I grew 30% in two months by using Notes on Substack
I'm not a growth guru, but I'm in awe of these results.
If you’re using the Substack App (which I hope you do), the most remarkable aspect of this platform is the network effect, where your work gets shown to others within the network in a number of different ways, contributing to faster growth.
In late November, I restarted this account after a year of inactivity. I shared my first email blast, and as you can see above, I had a small dip in subscribers. I expected that to happen because people hadn’t heard from me in over a year, and most of them were already subscribed to me on The Hungry.
That large spike in growth in early December is when I migrated a small list of 50 subscribers from my Beehiiv account, which is where I housed DaveConrey.com for a while. I sent out more emails, and with each one, my subscriber base declined.
In fact, every dip you see on this graph is after I send out an email. Again, not new information; it’s the nature of the work we do as newsletter publishers. And yet, I’m growing faster on Substack than I ever did anywhere else, and I’m convinced it’s for one reason only.
This graph shows my total followers on Substack, which includes both subscribers and people who have chosen to follow me in the Notes section of the platform. Because of the power of the network effect, my number has grown over 25% since I started back here.
By being consistent in Notes, connecting with people authentically, commenting on and sharing their posts, and interacting with others in their groups, I’m building up my following. Not everyone becomes a subscriber, but because they are directly connected within the platform, it’s far easier for them to become subscribers than through any other app.
I don’t have a specific Notes strategy except to post them often, but I post anywhere between 3 to 7 notes a day. I post my creative work, random growth strategies, short anecdotes, or completely random missives. I also look for other people’s notes and posts to restack.
I also think it’s important to interact with people. Commenting on other posts, replying to comments on my posts, and interacting with others who have commented extend my circle of connections a little further.
The short story is that I’m doubling down on Substack right now. I know it’s not a great idea to put all the eggs in this one basket, but because my end goal is to build my email list, and I can take that list with me anywhere I want, I’m taking advantage of the network effects now while I can. If things change with Substack, I can always take my list somewhere else.
What about your experience? Have you tried using Notes? Are you having success or finding it more challenging? Let me know in the comments.
Oh, so that might be where all my new followers are coming from! I'm still pretty new on substack and am figuring the app out. And I'm trying to not get too worked up about growth at the moment, and just focus on the "fun" part of it, as I'm not sure yet, where this goes anyways. Or where I want this to go.
I’m still thinking about how to use Notes. Right now it’s the default app I scroll when I’m bored because there’s always an interesting or crazy new story published by the kind of weirdos I’m interested in.
I’m trying to use this app differently from all the other ones, IE posting things or ideas that pertain to the things I like or want to foster, and see if that helps show me more of that stuff, or those people. My default instinct is to post “hot takes” or dump my rage at the world on the feed, but that was the old social media me.
I have been posting my daily doodles and I’m still on the fence as to whether or not this space is for single image art that isn’t attached to a story. Not that it should be, per se, but just seeing what might get people with similar interests in my corner.