Step 4: How to Start Getting Traction on Notes in 2026
Welcome to step 4 of your Substack Starter Pathway, where I give you a simple way to understand and get started on Notes. (Just joining? Start here.)
In a nutshell, Notes is our internal social media network. It’s where most of the growth happens.
You’ll find it by going to your avatar in the upper right of your screen on your homepage or dashboard: AVATAR » DROPDOWN » “HOME”
Notes is Substack’s “home” and the tab should be called Notes, but it’s not :)
As you can see, Notes looks a lot like other social media platforms—an amalgamation of the other platforms: old-school Twitter with a dash of Instagram, a dose of Facebook, and a drizzle of LinkedIn.
Back in the beta run of Notes in 2023, which I was lucky to be part of and was mainly the Substack team and some invited writers, it seemed like Notes was going to be a whole new kind of social media. That’s what Substack said they wanted and still want.
But Notes is social media run by an algorithm, and the humans on Notes determine how the algorithm ultimately behaves. The longer Notes was around and the more people who came to Substack from Facebook, Instagram, X, etc., the more Notes started to look like any other social media platform.
So use my guidance below, and you’ll know what types of Notes to post (because these are the ones that get traction), which is the first step. We want your Notes to be you, not AI, which is key to Substack. You being you.
The 4 types of Notes that get traction in 2026
+A few others to try