I’ve had several subscribers pledge $5 a month to read this site, which I truly appreciate. To activate these pledges, I have to turn payments “on,” which I’ll do soon.
I don’t plan to write and publish articles that will be available only to paying subscribers. I know many authors do this and it makes sense. If you want lots of paying subscribers, it’s a good idea to entice them with exclusive content. That’s not for me.
I debated whether I should accept pledges, then I thought of busking. About a month ago I was in Plymouth, Mass., walking down the street. A busker was singing and playing guitar so I stood and listened for a moment and then tossed in some money before moving on. Other people passed, enjoying (or at least hearing) the music but without paying.
I’m a bit like that busker. I write my articles, share my knowledge, insights, biases, pet peeves, and the like, tossing them out there in the commons, hoping for an audience, hoping to hone my craft, hoping to drive meaningful change as well, and hoping too that maybe a few in the audience might show their appreciation in one way or another. And if you’re reading this you already have. Authors want to be read; even better, they want to move readers, perhaps by stimulating them to comment publicly, which serves to create a community.
As I’ve said, I feel I learn as much from my readers and their comments as they learn from me. And I truly appreciate my “regulars,” people who’ve been commenting for months, even years, like Mike, Dennis, Ray, Jeff, Denise, Jeanie, Alex, Clif, and many others. I’m proud that my audience is so diverse; the last thing I want to create is yet another partisan site in favor of one political party or faction.
The payments feature just allows the few who are willing and able to drop a few bills into my guitar case, so to speak. I can’t promise you anything for your generosity other than my thanks. That and a promise I’ll keep blogging away.
One more thing. Though I write a lot about military topics and politics, I’ll occasionally post some change-of-pace articles like the one I posted yesterday on my dad and his lesson about not getting too big for your britches. A steady diet of news and views on war, the U.S. military, and politics is tiresome even for me.
Many thanks to everyone reading this.
Bill: I enjoy your busking analogy. In fact, it's the same approach we use at LA Progressive.
We do encourage readers to subscribe or donate, at the same $5 you use or any amount they choose. But we don't put up a paywall requiring that they pay anything if they don't want to.
That approach seems to be in line with a higher intent of the internet. And, as you know, we treasure your writings and read everything you publish.
... having clicked on several tabs... have yet come to page where a "donation" can be easily made