This is about voluntary payments for my blog and my work. I used to hate writing about this, I don’t anymore. This is my life, and I am okay with it.

Since 2007, I have been working hard to make the transition from the old kind of writer to the new kind of writer. It is an exciting trip, a hero journey all of its own, taking me into the world of video, audio, podcasts, social media, my blog and my Facebook presence, now more than 44,200 likes and followers.

There are still books and I am still happy to be writing them, but they occupy a different space in the new writer’s life. Once they were all I did, not they are one thing I do. Books are  precious to me, but not nearly as many people are buying them as used to buy them.  I do not whine or lament change, I adapt and accept and respond to it. What, after all, is creativity, if not for the ability to change with grace and energy?

Three years ago, I started a voluntary subscription program and it provides some of the money I need to sustain this blog, my photography, and thus some of my life here. The blog is the focal point of my writing life, and the payments I receive for the blog are the focal point of my income, there is great satisfaction but little money in paper books. E-books are nice and cheap.

I am grateful for my blog, I’m not sure I would be a writer today without it. I doubt it. I saw the future coming, and I am living it. The subscription program was successful, people are beginning to accept the idea of paying for content online, especially if they care about it and want it to survive. All of my payment options are inexpensive, including paying nothing, and many people thank me for giving them the chance to contribute. That is very humbling and gratifying. It takes awhile to build this up, I am working at it. It is beginning to happen.

I’ve dropped the subscription plan and switched to a voluntary payment plan because the money isn’t really a subscription – the blog is free to anyone who wants it, payment or not, and that will not change. I’m not ever going to abandon the people who have stayed with me for so long.

The voluntary payments are just what they appear to  be, voluntary payments for the work I do here and for the growing cost of maintaining the blog and my photography, both of which are offered free to anyone who wishes to use them. I don’t watermark my words or photos, they are free to anyone who wishes to use them, and many do, as bookmarks, wallpaper and print-outs for their walls. They are my angels, I love to see them out in the world.

My blog is growing and doing some good – we raised nearly $100,000 for various causes this year a record, and I made some noise about the New York Carriage Horses, but once a month or so I need to pause and raise some money for me, and for my own work. It is easy. You can pay $5 a month, $10 a month, or a yearly payment of $75. You can use credit cards or Paypal. The site is secure, protected by two security firms.

You can cancel at any time, and are reminded before the payments are renewed.

It is expensive to put out a blog like this, it is expensive to have good photos and lenses. It used to be something that supported my work, now it is my work. I work very hard every day to make the blog worthwhile. By the traffic, I would say it’s working.

I love doing it, every minute, but as publishing changed, so have my advances and royalties. I intend to cross the bridge, to be relevant. This is where I stand or fall, and I am eager for the challenge. I could hardly ask for anything or more than to make a living writing, I love getting up to go to work every day of my life. And I work on the blog just about day, usually more than once. In the new writing world, there is where it must happen. So thanks for reading this far and thinking about it. Payment page is here.

The blog is my living memoir, it is the  record of a life, mine and Maria’s and the animals on our farm,  told as honestly as I can, warts and all. It is also the chronicle of my life with animals.

No financial information is stored on my site, I have no access to  your accounts, for your own protection, only you can access  your money or start or stop payments. Again, the site is free, to get it by e-mail just go to the top of the Farm Journal Page and enter your e-mail address. You don’t need to pay anything, and I don’t monitor the payments to see who has paid and who hasn’t.

So please consider paying me for my work and supporting it if it is meaningful or valuable to you. It makes a difference. And you can join in this experiment to build the life of the new writer. You are definitely a part of it.

And if you don’t wish to or you or can’t, you are very welcome here anyway.