Poliblog Perspective

Political Betting is the UK Political website which gets perhaps the greatest number of “Page Impressions” - back in October last year there were 85,520 in one day .

In organisation, Political Betting is as much a forum as it is a blog; it is like a forum site which, rather than having conversations organised around “topics”, posts a single thread each day as decided by Mike Smithson the site owner, and occasionally one or two others.

Each thread attracts hundreds of comments (the constant reloads increase have the effect of increasing the page impressions figures, as mentioned above).

However, changes are afoot.

Developments at Political Betting

A post by Peter the Punter “More than just a website” reports that “Mike and a small group of us PB camp followers met in a café near Leicester Square” to discuss “possible developments”. A few quotes:

• “Social Events: PB Parties have proved very popular and been well supported. Naturally we are not limited to one a year and we propose another in early summer, probably at the National Liberal Club again, especially if we can book the terrace overlooking the Embankment.”
• “We would like to organise some smaller get-togethers: perhaps a dinner, or simply drinks.”
• “We also thought there might be a demand for some small seminars and talks.”
• “We have been kicking around an idea to promote PB in the wider media.”

This move to broaden the appeal of the site is worth tracking because Mike is one the UKs first full-time independent political bloggers (as far as I am aware, THE first). Back in November he wrote about giving up the day job (quoted in full):

I am leaving my post at the Open University at Christmas so I can focus much more on Politicalbetting.

This is a big change for me but it has become inevitable because trying to do both has become almost impossible. This has been accentuated by the intensity of the Brown-Cameron battle, the Lib Dem leadership changes, all the facets of the 2008 White House race as well as Boris Johnson’s bid to oust Ken Livingston in London.

There’s a lot of work on the site that I need to be doing and things like the “recorded wagers” pages need regular updating.

I am also having to pass up many opportunities to promote PBC in the media because I don’t have the time.

Although the site is now covering its costs there’s a lot more that needs to be done to boost the revenue to make it more sustainable in the long term. This is going to be necessary because the step I am taking involves, alas, giving up my salary.

The rest of us can learn from how Mike gets on.

Wrapping-Up

My estimate is that to provide a modest income for one person/household, a blogger needs to be turning over something near the current VAT Limit, which is £64,000.

The VAT threshold hovers around the approximate minimum turnover figure needed to fund the legendary “Man with a Van” - so providing a point below which simplified administration is possible for a just-about sustainable one person business.

Can politicalbetting.com (or any other UK Political Blog) generate just over £5,000 per month from direct (on page) and indirect (e.g., consultancy, media appearances) income streams?

That is the £64,000 question.

Tags: politicalbetting, 64000 dollar question, mike smithson[tags]politicalbetting, 64000 dollar question, mike smithson[/tags]

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