Old-School Substack Growth Without Notes

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Nov 04, 2025

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First, you’re amazing.

If, by chance, you’re not getting new subscribers or losing them, know you’re not alone. I’ve actually never (ever) had a client who didn’t feel totally bummed out about their Substack growth at some point—huge accounts and little accounts—and that’s a sample size of over a thousand people.

So, today, we’re going to go on an adventure.

I’m going to take you through:

What’s happening with Substack growth right now
The (perhaps) bad news about Substack growth
The old-school way to grow without Notes
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The really great news about Substack growth

Are you ready?

People who aren’t subscribed are reading you.

Reread that sentence :)

If you need proof, I received this yesterday from the wonderful

Johanna Journey

So put a version of that sentence on a Post-It on your computer: People are reading me who aren’t subscribed. My stats don’t tell the whole story.

The (perhaps) bad news about growing fast on Substack

If you want fast growth, it still happens on Notes. Period.

(Tough love incoming.) And you probably need to be on there a lot, especially if you’re brand new to Substack, and aren’t allowed to complain about Notes or have a bad attitude toward Substack.

The good news within the (perhaps) bad news: Substack is being more public about how the Notes algorithm works. The algorithm has changed (which is why the Notes Boost Challenge is no more). From what I understand from Substack Head of Machine Learning Mike Cohen, it’s been democratized and refined.1
The other good news: Notes really doesn’t have to be complicated, yet people really, really overcomplicate it. It’s a genre like any other and has conventions:
- Treat it like a mix of early Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. (Please, let me take you, step-by-step, through the 5 types of Notes that go viral here.)
- Drop the guru voice.
- Share real moments from your actual life.
- Indulge in Instagram platitudes.

And you’ll eventually get traction.

The truth about Notes

You don’t have to be on Notes.

Reread that sentence :)

And it’s okay not to like Notes. The boys (the cats) hate it. They’ve never gone viral, which is absurd, and have washed their paws of Notes forever. (I’ll probably continue to post, but they won’t.)

The old-school way to grow on Substack

If you opt not to be on Notes, it will mean slower growth, which is a beautiful thing. » Slower growth means approaching Substack as a place for you to create and produce your best work.

Slower growth = the old-school way to grow on Substack

The best way to grow without Notes is Mentions. I’ve used it as a growth strategy with my private clients for four years. It works.

Mentions are our version of tagging (@___).
They’re glorious and real, connecting you with other Substack writers in a genuine and fortifying way and really tapping into the Substack network.

But!