November Admin Update: Fifty Months and 900 Posts

Five Months I give a brief update on life, writing, illness, hope, gratitude and the incredible growth of this community.

On the 17th of June this year, I took quite a big step with Bearly Politics - I decided to fully professionalise it.

I had been moving more and more of my writing off Twitter at that point, largely because I didn’t want to give Elon Musk any more traffic than was absolutely necessary, and I made the decision to introduce a paid option (with a soft paywall that only kicks in after seven days¹).

It was a frightening decision at the time, because the last thing I wanted was to become yet another guy on the internet rattling a tip jar and pretending he’s a lifestyle brand - I just wanted a space that felt honest, manageable, and mine.

In the five months since then, this little project of mine has managed to become somewhat more of that, and last week, I accidentally found myself referring to all of you, my readers, as “stakeholders.” After I stopped cringing and laughing a bit at myself though, I realised that I actually meant it - in the most positive way possible.

Because, in a very real way, every person who reads, shares, subscribes (paid or free), emails me their thoughts, shares their ideas in the comments or generally just sticks around has become a stakeholder in Bearly Politics, and more importantly, has turned this little publication of mine into a (hopefully) trustworthy presence on these here interwebs. A place where the noise drops for just a second and the clarity rises - even if that clarity is sometimes a little bit shouty and exasperated.

That growth and change has meant more to me than I can honestly articulate - because while Bearly Politics has been doing its thing, I have also gone through what have probably been some of the hardest months of my life.

My dad has been ill in South Africa for a few years now, but we are well and thoroughly getting to the pointy end of this horrible stick, and I’ve currently got several tabs open with flight options back to SA. At the same time, I have had the most challenging year of my professional life so far, having to make decisions which go anathema to what I would like to achieve, and this has affected me in ways that I haven’t been fully prepared for. Beyond just the personal, the sanity of the world has felt that it’s being slowly eroded away, one insane headline after another, one truly which hasn’t made for a particularly rosy time.

So in the middle of that, Bearly Politics has become a place of refuge for me - a place that has become steady while everything else has felt particularly wobbly. A place where I can express not only my frustrations in what’s happening in the world, but where people care about it and make me feel like I’m not going completely insane.

And yes, leaving Twitter, a place where I originally met many of you reading this, towards the end of September has had a deleterious impact on things - traffic dipped, shares fell down and the organic chaos of virality has mostly disappeared. However, the cost of staying in that unmitigated hell-hole - not just the fee for a blue tick, but the constant and relentless exposure to conspiracy sludge and non-stop abuse - was just too high to justify my continued presence.

I don’t miss it. Not even for a second. The quiet of life after Twitter has been good for the soul.

And because I’ve had a few people ask me lately, I wanted to say something about independence as well.

Being an independent commentator in 2025 is something that’s very exciting, while at the same time being utterly terrifying. Exciting because we are living through a time where people genuinely want to hear from other people who aren’t funded by party donors, media barons, political consultancies or thinktanks with names like The Institute for Responsible National Excellence™.

And terrifying because, at least in my case, the independence, and any mistakes that come from it, are completely funded by me - including the £500 I paid recently for a copyright-cleared picture of Nigel-Bloody-Farage (a professional low point if not a personal one.)

Why I Now Own £500 Picture of Nigel Farage

Nobody is bankrolling me (I say as though I have a row of billionaires knocking on my door to give me money - I really don’t), and very honestly, I would prefer to keep it that way for as long as possible. It keeps me honest, and it allows me to write exactly what I want (within the confines of libel and defamation laws) without wondering what someone in a corner office is thinking, and whether they’ll be sending me a firmly worded email about calling Farage an incredulous wankstain that’s poisoning society.

Now with that said, it’s time for the monthly report card on Bearly Politics’s growth to date:

Metrics since professionalising Bearly Politics:

• Consistently around 150,000 reads per month

• Community growth from 2,730 to 6,132 readers

• 102 posts published

• Roughly 50,000 unique visitors every month

• And I’ve reached 10% of the income needed to write full-time one day

That last one - the 10% milestone - to me is huge.

Realistically, I know that the growth I’ve seen in the first five months will slow, that is the nature of things - however, even with that reality baked into my expectations going forward, where I’m sitting today, tapping away an update to you guys, is the closest I have ever been to turning writing, something that I love, into a full time job, instead of something that I’ve managed to squeeze into weekends, evenings, early mornings, train rides and bouts of guilt.

If growth were to stay exactly as it is (it won’t, but please humour me), then in about fifty months or so (and about 900 more posts) - I might genuinely be able to make the jump. Even if this timeline moves and shifts, I have still, today, never been closer in my life - and for that, I can only say thank you so much to all of you for getting me to this point.

In terms of what’s coming next for Bearly Politics - for the next month or two, it’ll stay mostly the same - I’ll try to consistently do a few posts a week, I’ll keep trying to clarify the world as much possible and try to live up to the expectations of a community that I care about a great deal.

So on that note, this is just really a massive thank you to everyone - for supporting this absolute Beast of a project and for letting me invade your inbox on a far too regular basis.

I honestly don’t take it for granted, and I hope I never will.

All the best,
Bear

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1. If you’re on Universal Credit, a pension, struggling financially, or you’re a journalist trying to stay informed without bankrupting yourself, please know this - I will happily comp your subscription. No questions asked. Email me at iratusursusmajor@gmail.com and I’ll sort it.