Do or do not, there is no try, right? It’s been three years and seven months since frockwriter first saw the light of day. You never know when you start these things just where you will wind up. But here we are with 65,000 unique visitors and 100,000+ page views this month. Links to our stories on a plethora of blogs and mainstream news sites. And notably, beyond the growing number of visitors – many of whom are first-timers who arrive via much bigger sites – a dedicated core of readers who keep coming back to the blog time and time and time again. Some visit, incredulously, over 200 times a month. Traffic, links and consumer engagement are wonderful validation for any blogger. But you can’t pay your rent with them. Eighteen months ago, I introduced advertising. This has helped, but it's a Catch 22 situation: I can’t devote more time to the blog without compromising my ability to earn a living. And unless I spend more time blogging, traffic will never reach a sufficiently critical mass whereby advertising fully supports the blog. So I am trying something new: I am introducing a subscription service in the hope that those who do really value frockwriter’s content and are disappointed that there’s not more of it will be interested in supporting it. I’m calling it frockwriter+. I appreciate this a controversial move. In terms of the fashion blogosphere, as far as I am aware, it’s a fairly radical concept. Before you strike frockwriter off your favourites list in disgust, I’d just like to provide a little background.
