The Substack App Is Now My Most Effective Growth Tool

And there's one simple reason

Jul 15, 2025

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Not so long ago, if you’d asked me where I networked with other writers, my answer would’ve been some mix of Twitter, Medium, and maybe LinkedIn or some other social network.

Substack? Not so much.

Sure, it was my publishing platform. A tool for longer thoughts. A quiet place to send a letter into inboxes that (hopefully) didn’t bounce.

But a growth and networking tool? Not really.

Back then, the Substack app’s role in my people’s strategy sat somewhere between “nice to have” and “wait, they have an app?”

Fast-forward to now, and the Substack app is officially my most effective networking tool.

How did this happen? Well, two words: Substack Notes.

Notes turned the lights on

If you’ve missed it, Substack Notes is basically Substack’s Twitter, a feed for quick posts, replies, links, memes, or whatever bite-sized ideas you want to share.

A calmer, writer-friendly Twitter who doesn’t shove ads down your throat every five seconds.

When Notes launched, I thought, Cool, another Mastodon or Bluesky.

Boy, was I wrong. Gladly, I realized that pretty quickly.

The difference

Substack Notes did something most others couldn’t: People actually hang out there and stay on Substack instead of just reading an email and moving on with their day.

Suddenly, there was a place to react, share, reply, discover.

And not a ghost town like Mastodon or Bluesky. A lively one with all kinds of writers and readers.

Before Notes, my Substack traffic from the app was in the low single digits. Barely worth checking.

Since then, and most noticeably in the past few months, the app is my top source of new subscribers and my best source of writer-to-writer connections.

People who find me through Notes often hit follow and even subscribe.

They don’t just read a single post, they come back, stick around, comment, like, and sometimes even upgrade to paid.

And on my end, I’m discovering new people there too. Every day.

It’s surprisingly human.

How I’m using it

I didn’t become a Notes evangelist overnight. I just share what I do. Here’s what’s been working for me:

Post daily: Not a huge essay, just a note. A thought, a link, a question.
Reply generously: Notes is the easiest place to jump into conversations with other writers.
Share posts directly: When I publish a new piece, I drop it in Notes too. Many people discover my long-form work this way.
Be a human, not AI: AI is everywhere. Sounding human is becoming a special thing these days.

Is this the next Twitter

Substack Notes isn’t here to replace Twitter/X/Threads/Whatever’s Next.

Not yet. And I don’t think that’s the plan. Notes is smaller, ad-free, purposeful, and for writers.

For me, it’s networking without networking. That’s the best kind.

The bottom line

My advice?

Open the app and use it. It’s really something. And with Notes, the app will quickly become your #1 growth factor as well.

From the app, people can read, interact, comment, share, and save.

That’s a big deal.