A guide to growth and collaboration on Substack Notes
How to engage with others and promote your publication
Notes is a new space where writers can publish short-form posts and share ideas with each other and their readers. Through Notes, writers and readers can recommend posts, links, images, and quotes, leave comments, and more.
Some writers are already seeing subscriber growth from Notes.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through:
Types of notes
How to promote your notes
How to post an engaging note
Types of notes
Notes give writers and readers the ability to recommend almost anything, including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links. When writers recommend great writing and ideas—their own and especially that of other writers they love—everyone grows.
There are three primary note types you can post: text notes, restacks, and quotes. On any of these post types, yours or other writers’, you can “reply” to continue the conversation.
Text note
Not all ideas or commentary warrant long-form writing or emailing out a new post to subscribers. Notes allow writers to post short-form content in between posts and get in front of new audiences in the process. Click the “+” button or start writing over the “What’s on your mind?” placeholder text to start crafting your new note.
Restack
Restacks allow writers and readers to reshare posts, notes, and comments with their subscribers in Notes. You can restack someone else’s post on Substack with or without your own text. To restack, click the circle-arrow icon wherever you see a post, note, or comment worth sharing.
Quote
Notes give you the power to clip and share brilliant quotes from writers’ posts on Substack. To quote, head to the post with the quote you want to share. Select the quote you love by highlighting the text, then click “restack quote” to share it to Notes. You can choose whether to add some additional text with the quote or restack it on its own
How to promote your Notes
Notes is more fun when your readers are in there with you. When you publish your first note we’ll send a push notification to subscribers. After that, it’s important to remind them you are posting in notes and guide them to meet you there.
Email your subscribers
After you send your first note, you will see a template in your dashboard to announce to your subscribers that you are using Notes. Because your subscribers do not receive emails when you post a note, it’s a good idea to send them an email encouraging them to check out the new space.
In your post, be sure to include:
A link to a recent note and a button to the Notes space. This is the most important element of your post, as it will quickly lead your subscribers to the right place.
A brief explanation of what Notes is. Something like, “Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more.”
What you plan to share in Notes. This might be recommending what you’re reading or inspired by, quick commentary, and behind the scenes.
Great examples of announcements from other writers include:
Ted Gioia introduces Notes as a forum for dialogue.
The idea behind Notes is simple. Millions of people now participate in Substack as writers and readers—but much of this is built on long articles and essays. We now have a forum for dialoguing and sharing shorter posts.
Chris Ryan shares why he is drawn to Substack vs. legacy social media.
One of my main reasons for joining Substack was to wean myself off exploitative social media platforms. I’m hoping this is going to help move us along on that journey!
Karen Christensen equates Notes to a “third place” for writers and readers.
The Substack writers I like best are saying that they want the new Notes to be a bit more like a third place (even if they don’t use that term). Civil, lively, and fun.
Larry G. Maguire reiterates that what makes Notes different is that it doesn’t run on ads but subscriptions.
It’s a feed, like a social media feed, but doesn’t throw ads and other crap at you. It’s early days but it could be good.
Sherman Alexie shares his intentions for using Notes.
I’m going to focus on being positive, with my own thoughts and photos and by linking to songs, stories, poems from around the web and from other Substacks.
Parker Molloy makes clear to her subscribers that in Notes, they are already subscribers and to head to the space if they want to see what’s new.
If you’re a subscriber to this newsletter, you should automatically be following me there. Here’s one of my posts. Feel free to drop in there and say hi in the replies if you decide to check it out.
Share a link to a note you posted
Sharing a recent note in a Substack post, or on social media, can guide people to meet you where you are—in Notes. Click the three-dot menu to share directly to Twitter or Facebook. You also have the option to copy a link that you can share anywhere, or paste directly into a Substack post that generates an embed preview.
Share a link to your profile
The best way to point people to see all of your notes in one place is your Substack profile. Under “latest” on the web, visitors will see your most recent notes and newsletter posts in chronological order. Additionally on your profile, visitors will see your publication, what you’ve read, and any links you’ve attached to social media accounts or books you’ve written, if you haven’t opted out of sharing this activity.
To find your Substack profile, click this magic link. Consider updating your email signature and social media bios so people can find everything about you in one place.
shares a link to his profile on Twitter.
How to post an engaging note
There are endless creative ways to use notes. We’ve started to spot a few trends from writers on Substack, from recommending other writers’ work to celebrating milestones. Here are some examples of notes that drove engagement to offer inspiration.
Recommend other writers and their work
Like our Recommendations feature, Notes is designed to drive discovery across Substack. But while Recommendations lets writers promote publications, Notes gives writers the ability to recommend almost anything—including posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.
- quotes shares a recent post from .
- restacks a recent post by .
- restacks a post where promotes a newly released book.
Share commentary and inspiration
A note might be something you believe other writers and readers in the Substack network would enjoy but that you don’t want to send out via an email.
- posts the new recordings inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, hot off the press with his commentary.
- stumbled on new music and posted it to Notes.
- inspires others with lines of poetry.
Prompt participation
With @mentions and replies, engaging with other writers and readers comes naturally. Help facilitate the conversation and prompt others to chime in.
- invites everyone to draw together, leaving photo replies adding to her original note.
- seeks recommendations for interesting Substacks on meditating, history, international politics, tech, health, and venture capital.
- sources questions for her upcoming interview with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Share a behind-the-scenes look
As you go about your day, bring subscribers in by giving them a peek behind the scenes. Photos are a dynamic tool here to engage with others.
- gives readers a peek into her writing nook.
- posts a quick rundown of what she is up to today and teases some work ahead, topped off with a cute picture of her dog.
- drops pictures of some tasty treats from a photo shoot.
Announce personal news
Milestones are worth celebrating in public with others, big or small. In Notes subscribers can celebrate with you and even help get the news in front of more people.
- announced that her first book is available for preorder.
- ’s Substack is up for a Webby award, and he encourages people to vote.
- 's celebrated Webworm's nomination in two categories in New Zealand’s Voyager Media Awards, which describes as "our version of the Pulitzers."
Promote your archive
Notes is another tool to help your archive of posts travel further. Point people toward a post when topics resurface or they are related to relevant conversation.
- removes the paywall from an old post and announces it's available in notes.
- promotes a post from his archive with a note on his memories.
- participated in an audio-documentary about Mary Oliver, her mentor, last summer, and it came out this week in audiobook form. To celebrate, she shared a post about her experience being interviewed for the documentary.
If you have questions about Notes, visit our FAQ and read more about our vision for the product.
If you want some real-works testimonials on sub growth, interview some normals, not people who already have a large following. Me? I got a total of ONE free sub since joining Notes. Not complaining, don’t really care, just saying most people here won’t see growth and to tout Notes as the path to growth is disingenuous at best, manipulative at worst.
I'll chime in with my experience as a normal, plus point to one other normal (that I found via Notes) that seems to be having an exceptional amount of subscriber growth.
Here's my experience: I started a Substack about a 10 days prior to the launch of Notes. I have not promoted my Substack at all. I haven't even emailed any friends or posted on social media about it. My partner, my dad, and my rabbi are subscribers, but otherwise no one that I know subscribes to my Substack. I've been a heavy user of Notes (in fact I invited to use it as a Beta tester as a Substack reader). I currently have 36 subscribers. So Notes has gained me 33 subscribers. That's not an insane amount, but I think it is cool. The thing that I think is even more cool is that some of the subscribers are people that I have been reading for years and admire. And even more cool than that, despite the fact that 90% of my subscribers are strangers, I've had open rates of 55%, 92%, and 75% on the 3 posts I've sent out.
For another case of someone else without a large following, Noah Berlatsky wrote a post about how he went from 1,225 subscribers to 1,870 in a couple of days on Notes. https://noahberlatsky.substack.com/p/whats-it-like-to-go-sort-of-viral
So that's at least two cases of people you haven't heard of before that have seen some subscriber growth.
That's great to hear.
Did you go in with a specific Note strategy? How regularly were you posting? Do you read a lot of Subs such that perhaps your Notes are visible to a wider audience? (I know I can go click and check these things out, but it's early and I'm pouring coffee right now haha)
My main strategy is to try to engage with other people and add the most value that I can to whatever conversation is going on. Otherwise I haven't been intentional about how often I am posting or what exactly I am posting. I do subscribe to a bunch of Substacks (over 100 now, 15 or so paid), and so I have probably ended up in people's feeds via conversations with larger writers.
Interesting, thanks. Great that you've had success and broadened your readership via Notes.
To be honest, that's been my main focus via specific post comment sections. I love engaging with others via comments, it feels like a nice slow-burn place to have thoughtful thoughts.
The question is, are you using it by interacting with others? Just posting? Or how frequently?
The most engagement I've gotten is, unsurprisingly, by interacting with other larger writers. On a couple of occasions I've had writers re-stack my comments, or just continue to engage in a way that keeps the conversation in their reader's feeds. I'm also posting my own notes. In terms of frequency, it is highly variable. I may spend 30 minutes on notes, respond to a few other writer's notes, post one of my own, re-stack a quote I like, then go do something else for several hours (or a day) and come back later to do the same thing.
that would indicate indirect reach via someone with reach subscribed to you since your notes will show up on those people's feeds, maybe? Also, the time of day may factor into it. Either way, it's the network effect. Do you like speculative fiction? https://open.substack.com/pub/alexanderipfelkofer/p/future-now?r=26onua&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
So... basically drafting on someone with bigger reach? If I understand your point correctly, my original comment stands. I COULD draft on someone more famous like I did on twitter for variously other identities, but I’m retiring all of them and just bring me here. It’s amazing how many followers you can get when people see you have proximity to fame...
That's the network effect, if one person has a telephone, it's useless. Two? still useless, 10? Getting a bit more useful but over there that thing has 1000 users, which is more useful than your 10-user phone. Bring those 1000 over to your "phone" and suddenly those 500 over there will want to switch too etc... maybe your "phone" isn't the best (VHS) and there is a better one (BETAMAX), but still you have the users so BETAMAX whatever! ;)
Yes, I think you're right that indirect reach is helping here. A couple of the subscribers that I have gotten have very large (100,000+) readership. I've also re-stacked a couple of articles that I really like, with notes about why I liked them, or had comments on articles that have been re-stacked by the writer. Network effects are definitely at play, but since I can't have any impact on that directly, I'm just trying to engage in the most thoughtful way to everything I encounter. Also, I love speculative fiction and just subscribed to your Substack! So I guess you kind of got a new subscriber via Notes (in a roundabout way) :)
What you see is this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
simple as that. Notes are great for established networks and do close to nothing if you are new unless you have a booster, which you had/have.
edit: ha! thanks for the sub. Of course, that was my evil plan all along! Get one get them all! 😎
Wow thank you - I just read all of your comments and found them so helpful. It was honestly like reading a mini article haha (and honestly more helpful than a lot of other full length articles about using Notes). I love that you are focused on engaging to everything you encounter in a thoughtful way. So much social media is about quick and meaningless engagement, but I think Notes really has the potential to be helpful and authentic. That is going to be my strategy going forward to. Thanks again for all of your insights! (:
Notes is the perfect gathering place for writers to bitch and complain. 🙂 it’s good to have a place where we can communicate about things. I’m not sure how this platform might be good for subs, but I think it will be a good water cooler area for ideas. I like it. Follow me for more sarcastic positivity. It’s my brand.
I've been on Substack for about 6 months and in that time have seen various comments similar to yours, that is addressing the fact that Substack articles and promotions are always about people who already have a large subscriber base. In that same six months, I've not seen a reply from somebody at Substack.
It would be refreshing to see something about normals, as you put it. Maybe it has happened, I don't know. If so, I haven't seen it.
I think I have 1 so far, too. It’s totally possible it’ll take more time (and more quality Notes from me). But I also think that my readers aren’t really Notes kind of people. (They prefer email.) So I think I’m going to be on Notes, but not really to promote my newsletter, but rather to engage with and appreciate other writers.
Yup. That is my plan as well. Live engagement is why I’m on Notes. I see any subs from that as a bonus, not the reason I’m there. Two very different audiences.
One! That’s one more than me! Give it time ... and more importantly, keep on writing, they will take note... eventually.
LOL, I don’t think so. I’ve been on the internet since before it was, substack when it first started, same with twitter and medium. My biggest issue appears to have failing to be born of rich parents which could have afforded me an internship with a masthead publication or headline television show. That and getting too old to be adorable. 🤷♂️ Like I said, I don’t really care about subscribers, I’m not in the game for that... just find it a bit MLM “Amway-y” of Substack to sell their Notes by touting achievements of the already platformed as proof of the efficacy of Notes... nope; they were already successful prior.
Totally agree! But I’ve also felt that about their other features they have introduced - that it popularizes what and who is already popular!
Oh, totally. And let’s never loose sight of the fact that we are the crops substack is growing and we will eventually be harvested. Hopefully but as painfully as twitter, but nobody is doing this for altruistic reasons. Servers cost WAYYYYYY more than they are collecting on the inlet end... the more we post, the more data they collect and the more loyalty we show to the platform, the more valuable it becomes... but until they sell (exit) they are bleeding cash. The TRUE cost is what nobody here would ever pay.
We need an edit button in the app. I can’t keep going to the website to edit!!
Well, nothing much you can do about it, other than keep posting and let notes be notes...
I've had one, too. I'm not sure how Notes sits with me. Most of the examples snipped above already have reasonably (or very) large audiences. I'm also curious to know how many new Notes people see posted if they linger on the Notes page for 5 minutes? For me, it's not many, which suggests it only reaches out to a couple of connections beyond my current subscriber list. I assume. Not certain. Perhaps it's to the do with the categories I'm listed under.
Can someone without an actual Substack post on Notes?
But beyond, I just don't want to find myself scrolling Notes when I'd rather be reading the posts people have emailed me.
I'm still going to test it out a little more, but I have the feeling it's not for me. I want the slow pace Substacking, not the fragmentation that this slightly feels like.
Fragmentation! Need to Defrag. Luckily for you, Tales from the Defrag is here to the rescue! https://open.substack.com/pub/alexanderipfelkofer/p/future-now?r=26onua&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Haha, I see what you did there.
*clicks*...
Me? I didn't do anything. Honestly... Everyone needs to defrag, s'all I'm sayin'.
I remember the days of actually defragging my HD on my PC and watching those little squares move around, hoping it was going to solve how sluggish it had become.
Love the artwork on that post, by the way.
Thanks Nathan! There is an animated video post as well :) And yep defragging... it took forever! That's what I had in mind when doing the logo for the Substack and the intros for the teaser animations.
This is exactly what I was going to say.
It just gives more exposure to those with exposure. Another algorithm to get our head round.
What could be good is if the ones with loads of exposure gave the rest of us a hand once in a while.
I am a normie experiencing growth and no one has contacted me! 😢
DANG IT!!!! You snagged another one!! 🤣🤣🤣😁🤷♂️🤷♂️
😳 Thank you!!
Agreed, very little growth.
I’ve gotten zero. I’m not sure I’ve even gotten any views. All my subs are either direct, or from recommendations. As far as I can tell, my notes are invisible to the world. Or else, we’re supposed to spend 4 hours a day on here, and that’s how this works? That seems really unhealthy to me though
I really like Notes so far - but I would love to see some testimonials from people with not as many followers (say under 500) and where this has helped them grow. So far I've seen lots of people with already huge followings say their Stack has 'blown up' or they've had huge increases, but it seems a bit quiet for me personally, and I'm unsure anyone actually sees mine!
Yes to this. The people that are seeing growth already have thousands of subscribers.
I agree with you, Tom. For people like me with few followers, I think it’s better not to be distracted by Notes too much – at least not right now. Better for me to focus on doing more for my paid subscribers (to thank them + encourage others to go paid).
Exactly
As someone with under 40 subscribers, Notes added 8 new subscribers in the first two days to my stack. I'm not posting my subscriber graph to brag, but it's a big deal for a small voice like mine.
Ah that's great Robin! Congrats, and that's really encouraging to hear.
👌👌
I received more subscribers in three days than I have in months. Google tells me I got a 12.6% increase. It’s definitely helped me as someone with a relatively small crowd.
That's great to hear! Thanks for your comment Chevanne!
Hi Tom, I have had 4 new subscribers since starting notes this week. Typically, I get 2-4 a month. I’m willing to give it a try. It’s another tool that is available to all of us. Let’s see where it goes.
That's great to hear Stella! And totally agree, I do really enjoy it as a feature and hope it simultaneously leads to some growth!
I can testify a little. My Stack is a couple months old. The morning that Notes launched, I had 39 subscribers. I now have 80, and one paid.
Just from talking and engaging.
Oh that's great to hear! Thanks for your comment Sam.
It has helped me in gaining errr 0 new subscribers. I think it’s self-explanatory. You have reach, notes going to reach even more so it will snowball, if you have zero reach, like let’s say a 4 week old Substack your notes will go only so far, that’s all there is to it. Don’t fret though, keep writing! They will come. Future Now! https://open.substack.com/pub/alexanderipfelkofer/p/future-now?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Please address the integration with private Substacks. Someone restacked a comment made on our private forum and it appeared in Notes, accessible to all.
Please fix this so private content cannot be made public on notes. Or give us the option to turn off the restack option completely.
Notes is great but without security private Substacks won’t be usable.
Agreed, allowing random reposting of comments is not a good feature. Comments are between author, commenter and other readers of the original post, not for posting publicly and out of context. Please change it.
We just rolled this feature back. Thank you for the feedback !
Good to hear, thanks
That was a big fear for some people I was talking to earlier. That's great to hear!
FWIW, I wouldn’t mind a restack option for comments on a public Substack. Maybe a good solution would be to allow authors to enable or disable it based on the needs of their community.
But we always need the ability to keep invite-only Substacks private!
Fantastic! Thank you.
Thank you!!
Seems strange! I don’t see a way this could have happened in the app - is it via desktop? Doesn’t feel great does it - comments are a conversation not a post or a note?
I was wondering about privacy. Haven’t checked my profile to see if I can stop any/all restacks of my comments if I want to.
Would also love to see testimonials from new writers on Substack and also I would love to see Notes from new writers. It seems the only Notes I see are from writers with an already established huge following.
I just mentioned this up above, but I'll expand a bit here. I'm a very new writer on substack. I've been live for a few months, had maybe 23 or 24 subscribers prior to Notes. I've increased by more than 8 in the first couple of days since Notes went live. Definitely no huge following. I've never published a book. I didn't bring over Twitter followers. I'm jumping into Notes early to interact with everyone there because (bottom line) they're literally just people like me, scrolling through their phones, looking for connection and community. Notes feels like an opportunity to find my people and to help them find me. What would you like Notes to help you with? Let's make it happen!
Thank you, Robin. I appreciate you! Im still on the fence with Notes. A lot of it feels like noise AND I have been able to read some great Substacks. I understand that it is new still and not everyone is utilizing it.
I’m not looking at Notes to gain Subscribers necessarily but I would like to discover more writers that don’t have huge followings that I can lend my support to/have similar interests.
https://substack.com/profile/44898542-mary-hutto-fruchter/note/c-14538320
Here’s the note I posted. I love writing. I’m on the fence about notes- I agree that it feels like noise.
I am new to Substack. The link explains a little of what I write. 🙃
I created a note- any chance you saw it?
No, I did not see it.
That makes me wonder how I got seen then. I am still teeny tiny. 🤷🏾♀️
I had been struggling to cross 2,000 subscribers for awhile now. I even wrote a post about it because I was so annoyed lol https://www.lyle.blog/p/what-ive-learned-from-being-oh-so
Since Notes launched, I've easily soared past that and then some. But besides that, it's been fun to engage with other writers and my readers there
How did you leverage notes to do that?
It wasn’t very well thought-out. I just started posting things I thought we helpful or interesting or whatever. My note about hitting 2,000 subs did seemingly well, so I’m sure that helped
I enjoyed reading it just now!
Congratulations. This is really great. I’ve been hovering near 1,000 for a long time. Maybe I’ll write a post like yours!
Nice 👍
I really like Notes so far! It's fun to use and I've found lots of new letters to read - especially excited to connect with so many photographers since it was tricky to find them before. Quite a few new people have found me too so that's a nice bonus. Looking forward to seeing how it develops to support small publications and hoping we can maintain the friendly, community vibes along the way. ✨
✨
❤️👌
How about adding the functionality to disable notes altogether for those of us who don’t want to be involved until moderation is in place?
I was thinking the same thing. My plan is to nuke the app if there is no plan for moderation soon or if hate starts bubbling up. Substack was useable prior to their app and I can’t go back to email/web if necessary.
A lot of us were badgering Substack staff about moderation earlier. We're waiting on a response as to whether they've listened, but I hope they did.
I have heard that they are planning on giving writers more moderation tools at some point
There have been lots of comments since launch about ways in which Notes is different from other social platforms, and it is, in several good ways.
There's at least one way in which it's the same, and that is...
Endless scrolling...
and the incentive to scroll and scroll and scroll.
I think Notes could be improved with some mechanism that **discourages** endless scrolling.
I like social media, and it goes well with writing. What I don’t like is endless scrolling, and by this point we all know it's not good for anyone.
This seems like a classic opportunity for a creative constraint.
if you want to back this idea, I've also posted it as a Note, and you can like and Restack it there to boost it up.
https://substack.com/profile/3267122-bowen-dwelle/note/c-14574773
Since people have asked for this, I am small, under 400 subscribers and around 100 subscribers, and Notes ended up bringing me 50+ subscribers between my two Substacks. I can verify that your growth will be directly tied to your existing subscriber base. If I had 1000 subscribers, then I could easily see picking up another 500 with Notes. A few things:
1. If you are small, you may not see anything.
2. I've been on the platform for over a year and have a deep archive. Those with the highest growth rates are very consistent.
3. I am a part of a strong fiction community. We see each others notes and like/restack them, which drives a network effect.
4. Your Notes should be about good writing, and not just yours. I'm trying to primarily highlight other speculative fiction writers and that has helped.
Maybe that will be of some benefit to a few of you.
More will come Brian! Network effect, I linked it already twice here, nothing to fret over. Keep writing, have fun!
Thank you 😁
Thank you for these insights! That makes complete sense that your growth with notes is tied to how many subscribers you already have. The network effect is definitely key!
❤️❤️👌
If you’re wondering why you’re not also receiving thousands of new subscribers a day since Notes started -- it’s not a *you* thing!!
One small recommendation: add Instagram to the list of share options. Specifically, enable notes sharing to Instagram Stories. Spotify's share option is a good example. This would allow us to promote our notes obviously. But it would also feel more aesthetically pleasing than a cropped image.
Nah Instagram is a soft porn program. Not sure it’s relevant
I like notes! My favorite substack we’d have been sharing other substacks I would’ve otherwise missed. Will be great to post quotes from, I’ll check that feature out
This is so overwhelming to me, lol.
I've seen a little bit of growth in my newsletter, but it isn't that much.
Thank you for this advice - it is NOTEworthy.
Great joke.
😂
3,500 subs since yesterday???? Jesus 😂😂
That said: my views skyrocketed, breaking 1,600 for the first time.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Here’s some more info if anybody needs it
https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-notes
This is EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you!
I bring some of this up in a note I just posted.
Notes definitely leans towards benefiting larger followings, but you can leverage it even with a small following.
Read the note here:
https://substack.com/profile/31540513-taegan-maclean/note/c-14708599
Well put! Thanks for sharing
Thanks Katie!
I haven’t noticed a single extra reader since Notes. Any advice on how to get them seen? Or is it just making something restack worthy?
Keep writing, let notes be notes, don’t chase
Ok, I shall, just don’t want to end up writing into the ether never to be seen like I did with Twitter and others. Really like Substack so want to learn more
If you want a challenge try and find my incredibly useful note about Scrivener, the needle in the haystack 😝
I see it :) I’m a big fan of Scrivener. Shockingly under used imo
Scrivener is the best. Anyone not using it is missing out!
Notes is a great implementation but there’s a clear lack of guidance on how they work. Substack would you be up to do an interview or AMA on it where I happily collect questions and we do the AMA on Notes?
Hey! We have an FAQ here https://on.substack.com/p/notes-faq
Let us know what’s missing?
-> how can I tag someone. I saw people being tagged via @, but it doesn’t do anything for me
-> the extended reach is writers plus the recommended writers
-> is noted only planned to connect writers to one another or also reach subscribers in the future without embedding my notes in my Substack?
-> are there plans for video content?
I love the product! And I have loads of questions. Would happily carry everything together and share it on my next post
Tagging is only available on the web right now, will be available in the app soon
Yes
All subscribers can jump into notes today and we are working on more ways to bring them into the space beyond manually letting them know and relying on them checking their notifications. Right now we are experimenting with email digests.
We hope to support video one day!
Really glad notes are here. Growth is tough but it seems like it’s given some folks a boost!
Notes are great. Can the chat be put out to pasture now?
Also would be great to find out any details of future updates. For example, when we’re able to mute words and post audio/video
Chat and Notes serve two different purposes today. Chat is a tool to talk privately with your subscribers. Notes is public and a way to interact with the greater Substack network and get your work and ideas in front of more readers.
We're excited to see how they evolve as people use them more.
“Get your work in front of more readers” this is not what Notes is doing equally and works mostly for those who already have an established user base. The network effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
I mean... it’s obvious really
Ah okay this makes sense, thanks
I can see the two different purposes. For Chat, I can see it really working for writers with highly engaged audiences who are on the Substack app and who want to talk about something with immediacy – as in, regular post comments and regular threads aren’t enough. If I were ever to try Chat, it would likely be scheduled (so it’s like an event) and for paid subscribers only.
Speaking purely for myself, have managed only very minimal uptake from posting chats to subscribers.
Notes has been far more successful in that regard
And what's the difference with Threads?
I’ve never used ‘chat’. And you’re not selling it to me😂
It really has been a game changer in terms of growth. I’ve had many more subscriptions in the last few days than at any single time on Substack. It also allows writers to show more of who they are. It can take a while for people to get to know you and ready access to writers has done wonders for building community.
Good to hear about your growth!
If your guy can’t be clear about not platforming racism on Substack then bye.
I’m hoping to figure out how to use notes to build a community. Any tips?
If you imagine every Substack you like and connect with / subscribe to is opening a door to a lovely collection of folks that’s a nice way of looking at it...
Thank you, I do like that approach and I think substack definitely facilitates it. It seems more organic than trying to grow on social media. And since notes was introduced I have been reading more newsletters and connecting on here. It’s been nice!
Yeah people just seem to make more time and space to connect genuinely here - or at least that’s been my experience and I’ve been here a year. 🥰
I think the app attracts a certain type of person, and they’re looking for more connection and longer form slower content than the social media scroll. Although notes might change that
I’m using notes to show daily pics of something interesting on my farm. Only one new subscriber since notes was launched. Not great growth for me.
Hey, I have a Substack publication called "The Great Awakening". I've been writing it for over a year and have been able to do 160 subscribers only.
Here's a little description of my newsletter:
Having achieved the impeccable heights in Science and Culture, humanity failed tremendously at doing the same on an individual level. Being unaware of his true nature, a person suffers and that suffering expresses itself violently in the form of Climate Change, nuclear war threat, animal cruelty, desire to dominate and oppress, and other plights of humanity. The Great Awakening covers all these issues in the context of our ignorance toward ourselves and how realizing our true nature is the only way out of this labyrinth of destruction.
If you like this, you can subscribe here:
https://awakes.substack.com
nice to Notes you, Substack 🙏🏼
well done 💪🏼
Well, I'm testing notes out as a power user this weekend. I beat Mr. Chris Best for activity levels recently.
Maybe it was just for me but your “magic link” to my profile produced a “page not found” error. It would be nice if the link was clean like what you say should work (substackname (dot) substack (dot) com / profile / you) but that doesn’t work for me. Instead, I have to use this URL to get to my profile: https://substack.com/profile/46623094-erica-drayton?utm_source=user-menu (not as clean)
I had the same problem.
I'm at 418 subscribers today, but my goal is to have 10,000 active, interested people on board by the end of the year. Really glad you are adding more tools for engagement, as I have noticed it becoming harder and harder to form a genuine conversation on other platforms.
Even if that conversation doesn't yield a subscription, it still happened, and hopefully it meant something to someone.
I've seen my sub numbers increase since Notes, every day.
I would like the chance to do short videos on notes. The way one can on Twitter.
Hopefully we will get there one day soon.
I struggle with visual noise so this wouldn’t be for me but I get why people want to engage that way.
Yes :) keep going 🥂
How do I see more people? Is the algorithm centered around who you follow? I follow only 3 subscriptions (on purpose), so I end up seeing the same people over and over. When I see someone new, it's because one of the people I am subscribed to has commented. So far, it's been very frustrating. I'm thinking about the people who follow me. If that person goes onto Notes ... are they only going to see my stuff?
Tbh, so far I feel like I'm part of an MLM scam.
Please please please moderate hate and harassment on notes so this doesn’t become like all the others. Please. It’s a big reason why so many of us came here.
This is great!
Hi Substack. Thanks for a great platform. I'm making more and more posts but sometimes I want to find an old post. How do I search for keywords on my own posts that I wrote? I don't see any way to search them.
Great ideas to help us get started. Thanks @Substack.
Notes is a fantastic compliment to Substack in so many ways. I like Notes for the simple reason that it allows me to discover more excellent writers here on Substack. I've never felt more informed and intelligent than I do using this platform to learn about what's going on in the world. Thank God for Substack! 🙏😊
I haven't gained any new subscribers, probably because I've been too busy blocking people. Perhaps I still have the wrong idea about Substack because I didn't sign up to Substack to get subscriptions from already existing Substackers. Was that the wrong approach? I have chosen a few I want to follow and engage with (when I'm not being told how to structure a reply post to participate in a 'discussion' - thinks of the scene in Dune where Gurney throws a knife at Paul to get him in the mood to fight). The assumption being that there is a right and a wrong way to write a post or a response to one. Apart from not being rude or appearing to be rude when one writes something. I don't have a strategy for making good use of Notes (yet).
“I didn't sign up to Substack to get subscriptions from already existing Substackers” - YES! Isn’t this the elephant in the room? Most Substack users (at least in the app and especially in Notes) are other writers, so if writing for writers is not your niche, it’s of limited use. I want to know how to get more everyday readers to subscribe to my writing!
When you find out, let me know. From what understand it is the responsibility of the Substacker to bring non-writers/readers to Substack through personal effort, e.g., advertising and marketing. Some - a tiny proportion - may come from the 'networks' you join. Join a special interest group of follow an existing Substacker and someone in their network of followers may spot you and seek you out. Otherwise, it's what I said above. If I'm wrong about that - I've been wrong about a few things on Substack - someone will correct me, or leave me in blissful ignorance.
https://hiddenjapan.substack.com/
Also struggling with subscribers but this should help!
>.<
Thanks for including me in the roundup!
Grats Graham! May I interest you in some speculative fiction to defrag? https://alexanderipfelkofer.substack.com
Im so frustrated than french community was under represented on this network. I hope that change on the next months
Non. Bonsoir! 😎
These are some great tips
How about Video? Can videos be embedded in Notes and play inside the Notes?
Hopefully one day soon
This was worth the read. Thanks for sharing!
When I'm reading the comments on a Note in substack, I see the commenters have the name of their own publication and a 'subscribe' link under their names. That doesn't show up under my name when I comment on something. Any idea why?
There’s more value in the comments of this article rather than the actual article itself.
This shows me the power of community that Substack has cultivated. The value is in the conversation.
Also the need for better articles for the majority of writers on Substack. Not the 5%. All the examples in this article is not relatable.
Just some feedback, Substack team!
Notes as a Muskiller
Great new tool. Just started using it. But, how does a reader get to see all my past NOTES? In other words, shouldn't there be a tab on my Substack Home Page called Notes, where a reader can see all my notes in chronological order?
The "Posts" platform works ok, but "Notes" images don't accept a wrap-around url if it points away from Substack.
I'm on OSX 13 and Brave browser.
To get around that, I posted the images in a Substack Post, and then linked that Post url in the "Note"... but ...
The Notes images contain foreign language text and overlap the English language Post image, appearing confused. So I reverted.
This needs fixing to accommodate foreign language images.
(Thai, Viet, Chinese etc.)
Are the tech staff working on fixing this? I'd like to encourage non-native English speakers to join in, so I'm using images with SE Asian text in them.
So, from my understanding, Notes can't be used to grow a community while you're working on a NL? I'm asking because I have another account just for the newsletter I want to create.
Hey! Notes is a way to grow your audience and get in front of both your existing and potential new subscribers.
I'm enjoying "Notes" so far.
Great idea, Substack!
I'm new here. Observing the comments. Looking to build my own selective audience. Any thoughts on my niche etc ?
Here’s something I can’t figure out: why do some writers get a check mark next to their names, and others even have their publication linked below their name when they post, but I don’t? I haven’t heard anything about this from Substack; I just started noticing it since Notes came out. I think ALL writers should get a link to their publication when they post, so we can distinguish writers from readers, and get even more ideas who to follow!
Hey Liz! The badges you see are the Bestseller Badges https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/10661509585428-What-is-a-Substack-Bestseller-badge-#:~:text=Substack%20Bestseller%20badges%20are%20for,of%20thousands%20of%20paid%20subscribers
All writers all do get a link to their publication and a button to subscribe if the user viewing is not subscribered, you just don't see it for yourself which is kind of confusing.
Thank you Katie, this is really helpful! But I wonder why the publication does not appear below the name if someone is already subscribed? If anything, I would like to be able to notice comments and notes from writers I am already subscribed to, by showing their publication name. Would it be possible to do that and just omit the subscribe button if someone is already subscribed?
Really excited about the route Substack is taking :)
My ONLY request is to PLEASE create a feature to skip to the next comment in the comment section. 🙏🏻
I’ve found the Substack comment section is on par with Reddit comments - making for some great conversations.
Hey Michael, if you are on the web you can click the line under someone's profile to collapse the comments and navigate to the next.
Thanks for replying Katie! Really appreciate it!
Will this feature be available on mobile any time soon? I spend a lot more time on the mobile app (which is AMAZING btw) than I do on web/desktop.
I’m enjoying the positivity of notes.
New subscribers are awesome! Well, they are.
https://open.substack.com/pub/laskarine/p/they-searched-my-computer-over-false?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android
Thoughts on my substack?
Hi, just a note—my book isn't being released this week!! I just participated in someone else's audio-documentary last summer, and THAT came out this week in audiobook form. That is what I wrote about in that post: being interviewed about a mentor who is a famous writer. It's not my book or from the research phase of it. Thank you for sharing my work though!
Let's get this fixed in the post! Thanks for the correction, and our apologies Summer.
Thank you! Maybe should have sent a message rather than a comment, sorry, but just saw it before I went to bed. Re-reading what I wrote, the confusing is on me!
Trying to figure out how to restack a quote. Only option seems to be restacking the entire post or copying and pasting text.
I think if you highlight the words in a post that you want to share as a quote, the restack quote option will pop up.
That's what is meant to happen, but it didn't - it just posted the whole article. I must be doing something wrong...🤣
Oh goodness - that sounds like a bug! I haven’t tried it yet, so can’t confirm.
This is a bullshit measure of success. More like Bureaucracy instead of any talent for writing or publishing. In essence, the lumpen proletariat will follow all such graphs, data, growth and what-else jargon - however not make any objective difference to their content nor writing skills. Substack, much like the rest of the online publishing world, is full of mediocrity and mainstream mud floating at the top.
you need to defrag! https://alexanderipfelkofer.substack.com
;)
By defrag, you mean de-fragment? Which would eventually lead to dissolution. Formless?
Or perhaps you mean, 'defrag' like a hard-disk? Like sort all the scrambled digits out? Well, I am not a machine nor logical system to defrag. Hope your not as well. Adios!
The mentions don’t seem to work when typed in the app?
Not today
Yeah I keep getting political outrage notes, which is like the very last thing I want to see, like, ever