I hope you’ve been enjoying Dense Discovery. Thanks for being a subscriber! This is my once-a-year email in which I ask for a favour.

The start of February marks the beginning of my yearly ‘New Friends in February’ drive. The goal is this:


What is a Friend of DD you ask?

As you may know, DD makes money through advertising. So far, selling ads has worked well, but ultimately I’d like to reduce my reliance on advertisers. That’s why I launched the Friends of DD model.

Dense Discovery will not become a paid-only newsletter. Quite the opposite: I’d like to keep the newsletter free for everyone, but offer paying members a range of ‘premium’ features that don’t take away from the experience for non-paying readers. So far, these features include:

1/ The handy DD Index: a simple search engine for Dense Discovery. Ever needed to find an app or book featured in a past issue? The DD Index makes finding items fast and easy. (Here’s a little preview.) Friends find a link to the Index in every issue of DD.

2/ Regular discounts: I regularly include ‘hidden’ discount codes to some of the products featured in DD. Those are visible to Friends of DD only. The cost of becoming a Friend of DD essentially pays for itself if you make use of a few discount offers every year.

3/ Guest engagement: Friends of DD see a ‘respond now’ button below guest contributions in every issue. This allows them to engage with guest contributors in a couple of clicks.

4/ Publisher updates: a few times a year I send personal updates to Friends of DD with some insights into the running of Dense Discovery. It’s a more ‘intimate’ exchange with a small sub-group of DD readers that I enjoy a lot.

Becoming a Friend of DD is one of the best ways to support my work. At just $1.80/month (or $22/year), this membership model enables me to spend more time curating DD and, over time, add new Friends-only features, while keeping the newsletter free for everyone else.

I’m sending this email with a fair amount of hesitation – who likes asking for money?! Rest assured that I won’t bother you again for at least another year. Whether you decide to become a Friend or not, thank you for reading DD and supporting my work! See you next Tuesday. – Kai

Become a Friend of DD now →