Daily Sceptic’s Best Month Ever!
I’m happy to report that September was the Daily Sceptic’s best month ever.
We had a total of 2,210,060 page views in September, higher than we’ve ever had before. Our next best month was in January of this year when we had 2,076,570. Last month we hit 1,907,318. I feared that interest in the site might begin to fall off after the Covid restrictions were lifted, given that it started life as Lockdown Sceptics. But broadening the subject matter and changing the name to the Daily Sceptic doesn’t appear to have hurt the site at all. On the contrary, it’s more popular than ever. Since the site was launched in April 2020, we’ve clocked up a total of 41,309,171 page views.
The pay-to-comment policy we introduced earlier this year also appears to have been a success. I’ve been touched by how many people have been willing to bung us a few quid a month. PayPal’s decision to shut down our account with no notice on September 15th was a bit of a blow, but we wrote to all our recurring donors who were using PayPal and a majority had switched by the time the company decided to reactivate our account last Tuesday. We’re now in the process of phasing out PayPal, but for the time being those who haven’t switched will still have their payments processed, which is a relief. For the time being at least, the Daily Sceptic is washing its own face.
The one part of our business strategy that isn’t working is we’re not bringing in much advertising revenue. The reason for that, in part, is because a lot of advertisers rely on a company called Newsguard to tell them how respectable your website is and, needless to say, it hasn’t ranked us very highly because ‘fact-checking’ sites keep saying we’re publishing false or misleading information, particularly about the ‘climate emergency’. We dispute that, obviously, but it’s a difficult battle to win. It’s yet another way in which news publishing sites that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy of the global elite are demonetised.
Which makes donations all the more important, so can I take this opportunity on behalf of all our contributors – and particularly our editor Will Jones and staff writers Noah Carl and Chris Morrison, as well as our podcast host Nick Dixon and podcast producer Jason Clift, and those folks who help us out from time to time, like Jonathan Barr and Michael Curzon – to thank all those people who are generous enough to give us a few bob? I’m particularly grateful to those who attach a little message to their donations, urging us to carry on and not be put off by things like PayPal deplatforming us. Messages like the following are what keep us going:
I’m a 74 year old pensioner with limited resources. I really appreciate the job you’re doing – you provide an antidote to all the current insanity – A heartfelt thanks to you. – Brian
To all who work at the Daily Sceptic to bring us uncensored news. I rarely donate as I earn very little, but in the light of PayPal’s recent actions, I have decided that this small but symbolic payment is essential to show that people like myself support those who have the courage to tell the truth in these times of lies and coverups. Thank you. – Rebecca
I found you somehow early in the Pandemic (when I didn’t know if I had gone crazy or if the world had) and have been a regular reader all along. You were a sanity-saver two years ago, and I’ve appreciated your coverage of all the events since then. Your post about PayPal prompted me to close my account with them (which I’ve been meaning to for a while, but that was the last straw). And I just donated $300 for the 30 months of this ongoing upheaval to say thanks for helping my mental health, and being a reasonable voice for many. Freedom! – John
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Hear hear! I can identify with those three messengers.
Glad to hear it. You’ve done a great job keeping us sane. Long may this site continue.
Hear, hear.
I am one over the eight so I will refrain from a responsible reply but I will say:
Congratulations.
Bloody well deserved.
late night gin posting, 🍷👍 for your self control
Hats off chaps. These sentiments echo my own with decibels. More power to you and the team, Toby.
I’m another daily visitor since the very start of Lockdown Sceptics. For too long I mulled donating without taking the plunge, rationalising that I had very occasionally contributed articles instead. At the same time, I never got round to giving money to the Free Speech Union, as I don’t live in Britain and couldn’t benefit personally.
The PayPal debacle has put an end to my vacillation, and I’ve started small monthly donations to both. Thank you Toby and the DS and FSU teams for standing up for common sense in a quite bizarre moment in history.
Brilliant.
I would suggest, to Toby, and to GB news, and talk radio news which seems to share its non-adverts for Welsh caravan sites and suicide watch charities, that you need to create a range of fake adverts for things like private jets, supercars, wealth management services. I think this would not just troll (short o) the boycott , but generate the alternative reality into which real advertisers will flow.
I paid £7.21 to write this.
Brilliant.
Presumably, companies that advertise their products go to advertising agencies. Are the major advertising agencies like the MSM in the pocket of the state regulators, billionaires and investment companies who in turn can influence the advertising agencies choice of media outlet through which an advert is broadcast/printed?
This is of course Corporatism, it is everywhere and it is destroying free speech and democracy.
In the long run, if there is a long run, you’re better off being otherized by the likes of Paypal, ‘factcheckers’ and all the other little fascists. Contrast, say, The Spectator and the Telegraph, which take money from Gates and God knows who else, but whose brand is terribly tarnished thereby.
If you can stay subscriber funded, DS can be a trusted hub for inconvenient truths and authentic debate on a global scale. It wouldn’t hurt to add some grit to the oyster. Dixon and Jones and the crew do fantastic work, but you’re all very ‘nice’. Some Delingpolian dissent in the mix might add to the entertainment.
So true! The Speccie, once a reasoned, insightful source of news has become nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Regime & is currently promoting Smarmer & WWIII.
But isn’t Toby Young the ‘Associate Editor’ of three Spectator!
‘the’ Spectator
It’s very important to support Sceptics and Conservative Woman
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/
If you are in a really good mood you should support James Delingpole as well.
Thank you to Toby, Kathy, Laura and James.
£5 minimum a month is a small price to pay for freedom.
We have made many friends promoting Stand in the Park through their platforms. Many of these people thought they were alone.
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Agreed. I also make a small monthly donation to The Conservative Woman. Apart from the actual money, it’s important that people signal their support by stumping up a few quid each month to keep them going.
Agreed, excellent news that an alternative voice is being heard.
Promote this site when you can, I do. Illuminating times – been a cynic since I can remember. Seem genetically presupposed to scepticism. Deep respect to Toby, Will, and Matt etc. Becoming increasingly clear what a morally bankrupt and venal world we live in and this site is one of the few shining a light on this.
Congrats on getting this far, and facing down PP.
One suggestion for an improvement: bring back swedenborg!
Bringing together news and opinion from multiple sources, from smaller blogs to the big media players from all over the world, really represents the true ethos of the world wide web as humanity’s greatest achievement.
No wonder those with things to hide want to restrict it.
Well done DS team for consistently shining a light unto dark places and asking questions that the MSM will not.
I discovered DS when searching for any site that delivered currents affairs without the MSM, filter, having weaned off all MSM during the “pandemic”.
Although I’m in Australia, I gladly pay a little each month to support Toby and co’s excellent work.
In Australia, Jo Nova and Quadrant magazine do similar work, though with slightly different emphases, and I happily patronize both.
It looks like Poopal may have done you a favour in the long run. I am sure that will really annoy them that they may have been instrumental in promoting your position (and the FSU).
It’s crucial to remember the importance of sites like DS, that broadcast a counter narrative, and the people that support them. We are the only thing stopping the elites from enjoying complete and uncontested control; the only thing in their way. We are the line and we must never yield.
I was one of those who thought interest in the site might decline as the Covid hysteria subsided. I’ve certainly seen that happening at my local SitP where numbers attending are about half last year’s.
But I’ve found the diversification of content really interesting and I expect that applies to many other people, so well done Toby and Team for not only keeping The Sceptic going but improving and growing it.
I’m in the category of “small income = small donation” but I consider it very good value and am only too happy to pay up each month if it means all the right people are getting (a) challenged and (b) annoyed.
My PayPal account is closed and I won’t be opening a new one.
Ditto.
Heartiest congrats!
I’ve been a reader since the early days of Lockdown Sceptics and it has helped a natural cynic see things for what they are and keep me sane.
As ever, thanks for all the hard work of the team.
Interesting ‘sceptical’ (i.e. against mainstream) article on the economy over on Conservative Woman: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/understanding-this-economic-crisis/ Monetary and fiscal policy in the UK, and western societies in general, have gone very, very wrong, in particular over the last dozen years, and probably back a quarter of a century now. We are now about to pay the horrible price. In retrospect, it is clear to me that the Establishment consensus on western financial policies has massive echoes of the appalling covid response. My bet is that it will prove to cause far more harm than the covid response. Despite having no financial background, it’s been clear to me since the early/mid 2000s that the ultra-low interest rates and QE were a recipe for disaster. Likewise my feelings on the covid response – despite having no medical background, it was clear to me (and many other people on here) that it was a disaster, Perhaps the DS could publish a few more financial articles, exploring what has gone wrong, and maybe looking at the parallels with the covid response? Our society is in deep shit. We really do need to understand what has gone wrong (and I don’t believe we do yet) so that… Read more »
Hear hear! Great comments, great sentiment.
Needless to say I shut down my paypal account and rushed to contribute to DS.
Folks it’s time to realise that there’s no such thing as ‘free news’. ‘Free’ means that we jeopardise our sovereignty and expose ourselves to malign conditioning.
Let’s all, within our means, chip in and support Toby and the team for their courageous work.
‘The one part of our business strategy that isn’t working is we’re not bringing in much advertising revenue. ‘
That may be a blessing, as the modus operandi of the Cohort of Evil and is to bombard advertisers with threats of boycotts and shaming, and since we live in the age of lily livered cowards in corporations (and Govt), they will threaten to or pull their advertising unless you SHUT UP!
GB News has been through this; FoxNews in the US too.
You might consider hiring a staff ad salesperson who solicits “contrarian” businesses for advertising. I’ve long observed that the “truth-seeking” sites are boycotted by the woke companies. Just look at the commercials you see on Tucker Carlson’s Fox news show in America. It’s been the No. 1-rated primetime talk/news show for years … and almost no “mainstream” companies run commercials there. The “My Pillow” man is an example of an “outside the box” business that does advertise there.
Zero Hedge has among the top Traffic Numbers in the world. You’ll see no corporate banner ads there either.
My take-away is that the corporations enthusiastically blackball sites that don’t support “the narrative.” That is, they are really saying they do not support free speech or any kind of search for the truth. This is quite a sad “tell” about our New Normal world.
Keep up the fight. My faith in such phrases as “the truth will out” has been sorely tested of late, but hope is all we have. And, let’s face it, Fragile Liberty is always on the brink. We keep her sheltered.
Naturally, congratulations. As regards ads, I think you may find the sort of person who reads the DS does so from behind VPNs and various anti tracking and anti ad software, so we are not a group that can be monetised as click bait. Stick with a subscription model and work on that.