This ONE Note Type Brought In 164 New Subscribers... Here's How To Write Them

A note type you need to start using and how the Substack notes feed has changed

In the last 30 days, my Notes have brought in 164 new subscribers.

That’s a good number… and something I’m seeing is, Notes = Subscribers is not what it used to be.

I looked back on an older post about notes where the first sentence said I brought in 125 in the last two weeks.

Well… I’ve only gotten better at Notes since February, as I’m always upping and improving my game. This means one thing: the algorithm is changing.

Surprise surprise!

Platforms always change. More people are coming on the platform every day. Substack is growing. This is inevitable.

But this post is not about keeping up with those changes or trying to beat a game you can’t win.

What it IS about:

At this point, you need notes that perform and get you seen in the feed.

The days of “this note brought me 3,000 subscribers” that writers routinely shared back in 2024? Those days are GONESVILLE.

So this post is going to be a breakdown of THE ONE note type you can start using immediately that I see consistently doing the best in the feed, both mine and other people’s who are crushing it.

I’ll start by sharing the Note type, and then by giving you some real-world examples and then a quick HOW TO for a variety of niches.

Ready?

Let’s get started!

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The Note Type That’s Doing The Heavy Lifting: RELATABLE EXPERIENCE NOTES

No matter what your niche is, no matter what you write about, the Relatable Experience Note is always going to perform.

Why? Because everyone’s walking around having experiences every day that you can write something about.

I write about writing online, writing on Substack, and inevitably, that includes sometimes talking about using AI for writing.

LOTS of people are having a similar experience with AI. How I know is, I read a lot of comments, a lot of posts and a lot of Notes about writing with AI. I know people have a lot of feelings about it. And it’s relevant to what I do so it’s aligned.

Here’s another one that’s a shared experience on Substack: Big Substackers who never engage on their own notes.

The people who interacted with this Note have felt that feeling of showing up and engaging on Notes only to never have the author so much as like their comment.

It resonated hard.

So this is really about tapping into a shared experience on something. Something people are already feeling, already experiencing, and you’re just naming it.

Here’s another one:

The feeling of hating social media is real. People were weighing in left and right, sharing their thoughts on it, saying they deleted Facebook or didn’t or haven’t yet but want to.

This one I really liked:

Ryan really tapped into a feeling we’re all having: let’s log-the fuck-off and enjoy our lives. We all want that to some degree. Even if we can’t quit today, we deserve to at least touch some grass. 😅

What these ARE and what they’re NOT

You might be thinking, “But TRACY, what does this have to do with my LONG FORM WRITING AND WHAT I WRITE ABOUT??”

It has everything to do with it. The people reading your long form have feelings, right? They have experiences, right?

Since Notes are where they discover you, and the long form is where they pull up a chair and grab their coffee, you need to keep this in mind with your content.

You need to pull them in with something they feel.

Then while they’re resonating with that feeling, they click in, they hit subscribe, they check out what you offer.

When people read my POV on AI, on traditional social media, or on Substack culture, they immediately know if I’m “their people” and if they want to stick around.

They read more, find out how I teach, what I offer, and they can go deeper if they want to (like even join my paid tier where I’m dropping a mini-workshop on how to turn on your paid tier… TOMORROW!)

With Ryan Hennessey, you can see that he offers in-person retreats that align exactly with that Note. Offline, in nature. His Notes pull in the people feeling that, and then when they go deeper with his longer form or going to his website with his offers, it all aligns.

So what these ARE are not “random ideas”. They are relevant to your reader because they’re related to the topics you write about and the vibe you’re creating, the world you’re actively building with your Substack.

How To Find YOUR Relatable Moment

We could use AI to find some relatable moments in your niche, but this one’s going to be a brain exercise.

I want you to tap into what moments you experience daily, whether you’re reading, or out and about experiencing something everyone experiences.

• shopping online

• out doing errands

• cooking dinner

• posting online

• working online

• building an online business

• using social media

• parenting

• something with your age/generation

• something you read or watched

• traffic (haha there would be so many in this one)

You can find things that happen daily in your experience that other people are experiencing, frustrated with or laughing at, and write about that in your Notes to tap into this superpower.

And if you’re still struggling on an idea, here’s a challenge: share what you write about in the comments below and your ideas for possible ‘relatable moments’. I’ll contribute to any ideas (and ask the other commenters to weigh in, too!) if you’re looking for a relatable moment in your niche you could write a Note on.

Share in the comments below!

P.S. if you know someone who wants to write more powerful, stronger Notes that land in front of more aligned readers, would you do me a favor and send this to them? Every share helps me reach more writers who want to improve and grow on Substack!