The "Rules" of Substack Notes
Make growth and your life on Notes much, much easier
Take a minute. You’re doing great. Truly. This is a really rough time and many, many of my clients feel like it’s getting harder to get traction on Notes and convert subscribers.
If you’re feeling this, you’re not alone.
And it’s going to be fine.
We just stay together, ride out ebbs and flows, and bring our good work to the world. Our theme for this month (and every month) is how to make your Substack growth easier.
Now, let’s talk about how to take advantage of Notes without giving all your time and energy to it.
The truth about Notes
Most people want to be seen on Substack Notes to get subscribers and connect with people.
But it can feel like we’re spending all our time there and posting into a void.
I don’t want you spending all your time on Notes. I want you to be efficient so you can spend your time and energy doing what you love: your Substack.
Wait, what is Notes?
Notes is our internal social media network.
Notes started in April 2023 to help us connect and get subscribers. I was in the beta launch with the Substack team and many of the big Substack writers. It was very different back then—all about connecting with other Substack writers.
It has since turned into an amalgamation of Facebook, Instagram, the old days of Twitter, and LinkedIn.
It’s a social media platform like any other and abides by certain “rules” if you want to go viral.
Why some Notes get engagement and others don’t
Notes is as much about how you say something as it is about what you say.
The Notes that get engagement abide by the “rules” of the Notes genre. Just like there are some “rules” to writing a novel that engages readers, so there are “rules” to writing Notes that engage scrollers.
What are the “rules” of Notes
Rule #1: The rules are always changing.
Rule #2: The algorithm privileges engagement, not posting frequency, so don’t listen to that guy telling people to post 20-30 times/day.
Rule #3: The algorithm is always changing, which means rule #2 could change.
Rule #4: Don’t waste your time writing a bunch of Notes, hoping people will like, comment, or restack based on what you say; it’s all how you say it.
Rule #5: Using the 12 Essential Substack Notes Templates and knowing how to structure whatever you want to say on Notes will make it much more likely your Notes will be read, engaged with, etc. and make your life much, much easier.
Should you bother with the 12 Essential Notes Templates?
You decide, of course.
They aren’t “hacks.”
I’ve distilled down what I know has worked for hundreds of Substack writers and creators and what seems to be happening on Notes.
They’re a way to be on Notes with my support, which I think you should do because:
The potential organic growth is phenomenal.
The potential organic growth likely won’t last forever (though I’m more than happy to be proven wrong on that).
The butterfly effect of Notes is unreal. A tweet stays around for 30 seconds, a Facebook post for 4 hours, an Instagram post for 48 hours, but our wonderful Notes can live on for weeks or months, getting engagement, helping you find your readers and subscribers. That’s pretty great.
Is the point really to go viral?
Yes, but “viral” means feeling like the time you do spend on Notes is worth it because you’re getting some engagement.
“Viral” could mean 12 or 1200 likes, 5 or 50,000 new subscribers.
Use them, please
The templates work, but you have to work with them and experiment.
Access the templates and PDF below.
The 12 Essential Substack Notes Templates of 2025 (so far)
#1: Short!
Notes is social media. People scroll on social media. They scroll quickly. They scroll so quickly that all platforms favor short over long:
Twitter: 20-30 words/71-100 characters is optimal for engagement
Facebook: Posts with 10-20 words/~40 characters or less can have higher engagement
Instagram: Captions up to ~35 words/125 characters will display in the feed
LinkedIn: Posts after ~40 words/140 characters will be truncated
Notes follows the same general guidelines.
Substack Notes: ~ 90 words, 500 characters.
You want people to be able to read everything you have to say without having to click See more.
Do some long Notes go viral? Sure. But why—why—continue to write tome-like Notes when you know short works better?
(Check out the News and U.S. Politics categories where Notes go bonkers viral.)
EXCEPTION: Notes that tell a story.
These do well if they’re longer. Find out how to write short-story Notes, the five types of Notes that go viral, and all twelve essential templates.
The full twelve were too long for email, so…
Or click here:
Free subscribers, if you want to reap the benefits of Notes without being at the mercy of Notes, use the 12 Essential Notes Templates by becoming a paid subscriber.
Why are the 12 Essential Notes Templates for paid subscribers?
Because this isn’t just “information” you can get off the internet or AI, or what one person says worked once for them. It’s premium guidance based on my deep knowledge of what works on Substack and what doesn’t and my years of experience helping thousands of Substack writers and creators—and because I geek out on studying Notes like a scientist and seeing what’s happening there.
If you feel totally lost on Notes, watch my 15-minute Notes tutorial—available to free and paid subscribers:
This was AWESOME!!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you, Sarah! Everything I learned about posting on Notes I learned from you. It's been so helpful and I've met and interacted with so many incredible readers and other creative professionals.