I'm writing this on what may be remembered as one of the most traumatic days in Scottish history - the day after we turned our back, for the time being at least, on the sovereign right to shape our own political future, and the day on which Alex Salmond announced his decision to step down as First Minister.  However, the months ahead are still full of opportunities as we seek to ensure that the London parties do not betray the panic-stricken "vow" they made to the Scottish people just before polling day.  If they do let us down, as they probably will, much will depend on whether the SNP can at last make a telling breakthrough on "away soil" at the UK general election in May.

In the months between now and the election, it's more important than ever that we have a strong alternative media in Scotland to put the pro-SNP case, because in the context of a UK-wide vote, the party is usually widely ignored by the London-based broadcast and print media.

Over the years, Scot Goes Pop has carved out a niche role in the pro-independence blogosphere, particularly due to its coverage of opinion polls.  It relentlessly challenged the agenda-driven misreporting of polls as supposedly showing that the Yes campaign were not even in the game.  

There will not be a huge number of full-scale Scottish polls before the general election, but there will be some, and with your help I hope to cover them as comprehensively as I have done the referendum polls.  When there aren't polls around, I'll go back to doing what I used to do - offer general commentary on the  political scene in Scotland, the UK, and further afield, and probably undertake the occasional 'fisking' of mainstream media commentators.

In case you don't know about me, my name is James Kelly, and I've written Scot Goes Pop for more than six years.  I've also written articles for the International Business Times, Political Betting, Wings Over Scotland, National Collective, Scottish Roundup, Fair Observer and the Eurovision Times.  Some of my IBTimes articles were syndicated on Yahoo News in the run-up to the referendum.

Since I ran the first fundraiser, I've practically been blogging full-time.  Even if I take my foot off the accelerator a little (as I'll probably have to), it just won't be possible to find the time to keep the blog going properly without a second fundraiser.  I'm setting an ambitious target of £5000, because that's the amount I think would just about be enough to keep things ticking over until May, and perhaps a little beyond.  But anything over and above that would be enormously helpful.

If the target is significantly exceeded, I'll be able to use some of the money on advertising.  In theory it might even be possible to commission our own poll, but that's unlikely because it would need the target to be exceeded by several thousand pounds.

As I said last time, if the fundraiser fails and only raises a small amount that can't possibly make any difference to my ability to keep the blog going, rest assured the money won't be wasted - I'll donate it to other pro-independence alternative media outlets.

I fully appreciate what a difficult time this is to be launching this initiative, when people are feeling heartbroken and have donated so much of their disposable income in an attempt to secure a Yes vote.  I feel the timing is unavoidable, though - I didn't want to do it before polling day and potentially divert money that might otherwise have gone to the Yes campaign, but if I wait even a few more days a golden opportunity may be lost, because for obvious reasons the current readership of the blog is much bigger than it has ever been before, or is ever likely to be again.

What I am going to do, however, is run this over a much longer timescale than last time (60 days) - so if you think you might want to donate but would rather wait a few weeks, feel free to do that.  And even if you're a regular reader, please don't feel under any pressure to donate AT ALL.  I regard you all as friends (with the exception of the trolls!), and that's far more valuable than any donation.

Now more than ever, let's stay strong.