Bella is Growing, but needs your Support

We’re stoked to be listed as the top blog in Scotland (just ahead of Celtic Quick News) – and in the Top 50 in the UK. Earlier in the year we got listed as one of the Top Ten Political Blogs in the UK.

Thanks to all our new readers.

Vuelio tells us that they figure this out by a methodology that “takes into consideration a number of factors including social sharing, topic-related content, post frequency, social media influence, traffic, design and interactivity.”

Bella is booming with our Facebook group in the last month having 137.9k posts, comments and reactions – 2,280 of which were posts and with 13,023 active members. Our Facebook page reached 128, 614 people in one month, our Twitter account has over 50,000 followers now and our readership for the website for the month of June 2017 was over 363,000 – our largest for several years.

We say all this not to show off (well okay a bit!) – but to respond to people who say that new media doesn’t have traction, doesn’t reach new audiences or is on the wane. None of this is true. This shows that on a tiny [tiny] budget we have impact and, crucially, we have a growing readership. Reaching new audiences and engaging with a wider political group is essential.

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We really need your support to develop though and we’d like to ask you to support us by donating to us here.

We’ve got big plans to launch our new site (just saw the wireframe), to launch new publishing and events projects, and to extend our platform of writers – but all of this needs your support.

Bella Caledonia
 remains free (and ad-free) and takes me hundreds of hours a month to research, write, commission and edit. If you value what I do, please consider supporting with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing. GoCardless to set up a small monthly donation to support independent journalism in Scotland.

Thanks!

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Comments (6)

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  1. Andy Gray says:

    Mike, this is all great to hear. The success of ‘Bella’ is, to say the least, superb. Congratulations!

    Let me be clear, I am a complete fan.

    The last time I left a comment here was many months ago. At that time, subsequent to another appeal for funds, I commented that I had in the past made very modest financial donations to ‘Bella’ although I would be more than prepared to consider making additional donations in the future. I did however state that this would be subsequent to greater clarity on the corporate or charitable foundation on which ‘Bella’ was to develop.

    You replied at that time, according to my understanding, that you recognised the need for clarity, that discussions were under way and that announcements would be forthcoming soon. You stated, as I understood it, that options included, among others, charitable status for ‘Bella’.

    I remember suggesting that ‘advisory’ was not the same as ‘statutory’ and that there was a question of where responsibility for ‘Bella’ finally lay. Legally. Try and ‘Google’ where final ownership of ‘The National’ lies. It’s an interesting exercise.

    Anyway, we, or rather I, have heard nothing from you since on final responsibility or ‘ownership’ of ‘Bella”. So if I make a donation, which I would like to do, where does final supervision of those funds lie?

    Have I missed something?

    When you say . . . “We don’t say this to show off (well okay a bit!)” I want some reassurance.

    Let me be clear, I WANT TO SUPPORT BELLA.

    If somewhere along the line I missed something, I tender my abject apologies and ask for your indulgence with regard to my lack of attention or my ignorance.

    Who am I supporting though? Some clarity please. Help us (me) to help you.

    Again, very best wishes and congratulations with progress and achievements to date.

    1. Hi Andy, thanks for this and for positive comments. We have held off making an appeal for some time now. The last one was last summer 2016.

      We were aware of asking supporters too many times and ‘donor fatigue’ but also tried to steer clear of other groups who were trying to raise funds.

      I had considered seeking charitable status but rejected it as too complex with few benefits (its difficult to be political and charitable).

      I had also considered forming a co-op but I am wary of the admin burden of a membership organisation.

      So Bella is a Ltd Company. So final supervision of the funds lies with me.

      All of our plans will be laid out and what funds will be allocated to and I’m more than happy to share details of what we’ve spent money on in the last few years.

      I hope that helps and feel free to email me with any questions or further details.

      Thanks again.

  2. Independence Live says:

    Brilliant Mike and well deserved 🙂

  3. James says:

    I’m a bit worried that in the absence of the prospect of an independence referendum anytime soon, these blogs are just turning into a nice little earner so Stuart Campbell et al don’t have to go back to the real world and get jobs.

    1. James – “these blogs” – are quite different – and believe me as someone hovering on a low income and who has not run a crowdfund for a year and more there is no ‘nice little earner’ here. For eight out of ten years Bella has been run entirely voluntarily.

  4. Kenny Smith says:

    Finally able to make a small contribution. I hope you get your target. We need you guys more than ever. Keep on keeping on!

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