Jared White

Let’s just get this one out of the way. I’m launching a subscription service. Why am I launching a subscription service? Well, the reasons may shock you! (Not really. The short answer is: I need cash. 😜)

The long answer is…OK, I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want to talk with you about producing content & income.

I have been publishing on the web since 1996. This is no joke. It’s true, all of it. My first “blog” (long before that term emerged) launched in September 1996, focused on—and this should surprise absolutely no one—the nascent world of online technology. I wrote about such timely topics as “Netscape vs. Microsoft” and “The Future of Windows, Internet Explorer, and the Way You Work” and a review of HomeSite (a popular HTML editor). This was the catalyst for a decades-long love affair with writing and publishing for the open web, not to mention web design itself.

Since that time my career has taken many circuitous paths, but eventually I arrived here in 2023 and I’m…still a web developer and still blogging. And yet…

…one of my all-time biggest regrets is that I never figured out how to make a living—or any significant amount of money really—as a content creator. I’ve always treated it like a hobby, a side-project, the thing I do to blow off steam when I’m not “working” at my day job. And wha’dya know, that’s how it’s treated me back. You get back what you put into it, I suppose.

Money, Money, Money, Money

There are essentially three ways to grow an income as a content creator as I see it.

1. Sell ads, erm, I mean sponsorships. Try as I might, this business model has simply never appealed to me. I don’t have it in me to sell you Squarespace or Blue Apron or Manscaped or Athletic Greens. I don’t use virtually any products anyone ever advertises. I tried Athletic Greens once and I hated it. So sponsorships is out the window. What’s next?
2. Give your content away and get hired on projects as a freelancer. This is basically what I’ve been doing to date. All content everywhere all at once remains free, and in exchange, I trust in the universe to bring along somebody who hires me for my great skills…you know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills…
3. Sell subscriptions and paywall your content. It’s hard to describe just how long I’ve been fantasizing about doing this. I have notes going back years—many, many years!—regarding how I might attempt to paywall my content. I did offer a Patreon once. I got…3 patrons? Yeah, it was pathetic. It’s because it wasn’t really a paywall. I didn’t have the guts to relocate truly valuable content there and promote it as such. As I’ve come to discover, the hint of maybe-kinda-sorta offering bonus content in the future is not a sales pitch. Nobody gives a shit.

I lied…there’s a forth way to make money as a content creator. Let someone else hire you and let them worry about how to grow a content business and you just make some content and get paid and go home.

I’ve also thought about this…a lot. Maybe I just need to join someone’s podcast. Maybe I just need to write for a magazine. Maybe I could make guest appearances on someone’s YouTube channel. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I’m done with maybes. It’s time to make a decision, consequences be damned, and stick with it. Ride it out. See what happens. If I succeed, I’ve succeeded. (Profound, isn’t it?) If I fail, well, then at least I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I gave it my best shot, and that’s all that can be expected of anyone.

So the third option it is then. Let’s goooooo!

Why a Subscription Service?

Which brings me back around to my original topic. Why am I launching a “subscription service” instead of just a simple paywall/membership? In case you’re wondering the difference, Jack Cyberspace Blogger’s Patreon is a membership. Nebula is a subscription service. I’m not launching another Patreon. I’m launching a Nebula.

Yeah, I know. That sounds outlandish, ludicrous. It is! And I’m not saying it’s going to happen overnight. This is a multi-year long process. I have plans. It’ll start very modestly, just me and some educational products I’m launching, such as web development courses through The Spicy Web. Fullstack Ruby will be relocating to this service. My blog’s newsletter Creator Class will also be relocating to this service. A new podcast I recently started with a friend called Just a Spec could be considered a part of this service (though I don’t have any plans to paywall it for the time being). There are new properties in the works which haven’t yet seen the light of day such as a modern reboot of The Internet Review (that first publication from 1996 I mentioned previously). Needless to say, the goal in all of these cases is to provide educational content of real value to the people who need it. The real deal. No B.S. No grifts. Decades of real-world expertise, at your fingertips.

And the Name is…

Yes, I’ve been very busy this year and a lot of it has been behind the scenes as readers of my newsletter already know. I still can’t reveal too much, but news is coming so stay tuned as they say. I will however reveal one thing: the name of the service and the name of the subscription program.

My subscription service is named Intuitive Future. And the subscription program is named Intuitive+.

Again, these concepts are literally decades in the making. I’ve owned the domain name intuitivefuture.com for as long as I can remember. (Apparently for 7,405 days!) From the very beginning I imagined it as an umbrella for a number of content-related projects I would launch one day. It’s just remained there, lurking in the shadows, waiting for its moment to come out and shine.

This year, that moment has arrived. And I couldn’t be more excited for what the Future has in store.

If you’d like to keep up on the latest news regarding Intuitive Future and its launch later this year, the best way is to follow me on Mastodon and/or subscribe to Creator Class (the free version). I’ll be trickling out updates with more frequency now that the cat’s out of the bag. Ooo, how fun! 🥳