Why Your Notes Feed is Better Than a “Follow-for-Follow” Scam

Training the Algorithm

Mar 01, 2026

Scroll through the Notes feed and you are hit by two types of posts: the salesman telling you how to gain thousands of followers in a week, and those moaning about it.

Here are the tips for growing a following: either import them from another site or scam the system. They have private groups where links to articles are shared and everyone follows each other.

It is a “follow-for-follow” system, and it doesn’t work for two reasons. First, the moment you stop belonging to the community, your engagement drops. Second, no one is genuinely interested in what you write; they only “like” your work so that you like theirs.

Are these really the followers you want?

The way to grow a following is to find your tribe. Find people who write on topics you enjoy and interact with them. The worst that will happen is that you grow slowly, but you get to read some interesting writing along the way.

The other silent advantage of this approach is that your Notes feed slowly turns into a place where you actually want to be.

It becomes filled with interesting notes from people who share your interests. It takes time, but you can change Notes into a source of enrichment.

If you want to speed this process up, then mute the voices you don’t want to hear. I say mute because if you block, your work is not visible to them; if you mute, you don’t see their contributions, but they see yours.

Why do I care?

I have seen so many platforms destroyed by marketers, leaving you unable to find anything interesting to read because it is all about how to make millions in a week. Medium went that way. I am eager to keep this tiny corner of the internet away from that and keep reading the quality writing I have come to love on Substack.

You can train the algorithm.

Give it a try for a week and let me know how you get on.

Until next Sunday: Find the time, find the words, find the way.

Sam 😊

Reading Round-Up

I continue on my John Gwynne journey this week reading the second in the Blood and Bone trilogy. Anyone who read my ‘Fantasy Novels for All Types of Readers’ article will know I am a massive fan.

On audiobook I thought I would follow the hype and start listening to the Pierce Brown Red Rising series. I am 50% through the first book and I can tell you the hype is well earned.

I am drawn this month to a re-read of Wuthering Heights mainly because I am so angry at the new film. Once again Hollywood have produced a slightly related love story that does not deserve the name Wuthering Heights. Do these directors even read the books?