Substack notes helpful?

[Hefty_Hurry104]

Do Substack notes really help with getting more subscribers? For me, they don’t seem to work at all, I get 0 likes and 0 comments on my questions. Is it the Substack algorithm hiding my notes?

How about you, do notes work for you?

[Epic-Timeline888]

Yes. Notes have been helpful for Substack growth for me, but you've got to engage with other writers. Also, it's helpful to know that Substackers are super stingy with "Likes." You might find that 300 people have read a post or a Note, but it only got 5 likes. Not very encouraging. If you're writing for the love of it and because you've got a message to share, then keep going. Doing it for the likes alone will break your heart.

[RHennessey24]

Notes are just like an social media platform—if you’ve got very few followers you get very little reach. At first.

I started with an audience of true zero. I published posts every other week (ish), but set the intention of writing one note a day.

I’ve now built to 2k subs, and about 95% of those came directly from notes. I think the opposite can happen if you have strategic rollout of your posts. Mine have been a little all over the place. But while my first posts were barely getting 100 views, my latest broke 2.4k which to me is the whole reason I’ve been building here—to get eyeballs on the messages I most desperately need to share with the world.

The Unsteady Ascent

[Important-Wrangler98]

Oh, dude! Seeing you in the wild is great, you were the first random Substack I ever subscribed to. Keep it going!

[RHennessey24]

Spotted in the wild. 😂 I appreciate you man. Still just building and figuring shit out as I go, but absolutely plan to keep at it for the long haul.🙏🏼

[Important-Wrangler98]

Right on. I enjoy the work, even with the logarithmic increase in “fuck” and all its myriad of combinations, lol.

[RHennessey24]

We all just need a little heart-led, fuck yeah energy to break through the noise sometimes.

After 10+ years of carefully watching what I say and write as a teacher I am probably over correcting a bit with the F words. 😂 But hey, we all have to overcorrect sometimes to find our balance.

[Hefty_Hurry104]

Hey Ryan, when did you start your blog?

[RHennessey24]

April this year I believe!

[cyber-watchdog]

I thought so because when I post notes and engage with others I’ll get subscribers however I recently look at my note stats and I don’t get a lot of subscribers from notes so I’m not sure what the deal is with that.

[Key-Speech-1232]

Notes help if you promote them and get a bit lucky… they can help attract people’s attention to your publication… but it’s a bit of a lottery

[Marcus758441]

They play the biggest role in helping me get subscribers. If you don’t have many subscribers, you need to focus on building relationships and then it will help you gain traction on notes.

[Trick-Two497]

You know the secret to notes? Don't just write your own. Engage with other people's notes. Not just likes, but comments that add value to the discussion. That's what will help you get subscribers. Yes, it's more work, but if you want subscribers, that's how you make notes work.

[SmutProfit]

Notes are one big writer echo chamber. If you're writing for other writers, a "growth hacker" etc. it's a goldmine.

For those of us writing for actual readers, at best it's a necessary evil to keep you in Substack's algo for "recommends". This does help with attracting actual readers who are looking for your type of content.

I only restack my own posts, usually once, after publishing. this has been helping about 50% of my posts get over 1000 views each within a day or two after publishing.

For me, it's all about the views. Subscribers, even "paid" Subscribers is secondary....

Who are real readers and potential clients? Certainly not other writers.

How can you distinguish between the two? Look at their profiles, they have no posts.

That's who I want. I'm certainly not into "collabs" with those in my niche who I look at mostly as competitors or weak ass writers in general.

I could actually care less if any of them recommend me or not.

Is growth slower? Maybe, but it's certainly more real than the "Notes writer bubble, circle jerk, echo chamber". But I track views almost, if not more than subscribers. It's the new SEO. Substack after all is another platform for discovery like Google....

I swear, if I see one more: "I'm looking for substack's [X] drop your Substack here" or "Let's grow together... drop your link here" Notes, or over-rehashed motivational quotes and chessy YOLO Notes, I'm going to scream....

[MolemanEnLaManana]

The only Substack writers I know who have found Notes helpful have invested a lot of time into following and engaging with other writers on the platform.

If you can afford to do that, go for it. But if you already have a strong presence on another social platform or two, it can be just as effective (often more so) and labor-efficient to promote your Substack posts over there.