Substack Annual Update – 1-1-24

I would like to start off the New Year with a hearty thank you to all of my Readers and a take a brief look back at 2023.

CFSN Detailed Analysis

I started this newsletter in May of 2021 as a means to monetize my continued efforts at Chemical Facility Security News (the CFSN of this title). I had been writing that blog for 14 years and had only received a few hundred dollars for those efforts over the years, mostly through payments for Google ads with some intermittent support through donations. Keeping that blog up requires a great deal of time and I have recently been supporting myself with Social Security and a part-time job. I had been hoping to reduce the time as a part-timer, but that has not yet been possible.

I have always known that the blog has served a relatively small audience, so I am not surprised at the small number of paid subscribers that this newsletter has drawn. I am heartened by the number of free subscribers and hope that Substack has been able to help me expand my reader base. Obviously, I have not been in the blogging business for the money, so readers can be assured that I will continue bloviating about chemical security and safety as well as control system cybersecurity for the foreseeable future. If you can see your way to financially supporting that effort through a paid subscription to this newsletter, please do. If not, at least spread the word about these publications.

2023 was a good year for the newsletter. I had a total of 664 posts, or about 1.8 post per day. I have continued to produce more paid posts (72 more in 2023 vs 18 more in 2022) than free, so paid subscribers are getting their money’s worth in that way, at least. The free posts have been entirely ‘Substack Daily Updates’ this year; they provide a listing of daily posts on Chemical Facility Security News, and other writing venues as they occur. While this may seem odd, it really does provide links to (mostly) free content that one would expect to receive in other newsletters.

Chemical Facility Security News

This blog continues to be an important part of my life. I had a record number of posts (1131 vs 846 in 2022) last year, or an average of just over three per day. A large part of that increase is due to the new ‘Short Takes’ posts that I started in the fall of 2022. These are listings of articles that I have read that day that I think are worth sharing with my readers. I include a pull quote of what I think is an important part of the author’s point of view for those that do not have time to read the article. I had been doing something similar on TWITTER.com for years for individual articles, I just formalized it here in digest form. It has been very popular. Generally, the “Short Takes” posts are the last post of the day. Frequently, a number of articles on a single topic (or class of topics) will present themselves earlier in the day. I will combine them into a ‘special’ edition, most frequently a ‘Geek Edition’ for posts on scientific topics.

The ”Review - ” articles are short versions of the paid articles over on CFSN Detailed Analysis. These article topics have always formed the core of this blog and I did not want to discontinue them here to enable the paid newsletter. The shortened versions are similar to what you would see on many of the newsletters on Substack for unpaid subscribers.

Readers of the blog are seeing more use of the parenthetical phrase (removed from paywall) for some of the background links in posts. This is where I have changed the access for detailed articles in the newsletter, so that readers can better understand what is going on with the topic. Paid readers of the newsletter are still getting the information they are paying for well before the general public. I continue to think that this makes the newsletter subscriptions worth their cost.

I continue to ask for (and accept) reader input on topics for consideration in the blog. I will continue to highlight those articles as “Reader Comment - ” articles. The reader input can come from comments on any of my three publications, from emails (pjcoyle@aol.com), or DMs through my feeds on TWITTER.com, Mastodon, and LinkedIn. Be warned, however, what I write on a topic are my views, not the reader’s. I will treat a reader’s comments faithfully, but my opinions will generally be more completely expressed.

I continue to moderate comments on this blog. I will not publish comments that have the sole purpose of advertising a product or site and I reserve the right to judge whether a comment has “the sole purpose of advertising”. A comment will typically slip through if a link to a product or service is included in an actual discussion of a blog topic that I have covered. If you want me to talk about a product or service on my blog, contact me directly. I do not generally do product reviews unless I have some sort of expertise that allows me to personally comment on that product or service. As with most general rules, exceptions have been made when something catches my fancy, so contact me.

Future ICS Security News

This fictional blog has not been very active this year. The time that I have been putting into the other two publications has come mainly from the effort that would have gone into these posts. While these stories are fictional, they do have some inspirational basis in fact. This makes it more difficult, and time consuming to write. I want to continue these posts with some level of predictability (hard to drive readers to the site without that predictability), but I am still working out the logistics of keeping all three publications going.

There were only six stories published last year. One of those took a little different tact; “Liability for Known Vulnerabilities Bill Introduced”. It looked more at a fictional piece of legislation rather than a fictious incident. This may be an expansion of the storylines seen here. It remains to be seen. I may also look at including stories about chemical incidents that are not strictly ICS related.

Other Publications

From time to time, I am asked to contribute an article to other publications. I do list myself as a ‘freelance writer’ on LinkedIn, so I almost always respond favorably to such requests. I prefer to get paid for such articles, but I have been known to do such article pro bono when the topic or the publication is of particular interest. I typically report these articles in the appropriate ‘Substack Daily Update’ post.

I have also ghost-written content articles for a variety of websites over the years. Again, this is part of the job of ‘freelance writer’ but, since I cannot provide links to these pieces for obvious reasons, I certainly expect to be paid for the work. Frequently, these pieces are re-writes of posts or articles I have done elsewhere, so the prices are less than if written from scratch. Feel free to contact me for details.

Personal

I turned 70 last year, finally reaching middle age. I am happy to report that I am hale and healthy. To paraphrase the song I may not be as good as I once was, but I am good once as I ever was. My wife and I have slowed down from our early days, but we both continue to do most of what matters to us most. You cannot ask for much more from life. Please take a look at the Wife’s jewelry site on Etsy, Bama Beader.