54 People Have Already Joined The 45-Day Notes Challenge!

We start in two days!

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

When I opened the Notes Underground on Friday, I didn’t know what would happen.

“Will people even want this?” I asked myself.

Well, since launch, we’ve had 54 people join the 45-Day Notes Challenge/Notes Underground, and that number might double before we start the challenge on Wednesday.

We’ve also already had 100 Notes shared in the Notes Underground, and the data we’re racking up is pretty cool.

This is Total Community Likes from the last 6 months or so.

Right now, the community has racked up:

• 8,195 likes

• 102 notes

• 5,486 words written

You can log Notes from the past, which is why we have Notes from September 2024 in there!

It’s fascinating to see my Notes stats update in real time, too.

Honestly, just having this picture of how my Notes have performed this month is SO HELPFUL! And as I add more in, the graph will update.

I can technically add in ALL my Notes from the past to see my long-term stats.

I can also see my averages!

I average:

• 65 likes/note

• 38 words/note

Knowing my own averages is SO helpful. For instance, if a Note of mine gets less than 65 likes, I know it underperformed, and I can adjust my Notes strategy to never write anything like that again.

Look. Notes strategy is simple.

1. Do more of what works.

2. Do less of what doesn’t.

If you don’t have your averages, how can you know what you need to do more/less of?

I can also see the community averages!

The community averages:

• 90 likes/note

• 54 words/note

I can also see the averages FOR MY NICHE.

So, I’m writing + content creation.

Average likes per note in this niche are 185.
Average words per note in this niche are 52.

So I’m kind of “off” with both of them, aren’t I? 🧐😅

It’s nice to know whether I’m underperforming people in my niche or not, so I can change my strategy.

FYI: These are only statistics from Notes shared in our community, not Substack-wide.

Our “Members” page is filling out nicely, too!

You can sort writers by category to easily find people in your niche.

Then, when you do that, you can see a short description of what they write about. You can even visit their profile and send a DM!

Speaking of sending DM’s.. our “Find A Writing Buddy” page is doing well.

We’ve had three people add their name to the list since Friday.

It’s hard to find a writing buddy on Substack. I don’t think there’s any legitimate way to find one to get accountability and feedback on you work.

Well, it’s not hard anymore! Think of how much your writing will improve, and how much easier it will be to stay consistent with this newfound accountability?

Honestly, this is just the beginning! There’s still SO MUCH I want to do, and so many improvements I want to make to the Notes Underground.

This is version 1 of MANY!

Become a paid subscriber to join the Notes Underground!

Why Community Was The Missing Piece

When I launched the NoteSmith in February, something incredible happened..

Over 200 people tried it. 50+ became paid subscribers to get more monthly credits.

Writers were going viral left and right, like Jennifer Granville who used the NoteSmith to polish a Note that now has 14,000+ likes and 500+ restacks. Or Cali Bird who crafted a 1,900-like Note with the same tool.

But as I watched people succeed, I realized I'd only solved half the problem.

You see, writing better Notes was just the first step. Even the most polished Notes need those crucial initial eyeballs to gain momentum.

I kept seeing the same pattern: writers with brilliant Notes still struggling to break through because they lacked that initial push – that first wave of engagement that signals to the algorithm that "this matters."

The chaotic share threads with hundreds of comments weren't cutting it. People kept getting lost in that noise. Writers needed something more organized, more intentional.

That's when it clicked: winning on Notes comes down to three things:

• Strategy (NoteSmith)

• Consistency (45-Day Challenge)

• Community (Notes Underground)

Without all three, you're missing a vital piece of the puzzle.

The Notes Underground completes the system – not just helping you write better Notes, but ensuring they actually get seen by the right people.

I.E. Ensuring you get out of the void!! Arguably the most important part of all this!!

The Questions You're Asking

Over the last few days, several important questions have come up that I want to address:

"I barely have time to write my newsletter. Isn’t Notes just one more thing to do?"

Actually, to me, Notes are MORE IMPORTANT than writing your newsletter.

Yeah.

If you spend 5-10 hours writing a 1,000+ word email, and 2 people read it, isn’t that kind of a waste of time?

You could write 20 Notes in 5 hours easily, and have a month’s worth of short-form content ready to go. And here’s a crazy fact: Notes drive WAY MORE subscribers and views than newsletters do.

A paid subscriber of mine who uses the NoteSmith told me this:

“Oh my! My notes are really fueling a growth swell right now, and I'm loving it. Plus an article-reading swell. Look at this! The earlier spikes are posts and in between, near-crickets. Now I'm getting traction on my articles all week long, even when I'm not publishing one.”

So, you see, Notes aren’t just “one more thing to do,” they are the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do if you want to grow on Substack and build a side income as a writer.

On Substack, nothing has more of an impact on your growth than Notes. They are essential to finding success here.

"Will Notes actually convert people to paid subscribers or is it just vanity metrics?"

You bet your sweet boots it will.

Jeanette Martin used my NoteFinder tool to write this 4,000+ like Note that generated 700+ new subscribers for her. SEVEN. HUNDRED.

She said, “"My likes (2.4k), comments(208), restacks (123) and new subscribers(700+) went through the roof with help editing a Note with Tom's Notefinder tool. I feel my audience has finally found me after a year posting regularly on Substack with one well edited Note, based on a post I'd written months before that didn't get much engagement."

It’s highly unlikely that none of those 700 free subscribers converted to paid memberships for Jeanette.

And look, free subscribers are just one step away from going paid. You need to generate free subscribers, then nurture them, to convert them to paid anyway.

So, yes, if you have a paid membership strategy in place, Notes will, 100%, convert people to paid either immediately or eventually.

"I'm already in too many writing communities that don't deliver."

Hey, we DO deliver. My Notes tools (available to all paid subscribers) have ALREADY helped writers generate 10’s of thousands of likes on Notes.

So, we’re already delivering.

Like, the fact you get the Notes Underground, AND the NoteSmith, AND the NoteFinder, AND my new Slack channel for $18 per month is kind of an insane value.

But look, I built the Notes Underground precisely because other communities weren't working.

Most Notes threads are chaotic piles of "read me!" comments where everyone shouts and nobody listens.

The Notes Underground is different because:

• It's organized by niche (you see only what's relevant to you)

• There's measurable accountability (your engagement score)

• The system rewards meaningful interaction (not drive-by likes)

• It's driven by data, not guesswork

Simply put.. there is no other Notes Community on Substack as dynamic as this one. I can say that with certainty.

The 45-Day Challenge Starts In 2 Days (Hurry!)

The 45-Day Challenge officially begins in TWO DAYS.

While you can join after we've started, you'll miss:

• The initial community formation (where connections happen fastest)

• Your chance to lock in the current pricing

• The foundation-building first week of the challenge

If you're still deciding which option is right for you:

There’s three levels to the challenge:

Option 1: Base Challenge - $18/month (or $145/year)

As a paid subscriber, you'll get:

• Full access to the Notes Underground platform ($500 yearly value)

• 45 Note Prompts. 1 for every day of the challenge ($100 value)

• Community features and engagement tracking ($500 yearly value)

• Weekly insights newsletters ($500 yearly value)

• Access to the general Slack channel ($400 yearly value)

• 50 monthly tokens to my NoteSmith/NoteFinder tools ($1,000 yearly value)

That’s $3,000 of value for $18/month or $145/year.

Note: Prices will increase to $20/month and $160/year at midnight on Wednesday.

Option 2: VIP Experience - $199 one-time payment

We already have 10 people signed up for the VIP experience so far!

Get everything in the Base Challenge PLUS:

• Six LIVE training sessions (recorded if you can't attend) ($500 value)

• 1 Private Note critique from me (recorded) ($200 value)

• Small writing pods (3-5 people) for focused feedback ($200 value)

• Private VIP-only Slack channels ($100 value)

• 45 custom Note templates (one per day) ($500 value)

Base Challenge ($2,000 value) + VIP Challenge ($1,500 value) = $3,500 value for $199.

Founding Member Pass - $300 one-time payment

For serious writers committed to long-term growth, become a Founding Member to The Writing Long Game to get:

• Everything in the VIP Experience ($3,500 value)

• Permanent access to ALL future quarterly challenges ($1,000+ value)

  • I’ll be offering 1 quarterly high-ticket online program at the Writing Long Game in 2025. Founding members get access to all 4 of them throughout the year.

That’s $4,500 of value for $300.

I hope to see you Underground,

Tom

P.S. We're doing a live demo of the Notes Underground tomorrow at 11 AM ET. You'll get to see exactly how the platform works and how it'll transform your Notes experience. Reserve your spot here.