Scot Goes Pop: The Final Fundraiser (plus an update about the video blogging experiment)

Click here to go straight to the fundraiser page.

Scot Goes Pop's annual fundraiser for 2025 ended up getting much, much closer to its target figure than I ever thought was possible, so a million thanks to everyone who contributed over the course of the year.  It really has made all the difference in allowing me to continue with the blog during what has been a financially very difficult year for me (it's been one of those years in which just about everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong).

I'm not planning to launch a full-scale fundraiser for 2026, because as you know, back in the summer I made the decision that I couldn't keep lurching from mini-crisis to mini-crisis forever, and that I was going to have to find a more sustainable funding model - either that or get out of the political blogging game completely.  Apart from anything else, I am heartily sick of the accusations of "grifting" and I am determined to bring the days of embarrassing year-round crowdfunding to an end (since 2021 it's become like the proverbial task of painting the Forth Bridge).  The grifting allegations are completely bogus, let me stress - nobody would be able to devote the sheer amount of time I have to writing about politics unless they either a) have private means, or b) can bring in funding from somewhere.  I do not have private means, but if my detractors do, then they have my congratulations.  And I've certainly never written anything I don't believe in the hope of attracting funding, which as I understand it is the essence of what grifting means.  A certain fake curate in Somerset used his Facebook page a few weeks ago to accuse me of doing exactly that, which frankly I regard as an absolutely despicable thing to say. Apparently to qualify as honest in what you write, you have to agree with all of his own political views. What should really terrify him is that I actually do believe every single word I write.

But I'm only human and being constantly told I'm a grifter takes its toll.  I want that to stop, which is why the YouTube monetisation model has so much appeal - it doesn't rely on reader/viewer contributions at all.  I'd be able to stop crowdfunding, keep all of the content completely free, and embed all of the videos on this blog.  But as always in life, there's a snag.  In order to even *apply* for monetisation, I have to reach two very challenging thresholds - I need at least 1000 YouTube subscribers and 4000 watch-hours over the last year.  It's taken me five long months of making regular videos to reach the second threshold, and I still haven't reached the first one - as I write this I have only 911 subscribers.  That may not sound like much of a shortfall, but based on the current rate of progress I probably won't get there until around Christmas Day, give or take a few days.  The application process will then apparently take around 30 more days, with no guarantee I'll be successful.  Even if I'm approved, it will then take yet another month or two to find out whether enough funds are coming through to make the idea work.  Based on what I've read about average earnings on YouTube, it should just about be feasible as long as I'm making videos extremely frequently, but the problem is that there's a huge amount of variation on either side of the average, and if I find myself on the wrong side of that equation, I'll be right back to square one.

If YouTube doesn't work out, Plan B will be to move over to Substack or something similar.  That's very much the second-best option, though, because it would mean leaving this site behind and putting at least some content behind a paywall.  But I will give that a try if all else fails.  And if neither YouTube or Substack work out, I will reluctantly call it a day at that point.

So as you can see, I'm basically in total limbo until I can get through the YouTube application process.  The paradox is, then, that to get to the point where I can stop crowdfunding, I'm going to have to crowdfund one last time.  I've done some sums to work out a realistic figure for what I'll need to raise to get me through this long transitional period, and I reckon £1500 will just about do the trick.  To give myself a bit of leeway and to take account of GoFundMe fees, I've set the target for the final fundraiser at £1700.

Incidentally, some of the "Kelly is a grifter" mob have specifically made an issue of the fact that I went on a short holiday in late August and made a couple of videos for the YouTube channel while I was away (one in Sark and one in Saint Malo).  It's probably true that if I hadn't made that trip, I'd be a few hundred pounds closer to safety now, but what can I say?  I unexpectedly found a bargain-basement deal for five nights in Jersey, the weather was fantastic, and I came back feeling refreshed and like I'd actually had a proper summer.  So from a personal point of view it still feels like the right decision, but there are so many little decisions in life that are effectively trade-offs, and there are no right or wrong answers.  For the most part I do live frugally.  I did go and see a special showing of Metropolis in Edinburgh on Thursday night (which was fascinating - as far as I can remember it's the first full-length silent film I've ever seen), but that was my first proper night out in weeks.

I also realise I'm tempting fate by calling this the "final" fundraiser so definitively, but put it this way - in any foreseeable circumstances it'll be the last one.

If you'd like to donate, please click here to go to the fundraising page.

Just a word about GoFundMe's fees: technically they eliminated their fees a few years ago, but they do still push you extremely hard to leave them a sizeable tip, and I think you have to manually adjust the suggested tip down to zero if you don't want to pay them anything.  Additionally they use an external payment processor, which does still charge a small fee.  There is, however, a way of cutting out the middle-man and paying no fees at all, and that's to make a direct donation via PayPal.  My PayPal email address is:  jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk

Or of course there's also the option of direct bank transfer.  If you'd like to do that, please drop me a line and I'll send you the necessary details.  My contact email address is different from my Paypal address, and can be found in the mini-bio on my Twitter profile or on my BlueSky profile.

I'm very much aware that Christmas is around the corner, so please only donate if you can afford to.  Remember also that small donations are just as valuable as large ones - if even a modest percentage of the people who read this blog on an average day were to donate just £10 each, the target would be reached instantly.

And if you have a Google account, there's also a way of helping without paying a penny - and that's by subscribing to my channel on YouTube.  If I could somehow speed up the process of getting to 1000 subscribers, that could potentially make a big difference.