6 Deadly Mistakes Writers Make On Substack Notes

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The other day, I asked my Chat how many times they post on Notes per week.

We got an astounding 114 replies, and I kept seeing an answer I wasn’t expecting:

Once per week.

This shocked me because Notes are the best growth opportunity on the internet right now for writers.

I’ve seen viral Notes create hundreds of email subscribers in days for my students.

When I wrote on Medium, I’d be lucky to generate a few hundred email subscribers with 60,000 monthly views. You’re telling me I can write one viral 200-word Note and get 200 subscribers from that? Where do I sign up?

Why aren’t people posting MORE on Notes?

Another thing I saw was that most people don’t see big growth from Notes. So a lot of people quit, or denounce Notes entirely. “It just works for people who write about writing!” they say. That’s not true anymore at all! What IS true is that most people are just using Notes wrong. Like, really wrong. It’s no wonder they aren’t seeing any results from it!

I’ve made a lot of high-level Notes trainings since April, and I never thought to explain the basics of Notes until now. People are making some deadly mistakes on Notes, and just need a little basic direction.

That’s what this post is for. So, let’s get to it.

#1. Posting Once Per Week Instead Of 3-5 Times Per Week

If you want to see ANY results on Notes, you need to post at least three times per week. Bare minimum. Preferably you’d post five times per week—once for every weekday. Why is this important?

Imagine you have a friend who messages you once every year. Great. Now imagine a friend who messages you once every week. Who are you gonna feel closer to?

Relationships are built on familiarity. Posting once per week is just not enough AT ALL to build any kind of familiarity.

Notes is an exponential game, too. The more readers you have, the more likely you are to hit the jackpot and go viral. Let me be painfully honest, though—you’re not going to win readers by posting once per week. If you want fanatics of your work, you got to be a fanatic about providing value to them.

Posting once per week is the equivalent of a dishrag hug from your Aunt who you see once per year at family gatherings.

It’s an effort thing.

If Lebron James practiced once per week instead of every day of his life, would he be successful? Obviously not.

One last point—a friend and student of mine,

Teri Leigh 💜

has been posting Notes on Substack for 6+ months. The other day she wrote her first 100+ like Note, which turned into a 2,000+ like viral post.

I’ll reiterate.. she has been posting steadily for 6 months! 6! She’s posted hundreds of Notes, and steadily grew her following until she broke through and had her viral moment. Writing online is not like going to the casino. You don’t just pop in and get lucky. You get “lucky” and go viral by doing the work, consistently, for months.

Get consistent. Post 3-5 Notes per week for months. It takes me 30 minutes tops for me to write a good Note. You should be able to find 1.5 hours per week to write 3 Notes. You can do this.

#2. Only Using Notes For Restacking

In my chat thread, there were a lot of people who said they just use Notes to reshare or “restack” articles they liked.

While this is a really cool gesture, and something I love about Notes, don’t make this your whole strategy.

Restacking will get you little to no new subscribers. They do not typically perform well in the feed, either. Just understand this going in.

You need to write original Notes to have any real chance of going viral.

One thing I will say in favor of restacks, though, is that it’s a great way to connect with other writers. I love when people restack my work, and I take a real notice of it. Keep being kind, and restacking articles, but don’t make it 100% of your strategy. You will not grow significantly by restacking other people’s work alone.

#3. Lack of Consistency

This is a killer. Imagine you have a friend you made plans with for on Friday night, and they cancel on you. Okay, now imagine you make plans with them again for next Friday, and they go! Great! Now imagine you make plans with them again for the following Friday, and they ghost you again.

What are you going to think about this person?

That they’re unreliable? That they don’t like you? All the above, probably, right?

Yeah. That’s the message you’re sending to people when you post a lot, then take a break, then post a lot, then take a break. People will remember that.

Why should I follow someone who isn’t consistent?

This isn’t even the biggest problem, though. The biggest problem is that you’re just wasting your time. Let’s say you post consistently for 3 weeks.

In week 1 you might win zero loyal readers. In week 2 you might win one loyal reader. In week 3 you might win four loyal readers. Let’s map it out, shall we?

• Week 1: Zero loyal readers. 0 Likes on any of your Notes.

• Week 2: One loyal reader. 1 Like on each of your Notes.

• Week 3: Five loyal readers. 3-5 Likes on each of your Notes.

This stuff grows exponentially. If you stop, you never give yourself the opportunity to grow a legitimate following!

The loyal readers you’ve won will forget about you. Then you got to start over at zero.

Look, growing on Notes is like trying to start a fire with a bow drill. Here’s what that looks like:

If you stop trying to start a fire with a bow drill, you’re done. It works because of friction. You need to reach a tipping point for it to actually start the fire. If you stop, all that effort is wasted. DON’T. STOP.

If

Teri Leigh 💜

stopped, she wouldn’t have written her viral Note.

#4. Expecting To Go Viral Immediately

This one really makes me angry, lol. Sorry to take such a negative tone here, but no, you’re not going to go viral immediately. No, you’re not going to have 1,000 subscribers in two weeks.

You are not going to find life-changing success at ANYTHING quickly.

“What about 1 week, Tom?”—EEHP!
“What about 1 mont”—NIIIE!
“What about 3 mont”—UUP!
“What about 6 mont”—YTTT!

When I first got into blogging in 2015, I remember reading a the blog of a full-time writer named Adventurous Kate. She said that you need to work for at least 1 year to make any money writing online.

Now, this was back in 2015 when Medium and Substack didn’t really exist.

She’s wrong now. You can probably get a few paying subscribers after a few months of work starting from absolute scratch, and that can grow exponentially.

But the premise stays the same. Blogging is a long game. It takes time. Thankfully it’s also an exponential game, so after you log your 6-12 months of purgatory time, you should be able to make pretty significant sums of money.

I help people cut that 6-12 month waiting period time down significantly, but it’s still good to know and get reminded of every now and again.

#5. 300+ Word Notes

This one is simple enough. Your Notes are too long.

“But Tom!” —NOPE!
“But!”—NIEEP!
“BUT!”—NOOOOOO

Your notes are too long. There are some people who can write 1,000+ word viral Notes—in fact a student of mine did it just recently—but that’s for the varsity team, you know? You need to get a grasp of the fundamentals first before you can dream of holding someone’s attention for 5-6 minutes reading a Note.

Write. Shorter. It’s not too difficult. Use a tool like Word Counter to cut it down. Murder those darlings. You’re not Stephen King, and neither am I.

#6. Lack Of Focus

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

- Ben Franklin

I see people posting about the election, then their dogs, then about painting.

Cool. Thanks for all that. The problem is, though, that it’s a waste of time—unless you’re having fun and not wanting to grow on Notes, which, that’s fine as well.

Just sit down with a pen and paper, you know? Just write out what you typically cover in your newsletter. Write out like the 4-5 big topics you typically cover. Do they relate to each other? If so, good! If not, cut out the ones that don’t relate.

Good, now write about that. Simple. Write about that.

DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE PLAN.

“But Tom!” — NO!

And look. You can take breaks. You can post twice one week if you’re feeling burned out. You can write a 2,000 word banger of a Note if that’s what you want to do once. You can restack people’s stuff. You can break these rules sometimes.

But try your best to stick with them. Audit yourself. Do you have trouble with these? How many? If you have trouble with all five, then that’s good news for you. Now you know why you’re getting no tractions on Notes. If you struggle with 2 or 3, that’s good news, too. If you struggle with one, and still get no traction, subscribe and message me directly and I’ll be happy to help. (I only accept DM’s from subscribers).

I know the tone of this email was a little combative, but I don’t mean anything by it. Guys and girls, it’s simple stuff here. It really is. You know what you’re doing wrong. You don’t need me to tell you this, right? You know success takes a while and that you need to post more and that consistency is a requirement. You know that.

So use this article as a kick in the butt. I’m trying to inspire you, and give you some tough love, you know? We all need that sometimes. In the future, I’ll be nicer, I promise. But for now, ice the sore spot from this swift kick in the behind, and get out there and play. I’ll be here to help if you need me. Oh, and join my chat.