Webcartoonists have discovered Substack, and they're flocking to the platform. After all, it's one of the very few platforms where users are reporting measurable results. But setting up a Substack account is easy. Figuring out what to publish there... isn't.
Posts and Notes
The first step to a successful Substack experience is understanding that the platform consists of two parts: Posts and Notes.
Posts are sent to your subscribers. These are the people who signed up with their email addresses to receive your newsletter. They can read those newsletter posts on their email services or on the Substack website.
Notes are sent to your followers. "Notes" is Substack's social-media platform. Your followers will see the content you publish there — as will people who are searching Notes under the "Explore" function. Like all social media, interested parties may like, comment on, and share those Notes.
This piece will specifically discuss content to be published on Posts — i.e. newsletter content. I shared some tips on using Notes to build an audience here.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Webcomics Handbook to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.