My blog subscription program mirrors my own back-and-forth, up-and-down progress towards love, spirituality and authenticity. I was loathe to start it, but at every turn, people have come along to beat me up and get me going, and there are good signs that it is beginning to work.

The idea of paying for things online was shocking to many people just a few years ago, it is less so now. Book writers like me are either making the transition online, or vanishing from public view and relevance. I still write paper books, and love them, but the blog is my book now, my living memoir, my great work. For better or worse, I will stand or fall on the blog, it is how I make my living. How ironic, when I wrote my first book, the idea of writing blogs would have absolutely horrified me. But it is my medium now, it fits me.

A marketer told me that accepting subscriptions for the blog was no different than accepting royalties for a book. That blew it open for me. He said the progress would be slow and steady, and that I should give people several inexpensive ways to do it. Last year, he berated me again for mentioning subscriptions too infrequently so I mention them once or twice a month.

He has been right on all counts, the subscriptions are making a real difference in my life and my work, they make it possible for me to remain someone who writes for a living. They pay for the maintenance of the blog, help maintain my computer and photographic equipment they help me keep the blog free for those who cannot afford to pay even $3 a month for it. And there are many.

The blog focuses on my life, on animals, rural life, my town. It is think blog, we talk about stuff, we are not obsessed with agreement, it is not a “left” or “right” blog, we do not lament the state of the world here. I write about animals, spirituality, the hero journey, authenticity. There are no comments permitted on the blog itself – it is a monologue, not a dialogue – but the blog is posted on Facebook throughout the day and comments are permitted there.

I do not handle any of this money, I cannot start or stop subscriptions, subscribers manage their own accounts for their protection and my sanity, it is quite simple and you can cancel their subscriptions at any time and easily. Everyone is notified a week in advance when the subscriptions are up for renewal, you can opt out with a click. No financial data of any kind is stored on my site, and you can use Paypal or major credit cards to pay for it. You can pay $3 a month, $5 a month, or $60 a year.

Or nothing, many people have been with me from the beginning on this journey, I will never forget or abandon them.

At first I only mentioned subscriptions at the beginning of the month, my bookkeeper points out that I need to spread them out and mention them towards the middle and end of the month as well.  So I will do that. I am learning to listen, accept help and follow the good advice of people I know.

You all, I hope, are paid well for  your work, and I have come to enjoy being paid for mine.  Back to the future, it is an exciting place for me to be. I am not one of those writers you will ever hear lamenting the good old days, the good old days are always for me the ones I am privileged to live and work in. So thanks for subscribing.