Content survey
While I still manage to author five or so posts a day on Kiwiblog, relatively few of them are the longer analytical posts I used to do more frequently.
Part of the reason for this is simply competing demands on my time – a six month old, a three year old and also my polling company.
I’d like to be able to do more of the longer posts I used to, but the opportunity cost of taking the time to write them is a factor.
The current gross income from advertising for Kiwiblog is around $16,000 a year which is around $12,000 net income. I currently spend around three hours a day managing Kiwiblog and writing posts.
If this was an hourly rate I’d be earning $11 an hour which is almost half the minimum wage. So obviously I am not in this for the money – I enjoy writing and the feedback from readers. In 17 years of operating Kiwiblog I’ve never sought donations or money from readers.
What I am interested in exploring is if there is a market for additional content, which would not be free. If I have paid subscribers for something, then I’ll make sure I have the time to produce it.
Now I’m not at all sure if I want to do this, and if I do it will not impact current content on Kiwiblog being free. It is about additional content, that might not even be on Kiwiblog.
The potential content ideas include:
- Weekly article on the political week, assessing each party’s performance and scoring them out of 10
- Exclusive polling results on topical issues
- Analysis of upcoming bills
- A regular summary of interesting polls in NZ and abroad
- Regular data posts examining how well NZ is doing compared to other countries
- Interviews with MPs and other people in politics
Potential ways I could seek revenue are:
- Have additional content on a subscription site such as Patreon with a low monthly sub
- Have the content on Kiwiblog behind a paywall
- Have a micropayments system on Kiwiblog where people could opt to pay say 1c/post they read
- Just have a donate facility with no actual paywall or subscriptions
Anyway I have a survey on this which I’d like readers to take 30 seconds to complete. Even if your feedback is you have no interest at all in paying for content, that is very useful to know.
I’ll share the results of the survey and any further thoughts going forward.
Create your own user feedback survey