CFSN Detailed Analysis - Substack Site

Sharp eyed readers will have noticed that earlier this week I established a publication site on Substack.com. Readers might remember that I have been debating for some time how to monetize my long-time publication, Chemical Facility Security News. I have published over 8,000 blog posts since 2007 and have made maybe $1,000 from the publication over that time. It is time to do something different.

I considered transferring the Chemical Facility Security News blog to Substack. They are not set up to support that large of an undertaking. I might be able to transfer the files, but I would have to go back and put the correct publication dates on each post… it is just not practical. I also considered just starting over on Substack, but there would be just too many readers that would not make the transition and I have worked hard to establish this largely anonymous reader base.

So, I decided to take the middle ground. The new publication, CFSN Detailed Analysis, will consist of the longer analytic pieces that I have been publishing over the years, those pieces that really stretch the definition of the term ‘blog’. Access to those pieces will be via the Substack subscription service. I will typically post a notice about those pieces on the current blog. Typically, those notices (with links) will be found at the end of a related blog post. See, for example, my blog post on the introduction of HR 3243.

Substack also allows me to offer free access articles on the site. Currently, the only thing that I am intending on offering free is a daily post listing the posts on both my Chemical Facility Security News and Future ICS Security News blogs (see here for example. I am doing this because I suspect that there may be a slightly different audience available on Substack than what I currently have on my conventional blogs. Hopefully this will drive traffic to those blogs. It could also be used by my current readers as a daily digest to determine what posts they might want to read.

This whole thing is a work in progress. I would like to receive feedback on the new project. What would you be willing to pay for? Would you prefer to see the paid and free posts on the same site? What would drive you away from the blog if it were moved behind the subscription wall?

I am not trying to get rich of this effort. I am trying to reduce the need for a day job that takes time away from my wife, my researching, and increasingly my writing. Readers might have noticed that I have become somewhat more prolific over the last month or so. That is because I have been recovering from relatively minor surgery. But next week I return to my day job to keep the bills paid and that time will be reduced. The wife has been much happier with me being home, and I have been writing more. That is what I want to continue to be able to do.