From Zero to 1,000 Paid Subscribers | w/ Orange Badge Bestseller Yana

Today’s podcast guest is my long-term online friend and Online Writing Club member Yana G.Y. , and she has done what most newsletter writers only dream about. She built a business of more than 1,000 paying subscribers on the side of a demanding full-time job at a bank! Yana didn’t wait for the perfect moment. She didn’t quit her job. She didn’t go viral on social media. She simply built a system and kept showing up. And she just earned her orange Bestseller badge, which we want to celebrate in today’s podcast episode. Please keep in mind: some keep telling me:” Kristina, it’s one of the toughest years for online writers and entrepreneus.” However, money is still moving, and the dollars are rolling in the Substack accounts of people who have decided to talk about it, ask for it and expect it. Oh and we’ve got a surprise for you to really take ACTION and hit your 2026 goals together! Want to make money with your Substack? Only 3 days left to grab your seat for $47 We’re hosting a masterclass together on Friday, October 9. Come learn how she did it, my tips and insights, and how you can get paid to be you. It’s a no-brainer. For only $47 you can join our exclusive circle! Money is everywhere. It’s not scarce, even when it feels like it. Who’s Yana G.Y.? Why should I care, Kristina?, you ask. Yana has spent 15+ years in telecom and banking, building subscription products that bring in billions in annual recurring revenue. Today she’s a director at a bank and she writes Yana G.Y. She took everything she knows about subscriptions at work and applied it to her newsletter. In about two years: * 20,000+ subscribers * 1,000+ paid members and the orange Bestseller badge * $50K+ in annual recurring revenue, from paid subscriptions alone * Her first $30,000 month this August * All in about 2 hours a day, next to her 9-to-5 So how did she do it? Here are the five things Yana is doing that you can steal for your own Substack and hopefully stop you from telling me: * I don’t have a clue what to offer paid subscribers. * People won’t pay that amount of money. * I’ll wait until I’ll feel ready to go paid. * Who am I to charge that much? * Money isn’t everything. Let’s hear from Yana now who was dreaming of doing something like this for a looooooooooooooong time: 1. She treats her newsletter like a product Yana runs Unplugged like the subscription products she builds at work: a clear offer, a value ladder, and numbers she actually tracks. And that’s exactly what the most successful newsletters do. They give their publication one clear focus from day #1. 2. She lets automations do the selling About half of Yana’s paid subscribers come in through automations. Often while she’s sitting in meetings at her day job. Instead of pitching every single day, she built systems that turn free readers into paying members in the background. It’s a proven play: one large newsletter brought in more than 311,000 subscribers through lead magnet automation alone. 3. She grows without other social media channels Yes, you read that right. Yana doesn’t post all day. She grows with data, automations, and paid ads to Substack. And honestly? That’s a smart bet right now. 68% of Google searches now end without a click. AI tools read your work but send back only a tiny fraction of visitors. The email list is the one audience no algorithm can take away from you. Want to earn money on Substack with paid subscriptions and beyond? Yana and I invite you to join our Monetization Masterclass on Friday, October 9. She’ll show her automations and ads live on screen. Join the fun! It’s a no-brainer. For only $47 you can join and we’ll share ALL our insights! 4. She runs focused launch campaigns In August, Yana ran one campaign that added 202 paid subscribers in 19 days. That’s the launch that got her the orange badge. Learn more on the podcast and our LIVE masterclass on Friday. 5. She built it on the side of a full-time job The secret is having a system in place that’s soooooooooo Yana. Newsletters actually get stronger over time: median open rates are about 40%. So if your numbers feel flat right now, that’s normal. Most people quit right before it starts working. Join our Monetization Masterclass this Friday On Friday, October 9, Yana and I open up our two Substack businesses, live on Zoom. What we sell, how we package it, how we launch, and the real numbers on screen. * When: Friday, October 9, 11am New York / 5pm Berlin / 6pm Sofia * What: 60 minutes inside our backends, plus 30 minutes of live Q&A * Can’t make it live? The recording and slides are included * Price: Only $47 for your live seat (it goes up to $97 after October 15) Overthinking money is basically the whole problem we’re here to fix. Now we want to hear from you * Have you ever thought “I don’t have time to build a paid newsletter”? * What would change if you only had two hours a day? * Which of Yana’s five moves are you trying first? * Any Qs for the LIVE masterclass on Friday? GET A FEATURED SPOTLIGHT IN A NOTE BONUS ⭐⭐⭐Join the Masterclass on Friday, tell us in the comments and I’m happy to feature you in a standalone note to my about 40,000 followers.⭐⭐⭐ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.onlinewritingclub.com/subscribe