Don't Snooze on Substack Notes. The Opportunities for Writers Are Stupid Crazy | Interview with David Mcllroy
In less than two months, he gained 1,600 subscribers and went from renter to owner - without growth hacking!
Many smart writers don't want to use X formerly Twitter anymore.
They feel frustrated about what's been going on.
That’s why they join Substack and the new “Twitter for writers”, as I call it.
Solopreneur and indie fiction author
joined Substack in 2019, and as many can relate, was just there.He focused on Twitter and spent 2022 growing his following on Twitter by showing up every day.
He started with three followers and ended up with 16,000.
He became a renter because you don’t own your following on social media.
On Substack where you can own your audience, he was just flailing around and didn't see real growth.
Then, his audience growth shot upwards.
In less than two months, he gained over 1,400 subscribers.
His newsletter turned him from a renter into an owner.
BONKERS, isn't it?
David went from flailing around to 1,400+ subscribers using Substack Notes
David started making regular use of the Notes feature, the new “Twitter for writers”.
2,377 likes and 287 restacks… that’s CRAZY!
Notes is Substack’s internal social media network dedicated to short form.
It’s for writers and authors who are sick and tired of, well,… social media.
How does that come together?
Well, it’s social media like in the good old days.
It's ad free
it helps you discover new writers
it helps you and your writing get discovered by others
In my opinion, Substack Notes is definitely a viable X (formerly Twitter) competitor and alternative.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons Elon Musk doesn’t show Substack posts as embed anymore.
(Here’s help! You have to take a screenshot, announce your post and then (a few hours later) link to the post in the comments.)
Two weeks ago, Substack Notes celebrated it’s first birthday!
To celebrate this great milestone and because I know that Notes has changed the lives of so many people, I want to celebrate Notes hard with you this month.
That’s why I asked
for an interview.I bet our interview inspires you to join “The Notes Club”, have fun writing there, sharing your writing and more about you.
Wanna join the Club (more information at the bottom of this post)?
New VIDEO: From Beginner to Substack Expert🥳 🚀
David and I agree…
The strength of Notes lies in the community and the network effects.
I discovered so many great authors through Notes that I could identify with very well.
As you might now, I love short form posts. (As a busy part-time creating mom, every day I share one easy digestible short post on Medium.) It’s the perfect place for me.
You’re ill-advised if you play the subscribe-for-subscribe or subscribe-unsubscribe game some influencers recommend at the moment.
There are four types of Substack writers
Those who…
don’t know about Substack’s Notes feature
don’t capitalize on it
write a handful of posts and then think their posts don’t get tracion, suck or it’s worthless to be there
don’t “get” it
My tip: Don’t sleep on Substack’s Notes feature because (besides Substack Recommendations) it’s a powerful internal growth engine.
David isn’t alone.
Look at my friend
Her growth is tremendous. She uses ZERO social media outside of Substack.She turned this…
…into this…
What are you waiting for?
Today, the Notes Club opens its doors.
Its motto “Enjoy the moment. Be you.”
It’s a space inside my exclusive community of like-minded writers where we’ll take advantage of Substack's internal social media network in May 2024.
We’ll put ourselves out there, share our stories, tell more about us, share our work and become a “relatable human on Notes” (as Kristi Keller put it) and see what happens and watch Notes change your writer life for the better.
Learn the power of the HOPE key to not be bitter, frustrated or aggressive when you don't get the results you want. It’s about long term growth!
You’ll get my best guidance on how to use Notes, how to manage it.
We’ll have a rad LIVE session with
with FAQ.I’ll share a Notes Vault to get your creative juices flowing.
We’ll brainstorm ideas and create an action plan.
We’ll have FUN experimenting (as I did the last past days) and putting ourselves in a position of luck!
Or as tribe member
puts it:
I’ll leave you with this
Of course no one can do “the work” for you but if you embrace who you truly are and what you have to share with the world, this could be you:
Come to “The Notes Club” ready to have fun, dream big and get into action!
See you there 🥳,
Substack is awesome but I have yet to find anyone speaking my own language here
So far I’ve gone from zero to 80 subs just from Notes alone, in two months. No outside growth channels (yet).
I’m still super small-time and I’ll have to find other ways to grow, but right now I owe my whole list acquisition to Notes and the connections I’ve made there (and my own ability to deliver good stories).