This is an out-of-band Sunday night post - to mention a couple bits of Tech & Nonsense news. I’m excited about both of them, although as you’ll see below I’ve got a lot of figuring out to do on the second one.
Almost 200 subscribers to Tech and Nonsense: The number has been flirting with 200 for a couple weeks now - at 196, 197, 198, back down to 197 and so forth. This is exciting because I really didn’t know whether I would get many more than maybe 20 subscribers when I started this just a little less than a year ago. To be approaching 10 times that number feels pretty cool. Also, getting to 100 subscribers took around 8 months. If it reaches 200 this month that will of course mean the second 100 was faster.
Paid Subscriptions Now Available: I have to say a big thank you to a reader (former student who knows who he is), who pledged to be a subscriber yesterday. Paid subscriptions were not available yesterday, but he used the Pledge feature built into Substack to commit to subscribing if and when they become available. I had been toying with the idea of offering these for a little while now - and seeing other publishers talk about how doing so had spurred growth and even created more of a community feel around their publications. Seeing the Pledge email come through last night was the inspiration to go ahead and do it. I’m very appreciative of that show of support.
Now comes the part about lots of figuring out to do. I need to put a lot of thought into what is offered to paid subscribers and free subscribers. Here’s the initial plan I have in place right now, which may well change in the short to medium term as I think on it and learn from any comments and feedback on it:
Paid Subscription Costs / Options
Monthly: $5
Yearly: $50
Founding member: $80
What Free Subscribers and Paid Subscribers Get
Free Subscribers: Access to my two weekly posts, consistently published on Wednesdays and Saturdays barring illness or extraordinary workload at my day job, and to three months worth of post archives.
Paid Subscribers: Access to the two weekly posts, access to the full post archive (all post history), and more to come when I get this all the way worked out.
You can see what founding members get in the table below:
Getting to that 200 Subscribers, Your Thoughts on Paid Option
If any of you choose to become paid subscribers - if you feel the posts here are worth it - or recommend Tech & Nonsense to friends or colleagues that would be hugely appreciated. As would your comments and thoughts on the paid options.
Of course, no worries at all if you choose to carry on as a free subscriber and can’t think of anyone to recommend T&N to. You know, except maybe my dog doesn’t get as many toys for Christmas (joke!!!).
Wow! Great headway. Love to see this. Almost as much as seeing Lucy with the cute toy!