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"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Isaac Newton
Tom Kuegler spent 25 hours analyzing The Mission's top 100 articles back in 2017.
He studied headlines, introductions, word counts, and structures.
Found patterns. Crafted his pitch. Got published.
That single analysis launched his Medium career and made him a full-time living from 2018-2021.
Now you can do the same analysis in 10 minutes using AI, then turn AI into your writing coach.
Result?
A personalized writing coach that knows every strategy his competitors use.
Better headlines, introductions, and article ideas.
$500+ per hour coaching value for the cost of an AI tool.
How he did it
Tom uses Manus (though Claude works too) to automate what took him days:
The Research Phase
Creates free Manus account (300 daily credits)
Feeds it a simple prompt like: "Look at [Substack URL], analyze their top 30 articles by likes, break down content types, headlines, intros, and focus"
Gets a 10-page analysis document in minutes
The Comparison
Uploads the research document to Claude
Creates a doc with his last 15 articles (headlines, stats, full text)
Asks: "How do my articles differ from my peers? Analyze headlines, intros, structure, and ideas"
The Coaching
Prompts AI to be his writing coach
Asks for questions that guide him toward better article ideas
Uses AI to help polish thoughts and blend his style with proven strategies
AI guides him through writing—doesn't write for him
My Take
I just came across this idea this morning while waiting at the doctor’s office.
Have had a full day so didn’t have much time to test it fully.
I did try to get ChatGPT agent to do the analysis, and was under-whelmed by the results.
So, if you give this a go, might stick to Manus or Claude as Tom recommends.
Dig Deeper
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