How to Stop Feeling Like You're Speaking into the Void on Notes
It’s terrible to feel like you’re posting into the Substack Notes void. Terrible.
Substack is about you finding your people…
Notes is one of the best ways to do that.
If your subscribers aren’t on Substack Notes (which many Substackers’ subscribers aren’t), you need a boost to get your Notes in front of people.
Below, I give you
4 viral Notes examples to make your own.
I also explain
How our Notes Boosts events work
Notes in a nutshell
✦ What’s happening on Notes right now…
I geek out on tracking the Notes that are going viral. It’s consistently changing because the Notes algorithm is always changing.
Here are five examples of viral Notes to try this week.
Remember…
“Viral” is relative
Notes is all one big experiment
4 Viral Substack Notes examples for you…
Please make these your own. Don’t just copy them verbatim. Substack is our chance to be ourselves.
PHOTO—a space in your house that means a lot to you with one sentence to illuminate it.
Use bullets and bolding to share a contrast in your life. Example:
Let us know about a project/quest you’re starting or have been doing.
Post a song and let us know how it appeared in your life.
Go here for the complete list. New ones just added:
✦ Notes Boost events explained
How to get your Notes in front of people
Our Substack Writers at Work Notes Boost events are how you get your Notes boosted to reach more people and grow your Substack.
It’s how we level the playing field. If you don’t have a lot of subscribers/followers (to learn the difference, see below), your Notes won’t gain enough momentum to even have a chance of going viral.
Watch this video for a step-by-step of how they work.
✦ Substack Notes-in-a-nutshell:
New to Notes? Watch this video.
You can also watch last week’s live Notes class:
✦ Share what’s worked for you on Substack Notes in the comments.
What has worked well for me on "Notes" and attracted many subscribers is writing mini pieces as hors d'oeuvres for a larger course on the stack. Write well. Don't ask for love. Don't ask for understanding. Don't whine. Fascinate and seduce. Make the reader hot. Make the reader laugh.
So interesting Sarah, thank you for doing this deep dive! I have found, in the relatively little time I've spent on Notes, that those with larger newsletters naturally gather more engagement on their Notes. This makes sense bc they've got more subscribers. I also see that Notes focusing on life, personal matters, topics that are more emotion-adjacent, do better. Yet it baffles me when two people post very similar topics, yet one goes a little viral and the other has crickets.
This is why I don't like algorithms. They're lifeless things, and yet they're capable of triggering such disappointment, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. Let's not let them.