Why I Launched A Substack

Here's your introduction to what I've been doing before and what I'm doing now, with this newsletter underway.

The year 2013 was a pivotal year in my life. I had lived in Raton, N.M., since 1999 and had finally bought a house two years earlier. I had become president of the local Little League, self-published a book about my writing experiences, and was planning a trip with my parents and sister to Hawaii for Christmas.

Then came the worst news I received that year: The newspaper I worked for, The Raton Range, was shutting down.

From that point forward, it took a while to sort things out in my life. I went through one job that didn't work out, found another that's worked out better, but had other ideas in the back of my mind for what I might try to do as an alternative.

This included writing three fiction books (an idea that entered my mind when I was still in Raton), launching a website that's morphed into my interest in comic book geekery, joining Mile High Huddle to write about the Denver Broncos, and trying my hand at podcasting and videos through Facebook Live.

I've found each experience rewarding, but have found it difficult to keep everything together and find ways to grow an audience, in a way that gives me a real benefit.

It made me think about how I might take topics I like to write or talk about, then combine them into a format that not only makes it easier to build an audience that shares these interests (or just likes to hear what I have to say or write), and allows me to benefit from that in more than just greater exposure.

That's why I'm taking my talents to Substack, as you can all see here.

I've read up more about Substack and examined multiple newsletters, which feature a variety of writers covering a variety of topics. There are a number of high-profile writers who have made their way to Substack and I see this as the business model that's going to flourish in the years to come.

I will admit that there is an upside to Substack in that you can ask that newsletter subscribers pay for content. However, it's designed so you don't have to make all content paid -- most writers start with free content, then continue to offer a combination of free and paid content once they have built an audience and have readers who are more willing to pay.

This approach allows people to "try before you buy," then reward the writer if they like what is being offered, by buying more of it.

And I think a model where you can offer content for free to start, then people can pay when they believe it's worth it, is better than the model most platforms offer. These social media platforms may not charge a user fee, but whatever people post, like or share on a platform, becomes data that the platform feeds into an algorithm without the user knowing about it, and profits off that data.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter and Google, Substack doesn't profit off user data, but off people who choose to give money to a writer. In other words, the person who reads the content gets to decide if and when they want to pay, rather than thinking they are getting everything for free, but are effectively paying through their user data.

This model also allows people to communicate with their audience through email, as opposed to navigating a platform on which people log in to view material, but said material can get filtered out or downplayed depending on how an algorithm is adjusted.

I will promote the newsletter through Facebook and Twitter, but people can then go to Substack to view the content, then decide if they'd rather take the direct approach and subscribe, thus bypassing the middleman who is making money off collecting their data.

What are the topics I plan to write about?

* The NFL salary cap and free agency: While I like watching football, I have a greater interest in the basics of how the salary cap works, how NFL contracts work and the best ways to build a team and manage the cap. That will be the primary focus of the newsletter.

* Sports cards: I haven't seen a lot of information out there about sports cards, which I have regularly collected since I was in college. I'll have a few stories to share about the hobby, mostly about some of the crazes I remember from years past and general advice about navigating the hobby.

* Comic book geekery: There will still be the occasional writing about my love for DC and Marvel Comics material and everything associated with it.

* Media misconceptions: Having an extensive background in newspapers and journalism, I've developed my own observations about the media environment, particularly its constant misconceptions about life outside the elite circles that have formed.

What's going to happen to other activities I've done? First of all, I'm not leaving my current job -- I still have bills to pay and need a reliable source of income.

Second, I will continue to write for Mile High Huddle. That site, however, is specific to the Denver Broncos and, when it comes to football, I want to write about more than Broncos-specific issues. For MHH readers. I'm not leaving the site, but I will be expanding my horizons.

Third, my author website, bwmorrisauthor.com, isn't going to be updated weekly -- it will instead be once in a while. I will leave it up for people to learn about my novels, and if time permits, I may write another in the future. (If you subscribe to my newsletter, you'll know about it.)

Fourth, I will be dropping the Tidbits chats on Facebook Live. I'd rather take my ideas and put them on a platform that gives me a chance to make money and not push a feedback loop for an algorithm that feeds off another person's data to let someone else make money. (I will, however, be looking at podcasts on Substack in the future.)

However, that final point leads me to this: I'm calling the newsletter Bob's Tidbit (as you can see by the newsletter URL). My plan is to get a newsletter rolled out every Sunday to start, and go with it for free for a while. In the future, I'll offer a paid subscriber model, but still provide some free content. But I will cross that bridge when I reach it (and, hopefully, many of you will follow).

I hope you will join me on this ride and see where the journey goes. And, who knows, you might find out you have something important to say on the subjects I discuss.