A Note about Notes …
I’m 2 years behind the curve, but I’ve now decided to explore this pithy posting weapon. Also, this dispatch gives me an excuse to comment on the censorship of Reader Comments.
Don’t laugh but I think I recently figured out how to post a “Note” on Substack. This means I’m now doubly dangerous as a citizen journalist as I can post 2,000-word “save the world” dispatches and random 40-word daggers.
Although I’ve just started penning Notes (and penning Comment Notes about other people’s Notes), the early results are promising as one of my recent “Notes” got 10 “likes” - a 900-percent improvement on my efforts to develop a following on Twitter/X.
A Note about my past social media presence …
Regarding my social media presence, after the spring of 2020, I was routinely banned and shadow-banned on Facebook and finally gave up trying to save the world via this “speech” platform.
(I do occasionally post cute photos of our dog, Annie, also the copy editor of this newsletter, which apparently aren’t flagged by Mark Zuckerberg’s 10,000 content moderators.)
When it comes to Twitter, I always felt like the UnFrozen Caveman Lawyer …
No offense to Elon Musk (who, one day, I’d like to pitch a billion-dollar business idea to), but I finally said, “Screw it” when it came to my prospects of reaching more than one person on his world-changing speech platform.
Substack to the rescue (for a while, anyway) …
For those who still receive my dispatches via Substack Proper, you might have noticed I’m becoming increasingly suspicious that my articles aren’t reaching nearly as many users or subscribers as they once did.
(Basically, I’ve now concluded my freelance-writing business might provide enough revenue to cover one car payment and State Farm bill, but not two car payments).
However, it’s possible I could expand my “reach” (and, perchance influence) as a serious contrarian if I developed a significant following on Notes.
The thought here is that serious writers shouldn’t be pecking away in the hopes we might generate a couple of new paid subscribers.
Instead, we should be opining to contribute to important debates and to participate in democracy! (Any endorphin fixes generated by our “like” metrics are a nice psychological bonus).
I’m now targeting “followers” not just potential “subscribers” …
From my Substack metrics, I have noted that there’s a group called “subscribers” and there’s another group called “followers.” I never really knew what the difference was, but it now occurs to me that “followers” must be people who’ve clicked on one Substack button, but not the “subscribe” button.
(Noted: While self-help experts tell us it’s not always healthy to be a follower, for would-be writers, it’s good to have a few.)
I was recently surprised to note that I actually have approximately 13,000 “followers” (compared to approximately 7,600 “subscribers.”)
That is, I have almost as many “followers” as I have subscribers.
Until recently, I have not tapped into my “follower market,” which I’m now going to endeavor to change.
To be fair to Substack and co-founder Hamish McKenzie, maybe one reason my Substack subscription numbers have cratered is I haven’t been maximizing Substack’s new secret weapon, Notes.
That is, if more people see and “like” my Notes, maybe a few of these civically-engaged citizens will become free subscribers and then, at some point, 2 to 4 percent of these free subscribers will become paid subscribers.
A Note about the brevity of Notes …
I can imagine what my long-time Subscribers must already be thinking.
“Bill, we’ve read your dispatches, which trail only A Midwestern Doctor’s pieces in average article length. There’s no way in heck you can suddenly convey your thoughts in 20 to 200 words.”
To which I pithily respond: “au contraire … You clearly don’t know the back story of Bill Rice Jr.’s posting career.”
Once upon a time - after I was banned by Facebook and before I started my Substack newsletter - about the only writing of mine that was ever “published” was short reader comments.
For example, any readers who’ve visited the lively and ultra-popular Reader Comments Section at Zero Hedge have no doubt seen my stuff and perhaps are familiar with my infamous (?) posting handle.
Since I started writing at Substack, I seldom post at ZH, but, at one time, I was a prolific poster.
The reason I did this was because, after I was down-sized from my last real journalism job, I decided to become a “freelance writer,” albeit one where no editors would publish my articles (with a few, very rare exceptions).
Like Richard Gere’s character in An Officer and a Gentleman, “I had no where else to go” … so I made pithy posts at Zero Hedge and any other place that allowed non-paid subscribers to make Comments.
Aside on the Vanishing Reader Comments Sections …
Has anyone else noticed how most newspapers and magazines that once allowed anyone and everyone to make reader comments later abandoned this business model? I certainly have.
I also figured out why these media organizations did this: Because, in many cases, the comments were much better than the articles. Also, the best comments debunked the claptrap the corporate stenographers had published.
While it’s true that some (okay, many) posters can come across as crazy loons, not all of them fit this stereotype (and none of my posters).
In point of fact, the best posters were routinely embarrassing the news organizations that are being paid to push all the world’s bogus narratives.
Publishers - or the publishers’ bosses (giant investment firms like BlackRock) obviously figured this out.
“We’re trying to control the narrative - not allow our readers to crowd source efforts to debunk our own propaganda,” the owners said to themselves.
Their solution was either to do away with Reader Comment sections and/or allow only paying subscribers to make comments - and those comments first had to be approved by the company’s anonymous “posting moderators.”
*** (I’ve read up on this: The key to Note Growth is to get your Notes re-stacked.) ***
Aside within an aside …
I once paid to subscribe to the Internet sports site The Athletic and, soon enough, I was debunking or challenging half the articles I’d just read.
When Covid hit, The Athletic’s stable of sports scribes were soon injecting political commentary into their sports articles on a daily basis. My days as a poster were numbered when I started defending athletes like Aaron Rodgers and Novak Djokovic who refused to get their Covid non-vaccines.
Indeed, I’m pretty sure I set The Athletic’s record for posters who produced comments that generated a “comment deleted” screen blurb.
At The Athletic, subscribers were still free to post a comment if they agreed with the authors and publishers that everyone should get an experimental injection. But if we didn’t agree, “no soup (comments) for you!”
In my last post deleted by one of The Athletic’s posting Nazis, I simply noted that no professional athlete in the world had died from Covid and opined that this not-trivial fact should at least be noted by journalists.
After two score deleted comments (strike … 40!), I cancelled my paid subscription and have never been back.
About two weeks after I cancelled my subscription, I read that The Athletic had been purchased by The New York Times, a nugget of economic news that inspired a potential Note:
“Well, there you go.”
And here’s what I did next …
My life as a freelance writer changed dramatically due to three events:
I, belatedly, decided to start my own Substack newsletter.
Jeffrey Tucker at The Brownstone Institute started to publish a few of my Substack articles. Or try this link right here.
“Citizen Kane,” the anonymous owner of Citizen Free Press, started linking to many of my Substack articles.
It took 30 years, but I had been discovered as a “national” writer!
Third Aside …
I should “note,” since it’s germane to this dispatch, that The Citizen Free Press has now also discontinued its Reader Comments section.
Also, it’s been over a year since my once good buddy “Citizen Kane” linked to one of my articles.
While I greatly appreciate Mr. Kane’s early support, for reasons unknown, that support is now gone with the wind.
And I started making numerous Reader Comments on Substack …
I should also note that a key to my once-promising growth as a Substack author is the fact that I made numerous comments in the (uncensored) Reader Comments sections of other more-established Substack authors.
I think these copious comments - most which were pretty pithy (like a “Note”) - helped me “grow my brand” on Substack. While I tried to not over-do this, I also would sneak in links to my own articles.
That is, I was really making “Notes” before Notes was unveiled to the world.
Substack’s founders might have known what they were doing …
Lastly, it took a while, but I figured out the significance of Notes and why this new Substack innovation must be extremely important to the company’s founders.
In reality, Notes was an alternative - and an obvious competitor - to Twitter.
In my opinion, Substack’s version is a major improvement and superior product as Substack allows longer posts and it’s easier to read or access any comments the Notes might produce.
I, perhaps, now get it. If Substack one day wants to sell-out to the corporate narrative controllers, the fact it allows original journalism and a rapidly-growing version of Twitter could be very significant to potential buyers.
While Substack, largely, doesn’t allow advertising, this could change in one day. The more people who babble to one another on Notes, the more lucrative this “market” might seem to potential buyers who could easily “monetize” this feature by allowing a few (or many) Big Pharma, Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble advertisements.
Of course, if my article feeds can be suppressed, I guess my Note contributions can be algorithmically controlled as well. It’s too soon to tell. We’ll just have to see.
A Concluding Note …
Anyway, the purpose of this traditional Substack dispatch is to alert my subscribers that I’m going to give Notes the old college try. If you do happen to find me on Notes, please hit me with a like and re-stack my comment if you think it’s note-worthy.
***
I’ll end this dispatch with a note taken from one of my favorite patriotic songs, which was played on the football stadium P.A. system a couple of nights ago at our town’s fireworks celebration:
And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.
(I added a New stanza) …
… Where one can make reader comments and Substack Notes …
… As long as you don’t scare the Powers that Be
As a side-note, I always wanted to be a song lyricist like Bernie Taupin (who, according to Google AI, has a net worth of $200 million!)
I’m still standing (well, sitting), yeah, yeah, yeah …
***
A P.S. Note …
To help boost my new Note Initiative, in today’s Reader Comment section, I will re-publish a few Notes I’ve recently posted. I also will preview a few draft Notes I’m thinking about making.
As always, readers are encouraged and welcome to make their own Notes or pithy comments.
Also noted: “At Bill Rice, Jr’s Newsletter,” one doesn’t have to be a paid subscriber to make a Note. In almost three years, I’ve only deleted one or two comments. Take note Athletic/NY Times.
A pithy Note I just made, Theological too:
One suspects that the real “Epstein files” would have a thick folder with a header labeled "Satan, on-going operations ..."
I've already discovered that with Notes I can just run an excerpt from one of my essays, a point I really like and want to highlight a little more. For example, I re-posted this text from my column about how the Powers that Be are targeting the world's dissidents:
"If the powerful figures who participated in these Covid table-top planning sessions created a “threat” check-list at these events, it might read:
* “Watchdog” mainstream media organizations - captured/no threat.
* Politicians - captured/no threat.
* Judicial system - captured/no threat.
* Public health bureaucracies - all on board and champing at the bit to become the world’s saviors. No threat.
* Other bureaucratic organizations - Thrilled to help, no threat.
* Science Industrial Complex - Eager participants; no threat.
* Plaintiff trial lawyers - Don’t worry … AWOL, no threat.
* Colleges and educational system - completely captured, on our team, will support whatever we say.
* Foundations, key trade and professional groups - Eager to help, absolutely no threat.
* Major corporations - Proud to be aligned with Big Government and will enthusiastically do what they’re asked.
* Members of the Military Industrial Complex and the Intelligence Communities - just let us know what you need us to do (or we’ll let you know what we need you to do).
Bottom-line: The only remaining threat is dissidents at citizen journalist platforms like Substack. Thus ... Substack is now a grave threat.