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.
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.
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 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.
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) :)
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! (:
Your comment is so inspirational and gave me a different perspective compared with the article about notes that I was reading. Thank you for this helpful insight and push of motivation. I am also new to Substack (10 days old) and I am trying to learn about ways of getting my writing in front of more people.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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! (:
Your comment is so inspirational and gave me a different perspective compared with the article about notes that I was reading. Thank you for this helpful insight and push of motivation. I am also new to Substack (10 days old) and I am trying to learn about ways of getting my writing in front of more people.
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