99% of Substack Notes have unattractive opening lines.
Sadly, this is where most Notes die.
If you’re in the Notes void, you’re probably writing bad opening lines that nobody is interested enough to click on.
“Tom this is preposterous! You can’t seriously think the openers are that important!”
They really are, though.
Let’s look at some examples.
Here’s a short form post I found on LinkedIn with 6 likes.
“Recently I had an opportunity to attend the Strings 2025 and gave a poster presentation of my work.” That’s the opening line.
Does that make you want to click? At all? I’m not interested in what they just said in the slightest, I’m sorry. It’s an insta-scroll-past for me.
I know it’s harsh for me to say these things, but the internet is a harsh place. If you don’t capture attention immediately, you’re dead in the water.
Here’s another bad example.
After these two opening lines, I have no idea what I’m reading. I don’t know what the author is talking about, or what point they’re trying to make. And since they didn’t get to the point immediately, I’ve lost faith they’ll ever get to a point clearly and concisely.
I’m being very brutal here, I know. I’m sure these creators are wonderful people, but this is just how short-form content works. You have about 20 words to give someone a reason to keep reading. If you don’t, they’re gone forever. Most people DO NOT think about their first 20 words at all, and then they complain they’re in the Substack void.
Well, give people more of a reason to click!
Writing great opening lines is an art form that few care to study.
Let’s look at a good example:
Why does this work?
Well, it’s:
7 words long.
Somewhat amusing.
Highly relatable.
A complete, concise thought.
I know exactly where I am when I read this Note, and it only has 7 words.
We always hear stuff like “truly great writers use 5 words instead of 50.” Nowhere is this more important than on Notes. You can not approach Notes the same way you approach writing an article. If you do, you’re doomed from the start.
You have 2 seconds to capture attention. Two. If you don’t think about those two seconds at all, that’s precisely why you’re failing on Notes.
Luckily this training can help with that.
This is a 40-minute, 90 slide recorded training with 5 different opening line templates. These were taken from analyzing dozens of my own viral Notes, and pulling out specific opening line patterns I saw.
In the presentation, you’ll find:
Dozens of my own Note examples
5 opening line templates
5 exercises to try for you to write your own viral Note openings.
By the end, you’ll have started writing 5 Notes that you can then finish and publish over the next few days. You’ll also have 5 new templates to use over and over again to never write a bad opening line again. These proven openings will help you start to get way more traction on Notes in 2025.
Combined, the Notes I wrote that implemented these strategies got 20,000+ likes in 2024.
Become a paid subscriber now to get access to all 40 minutes of this presentation, plus 15+ hours of our other Substack trainings, which include step-by-step Note templates, 40+ minute Note masterclasses, perfect Substack growth routines, and dozens of headline templates.
For those who are interested in 1-1 coaching with me, click here. Paid subscribers get $50 off an hour-long session with me. The discount code is down below this paywall.👇
