Why Writers Love Substack’s Notes and How It Threatens Twitter’s Dominance

How Substack is Taking on Twitter with its New Feature and How it Got There

So Far…

Hey Comrades!

I’m hooked on Notes. It’s my go-to place for sharing ideas and getting inspired. I use it frequently, but not excessively, and I mostly get positive feedback. I don’t have a large following that attracts negativity. I don’t have to deal with the vitriol, trolls or haters like on Twitter. I mostly get constructive and supportive comments. The Notes team rocks. They listen to feedback and look like they will keep improving the product. They have been active on the platform as well.

That brings me to something else I also love about it so far. I can mingle with some of the best writers on the platform and pick their brains. Notes is a game-changer for online discourse, but it’s still evolving. Let me tell you more about what Notes is and how it started.

What is Substack (For those who don’t know)

Substack is an online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers and earn money from their work. Founded in 2017 by Chris Best, Jairaj Sethi, and Hamish McKenzie, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco and has more than 500,000 paying subscribers as of November 2021.

Substack's mission is to "build a better future for writers and readers" by giving them more control and priority than advertisers, and by fostering a culture of quality over quantity. Substack's founders were inspired by Ben Thompson's Stratechery, a subscription-based tech and media newsletter that proved the viability of the model.

Substack has attracted many high-profile writers from various fields, such as journalism, culture, politics, business, and entertainment. Some of the notable names include Glenn Greenwald, Margaret Atwood, Alison Roman, Casey Newton, Matthew Yglesias, Bari Weiss, Salman Rushdie, and many more. Substack also supports podcasts and discussion threads among newsletter subscribers.

A ‘Noteworthy’ Product

Substack's latest product, as I mentioned in yesterdays article, is Notes, a social feed that lets writers interact with other writers and their subscribers. It resembles a Twitter feed, though a Substack representative said a key difference is how the platform is funded. While Twitter relies on advertising revenue and user data, Substack is based on subscriptions and direct relationships.

Notes allows writers to post short-form content and share ideas with each other and their readers. They can also recommend posts, quotes, comments, images, and links from other Substack writers or external sources. Notes is designed to drive discovery across Substack and help writers grow their audience and revenue.

Notes is also a way for Substack to challenge Twitter's dominance in the online discourse space. Twitter has been criticized for its toxic environment, censorship issues, misinformation problems, and lack of monetization options for creators. Substack hopes to offer a better alternative that values quality over quantity, depth over breadth, and trust over virality.

Substack's story is one of the underdog stories in the tech world. It is taking on giants like Twitter, Facebook, Medium, and traditional media outlets with its subscription network model. It is empowering writers and readers to create and consume content that matters to them, without intermediaries or gatekeepers. It is also creating a new economic engine for culture that rewards great work with money and protects the free press and free speech.

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