This is my last planned post for the year, and what a year it has been for me. I’m calling it my turn-around year.
Things have been pretty tough for me the past few years, but this year I feel like I have finally turned the corner and am now looking forward to the future instead of feeling like I’m just treading water.
The year has been tumultuous. At the start of the year I had a radio show, until I could no longer agree with the direction of the station. Not all is as it seems and, as is often the case in politics, those who are busy pointing the finger at others for poor behaviour are themselves instigators of disrespectful, demeaning and gaslighting. Let’s just say all is not as it seems. I am happy I walked with my integrity intact.
I love doing radio, and I am formulating a plan to continue to do that again, of sorts, but more like a podcast with long-form interviews.
We relaunched the website with an improved member system and ditched WordPress, moving to Ghost as the platform. What was $1000 per month in hosting fees is now $2500 per annum. That’s given us a cashflow boost. We lost our ads, deliberately. I felt that there were diminishing returns and wanted to have a purely member-funded site. Losing the ads has cost us around $2500 a month and our membership base has expanded considerably, though not quite at the level to replace the ad revenue. We only need 150 of you to change from free to paid...and everything will be as it should. Help us replace the ad revenue by signing up to one of our membership plans. Go on, do it: it’s Christmas; give yourself the present of membership to a fantastic and fearless group of amazing Kiwis.
You can all be Oilers again.
In the new year we will relaunch our discounted fuels programme to go with the new brand, which harks back to the old Whale Oil brand but, with the new and improved me, it is now The Good Oil.
We also launched our news feeds in partnership with Centrist. Thank you Tameem and crew for all the work you do.
As I mentioned the other day, next year will be the 20th year of me doing what I do. I am going to do a a bit of a tour around the country and will have an event in July to celebrate my 20 years’ blogging.
The event will include a roast of me, led by the best roaster in NZ politics, and a Q+A session, hopefully hosted by a broadcaster. More details will be released next year. I might even invite Nicky Hager to thank him for the best publicity money can’t buy...and maybe Martyn Bradbury, to rub his nose in the fact I’m still here and beating him despite his best (and pathetic) efforts.
I have so much to be grateful for. I’m grateful for my faith and my rediscovered faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. He has brought peace to my life. His plan for salvation is available to everyone: all you have to do is ask and it’s your too.
I am grateful for my continued good health. I’m the healthiest I have been in decades and regularly walk five km each time. I’m getting out and about more and celebrating life again.
I am so very grateful to the hugely loyal staff, both paid and volunteers, for sticking with me even in the darkest days. They are the true treasures of this site and keep it running. You may be surprised that there are more than 40 people involved behind the scenes. Please thank them in the comments: they’ve become the very best of friends and care deeply about the high standards we keep here at The Good Oil.
I am grateful for my brilliant editor: a very special thanks to Lyn. She started as our weekend editor and, when Juana retired due to ill health, Lyn stepped up to full-time editing. Please thank Lyn for the absolutely brilliant job she does keeping me sane and the site running smoothly.
I’m also grateful for my tech support and thank Rantykiwi. He’s a top bloke who has been around since the early days. We first met in person in the forest on the Gallipoli Peninsula some 10 years ago.
I am grateful to each and every one of you loyal readers and members. Members are especially treasured: they keep this site operating as the powerhouse it has become. If you aren’t a member, then please consider joining this admirable and loyal bunch of folks.
I am grateful for our volunteer proofreaders. They toil away each night ensuring we don’t end up in our own Stuff Up posts.
I am grateful for our commenters who bring their insights to the site. Here’s a little secret...I go through the comments each day to find an angle or an idea of interest for articles.
I am grateful for the brilliant columnists and cartoonists we have at Real Good Oil. They are all gifted columnists in their own right and they continue to pour out brilliant articles. VIP members enjoy these daily and this is one of the benefits of being a VIP member.
I am particularly blessed to have met my special someone, a free spirit who loves and seeks freedom, living life joyously and taking me along for the amazing journey. Who knew I’d fall for a hippy chick? I sure didn’t, but here we are a year later.
So, it’s the end of another year, heading in to my 20th year of writing about politics and anything else that tweaks my fancy. We are unbowed by attacks from the left: 10 years ago they tried to silence us all and we’re still standing.
That’s thanks to you all.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We will be running a light holiday service until 6 January when we will start cranking up again.
Enjoy yourselves, enjoy the site over the break and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
Thank you and God bless.
