Charging for Words

Paying the bills, a penny at a time

I think it’s important to get out ahead of this one, and I should have been more clear from the start. Practical Self Reliance is free, and will always be free.

It has nearly 700 detailed tutorials and guides on it, all free and readily available to anyone who cares to learn.

My post on Medicinal Plants alone has more than 20,000 words and would be over 100 pages long if printed out. It’s freely available online to anyone who cares to look.

Or at least, it seems free.

It’s supported by ads. You see, every single time you look at one of my posts online, I make about a penny. A single penny and you get bombarded by ads in the name of “free.”

It’s democratic in a way, and anyone can learn, for the price of being served ads.

We’re all used to being bombarded by ads at this point in our lives. We expect it, and what would otherwise be sensory overload to any sane person is just background noise in what is now our online experience.

A penny may not seem like a lot, but it adds up, and if you stack the pennies high enough you have enough to pay the bills. Putting up “free” information on Practical Self Reliance is now my full-time job.

I started this website right after my son was born. My husband was out of work and I needed a way to make ends meet all while tandem breastfeeding my newborn son and one-year-old daughter.

I managed to get the pillows on the bed strategically arranged in just the right way, and I wrote some of my very first articles with my computer stacked on a 3 pillow high desk, with two babies supported suckling from both sides.

I still can’t think about my recipe for dill pickles without looking down to see those two beautiful faces in my lap, as that was one of the very first ones I put out there all those years ago. (Though it’s been updated at least a dozen times since, there’s always some way to make anything just that much better.)

Every time someone shared my content, I’d cheer and watch a few more pennies come in. Back then, when a huge Facebook page shared one of my posts right before Christmas, I actually cried. The pennies stacked high enough that month to put presents under the tree.

That’s the way the internet works for creators these days. A few shares means income, mostly in the form of ads, and all that is “free” in the world is paid for in those subtle ways behind the scenes.

These days, my content is shared all over the internet, I no longer have to hustle day in and day out for “engagement” and the pennies keep us fed and then some.

The thing is, on a personal level, I absolutely hate ads.

I’d gladly drop a penny into a jar to support a writer each time I read an article, and watch all the ads melt away. I know not everyone feels that way, in fact, the vast majority of people are perfectly comfortable with advertising pervading every aspect of their lives.

Starting paid subscriptions on substack is an experiment, to see if I can create a reader-supported publication. If pennies come from here, they don’t have to come from ads. But either way, there still must be pennies, always pennies, to pay the bills.

Writing is work. Work I absolutely love, but nonetheless work, and it is how I support my family.

Other “free” writers online are doing the same thing, stacking their pennies one way or another. Advertizing, E-books, courses, sponsored posts, private communities, Patreon…and a thousand other ways to keep the pennies flowing.

Some of my favorite writers have started branching out, looking for diverse ways to make ends meet without bombarding you with yet more ads.

The Elliot Homestead is on substack too, and Shaye’s work never fails to awe and inspire me. She also runs a cooking community, teaches courses over zoom, has written several books…and yet, look at her blog…you’ll still find ads. Very few, of course, she’s found ways to keep the pennies flowing in other ways…but not quite enough (yet).

The same is true for just about every writer I know.

Which makes it all the more odd when I get emails like this one from Carol:

“In over 20 years of reading blogs, not ONCE has a blogger CHARGED for information. I am extremely upset that you are CHARGING READERS!!!  NO one does this. Unsubscribe me, and I will be noting your choice in other emails to friends and other blogs. Shame on you.”

Or this one from Debra:

“I think it is a crying shame that you now want to charge money instead of sharing your knowledge on being self-reliant. Congratulations you’ve just joined the ranks of money-grubbers. You are no longer practical. Sharing the knowledge that you’ve gained should be shared for free so others can gain and pass it forward. I’m so disappointed.” 

Every single writer out there who wrote one of the literally hundreds of books on my shelves was paid for their work, and I’ve spent countless hours pouring over them and years learning from them. I would never demand they hand me their book for free, that’s just absurd.

Even more absurd is the thought that instead of buying their writing, they might show me ads every time I turned the page. I’d honestly be disgusted if they managed to make that happen to the books on my shelf, and it’s one reason I only buy print books.

E-reader books have, in fact, already made that happen. All those “free” books you read on your kindle…they’re not free. You pay with every ad, every time you turn the page.

And yet, that’s what we’re used to online. Ads mean “free” and while people are fine with dropping pennies into the jar in the form of ad views, anything else is “shameful money-grubbing.”

That’s ok.

The unsubscribe button is always there, right at the bottom of this email.

All that I’ve written for “free” is still up on the site. Literally millions of words at this point, and thousands of pages. Read it anytime, day or night.

I still have a free newsletter and updates about the site, new posts, and seasonal content will still come to every single free subscriber. If you’re reading this, then congratulations, you’re already signed up. Free.

Every so often I put out something special, and save it for just those people who have consciously chosen to drop a few pennies into my paid subscriber jar here on Substack.

It’s a little something extra, like a street musician playing a few extra special chords for the passer-by that dropped a few extra coins in their hat.

But you know, I get it. Times are hard. Inflation is eating us all. Our local grocery store is actually literally charging $10 per pound for chicken. Regular, bone-in, factory-farmed…chicken.

If you’ve made it this far, actually read and heard what I’ve had to say, then I’m glad you’re here. You know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. You go to work, put in your best, and get paid.

You’re my people, and I want you in my community…pennies or not.

Leave me a comment below. Anything at all, even just “I read it” or “I hear you” and I’ll add you as a paid subscriber for free.

If you’re listening, I want you here.

Until Next Time,

-Ashley at PracticalSelfReliance.com