I am in the fourth month of my new subscription program, the migration of much of my writing life online, the evolution of the blog into a book all of its own, my living memoir, my seminal work. My blog is about mindfulness, the hero journey, the search for a meaningful life, spirituality, love, rural life, photography and animals. It’s about a life, my life, a new brew of images and words, columns and journals, ideas and yearnings, podcasts and Open Groups on Facebook.

The subscription program is going very well, nobody has complained about it, most people seem comfortable with it, some, of course, are avoiding it.

The blog is growing, a lot of different things on it.  I have been soliciting subscriptions for four or five months now, the program has been successful. Internet marketing has its own pace. More than 95 per cent of the people reading the blog have not yet subscribed to it. It will take some time to change that percentage, but the important news is there is lots of room for growth. I am positing this as a model for the new way writers work and make a living in the digital era. On Mondays, I write about the blog, how it is doing, what I am up to, what changes are in the works. In the coming weeks, I will increase the number of podcasts, building up to the November publication of my next paper book, Second Chance Dog: A Love Story.  I’ve been asked to write a piece about the book for The New York Times, also for Parade Magazine, a good start. I am redesigning the blog’s header to reflect the idea of the blog as a book. I’m doing a Ted Talk in November on my notions of mindfulness, aging and health.

Today, I thought today I’d engage in a dialogue with the 90 per centers, the readers who have not yet subscribed, either by using the new credit card option or the existing Paypal option. You can subscribe for $3 a month (for the financially pressed), $5 a month, $60 a year. The credit card option offers subscribers the change to manage their subscriptions. They can upgrade, downgrade, cancel at any time.  I want to say this those to those of you among that percentage who simply don’t have the money: the blog will remain free to you, I have no plans to restrict content or exclude those who can’t pay. You have been with me from the beginning, I will stay with you.

For those who do have the money to pay,  this is payment for my work, my writing, my time, my photography. It is like any other book, I charge for it, and I feel it is appropriate to be paid for it. My life is my responsibility, not yours, but publishing has changed. I am not a worthy cause or a charity, it is just like buying food or clothes, things of value are not free in our world. Nobody should subscribe unless the blog is useful, entertaining, inspiring or valuable to them.   Everybody has to form their own value system about taking things for free, and people are used to free things online. Information does want to be free, but somebody has to create it and also eat. I take this position on behalf myself and other creative people. We have a right to be paid for our work and we need to pay our bills like every one. From the responses to the subscriptions, I see that most people agree.  It is essential to the continuation of culture online and off. I was a long time in coming to the point where I saw that I need to be getting paid for the work I do here and I think it is the right time.

Except for short vacations and business trips, I publish the blog daily and have published nearly 14,000 posts and 7,000 photographs since the blog started up in 2007. I am very proud of this blog, it is the most creative thing I have yet done in my life.

So far, all of the subscription money has gone into improving the blog. Creating a mobile web version, setting up podcasts, offering credit card subscription options, maintenance and other fees. More improvements are underway. They are expensive.

I will continue to post weekly discussions about the new world of writing, I am happy to see that many creative people are offering quality  blogs and getting paid for them. I have 175,00 viewers a month coming through bedlamfarm.com and this is the right path for me, I intend to remain relevant and vital in this new world. I love writing and photographing for the blog, it is the perfect forum for me – varied, instant, interactive.  I embrace the challenge of being a writer in this new environment, I will keep at it, subscriptions are a major step forward. So are e-books and other new offerings. Thanks to those many people who have already subscribed, the 90 per centers will have to make their own decisions about it. I’m not shutting off access to the blog to anybody and will continue working to improve it.

In the past few years,  I have had to change and will have to change some more. If you want to read good writing online or off, you may have to change also.  I’m up for it.  I am committed to a blog that is relevant, timely, published frequently and is well illustrated. I am committed to being paid for it.

I don’t take people’s work for free, online or off.  Not to the grocer, the dentist, the handyman or the cable company. So will keep this dialogue going. My own goal is to get the 90 per cent down to 75 per cent over the next few months. I believe it will happen. You can subscribe here.