Requesting the support of my readers

Support my independent writing on space exploration, the Moon, and blogging.

Dear readers,

I quit my job in 2019 to pursue a lifelong mission—spread the purpose and joy of space exploration to everyone I can. To that end, my space blog and Moon sites are all absolutely free to access and I never display any ads. I hope you enjoy reading my articles as much as I do writing them. I write this note to my readers to explain why your support is so important.

It takes substantial effort to write a good article. To maintain a proper blog, a newsletter, and another blog with several collections of thematic articles is an even bigger effort than the sum of its parts. If you like my work, your support will keep me going and mean the Moon to me.

Why not show ads or write for publications?

Those are indeed common ways to make a living as a science writer, but both have major caveats.

• Ads are distracting, evil when in the form of tracking ads, and create wrong incentives for publishers. This results in publishers prioritizing ad viewing over content, which not only affects content quality but also frustrates readers. It will never be worth slapping ads on my blog, period.

• Writing for media publications is the most common way to earn as a freelance writer and that’s what I do. While it has its benefits and some publications are awesome, there are still costs to independent writing since publications filter content to their preferences, goals and whims. Basically, you cannot just cover a topic because you find it important or interesting. Consider further that most publications earn from ads or corporate sponsors which solves nothing fundamentally.

I already self-publish the world’s only Moon exploration newsletter every week and would love to publish even more content that isn’t done for media publications. In essence, an independent publication is no different than an independent writer anyway. I thus believe that direct funding from readers can help sustain independent, high-quality and consistent content creation. So if you like my work, help me become an independent writer.

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If you already support me, thank you so much! Since you like what I do, it’d be great if you could share it with others who might like it too.