A review of the first three weeks of Scot Goes Pop as a video blog: how is it panning out so far?

As it looks like there aren't going to be any polls this weekend (meaning there have been no full-scale Scottish polls for two whole months - we're really not being well-served), I thought this might be a good moment to draw breath and look back at how the experiment of turning Scot Goes Pop into a video blog has gone over its first three weeks.  To recap briefly on why I've chosen to go down this road, I finally accepted a few weeks ago what in truth has been staring me in the face since 2021 - that traditional blogging just isn't sustainable anymore because the annual fundraisers have been consistently falling short of their target figures.  It's true that I've just about managed to stay afloat over the last four years, but I've been constantly lurching from mini-crisis to mini-crisis, and as a result I've had to post literally dozens of reminders about the fundraisers every year, which a) can't be expected to save the day indefinitely, and b) just becomes embarrassingly repetitive.  (And I'm afraid that the embarrassment will have to continue for a little while yet - because even in the best-case scenario it'll take several months for any alternative funding model to start bearing fruit, and to keep the show on the road during that transitional period I'll need to get the current fundraiser as close as possible to its target figure.  It's currently 68% funded, and I'm extremely grateful to everyone who has chipped in over the last few weeks.  But the grind goes on until and unless we get to 100%!)

People have been telling me for years that conventional blogging is yesterday's medium and that the action has moved elsewhere, so it seems to me there are two potential alternative funding models that are worth giving a serious try before giving up the ghost completely - 

1) A switch to video blogging.

or

2) A switch to Substack or something similar, ie. in which at least some content is put behind a paywall.

I much prefer the first option, because the videos can be very easily embedded on the blog and everything remains freely available.  So I'm going all in for video blogging for the time being - but to even get to the point of finding out whether it's viable as an alternative funding model, I'll have to hit the minimum threshold of 1000 subscribers on YouTube.

So how is it going so far?  I've posted 21 videos over the last three weeks, and if nothing else the viewing numbers have proved that there is still a substantial appetite out there for information about opinion polls from a pro-independence perspective.  All of the most popular videos have been about polls, with the most popular one of all being 'Triumphant SNP romp to 24-point lead over Labour in epic YouGov crossbreak', which has 2252 views so far - only around 500 short of my most-watched video from the past, which was my 2021 interview of Alex Salmond.  It's also significantly higher than the number of views for recent episodes of Slanszh Media's riveting weekly YouTube show Tas Is Still Talking, even though I'll obviously never be able to match the production values of the Great Zulfikar Sheikh.

I started out audio-only while I tried to work out the best approach to video content, because investing in a proper camera a few years ago had backfired horrendously - the lighting and the focus often seemed to be all wrong, but I'd always be oblivious to that until I'd finished the recording.  I've realised that simply using a webcam is the obvious solution, because you can see how the video looks as you're actually recording.  So far, though, I've just been using our normal webcam that we use for family Zoom calls, and the picture quality is therefore adequate at best.  If anyone can recommend a reasonably affordable webcam with genuinely crisper picture quality, please let me know.

My number of YouTube subscribers has roughly doubled since three weeks ago, from around 220 to 440.  I think that's pretty solid progress, but at that pace it'll be roughly November before I reach 1000 and can even begin to find out whether video blogging is viable as a funding model.  If you'd like to help speed things up, and if you have a Google account (even if you don't use it for YouTube very often), all you'd have to do is sign in, go to my channel and hit the 'subscribe' button. I think maybe the word 'subscribe' puts off people who don't use YouTube much because it sounds like subscribing to a pay TV channel, but it's nothing like that at all - it doesn't cost a penny.  Subscribing is basically just the equivalent of following someone on social media.

On the whole, then, I'm reasonably encouraged and I think it's possible that over time I might be able to build up a YouTube channel with a decent following.  But the jury is still very much out, and until I reach 1000 subscribers I remain in limbo and will need to keep pushing the fundraiser to keep the show on the road during this prolonged transitional period.  So if anyone who hasn't donated yet has £5 or £10 burning a hole in their pocket, it would be very gratefully received.  Card donations can be made HERE, or if you prefer, direct donations by PayPal are also an option.  My PayPal email address is:   jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk 

I know a small number of people prefer direct bank transfers, so if you'd like to do that, just drop me a line at my contact email address and I'll send you the necessary details.  My contact address is different from my PayPal address and can be found on my Twitter or BlueSky profiles.