Five years ago, an Internet marketing firm contacted me and suggested that I offer subscriptions to people reading the blog. It should not be free to anyone, they said. I refused, in part because I couldn’t imagine asking for money, and because I want the blog to always be free to those who love it but can’t afford it. They stood by me, I will stand by them.

Since then, the old world tottered and began to collapse. Publishing was upended by Amazon and e-books and corporatization.  They do not support writers much any more. Perhaps that is a good and right thing, we ought to be able to support ourselves. Many cannot.

The same people bringing you the latest cereal are bringing you the latest books. Then there was the recession, the divorce, the collapse of the real estate market,  and a spectacular, Biblical crack-up on the top of a remote farmhouse hill. They all hit me in the same month, I will not soon forget it.

So I was pulled rudely from my high horse and pulled into the new world, where I labor happily, and quite continuously. I still have a foot in the old world, I love my books and write them, but I can no longer make a living writing them, they are now  just one part of a writer’s puzzle, not the whole of it.

So two years ago, I began offering subscriptions. The blog is still free to anyone who can’t pay, and everyone gets all of the content, no matter how they subscribe or when. People can subscribe using Paypal or their credit cards, it is simple to do and subscriptions can be cancelled at any time with the click of a button. People are given reminders when their subscriptions expire.

The subscriptions are to pay me for the work I do in writing the blog and taking my photographs, it is pretty much a full-time, seven-day a week job. I am moving to make the great transition to new models of information and revenue – lots of people contributing small amounts of money. They call it macro-marketing.

You can pay $3 a month, $5 a month, or $60 once a year, the content is the same, the idea is to give people different options, as people have different incomes. Of the millions of people who read the blog each year (about 400,000 are unique visitors), a very small percent subscribe at all. But each month when I mention the subscriptions, a few more people sign up.

It matters, it makes a huge difference. The blog is expensive to maintain, I need to spend at least $5,000 to upgrade the blog delivery system so that it is more efficient for mobile users, a growing percentage of my readers. I can’t afford to do that without subscriptions. In fact, I can’t afford to be a writer without subscriptions, I will be candid about that. Photography is also expensive, and my photos are available free to anyone who wishes to download them and use them. I do not ever bookmark my pictures.

I consider them and my stories to be little angels, I send them out into the world to make their own way.

I never imagined asking for subscriptions, I do so with pride and comfort now, it is good to be paid for my work, good to pay people for the work they do. Many people tell me that and I appreciate it. My goal is to be self-sufficient through my blog so I can improve it, so that it will be free, and so that I can continue to earn my living as a writer. Being paid for ones work, I see, is a matter of dignity.

For some time, people balked at the idea that Internet content should be paid for, I think resistance to that is declining. If people don’t pay for the content they like and enjoy, there will obviously not be any soon enough.

No financial information of any kind is stored on my website or on the service of my Internet hosting company, I cannot cancel or start subscriptions, I have no access to your money, everyone’s best protection. I do not manage your subscriptions, your credit card companies or Paypal do that. I have two Internet security firms who monitor the blog traffic and protect it.

Bedlam Farm is an idea, not simply a blog. We believe in creativity, independence, free thinking, a life with animals, a perspective on life and a respite from the fear, anger and hostility that permeate some parts of our public world. So it is time for my monthly reminder about subscriptions, they matter, they are important, they are the future of me and my writing life. I was listening to a public radio fund drive, hearing the urgent pleas of the fund-raisers. I used to feel sorry for them, asking for money all of the time, now they are my brothers and sisters.

I thank those of you who subscribe, those of you are thinking of it, those of you who can’t afford to subscribe but are reading me anyway. I appreciate all of you. You can subscribe here.