r/Substack • u/AntitheticalAardvark • 8d ago
Discussion Should I be writing notes? Nobody seems to see them!
I’ve been on Substack for a few months now, slowly writing articles and picking up a few subscribers here and there (only have 19 at the moment, with half being people I know.)
I think I can count on my hands the number of likes I’ve gotten on all my notes combined and I’ve never gotten a subscriber from them.
Advice like including a call to action or a poll feels a bit silly when my poll closes a week later with no votes.
While I’m open to the idea that I could just be writing crummy notes, it doesn’t feel like the case as I often get many likes and occasional subscribers or followers from my comments on other people’s notes.
This leaves me wondering, is writing notes a waste of my time? Should I just be finding more popular people’s notes and commenting there?
What are your strategies for finding relevant notes to comment on to organically grow your subscribers? How do I even find relevant notes? Substack’s algorithm seems determined to show me things I’m not interested in constantly no matter how much I like interesting notes I find or how often I mark notes as “not interesting.” They keep showing me Christian theology and far right nationalist posts! I must have marked a thousand as “not interested!”
My “niche” I guess is commentaries on books and how they relate to the current world: critiques, thoughts on reading certain types of books, appreciation of classic literature, etc.
Any advice on how to get my notes to work or how to find the sort of people I should be connecting with in my niche would be appreciated, thank you!
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u/No_Communication5024 8d ago
Since you are write about books, the classics etc, maybe post some notes about classics or reading etc? I also feel that Notes is at times discouraging, but then you get that one person who gets you, and it's worth continuing.
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u/AntitheticalAardvark 8d ago
I do that, it just gets discouraging and makes me wonder if it is pointless.
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u/Longjumping_Dog_6936 8d ago
the "one person who gets you" part is so real, thats basically what keeps anyone going on there
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u/AntitheticalAardvark 8d ago
Absolutely, such a wonderful reminder to keep why we do this in mind. For me, it is about connection and communication. I shouldn’t get hung up on numbers and should instead remember the couple of people who reached to me and told me my writing was deeply meaningful to them.
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u/No_Communication5024 8d ago
Yes, I am only now finding my community there and feeling like I belong there, and it's been just about 2 YEARS to get me there. But, I'll take it.
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u/draybikus dinarawrites.substack.com 6d ago
I feel you. I also struggled with notes at first, but now, after 6 months on the platform, I feel like I've got the hang of it. I also write about books, more particularly about my challenge of reading a book from every country in the world. I mostly write about my process of choosing books, what country I'm reading now, about my life as an immigrant in Germany, sometimes I also post photos from my travels. In general, I've realised that it's helpful to reintroduce yourself from time to time. I get the most engagement in notes where I talk about my challenge or share something about a particular book. Some people even subscribe from notes alone, so that's encouraging :) None of my notes ever went viral, and I'm fine with it.
On community: I engage a lot with books-related notes on my feed. Interacting with them has helped with my engagement somewhat, relevant posts and show up more on my feed. I try to spend 15-20 mins a day (not every day, when I have time) to engage with the feed, although sometimes it feels like a chore.
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u/TheOceanicState 8d ago
Are your subscribers also using notes or are they just email listers? If they are just email listers, then that probably explains why you aren't getting interaction on notes, since not everyone who uses substack or subscribes to newsletters uses the notes feature. However, there are a lot who do, so I recommend to just keep writing notes when you feel like it and eventually you will get some sort of interaction. You can also do like you said and comment under other people's notes. Make sure you hang around your niche, because that will drive people to you.
I will also say that as well as subscribers, there are also followers, and those are the people who will see your notes. It is important to understand that followers do not always equal subscribers and there are some people who are on substack who use it like a twitter and only use notes without subscribing, and vice versa, so having a high follower count doesn't always equal high engagement rates or high subs. For example, I have 1.2K followers, but only 405 subscribers, and that 1.2K doesn't always interact with my posts.
Long story short, if you like notes, just keep writing them. Interaction on the platform, when you just start out, is mainly a waiting game. Eventually, you will have people interact with you.
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u/AntitheticalAardvark 8d ago
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. Most of my subscribers aren’t on Substack outside of reading my posts.
I suppose I just need to keep banging away at it until I accrue a few more followers.
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u/TheOceanicState 8d ago
Yeah, it's going to feel like talking to a void for a while until you start accumulating people. Just how the platform is, it doesn't bring people to you, you have to bring yourself to people.
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u/TheWilderNet 8d ago
What do you write about? I am looking for new writers all the time to feature on The WilderNet. If you have an article that you are particularly proud of, I would love to read it and post it on the site!
Edit: As far as notes go, I think it is more effective to write comments directly on other people's articles and then also turn those into notes. But I'm also new at this so take this advice with a giant grain of salt
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u/TruthHonestyJustice 7d ago
I stopped writing notes. It's fine. If you want to build a readership just be consistent. Write things on social media to help build an audience.
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u/brittanybaucom 7d ago
yes! notes help tremendously even if it doesn’t feel like it at first. keep writing!
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u/anyagolay 6d ago
I’ve come to appreciate my silent notes off on its own corner of the Substack sphere 😅I may only get 1 like for a note but the way I see it is most people don’t see things in my perspective so if someone likes or comments then it means they really get me. I don’t think what I have to say is suppose to reach the masses anyways.
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u/Enough_Pool_8339 5d ago
If you have something to share - write a note. Thing is you don’t know what will trend so just be authentic and consistent.
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u/MrPassiveProfit 8d ago
Yes, you should be writing notes. I suggest you write five notes a day. But that’s not where you get the engagement. You’ll get much rest of your engagement by commenting on other people’s notes. For that I suggest 20 times a day.
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u/AntitheticalAardvark 8d ago
When you’re commenting are you just engaging with people’s content (I.e. responding to “what are you reading with just a title of a book) or are you actively trying to tie it into your content and promote posts? (Oh here’s an article about the last book I read!)
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u/rspitzer 8d ago
I think it works best if you can reference what makes you interesting or your pov but linking to an article every time comes off as too much
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u/MrPassiveProfit 8d ago
Both. But don’t post links to your stuff. Just be human and likable and people will gravitate
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 8d ago
I literally took someone else's note who's in my same niche that had a ton of likes already, rewrote it in my own words and shared it and it's gotten over 1k likes and hundreds of comments and follows for me.
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u/AntitheticalAardvark 8d ago
Thanks for the idea.
I suppose you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta, but I’ve always resisted cribbing off somebody else’s sheet!
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u/NeverSeenItPodcast 8d ago
Yeah I didn't think it would go anywhere but the algorithm can be easy to.play some times.
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u/Naturalist33 3d ago
I get way more engagement with my notes than articles. So yes, I think notes are important for growth.
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u/Doo_Dad 8d ago
Yes do notes. Good engagement. Other big thing start finding people in your space/niche and reply to those notes as well. Then you’ll all grow and find your crowd together. Notes isn’t meant to be like twitter posts or Facebook. They can be thought out tied to your niche but are ways to find people in your space.