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! (:
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
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!
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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 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. ✨
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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/