Paid options for Dirtbag Christian incoming

Sorry to be a capitalist.

photo by me

Friday was my last work day as a commerce writer for a major media company. I started as a part-time editor at a gardening and lifestyle site, which is exciting for me. However, I’m going to be pursuing my hopes and dreams to write and speak about non-monogamy full-time.

This is scary for me for a lot of reasons. It’s only possible because Daniel, my spouse, landed a new job making more money. It’s not a ton of money, however. Ty makes pretty okay money, but he’s currently in school full-time (which is paid for by his current employer) and has about another year before he graduates and starts looking for new roles in a (hopefully) much higher-paying position.

All of that being said:

I’m (partially) converting the Dirtbag Christian to a paid subscription model.

If you’re not into that, that’s fine. I get it. I wanted this to be free as long as possible. I don’t believe, really, in influencer culture. I don’t think deconstruction, social justice, and religious educational content should cost money. I believe in free resources, especially since (as I often remind people) I’m not a pastor, so how can I charge people for my layperson knowledge? I’ve never been to seminary.

But, in order to exert myself as an expert (and honestly, to maybe lessen the amount of free labor I do with polyamory-curious folks online — and I do not use the term “labor” lightly here; I don’t think having a conversation with someone should be considered “emotional labor” or whatever… I stay away from that phrasing when I can) and to keep things okay financially as I start to freelance, I need a possible pay model to make this worth the effort I would want to put into this.

Here’s what I’m thinking, and this may change: two posts weekly. Religious/general/news posts will be free. Personal and all polyamory-adjacent posts will be for subscribers only. Hopefully, one of each for each week.

All subscribers will also be invited to the Dirtbag Christian private Discord channel, but please do note that uh… nobody is in it, yet.

Here’s the pricing model, which is less than the Substack suggested model:

• Per-month cost: $8 a month

• Annual cost: $80 a year

• Founders’ subscription: $160 or whatever you want to pay that’s more than $80 (if you’re a huge fan for whatever reason)

All past posts will remain free.

Not only that, but I’m offering rewards for subscriber referrals, too.

• Refer three people and get a personal email from me

• Refer five people and get a personal video from me

• Refer 25 people and get a 30-minute Zoom chat with me

Now listen, I’m a pragmatic person. Maybe nobody wants to join a private Discord, get a video with me, or even pay for my content. I’m not famous or anything. In this case, I probably won’t blog as much and will focus more heavily on freelancing and pitching elsewhere.

I am also looking for other writing and speaking opportunities to discuss non-monogamy and Christianity. Please let me know if you know of anything.

But I think that (some) of the content I have is worth paying money for if you so choose. There will also be some T-shirts and merch incoming, in collaboration with my talented artist brother-in-law Devin Wright-Bowman.

To my fellow comrades who work so hard toward free resources and not capitalizing on everything, I’m sorry!

If you find this disappointing, I get it. I hope you can understand where I’m coming from. And it’s important for me to offer free content still.

I’m so thankful for all of you (and for the kind responses to my last post), and I hope I can create insightful content that’s worth your hard-earned money.