Getting started with Notes
Tips on how to quickly find and connect with readers
Notes is the best way to reach new audiences within the Substack app. When you share short-form posts, images, and videos on Notes, they land on the home feed of your subscribers, followers, and the broader Substack network. Here, you can experiment with new ideas, share what you’re reading, and get to know other publishers. Writers and creators who post three or more thoughtful notes during the week they launch their Substack gain 50% more total subscribers than those who don’t.
Brand new to Substack, or just new to Notes? Here are four tips to get started:
Post an introductory video: Give potential subscribers a sense of what to expect from your Substack and who you are with a short welcome video. With one click, law and government teacher
restacked her introduction video to celebrate the launch of :
Preview an upcoming post: Gauge interest in ideas, test formats, and get quick feedback from readers. Venture capitalist
teases his monthly content series, Deep Dives, by releasing the table of contents in his notes:
Find your peers: People across the Substack network are eager to introduce themselves, pitch their work, and join interesting conversations. Since launching
, has discovered 50 contributors and thousands of subscribers by posing questions and amplifying fellow writers in notes:
Share your discoveries: Give new followers and subscribers a window into your world by posting links, photos, videos, or observations about daily life.
Fashion writer
shares observations and quips:
Beyond his weekly newsletter of 10 things that inspire him, artist
highlights thought-provoking ideas from other Substacks:
Utopian researcher and novelist writer
shares a snapshot and life update:
Pulitzer prize-winning author
jokes about the latest episode of “Love is Blind”:
It may take a moment to find your audience in Notes, but your existing followers and subscribers can help. Let them know on your social channels and in your next Substack post that they can keep up with you on Notes by downloading the Substack app.
Read more: How writers and creators are using Notes to reach more subscribers
Notes is a casual place for experimentation and to build a relationship with your readers. Get started here:
Asking honestly, how does the substack notes algorithm work? To me it feels super clunky, my notes hardly reach new people. I've been posting on notes for a while and it seems it's fallen into the trap of all social media that only if you're big or your note has hundreds of likes it gets seen in explore. If the purpose is to make writers more discoverable seems like I should be seeing more smaller writers in my niche on notes explore.
To post an introductory video on a fleeting feed that is governed by an algorithm does not make much sense, does it? It will be there on chance for a few minutes or hours to be seen unless people adopt the old, terrible habit of scrolling for hours in their feed like in the social media they had left.
The content in Notes is much better than on X or Facebook, but it starts converging (see the comment about furbabies). Plus, pleople seem to be OK with reading the notes with an occasional article, but do not subscribe to the channels they find as often.
I would love to find another way of making people aware of my writing, as Notes just does not seem to work, with the danger of bringing over the bad behavior of other social media into this wonderful space.
Can we get creative together? Can we, until then, at least have a toggle to turn off the Notes' "Explore" tab?
I post notes everyday. I'm still a nobody on Substack though.
I haven’t really gotten the traction on notes I would have liked but I’ve had some super rich experiences there. I periodically highlight those in an email:
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/meanwhile-over-in-notes-3ea
One thing I did recently was create a post out of my notes. I get a lot of ideas and share observations that often are not directly related, and I found this really effective to tie them together and to draw interest.
I plan on doing this with other writer’s notes to expand my reach as well. Kind of like what’s been done in this post!
Also, the first part about posting a video made me think of another idea - posting a video in your about page! You could also post a video in notes and then include it in the about page and in a pin post.
Lots of possibilities to explore !
I also did this, and it became my most restacked and commented post. I highly recommend recycling notes, especially if there is a thematic connection. In my case, I recycled artist notes that I have been sharing!
awesome!
Don't forget to post pics of your furbabies! I share a #dailydinkles every day (more or less).
Yes to all the fur babies! 😍
I don't exactly see how Notes would actually get subscribers. Notes get followers, but not always subscribers. Maybe perhaps for those who already have a lot of followers and subscribers because they have more interaction. Not that I know if that is the key to Notes and visibility. Notes doesn't work in the way I think Notes should. And I think because it's a clunky.
Notes is barebones. Your only option in terms of organization is just explore or follow. There honestly needs to be an option to organize things in chronological order on Explore. And if you don't want to that, then figure out a way to mark a Note as "read." I don't want to mute an entire writer on my feed just to remove things I'm not interested in seeing anymore. Otherwise, you are just stuck in a mess of endless scrolling. It's not organized and, there is no way to make it organized.
And honestly, this is just an overall problem with Substack, organization done in a clunky manner. Unless you know who you want to read, you are going to have issues with trying to find someone's writing to read.
Notes isn't a good solution for this unless it is improved on a technical standpoint for usability.
Another perspective: Engaging on Notes regularly has absolutely brought me more subscribers. It also helps me discover amazing writers and publications. Sometimes I subscribe to these publications. Sometimes I feature them in my monthly link-up post. Multiple times a day, I heart, comment on, and restack posts I never would’ve seen before Notes.
Hi. I did do one note that has been shared a lot and has gotten me a lot of new subscribers, but people are also commenting...a lot...and when I see that there has been more comments, I have to scroll through and "load more replies" over and over to find the new ones to like or respond to. There should be a way to only see the new ones, but there isn't. That is clunky, like you said.
Once again, Notes are a disgrace in countries where the use of Substack is lower! Only restore the invitation to subscribe and remove the invitation to become a follower.
FYI I am still looking for esoteric substacks! Have big plans for Books That Made Us that I shall announce very soon!
Anyone else notice a huge drop in subscriptions since notes was released?
More like since they introduced followers.
Huge uptick when Notes and Recommendations were rolled out, and a sizeable drop off when Followers were introduced.
Not me - it’s had the opposite effect.
Y’all added new tactics to hide people like me in Notes… Smart move big tech
I wish they had Substack notes on Buffer so I could schedule out posts like to social media
I think Buffer has a suggestion box for that
I’m not terribly clever when it comes to Notes but I do my best. One Note got me a lot of subscribers so there still hope for that method of growth. What I want more is engagement. I try to do that with others so eventually what I put out comes back. ✌🏾
https://brujasinnorte.blogspot.com/2024/07/plea-mar-rasurada-por-supuesto.html
Not loving everything being focused on creating content for the sake of content...
We do not need more noise
Be warned: Do NOT use notes to restack a post!
The note-restack of a post (by author) will actually SUBTRACT the likes (assigned to the note) from the total by not displaying these for the post itself.
Confirmed by chatbot today:
"1. When a post is restacked as a note, the likes on the note do not transfer to the original post. They are considered separate in terms of engagement metrics.
2. Likes on the restacked note are specific to that note and won't reflect on the original post's like count."
Confusingly, this is not a problem for high profile substacks (several examples provided to chatbot) which can use the cross-over of likes to their advantage - with "likes" for the post and restack of it displayed as the total (and visible in the original post and the restack note).
(As a solution, chatbot suggested asking readers to like the post instead of the note!!!
"If you need likes to reflect on the original post, encourage your readers to like the post directly.")
Thank you, I found this very helpful.
I just started using it, and do like being able to write something brief about the reason behind writing a particular post and perhaps will use notes to reference more general writing thoughts, but I'm not sure how much it's being read at all, since couldn't find it anywhere in the Explore feed.
Notes can be very useful to take what would be a 100 or 200-word newsletter and transfer it to a different audience. It allows writers to get the thought out of their system without overwhelming their email audience.
I've been sharing artist notes to self for the past few months, and I didn't want them to disappear into the void. So, I've summarized them in a post. It's a live post that I update whenever I post a new artist note to self. It is my most popular post! I highly recommend doing this if there's a theme in your notes or if you find some other way to connect them.
This is the post: https://tugbaavci.substack.com/p/artist-notes-to-self
Please remove me from Substack. All I have wanted to do was subscribe to ‘Weareterriers’ . I have no use for the facility Substack offers
I don't want my own substance. How do I delete it?
Perfectly said.. my heart aches…
Absolutely love the idea of teasing the next posts!
Though I'm still having a hard time trying to figure out the actual reach of Notes.
Any plans to make this metric available at some point?
👍
I've noticed in recent day the "also share to Notes" checkbox is greyed out, yes even here? Did I miss an announcement? I feel I am quite judicial whether or not to use it.
***HELP***
I can't seem to find the answer to this anywhere, so here's a long shot query.
DOES ANYONE KNOW how to get Notes to attach to all your publications? Can that be done? My notes attach to my first publication, but I can't seem to create notes for my newly launched pub. I'm stumped. Any advice would help. The chat bot was useless. Thanks in advance.
Calling all voiceover people!
Can you share your recommendations for some beginner-friendly equipment for better quality audio recordings?
I’ve surprised myself by loving to make voiceovers but my hardware is sub-par. (Old iPhone headphones 😬)
I’ll gladly take your recording tips too if you have some insights you feel like sharing.
Thank you!
Thank you for this very helpful article on notes. Going to apply your recommendations and look forward to the results.
It would be great if you published an article about the pros/cons of Notes vs. Long Post. I still find it puzzling.
The Notes editor is not as rich as the Long Post editor, why?
This is an interesting idea that challenges conventional thinking. Nicely expressed. https://501.osttopstfreeware.com
"Rooting your Samsung A57 can take your device to the next level! It allows for advanced customization, better control over system settings, and the ability to install apps that require root access. Just keep in mind that rooting can void your warranty and may affect software updates, so proceed with caution. Always ensure you have a complete backup of your data and follow trusted guides for a smooth process. Enjoy exploring the possibilities of your rooted device!"
https://rootingmaster.com/
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Can we post a note using the browser app? I'm having a hard time finding my Notes section using a computer.
NICE👍
I posted my first note today. Feel free to have a tour on my substack. Hope you will have a good read
Nobody sees your notes. I quit using it a long time ago. Until you provide a mechanism for discovery it is pointless for small accounts. There needs to be a method that allows your posts to be seen by a greater audience.
👍
https://open.substack.com/pub/emilyalexandraguglielmo/p/my-first-public-blogpost?r=2mtps5&utm_medium=ios
Substack needs to up its game here, because notes seems like a net negative. It's interesting that there is no engagement by substack in the comments here, either.
To repeat the question raised here a week ago: Why can some authors restack posts to notes such that "likes" and "restacks" are displayed synchronously in both places -- ie. not divided between the post and the restack of the post -- but not others?
The substack chatbot is no help -- and provides two DIRECTLY CONTRADICTORY pieces of information on this issue:
Version 1. "To clarify, when you restack a post on Substack, it creates a new entry in the Notes feed where subscribers can interact. However, any likes or interactions on the restacked note do not count towards the likes on the original post. If you want to increase likes on the original post, you would need to direct your readers to the original post itself to interact directly with it."
Version 2. "To clarify: Likes on a restacked note do indeed count towards the total likes of the original post on Substack. This means that interactions on both the original and the restacked versions contribute to the same cumulative total of likes."
Still learning how to navigate this.
I have posted NOTEs. on SUBSTACK However, I can't see them once they are posted. Do I only see them if someone comments on my Note? thx.
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s23/sh/aa330915-d738-45d7-916d-cd2f40aa660b/kSMxqSJtdXat1kZT5b0RaaVQRhVjw5eiZwBZ9WQ4-zL0PEn2fQ2sUgtDVg
I find notes very useful! However, I have tried using them for quite some time now, and I had to check my settings if I was on private mode or something, cause they seem to get zero engagement... Don't know why..I do have a good number of followers (is 70 good enough?) so I'll still use them and just see what might eventually happen.. but as far as now, quite unsure...
Exactly what I needed to get a grip on the volume of wealth SubStack offers. Thank you!👍
I am new here from the City of lagos Nigeria and would really love to know more updates uodates on substack everything about this system is really what i want to understand so as to blog from here to the world especially trends and feeds in Nigeria all the way across..
Yeah, no one reads my notes. Or me articles, so.....
I don't really understand how they can be helpful without something like tags. I know tags are a very Twitter/X things and I understand not wanting to bring that vibe here, but surely it would help in finding like-minded people?