Review – Substack Annual Update 1-1-24

NOTE: I do not normally abbreviate a Substack Update post, but I am making an exception for the first of the year since this is taking a bit of a different look at things.

I would like to start off the New Year with a hearty thank you to all of my Readers and a brief look back at 2023.

CFSN Detailed Analysis

I started this newsletter in May of 2021 as a means to monetize my continued efforts at Chemical Facility Security News (the CFSN of this title). I had been writing that blog for 14 years and had only received a few hundred dollars for those efforts over the years, mostly through payments for Google ads with some intermittent support through donations. Keeping that blog up requires a great deal of time and I have recently been supporting myself with Social Security and a part-time job. I had been hoping to reduce the time as a part-timer, but that has not yet been possible.

Chemical Facility Security News

This blog continues to be an important part of my life. I had a record number of posts (1131 vs 846 in 2022) last year, or an average of just over three per day. A large part of that increase is due to the new ‘Short Takes’ posts that I started in the fall of 2022. These are listings of articles that I have read that day that I think are worth sharing with my readers. I include a pull quote of what I think is an important part of the author’s point of view for those that do not have time to read the article. I had been doing something similar on TWITTER.com for years for individual articles, I just formalized it here in digest form. It has been very popular. Generally, the “Short Takes” posts are the last post of the day. Frequently, a number of articles on a single topic (or class of topics) will present themselves earlier in the day. I will combine them into a ‘special’ edition, most frequently a ‘Geek Edition’ for posts on scientific topics.

Future ICS Security News

This fictional blog has not been very active this year. The extra time that I have been putting into the other two publications has come mainly from the effort that would have gone into these posts. While these stories are fictional, they do have some inspirational basis in fact. This makes it more difficult, and time consuming to write. I want to continue these posts with some level of predictability (hard to drive readers to the site without that predictability), but I am still working out the logistics of keeping all three publications going.

Other Publications

From time to time, I am asked to contribute an article to other publications. I do list myself as a ‘freelance writer’ on LinkedIn, so I almost always respond favorably to such requests. I prefer to get paid for such articles, but I have been known to do such article pro bono when the topic or the publication is of particular interest. I typically report these articles in the appropriate ‘Substack Daily Update’ post.

Personal

I turned 70 last year, finally reaching middle age. I am happy to report that I am hale and healthy. To paraphrase the song I may not be as good as I once was, but I am good once as I ever was. My wife and I have slowed down from our early days, but we both continue to do most of what matters to us most. You cannot ask for much more from life. Please take a look at the Wife’s jewelry site on Etsy, Bama Beader.

 

For a larger discussion on the topics above, see my article on CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/substack-annual-update-1-1-24 - subscription required.

CFSN Detailed Analysis Subscription August Recess Sale – 8-1-23

Today I announced two subscription sales for my Substack blog – CFSN Detailed Analysis – Both sales run through the month of August, commemorating the August Congressional recess. While Congress is out of town fund raising, I will be catching up on a large backlog of bills introduced this session, as well as covering other news and issues (CFATS resurrection will be a major, ongoing topic).

Readers registering for a paid subscription from a .gov email address will receive 50% off their subscription through August of next year. All other email addresses will receive 40% off their subscription for the same period.

Take advantage of the Congressional Recess and sign up today for a paid subscription to CFSN Detailed Analysis.

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.