Beyond Viral: How 3 Substack Writers Found Their Ideal Subscribers Through Notes
The SW@W Notes Boost Challenge begins tomorrow, 5/7...
Today:
Your Substack growth strategy
How 3 Substsack Writers at Work had three very different viral Notes in the last Notes Boost Challenge
Your Substack growth strategy
Each week in May, you’ll get a taste of the 4-part Substack Strategy Framework that I use with my private clients and Substack Mastermind Members to double and triple and 10x their subscribers, substantially increase their revenue, produce their best work, and have real engagement with their readers. (I’ll be taking people through the entire growth strategy in my 4-week Substack Strategy Foundations Course at the end of May.)
There’s more to a growth strategy than just Notes, but Notes is where to focus your energy right now.
Growth is a good thing—you deserve to have your work in the world—and going after it can be amazing when you connect with a community of other Substack writers and creators with integrity. That’s when Substack becomes a place of empowerment, not another platform you have to game.
I created the Notes Boost Challenge (NBC) to give you the support you need to grow. In a nutshell, the Notes algorithm doesn't privilege frequency; it privileges engagement. So your Note needs support to get momentum in an organic way.
It’s the original Notes Boost. It’s about you connecting with other amazing Substack writer, creators, and visionaries with integrity and getting help finding your readers and subscribers.
Success stories: 3 Notes that went viral in the last Notes Boost Challenge
As I always, always say, going viral on Notes is relative. Viral just means a Note reached a lot more people than you typically reach.
On yesterday’s SW@W Live, “Why Notes and a carefully chosen community are the key to real Substack growth,” I had three amazing writers (and humans) on to talk about their experience in the Notes Boost Challenge.
What they did:
Used the Notes Boost to connect
Posted with integrity
Showed up every day in the Notes Boost Challenge
Devoted about an hour a day
Spent time writing their Notes and supporting others by commenting, liking, and restacking
Focused their Notes on their Substacks
Attracted engaged subscribers
Wrote very shareable Notes—and you know what I feel about shareability (it’s everything)
What they didn’t do:
They didn’t use AI
They didn’t use AI
They didn’t use AI
What they understood:
Certain types of Notes go viral
All you have to do is follow my guidance each day in the challenge to make sure your Notes follow one of those types and structures. (Please don’t let people or AI tell you what to write. That should come from you.)
Here are three of those types (there are more):
Photo with a caption
Text-only—long: life update / memoir
Text-only—concise: the core of your Substack
— photo with a caption
Lucy started the Boost with just 36 subscribers and typically got 5-20 likes on her Notes. Her first Note in the Boost went ultra viral with 16,000 likes (and counting) and 242 subscribers—and counting. She followed my photo-with-caption prompt. What I love is how she spoke directly to her subscribers: “This Note was a wink, grounding how I want to serve others. The phrase was shared with me from my dancing days, and I had this photo saved in my album for years. That morning, I put them both together quickly and posted it right as the NBC [Notes Boost Challenge] opened (which doesn’t happen too often). So perhaps the momentum of fast engagement from the boost + the photo (your prompt for the day) was a winning combination.”
— life update/memoir
Jessy used a template for personal journeys, structuring her Note with timestamps: “At 37, my dream agent passed on the book... Now nearing 39, I’m publishing my memoir on Substack one chapter at a time.” She gained 810 free subscribers (!) from people genuinely connecting with her story, proving that authenticity in the NBC drives meaningful growth.
In our live, she talked about how focusing on text rather than visuals connected her with the right audience: “I have found that just focusing on text and just putting all my effort and energy into getting the voice and the text right. It’s led me to people who actually wanna read my work, and those are the subscribers that I want.”
— core of your Substack
Katherine demonstrated exactly how to leverage a post for Notes, extracting the core DNA of her Substack into a powerful text-only Note that netted her 176 new subscribers and sparked meaningful engagement, including productive disagreements that actually boosted her visibility.
“What I found through the Notes Boost was people really respond when you own what you do know. This note was scary for me in that I had to say it authoritatively and let people fight with me if they wanted and just own this thing that’s at the core of the Substack.”
Katherine also had a restack that did really well. More on that in May’s Notes Boost Challenge.
“I am realizing is that when I post a Note that is in alignment with my overall mission and theme, it reaches the people I’m supposed to reach. What I’ve learned from this challenge is that authenticity is what people attracted to this platform are craving. The Notes Boost Challenge (which I can't say or write without hearing your jingle, Sarah) makes the Notes feature feel less like social media and more like an opportunity to connect with interesting people who either share interests and teach me new perspectives.”
Yes, in the Notes Boost Challenge, I sing to you and you get glimpses of the boys (the cats) every single day.
Imagine what we’ll all achieve if we do this for the next year?
I received this from the lovely
of : “I have an average of 2 new subscribers daily even when I do nothing more.… My site engagement has jumped over 600% in April. My monthly views have tripled.”
Red Line: April 8, beginning of the NBC
Black line subscriber growth before
Blue line Subscriber growth after!
Thank you!
Thank you so much, Sarah! And everyone highlighted here! And everyone, really.
I am learning so much and what's more is that I'm becoming way more comfortable being more honest with myself about where I'm rockin' it--and where I need to work smarter and make adjustments. I think developing that discernment definitely has built my confidence and given me more solid direction.
I gained 60+ new subscribers over the course of the last NBC! :)
Q: What do people do after they have such a huge influx of new subscribers all of a sudden? Are there best ways to handle that so that you keep them, like a 're-introduction' or making sure to publish a post soon after so they don't forget who you are? I do NOT mean that in a rude way. I really mean there are so many amazing writers, and I do this myself, I subscribe to someone one day but by the time they appear in my inbox I'm like: "Wait, who is this again?"
I've learned that notes isn't just throwing darts at the wall, hoping one sticks. I'm learning to find my voice in notes and connecting with the people I've hoped to find online for decades. 🖤