180 Comments
User's avatar
Andrea (Andy) Curran 🌄's avatar

Love that Writestack shows me my own analytics for when people are engaging with my notes! It’s really helped me step up my game with consistency. Plus the calendar to see when my drafts are going to post is imperative !

Orel's avatar

:D Glad to read this Andrea

Delroy A. Whyte-Hall's avatar

I’m curious… what’s your go-to strategy for those 100 subs? Always looking for new growth angles.

Orel's avatar

1. Put out notes

2. Send out DMs to people who engage with your content

3. Engage with those people and write valuable comments

Simple. You'll see a huge change.

Janet Davis's avatar

Just clarifying,

You send out a note according to the schedule above. Then you direct message each one that comments on your posts. Do you also answer them in the notes? Thank you

Orel's avatar

Mhmm can you clarify the question?

Janet Davis's avatar

People who comment on your posts, do you answer or comment to them in the reply of their note on your note, do you direct message each one in a chat, or both? Does this clarify a little bit? Thank you I appreciate you answering and engaging.

Orel's avatar

I reply in the comment, like here.

Then I send a DM. The issue is I have 10 DMs per day 🫠

Charlie Finch's avatar

What do you DM them? It seems a little spammy.

The Dark Humanities's avatar

Needing this, Orel.

Mahedi Shayek's avatar

Insightful.. I have learned many things from it and hope it will help me a lot as a beginner.

Mark S. Carroll's avatar

Orel — this was a fantastic and energizing read. The scale of your analysis alone is impressive, and the way you turned raw data into practical takeaways makes this one of the most useful breakdowns I’ve seen on Notes strategy.

I especially appreciate how you translate numbers into human behavior — that blend of analytics and empathy is rare. Timing certainly helps visibility, but I love that your insights can coexist with what really drives engagement: clarity, relevance, and a sense of connection.

Thank you for sharing this — really well done.

Leila's avatar

Hi, this was an interesting read! Wondering how you got access to this data?

Orel's avatar

A magician never reveals his secrets ;)

Leila's avatar

Haha! But I think its crucial that you mention the source of this data if you give suggestions using it :) did you scrape?

Orel's avatar

Finn Tropy faxed'em to me :P

Leila's avatar

This makes me think you made up this data somehow

Magick Mica's avatar

I like you already.

Orel's avatar

hahaha 😈

no-one's avatar

Great insights but now this all changes because everyone will start following these suggestions😊

Orel's avatar

Haha if I had to guess, maybe maybe 1% of all the people who read this will apply.

Dan Knows | AI & Our Future's avatar

Perfect title @Orel Zilberman 💪👏❤️🙏

I’m proud to be able to say I know you & joyfully support your every endeavor brother!

Sincerely grateful,

Dan

Orel's avatar

:) Thanks a lot Dan

MartinOnData's avatar

From my short 2.5 month of experience on this platform, I notice that a Note lives longer than your typical tweet (whose life is <24h).

I have the impression that the algorithm suggests a note long after you first publish it (not sure how the algorithm functions - if it mimics Twitter by showing it to a few people first and then if they click to more…).

It’s therefore less important when you post a note, but rather how good it is (duh).

Orel's avatar

That can be said about any type of content.

But timing is important because if you put out a piece of content at a time when 90% of the other creators do, you're fighting for scraps.

And honestly, from the statistics, it truly does look like people are just posting in bad times, for no reason.

There's almost the same amount of activity in better times.

MartinOnData's avatar

Timing and content quality are always important.

My point is that the Substack algo makes it such that timing is less important if you compare it to other social platforms such as Twitter where the shelf life of a tweet is super short.

Orel's avatar

I honestly never got into the analytics of other platforms, so you know better than I do :)

Laura Ferraz Baick's avatar

Orel, I’m really impressed by the content you’re putting out and everything you’ve built. Thanks for diving into this topic, your post helped me understand a lot about my subscribers’ behavior. Wishing you tons of success with the platform!

Orel's avatar

Happy to share my knowledge, Laura.

Thank you for being a part of my community <3

--

And thanks. I need it haha

The Independent Single Sister's avatar

As a new substacker, looking forward to reading this!

Brian Cleveland's avatar

Wow Orel, this is really great detailed insight! I just launched Brian Tries AI on Substack on Sunday at 9 am (got lucky with the timing I guess!) and having a great week meeting new subscribers/getting familiar with how to best use this platform.

Frank Daley's avatar

Not sure if my registration went through!

The Wealth Letters's avatar

Really useful insights, exactly what I’d been looking for

Frank Daley's avatar

Thanks Orel!

The Assumption Ledger's avatar

Super helpful - thank you!!