It takes away all the goals, perks, and excitement of being an actual WRITTER! Why would I need an AI to write notes for me? What about my readers? They want to read ME not a human (de)generated bot.
You definitely don’t have to use the AI generation tools, especially if you love writing Notes and your audience loves reading them!
For folks who have written hundreds or thousands of Notes (so AI has a lot of data to work from) and struggle with busy schedules, I can see AI drafts being helpful.
I’m new at all this…for now, I typically write my own Notes and use AI for idea generation and a bit of analysis. As for what readers want, I’m still figuring it out and hope tracking how my Notes perform over time will give me more insight.
Very interesting article. I am trying to build something similar, more focused on data analysis than scheduling but it's interesting to see what people need. I started doing it for myself, I may or may not build a UI, but the mere existence of these tools means that I'm not crazy. I'm not buying the "it works for everyone" advice we find on Substack. People are experimenting and relying on their own data.
This was very thought provoking. On the one hand, I think it's very healthy and healing for me to write my own notes. But on the other I think I probably could get more followers and subscribers if I had a more coherent plan and used an AI tool like this to help me. Hard to know what I want to prioritize!
I think the reason why we’re stuck with the Chrome extensions is that there isn’t an official API for Substack…so it’s not possible to access certain account data and functionality from the cloud.
There are probably ways to do it with a virtual session in the cloud (some LinkedIn tools do that outside of the API), but it's probably more complex to achieve.
This is a great breakdown, thanks for sharing. I'm currently using Finn’s one but have been frustrated that I can’t see a calendar view so will check I have the pro version. I’m not a fan of AI generation for my notes atm as have created a schedule of sharing LinkedIn tips, quotes and business insights that seems to be working for me
The Pro version has a nice calendar view! Also, I’ve been enjoying your posts on LinkedIn, which I’ve been tinkering with for the past few months. While I’m active there, all that seems to have done is attract a crazy volume of cold pitches to my DMs! 🤣
Thank you for this post! This is literally me right now. I keep wanting to write notes and was wondering how you do such a great job of posting so many. Ps I think your notes are great. They feel helpful, interesting and not like they were generated by AI like so many do. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you! The Notes are definitely harder for me than the long-form content. For this account, I still write everything myself. The scheduling makes it easy to create Notes in batches and the performance analysis gives me a rough idea of what might do well. I did experiment with AI-generated Notes for my alt account…and found they got more engagement than what I produced myself. 😆
Haha yeah I have noticed the AIs getting better engagement. But it doesn’t feel right for what I want my account to be. I agree notes feels harder! Something about trying to be so succinct. I drafted some notes last night so this is ridiculously good timing. I need to test out scheduling them next. Thanks again!! Ps can’t believe you’ve only been on Substack a bit over a month! You’re such a pro at it!
It takes away all the goals, perks, and excitement of being an actual WRITTER! Why would I need an AI to write notes for me? What about my readers? They want to read ME not a human (de)generated bot.
You definitely don’t have to use the AI generation tools, especially if you love writing Notes and your audience loves reading them!
For folks who have written hundreds or thousands of Notes (so AI has a lot of data to work from) and struggle with busy schedules, I can see AI drafts being helpful.
I’m new at all this…for now, I typically write my own Notes and use AI for idea generation and a bit of analysis. As for what readers want, I’m still figuring it out and hope tracking how my Notes perform over time will give me more insight.
Very interesting article. I am trying to build something similar, more focused on data analysis than scheduling but it's interesting to see what people need. I started doing it for myself, I may or may not build a UI, but the mere existence of these tools means that I'm not crazy. I'm not buying the "it works for everyone" advice we find on Substack. People are experimenting and relying on their own data.
YMMV is very true. Only about 25% of my subscribers come from Notes, but I’ve seen others with rates of 50-75%!
Exactly!! Again, great article!!
Thank you! ☺️
This was very thought provoking. On the one hand, I think it's very healthy and healing for me to write my own notes. But on the other I think I probably could get more followers and subscribers if I had a more coherent plan and used an AI tool like this to help me. Hard to know what I want to prioritize!
I know what you mean! Right now, I’m still mostly writing my own Notes…and they’re still mostly random thoughts. 🤣
I’d love a cloud tool for Substack Notes, so I don’t have to have my laptop open for publishing times.
I think the reason why we’re stuck with the Chrome extensions is that there isn’t an official API for Substack…so it’s not possible to access certain account data and functionality from the cloud.
There are probably ways to do it with a virtual session in the cloud (some LinkedIn tools do that outside of the API), but it's probably more complex to achieve.
Yes, and there are also TOS issues. LinkedIn has been pretty aggressive about suing anyone interacting with their services in ways they don’t like.
Great piece!
Thank you!
This is a great breakdown, thanks for sharing. I'm currently using Finn’s one but have been frustrated that I can’t see a calendar view so will check I have the pro version. I’m not a fan of AI generation for my notes atm as have created a schedule of sharing LinkedIn tips, quotes and business insights that seems to be working for me
The Pro version has a nice calendar view! Also, I’ve been enjoying your posts on LinkedIn, which I’ve been tinkering with for the past few months. While I’m active there, all that seems to have done is attract a crazy volume of cold pitches to my DMs! 🤣
Thank you for this post! This is literally me right now. I keep wanting to write notes and was wondering how you do such a great job of posting so many. Ps I think your notes are great. They feel helpful, interesting and not like they were generated by AI like so many do. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you! The Notes are definitely harder for me than the long-form content. For this account, I still write everything myself. The scheduling makes it easy to create Notes in batches and the performance analysis gives me a rough idea of what might do well. I did experiment with AI-generated Notes for my alt account…and found they got more engagement than what I produced myself. 😆
Haha yeah I have noticed the AIs getting better engagement. But it doesn’t feel right for what I want my account to be. I agree notes feels harder! Something about trying to be so succinct. I drafted some notes last night so this is ridiculously good timing. I need to test out scheduling them next. Thanks again!! Ps can’t believe you’ve only been on Substack a bit over a month! You’re such a pro at it!
I stumbled into some really good communities during my first week!
Grabbing a snack for this one
Good idea, I got the “too long for email” warning when I published. 🤣
Lol whoever can't read a 7+ min post shouldn't be on Substack! I finished this in one swoop, great writing
Thank you! 😊