Dear Kathy;

Your blog was one of only two or three that I really, really looked forward to reading. Without fail your writing enriched me. It challenged me to look at my customers in new ways and continuously forced me reexamine what we do in our business. You made me think. Thank you.

Shuttering CPU entirely will leave the business world a poorer place. I sincerely hope that you find your way to help us in a way that makes you feel comfortable. What has been said, what is being thought and most everything that has happened to you in the past few weeks is inexcusable. No one can expect you to pick up where you've left off and pretend that nothing has happened. It just wouldn't be right, and I can't imagine that you would ever feel as carefree and open as you did prior to this happening.

The value that you help us create is almost completely self-apparent. This means that people like me should feel pretty comfortable paying you to continue to do what you do. I pay for a lot of things that have demonstrable value to me, your words should be no different. It would be excellent if you turned CPU into a subscription service. I think it would be extremely reasonable for you to charge up to $250 per year, or $25 per month for what you do. You have a marvelous track record that should be enough incentive for anyone to pony up the dollars for a full subscription.

This would have a few benefits - by charging us and putting your content behind closed doors (and therefore restricting comments to just your subscribers), you can better screen out the lunatics, and we can also be certain that you'll be able to keep doing what you do best because it won't only be a labor of love for you. The quality that you've shown us so far almost certainly guarantee's that you'll end up with hundreds, if not a few thousand, subscribers in very short order. Certainly, you back catalog of existing posts will certainly serve to act as a great marketing tool to generate new subscribers and you could always add new posts to your archives as a way of recruiting new subscribers - so long as you keep comments and trackbacks turned off for anything you add.

Don't be afraid to charge for your stuff. You aren't just writing a blog. You are consistently helping people create value - this is a rare commodity.

Regardless of what you do, I sincerely wish you the best of luck. You will do well.

Thanks for everything so far. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.