In my never-ending journey to make the transition from one kind of writer to new kind of writer – I like the idea of earning my own money without any middle-people, and I have come to love the idea of being paid for my work – I was inspired this morning with the idea of the gift subscription to my blog, something I never thought of and never would have thought of if not for Dr. Wayne Wibby of Bangor, Me. (Thanks, Doc.)
He wrote me this morning asking if he could buy a gift subscription for a friend, a feisty lobsterwoman – her boat is called Catsass – he thought I would like her very much. (I like her already). “Hey Jon,” he wrote, “I love your photos, have followed you for many years. It is such a pleasure to kinda ride along with you as the journal has expanded. We have this wonderful friend, she is a lobster fisherman (fisherwoman?) and we would like to give her a subscription to the journal. I did not see that opportunity on your website.”
Dr. Wibby was kind enough to say that “I have always enjoyed your feistiness and your willingness to learn from others.” Thank you, sir, I am learning from you. Some people have other words for my disposition.
So this is a neat idea, this idea of a gift subscription, I thank Dr. Wibby for thinking of it, he is the first, to my knowledge. If any of you wish to purchase a gift subscription for friends or family, you can either send a check in the mail with the appropriate information (let me know who the subscription is going to) to P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or you can e-mail me at [email protected] and I will send you a Paypal invoice. So you can pay either by check to the Post Office Box or by Paypal. We will also send you and the recipient a notification of the subscription purchase.
If this is a popular idea, we will figure out a way to refine it. Note: the blog is free, subscription/payments are simply a way of paying me for my work if you choose to do that. You don’t have to pay anything to get it.
The blog will always be free to those who can’t afford to pay or don’t wish to. Many of you have stood with me, I will never abandon you. There are several payment options. If you want to give anyone a gift of the blog, all you have to do is enter their e-mail address at the top left of the Farm Journal Page, you can do that and then send a subscription payment to me through mail or Paypal.
Although we called it a subscription, it is really just a simple payment for my writing and photography, and for the time it takes to produce the blog. I started the blog in 2007 as a way of supporting my books, and now I find the blog is the book in a growing number of ways. It is my living memoir, my new kind of great work.
This is another exciting experiment in my transition from 20th century book writer to 21st century writer, sailing eagerly through the meteor shower of e-books, digital publishing and the rise of the Internet. This is a pioneering effort and it is beginning to work after some years of struggle, trial and error. The blog now has more than four million hits a year, approximately 400,000 unique visitors. The blog is also up to more than 41,000 likes on Facebook, which is gratifying, but the blog is the heart of the enterprise, now and always.
It is expensive to maintain and upgrade, and it needs some upgrading for mobile users – about $6,000 worth. I love figuring out how to make it work and I greatly look forward to the day when I am as successful as an author writing in this form as I was in the other. I am getting close, I can smell it. If you wish to pay me for my work apart from gift subscriptions, you can do that here.