared with me in the chat:
The truth is Jeff uses a special way to work with my custom GPT. So far this method gives me 10x more likes on my Notes and I doubled my daily subscriber growth in February (from ±7 to ±15 per day, I’ll write a dedicated post about this soon). Here’re some of my Notes I wrote with my custom GPT:
But you never know when your Notes will take off (like it happened with Jeff).
I added a summary of this method to this Challenge pdf guide, find it at the end of this post.
You have to be on Notes right now!
If you want 1000 subscribers in 2025, this challenge will give you everything you need!
I can’t stop saying this: You have to be on Notes if you’re serious about growing on Substack!
It’s because your Substack growth journey is an engine made from two wheels:
Grow free subscribers
Convert free to paid
Because without having enough free subscribers you won’t have anyone to convert. And this Challenge is your one-stop-shop. Not just for free subscriber growth. But for growth of the right free subscribers. Those you can convert to paid later.
You have everything:
Tools - my custom GPT with a brand new massive upgrade to match the changes on Substack
The ever-growing viral Notes templates
My engagement strategy
All you need to do is:
post at least one Note daily (and use my custom Notes Writer GPT from this challenge attached at the end of the post)
interact with others (and use my engagement strategy from this challenge)
That’s it!
No rocket science!
It takes 15 minutes per day!
15 minutes = 5 Notes = Tens of new subscribers.
Every day.
The Challenge:
PARTICIPANTS:
This challenge is for paid members only.
Paid and V.I.P. members can:
Join the challenge
Share their Note in the weekly thread
Add themselves to the Accountability tracker
WINNERS AWARDS:
The most active will be entitled to join me in a spotlight session to talk about their Substack. To give you and your Substack more exposure, I will share this session:
all subscribers
in my social media accounts
I know a lot of creators are inviting other popular creators who are already successful but I think people also want to know about the people who are just starting. Not just another success story. Real people with real struggles, real challenges, and real growth insights. Real inspiration.
Rules:
I’ll do these sessions monthly after the Challenge finishes.
I’ll invite one of the most active participants in the Challenge based on the Accountability Tracker. Rules:
1. must be in the Accountability tracker
2. must have completed the challenge (at least one Note 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
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”. Priority of inviting:
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
When do we do the session: during next month upon your availability
How do we do the session: over Zoom. I ask you questions (we initially agree on the list), you talk :). You can prepare slides if you want to (not a must).
The Substack Notes30 Monthly Challenge - March 2025
What you need to do?
Post at least one Note every day.
Add yourself to the Accountability tracker.
Engage with at least 5 Substack members. Apply everything described it the slides below (end of this post)
Share your Notes in the weekly sharing post: I will post one each Saturday, you’ll get it in your inbox. The next one comes later today. And remember to read, like, comment and restack some of the other Notes you like. This is how we help each other grow.
The Unplugged paid community is now made of 205 members:
Thank you so much for joining!
But I’m here to deliver, so let’s cut the fluff.
You paid me to get something out of this.
But you need to act!
I can help you, but I can’t do it instead of you.
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 guide - attached file at the end of this post.
The Challenge includes (download links at the end of this post):
Link to the Accountability Tracker. Add yourself now!
[RECENTLY UPGRADED] My custom GPT Notes Writer trained to write Substack Notes that go viral. I just upgraded its training using 460 Notes with more than 100 likes each, mostly from writers with smaller audiences (value $69.99) (invite only, you won’t find it in the ChatGPT Store). Read more about this upgrade here.
[NEW] The right way to use the GPT Notes Writer in order to turn likes into subscribers (like me and Jeff). Three SIMPLE steps to achieve it (you do the frirst 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
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
Two slides with selected recent viral notes examples. You can study and templatize them if you like. I added a slide with ChatGPT Prompt to help you do that with AI.
A set of 9 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 Note with 10k likes!!)
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.
A set of 28 Writing Prompts Formulated as Questions to provoke thinking rather than give a direction. A new set will arrive each month.
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.
All this will arrive in a short presentation (find the link below). Use this knowledge as a reference. Adapt the templates and guidelines to your niche and style.
Here’s your Challenge pack of resources:
The challenge is for paid subscribers. If you’re a free subscriber, upgrade now!
Upgrade your subscription now and you’ll never get a price increase in the future! You can unsubscribe at any time.