Reasons I fell out of Love with Substack Notes

I had high hopes for the product. But something surprising happened to me.

Hey Everyone,

I’m currently in beast mode, which means a bit disillusioned, watching revenue decline and totally burnt out after investing two solid years of my life on trying to grow a Substack.

I was genuinely excited about Substack Notes and wanted to do my best to contribute to the product, launch and its success. But over time, something happened to me.

After several weeks of being a DAU (daily active user), I found Substack Notes wasn’t providing enough value as a writer or a reader. I’m going to share a bit of my personal experience of why that was for me.

This is sensitive feedback, and Substack has the ability to penalize actors who are too negative, so better to put this behind the paywall. There are however major issues that need to be fixed and thought out more deeply. I wish Substack’s product folk were open to real genuine feedback, but this does not appear to be the case.

I’m a huge fan of Substack as a whole, but we also need to be honest about what’s not working. Pretending that Notes is great, isn’t the answer. Because both the reader and writer experience matter to make it better.