I Posted 10 Notes Per Day—And The Results Surprised Me
Does Posting More On Substack = More Growth? I Put It to the Test.
Everything I thought about growth was wrong.
I believed posting more would accelerate my Substack growth.
I watched familiar names going viral, some posting 10-20 times daily. A sentiment echoed by gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk preaching high-volume content as the ultimate growth hack. So, I put it to the test.
I started with daily Notes. Then 3x a day. Then 5x. Finally, I went all in—posting 10 Notes per day.
All signs indicated this was the key to growth.
The reality? Growth plateaued.
Most Notes flopped. Some did okay. A few performed well. But not a single post cracked 100 likes.
Turns out, more wasn’t always better.
Here’s what I learned.
Notes aren’t negotiable.
Before Notes, my growth was stagnant.
I spent 8 months struggling to grow on Substack before I discovered them. After a year and a half on the platform, the question became—how far can I push that growth?
Notes helped me grow.
Posting daily: ~150-400 new subscribers per month.
Posting 3-5x daily: ~400-600 new subscribers per month.
Posting 10x daily: Struggled to hit 600-630.
(This is alongside my regular strategies)
Doubling my effort on Notes barely moved the needle.
Most of my Notes bombed. Upon a deeper look, I noticed a similar pattern among others posting 10-20 times a day—most of their posts didn’t perform.
I needed Notes to grow—but I didn’t find the benefit of posting more in growth.
The real benefit wasn’t growth—it was speed.
I foolishly assumed that more posts would equal more subscribers. But after weeks of pushing out 10 Notes a day, I realized something unexpected:
The real benefit wasn’t in subscriber growth—it was in how fast I could learn what actually worked.
By drastically increasing my output, I accelerated my feedback loop. Instead of waiting weeks to see trends, I got near-instant data on what resonated and what flopped.
Here’s a peak into what I began discovering:
Short Notes (under 7 lines) performed best—they didn’t require clicking “see more,” making engagement and consumption easier.
Numbers, stats, and contrarian takes got the most shares—people love quantifiable insights and opinions.
Personal stories connected the most—when I shared my own experiences, the engagement went beyond just likes, people commented, and restacked.
Instead of hoping that one post would take off, I was refining my formula for what makes a high-performing Note on my publication.
By the end of the experiment, I wasn’t just throwing content at the wall—I was systematically creating Notes with a higher chance of success.
More Notes allowed for more CTAs.
One unexpected benefit?
More opportunities to sell—without feeling salesy.
When I was posting 7 Notes a week, a single promotional post made up 15% of my content. When I scaled up to 10 Notes a day, a daily CTA post was just 10% of my output.
The difference was subtle but impactful:
More chances to highlight my offers—without feeling like I was spamming my subscribers.
More variety in how (and what) I promoted—I could test different angles, soft sells, and direct CTAs.
This led to more product sales than I had before because I was speaking about my offers more often.
Posting at this scale came with its challenges, to keep up this pace, I needed a system.
Scaling forced me to build better systems.
Posting 10 times a day without a system? This would burn me out.
I don’t like being stressed or feeling behind—especially with content. At first, I was winging it. I’d wake up each day and write that day’s Note. The more I posted, the more pressure I felt, and the old system broke.
That’s when I knew: If I wanted to sustain this, I needed a better system.
Here’s what helped me keep up without feeling like I was drowning.
1. The Content calendar.
I needed visibility into what I was posting and when. I built a simple content calendar in Notion to track my Notes, test new ideas, and document what performed well.
This gave me an easy way to spot trends and plan posts in advance, reducing decision fatigue. When I sat down to post, I already knew what needed to be done. It was as easy as copy-and-paste.
—> You can download my content calendar notion template here.
2. Batch creating content.
Instead of scrambling every day, I dedicated time to batch-creating Notes in advance.
I’d write 20-30+ Notes in a single session. Then, I’d drop them into Notion so they were ready when I needed them. This allowed me to reduce context switching, reduce my overall stress, and easily maintain the volume.
The first time I batch-wrote a week’s worth of Notes, I felt an immediate weight lifted. Suddenly, I wasn’t stressed about posting.
3. Weekly performance reviews.
Double down on what works.
Every week, I analyzed my top-performing Notes and asked:
What hooks made people stop scrolling?
What formats performed best? (short, long, list-style?)
What topics resonated most?
Then, I’d remix the winners—turning one high-performing Note into multiple new posts. The more I studied my content, the more predictable my success became. Over time, trends slowly began to emerge allowing me to refine my content strategy.
4. AI & Automation.
I began to augment my Note creation process with ChatGPT.
I used ChatGPT to:
Generate variations of my best hooks.
Rewrite high-performing Notes from new angles.
Brainstorm fresh ideas when I feel stuck.
Give me different ways to approach top-performing Notes.
Adjust the ‘close’ to encourage greater engagement.
And sometimes I would leverage AI to assist in refining an ‘idea’ into a Note as I will describe shortly with a few examples.
How I posted 10 Substack Notes per day.
Having a system in place solved the stress of posting consistently. But that led to a new challenge: how do I keep coming up with fresh, engaging ideas every day?
To avoid running out of content, I was forced to develop a process for generating and refining ideas—one that ensured I always had something valuable to share.
Here’s how I did it...
1. Store every idea and thought.
Ideas come to me when I least expect them—on a walk, in the shower, or right before bed. If I don’t capture them, they’re gone.
I built an idea bank using Google Keep and Apple Notes. Every random thought, observation, or insight gets documented immediately, even if it’s just a rough bullet point.
This way, whenever I sit down to write, I’m never starting from scratch—I’m pulling from a growing library of inspiration.
2. Remix top-performing Notes.
Success leaves clues. Instead of constantly reinventing the wheel, I started recycling and reimagining my best-performing Notes.
Here’s my process:
Identify winners: Every week, I flag Notes that outperformed my average engagement in Notion.
Break them down: I analyze why they worked: Was it the hook? The format? The topic?
Create variations: I take the core idea and rewrite it from a new angle, condensing it, expanding it, new hook, optimizing for engagement, etc.
This approach ensured I never ran out of high-performing content ideas, while also maximizing the reach and impact of my best work.
After seeing this Note perform well.
I created (multiple) additional Notes based on it, like this one.
3. Pull Notes from long-form posts.
Long-form content is my first stop for Note ideas.
I try to do this while writing long-form posts like this one. If I don’t, I revisit my top posts to extract ideas for Notes. Sometimes, I pull out sections, quotes, or impactful statements. Other times, I write entirely new Notes inspired by the content.
When I need more inspiration, I even feed my long-form content into ChatGPT and prompt it to generate a Note from the material.
This method ensures that every long-form post becomes a multipurpose content asset, extending its value beyond just one format.
My post on the 1% better everyday concept inspired this Note.
4. Pull inspiration from reader questions.
Every question, comment, or DM I receive is a source for content ideas.
If multiple people ask the same thing, it signals a pain point or curiosity worth addressing in a Note. I started paying attention to recurring themes in my inbox and comments feed.
For example:
Readers worried they were late to Substack: I wrote a Note debunking that myth.
People asked how to stay motivated to write: I turned it into a live stream and a long-form post on why motivation is overrated.
By listening to my audience, I never ran out of content ideas—and every post felt deeply relevant to the people reading it.
5. Pull inspiration from reader comments.
Comments aren’t just responses.
They’re conversations waiting to be expanded into content.
I’ve had moments where a simple reader comment sparked an entirely new Note. Instead of just answering in the thread, I turned my response into a new post, expanding on the insight.
After writing this Note.
I received this comment.
Which led me to write this, combining both of them.
6. Promote paid offers.
Posting more also allowed me to introduce more calls to action (CTAs) without overwhelming my audience. I promoted workshops and lead magnets strategically. And while I don’t have one the same would work for paid subscriptions.
Even if a Note received lower engagement, some led directly to sales, like this one.
7. Building in public.
Every challenge I faced became content.
Every problem I solved became a lesson I could teach. Every roadblock I overcome becomes a story I can tell. Every day is filled with inspiration, all I need to do is pay attention.
Whether it was testing Facebook ads to grow my Substack or refining my workflow, I turned my experiences into posts and even live videos.
8. Stream-of-consciousness posting.
Some of my best-performing Notes weren’t planned—they were just thoughts I typed out as they came to me. No planning. No batch creation. The idea drops in and I start typing.
Like this one, I wrote about spending 10 Months without seeing growth.
9. Modeling what works.
I study top posts on Substack, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) to find proven formats and ideas that I can adapt for my own audience.
I came across a post on LinkedIn about the difficulty of being an entrepreneur which inspired a Note I wrote on the difficulties I’ve experienced growing on Substack.
10. Augmenting with AI.
I am not going to fight the rise in AI.
It’s not a replacement for creativity, but it’s an incredible tool for enhancing efficiency and refining ideas. I use ChatGPT daily for several key tasks:
Generating variations of my best-performing hooks to test different angles.
Rewriting existing Notes from fresh perspectives—sometimes a slight tweak in framing can make a huge difference or resonate with a new segment of my audience.
Brainstorming ideas when I hit a creative block. AI helps spark new directions when I feel stuck.
Refining CTAs and engagement prompts to encourage more interaction from readers.
Extracting content from my long-form posts and turning them into digestible, high-impact Notes.
AI doesn’t replace the human touch, but it amplifies creativity and speeds up execution. The key is knowing how to use it strategically, not as a crutch.
Volume works—until it doesn’t.
I’ve experienced growth on a bell curve.
No Notes? No growth.
Daily Notes? Consistent growth.
3-5 Notes a day? Faster growth.
10+ Notes a day? Plateau.
Posting too much? Burnout.
After 1.5 years of refining my content strategy, this is the pattern I observed. However, everyone’s journey is different, and results will vary depending on niche, audience, and capacity. The key is to find what works for you in a sustainable way.
The biggest risk isn’t just hitting a plateau—it’s burning out, stopping, and watching growth disappear. I’ve been there, and I know how easy it is to overdo it.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Posting daily? You’ll grow more than not. Posting more? You may grow faster. Post too much, burn out, and quit? Growth stops.
Pick a pace you can sustain for months and years, not just a few weeks. That’s what makes the real difference.
You don’t need to post 10 times a day. But I’m glad I did—because I learned valuable lessons I can now share with you.
Landon
If you’re interested, you can download my Substack Content Calendar Template here.
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PS: If you found this helpful, would you do me a quick favor and restack it? Sharing spreads the message and motivates me to keep writing practical content to help you thrive in your online business.
There are two or three people I follow who post 10+ notes per day. Their notes seem to always be grouped together in my feed. I may notice the first one, but when I see four or five in a row, I just scroll past without reading.
Going through that much work would make me quit Substack. I post when I have something to say. If I see a string of multiple posts from someone in my NOTES feed, I am likely to consider blocking them. NO one has so much value to impart that we need to hear from them six times a week in email and ten times a day in Notes. Sorry. Not sorry. Want to go viral? Just be real and make sure everything you write has value.