How to Use Substack Notes in 2026
The step-by-step Notes system that drove 60% of my subscriber growth — and how to build your own.
How to Use Substack Notes to Grow Your Newsletter in 2026
My Strategy After Publishing 1,400+ Notes
I posted over 1,400 Notes in 2025.
Most got decent engagement. Some went semi-viral. A few got crickets.
But here’s what I didn’t expect: Notes drove over 60% of my total subscriber growth.
More than SEO. More than LinkedIn. More than lead magnets. More than anything else I tried.
I grew from 11 to 5,800+ subscribers in about 6 months and Notes was the engine responsible for much of it.
If you’re trying to grow your Substack newsletter in 2026 and you’re not posting Notes consistently, you’re leaving subscribers on the table every single day.
This post is everything I’ve learned — the formats that work, the ones that don’t, my posting cadence, the tools I use, and the exact system that lets me easily post 5–10 Notes a day without.
Let’s get into it.
What Are Substack Notes and Why Do They Matter in 2026?
Substack Notes is Substack’s built-in short-form feed — think Twitter, but inside Substack.
You can post text, images, links, and quotes. In 2026, Notes is the #1 organic discovery tool on the platform. Substack’s algorithm surfaces your Notes to people who don’t follow you yet, which makes it the fastest free way to grow your newsletter.
Here’s why Notes matters more than ever:
The algorithm favors Notes for discovery. When someone likes, restacks, or comments on your Note, Substack shows it to their followers — people who’ve never heard of you. That’s free distribution you can’t get from your newsletter alone.
Your newsletter is the product. Notes is the storefront. I tracked my last 500 subscribers: 62% came from Notes. Only 4% subscribed after reading a newsletter post first. The other 96% subscribed before they ever read a single post.
The barrier to entry is low. A Note takes 2–5 minutes to write. A newsletter takes 2–5 hours. You can publish 5 Notes in less than the time it takes to outline one post.
If you’re spending 10 hours on your newsletter and 10 minutes on Notes, you’ve got it backwards.
How Many Notes Should I Post Per Day?
I post 5–7 Notes per day and have since about Month 4. That cadence is what drove the majority of my growth. You don’t need to start there — 2–3 per day is a great starting point. But consistency matters more than volume. Show up every day, even if it’s just one Note.
Here’s how I think about cadence:
Month 1–2: Post 1–3 Notes per day. Get comfortable with the format. Start engaging with others — Substack’s still learning what you offer.
Month 3–6: Ramp up to 3–5 per day. Start experimenting with different formats (more on that below).
Month 6+: 5–7 per day if you can. This is where compounding kicks in.
The reality nobody tells you: your first 50–100 Notes are basically training data for the algorithm. You’re teaching it who your audience is, what topics you own, and whether you’re consistent.
Once it learns? Your reach explodes. But you have to survive the invisible phase first.
What Types of Substack Notes Get the Most Subscribers?
After 1,400+ Notes, I’ve identified 7 formats that I rotate. Tactical “quick fix” Notes and personal-story-with-data Notes drive the most subscribers (not just likes). Motivational quotes get engagement but rarely convert. The key insight: entertainment gets likes; education gets subscribers; generosity gets both.
The 7 Note Formats I Rotate
The Quick Fix — Solve one specific problem in under 60 seconds. (”Your Substack emails going to spam? Check this one setting…”) These convert like crazy because people think, “I need more of this.”
The Personal Story + Data — Share a real moment from your life, then connect it to a specific result. My Note about my daughter asking why I was always on my phone — tied to the fact that those 20 minutes of Notes brought 514 subscribers that month, outperformed everything.
The Generosity Note — Promote other creators. Offer to check out people’s Substacks. No pitch, no angle. My single highest-converting Note of 2025 was: “I don’t care how big or small your Substack is, CONGRATULATIONS. Promote it here, and I’m going to check on each and every one of you.” — 1,400 likes, 1,000 comments, 230 restacks, 650 subscribers.[
The Contrarian Take — Challenge something everyone assumes is true. (”Stop perfecting your newsletter. Start optimizing your Notes.”)
The Vulnerable Confession — Share a failure, a fear, or a mistake. (”I nearly quit Notes after 60 days. Zero likes. Zero hope.”)
The Behind-the-Scenes — Revenue breakdowns, subscriber milestones, what’s working this week. Transparency builds trust.
The Conversation Starter — Ask a genuine question. (”What’s the one thing you wish you’d known before starting your newsletter?”) These drive comments, which signals interest and results in the Note being pushed to a wider audience.
The pattern I discovered
Tactical wisdom performs well. Vulnerability gets engagement. But generosity converts fast.
How Do I Write Substack Notes That Actually Convert to Subscribers?
The Notes that convert follow a simple structure: hook (first line grabs attention), story or insight (2–5 lines of substance), and proof (a specific number or result). People don’t subscribe because you’re quotable — they subscribe because you showed them what’s possible and proved it’s real.
Here’s my Note-writing framework:
Line 1: The hook. You have about 2 seconds to grab attention. Make it specific. Make it surprising. Use numbers when you can.
✅ “I posted 16 Notes last week. One got me 514 subscribers.”
❌ “Here’s a thought about growing on Substack.”
Lines 2–5: The substance. Tell a short story, share the insight, or deliver the tactical fix.
Last line: The takeaway or experiment. Give them something to do. (”Try this for the next 7 days…”)
What not to do:
Don’t end every Note with “Follow me for more.” People can see through it.
Don’t repost your newsletter headline and link. That’s broadcasting, not conversation.
Don’t post AI-generated motivational quotes. They get likes, but not subscribers who need your expertise.
When Is the Best Time to Post Substack Notes?
From my data, mornings (6–9 AM in your audience’s time zone) perform best for reach. Mid-day (11 AM–1 PM) is strong for engagement. Evening Notes (7–9 PM) tend to get more comments and subscribers. I spread my 5–7 Notes across the day rather than dumping them all at once.
My rough schedule:
6–7 AM: First Note of the day — usually a personal story or reflection
8–9 AM: Tactical or quick-fix Note
11 AM–12 PM: Contrarian take or conversation starter
2–3 PM: Behind-the-scenes or generosity Note
7–8 PM: Vulnerability or personal Note
The key: don’t post 5 Notes in 10 minutes. Space them out. Each Note gets its own window with the algorithm.
My scheduling tool
I use WriteStack to batch-create and schedule my Notes in advance. I’ll sit down for 30 minutes, write 30-50 Notes for the week, schedule them in WriteStack, and let them drip out on schedule. Without a scheduling tool, 5–7 Notes a day is unsustainable. With one, it takes less time than writing one newsletter post.
How Do I Build a Notes System I Can Sustain?
The key is a content bank, a running list of Note ideas organized by format. I keep mine in a simple Google Doc with 7 sections (one per format). When I sit down to batch-write, I pull from the bank and somehow that generates even more ideas. This turns Notes from a daily creative burden into a 30-minute weekly adrenaline rush. Here’s how to build yours:
Create 7 sections on a Doc or in Notion — one for each Note format (quick fix, story + data, generosity, contrarian, vulnerability, behind-the-scenes, conversation starter).
Seed each section with 10 ideas. Don’t write the full Notes yet — just one-line prompts. (”Talk about the month I made $0.” “Share the spam setting tip.” “Ask what people’s biggest Notes fear is.”)
Repurpose ruthlessly. Every newsletter you write has 3–5 Notes buried inside it. Pull out key insights, data points, and one-liners. One 2,000-word post = a week of Notes content. Learn how to say the same thing in different ways and from different angles.
Track what works. Every week, check which Notes got the most new subscribers (not just likes). Double down on those formats.
Batch-write weekly. Block 30 minutes. Open your content bank. Write 15–21 Notes. Schedule them in WriteStack. Done for the week. If you stall out, use WriteStack’s Notes generator. It generated Notes based on your Substack articles and past Notes. You can even explore other top performers in the Inspiration section.
This is how I posted 1,400+ Notes in a year while managing 6 income streams and writing 2 newsletter posts a week. Systems matter. Find what works for you and use it daily.
What Mistakes Do Most People Make with Substack Notes?
The three biggest mistakes: treating Notes as a broadcast channel (just dropping newsletter links), posting inconsistently (3 Notes one week, zero the next), and quitting before the algorithm learns who you are. Most people abandon Notes after 30–60 days because engagement is low, but that’s exactly when the compounding is about to kick in.
Mistake 1: Broadcasting instead of conversing
If your Notes feed looks like “New post! [link]” repeated 50 times, you’re using Notes as an RSS feed. Nobody subscribes to an RSS feed.
Notes is a conversation. Talk to people. Reply to every comment. Respond to other creators’ Notes. Be a human, not a megaphone.
Mistake 2: Inconsistency
The algorithm rewards consistency above all else. I posted the exact same Note 8 months apart — same words, same message. Month 2: 12 likes. Month 10: 2,100 likes. Same content. Different algorithmic trust.
Mistake 3: Measuring the wrong thing
Likes ≠ subscribers. I’ve had Notes get 2,800 likes and bring 105 subscribers. I’ve had Notes get 1,400 likes and bring 514 subscribers. The format matters more than the vanity metrics. Track subscribers, not likes.[
Mistake 4: Overthinking it
Your Notes don’t need to be perfect. They need to be real. The Notes that convert best are the ones that feel like a text message to a friend, not a TED Talk.
How Does the Substack Notes Algorithm Work?
The Substack Notes algorithm prioritizes engagement signals, particularly comments and restacks over simple likes. It builds a trust profile for each creator based on consistency, audience response, and subscriber conversion. The more you post and the more genuine engagement you get, the wider it distributes your Notes to non-followers.
What I’ve observed after 14 months:
Comments weigh more than likes. A Note with 20 comments reaches more people than a Note with 200 likes and 2 comments.
Restacks are the amplifier. When someone restacks your Note, it appears in their followers’ feeds. One restack from a 10K-subscriber creator can reach more people than your last 50 Notes combined.
The algorithm builds slowly, then compounds. Months 1–3: minimal reach. Months 4–6: noticeable uptick. Months 7–12: exponential growth on the same quality of content.
Engagement begets engagement. Reply to every comment on your Notes. This creates threads, which signals that your Note is generating conversation.
How Do I Use Notes to Drive Paid Subscribers?
Notes is primarily a top-of-funnel growth tool — it gets people to subscribe for free. But you can strategically use Notes to tease paid content, share paid-subscriber-only insights, and build the trust that leads to upgrades. I use a simple 80/20 rule: 80% pure value, 20% soft CTAs to my paid tier or products.
The soft-sell Notes that work:
Tease Tuesday’s paid post. “Tomorrow’s paid deep dive: my complete Notes posting schedule, the exact times that work, and my content bank template. Upgrade here.”
Share a result, credit the system. “89 new subscribers last week, all from Notes. Paid subscribers get my 30-minute Notes workflow — batch-create 21 Notes in one sitting.”
Behind-the-scenes of paid content. Share one insight from a paid post, then: “The full breakdown is in this week’s paid post.”
What doesn’t work: posting “Subscribe to my paid tier!” as a standalone Note. That’s an ad, not a conversation.
Your 30-Day Notes Action Plan
Here’s exactly what to do if you’re starting from zero — or restarting:
Week 1:
Post 2–3 Notes per day
Use 3 formats: quick fix, conversation starter, personal story
Comment on 10 other creators’ Notes daily
Follow 30 writers in your niche
Week 2:
Increase to 3–5 Notes per day
Add generosity and contrarian formats
Build your content bank (seed 10 ideas per format)
Set up WriteStack and schedule your first batch
Week 3:
Batch-write 21 Notes for the week (30 minutes)
Track which Notes drove new subscribers (check your subscriber list)
Reach out to 5 writers for recommendation swaps
Restack 3–5 great Notes from others daily
Week 4:
Analyze your data: which format drove the most subscribers?
Double down on your top 2 formats
Start teasing paid content in 1–2 Notes per week
Celebrate your progress because you’ve built a system most creators never will
Your Road Map from Newsletter to Multiple income streams
DIY with proven resources.
Substack Domination Bundle — my best growth and monetization tools in one bundle.
Add a simple new revenue stream.
Digital Product in a Day Masterclass (Video) — watch, implement, and launch a product in a weekend.
Let’s build or clean up your setup together.
Substack Setup Sprint (4 sessions) — hands‑on buildout of your core systems and funnels.
Or just bring me your biggest question.
60‑Minute Clarity Call — targeted strategy support without a long commitment.
When you’re ready for “this is my business” support.
Creator Cashflow Club — includes everything in paid 9‑To‑Thrive plus Substack 360, monthly group coaching, and priority DM access so you always know your next move.
Resources
How to Start a Substack Newsletter in 2026 — If you’re brand new, start here.
How to Build a $10K/Month Portfolio Business from One Newsletter — My complete business model.
365 Lessons: Building a Portfolio Business on Substack — Everything I learned in Year 1.
Portfolio Business Newsletter FAQ — Common questions answered.
WriteStack — Notes Scheduling Tool — The tool I use to batch-schedule all my Notes.
I grew from 11 to 5,800+ subscribers in 6 months — and Notes was the #1 driver. If I can do it while juggling 6 income streams, you can too. Subscribe below to get every strategy I use, delivered free to your inbox every week.
Thank you for such an amazing breakdown of your strategy.
Thank you for this generous post. 🙏🏼