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Is a Tesla car (or other EV) “Green”?

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The short answer is NO.

The longer answer would be “Compared to What” and also involve “At what Cost?”.

The issues here are complex. If you have a 4,000 square foot poorly insulated house and downsize to a 3,200 sq. ft. of same insulation – it is “greener” of course, but it is not green!
This is the type of problem we run into when trying to calculate advantages or disadvantages of Electric Vehicles (EV). We could point out some instances or anecdote where an EV “helps a little”, however – as Yales study concludes, EV’s as current made and sold are not compatible with Climate Goals. We can’t “get there” with “it’s a little better” or, “it’s about the same” or even “it’s 30% better”. Note that Hybrids are at least 100% better than many non-hybrids…that’s revolutionary, although not as sexy.

Let’s start at the top and work down through the issues. Some of them may be of more importance to prospective buyers – others less so.

  1. The Big Problem is the combination of “Car Culture” and the amount of resources and infrastructure needed for it.

This should be obvious – but many don’t even think this far. An EV will weigh 500-1500+ lbs more than many ICE or Hybrid vehicles. This means it takes more energy and “stuff”  to manufacture. It also means that the wear and tear on roads, bridges and tires is greater. Gasoline infrastructure is mostly built – while we need to spend trillions on improving the electric grid and millions of charging stations.

Read this article – just on tires! A 4400 Lb Tesla will vastly “out pollute” 3400 lb Hybrid in this way.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyres-produce-more-particle-pollution-than-exhausts-tests-show

Buying a EV does nothing to avoid the building of those additional lanes on the interstate. It does nothing to help with the waste of time in traffic – and it currently  does nothing to avoid the death and destruction on the highways.

In short, many would say it’s the wrong direction in the first place – to continue the full-on car culture instead of building Bullet Trains and other forms of transport which are 100% proven to be vastly greener. We are not going to get “there” by having vehicles that are 5% or 10% “better and greener” than the last generation. Consider a good modern Hybrid car – they are 200% to 300% better than the gas cars from 15 or 20 years ago.

By pointing to Car Culture as the Main Problem, this writer is not saying “we must get rid of all cars” – rather, the point is that investment should geared toward solving the real problems – at a cost we can afford.

The greenest car you can have is an ancient used model that sits in the garage most of the time.   Remote Working, uBer, eBikes, etc. allow many modern families to get by with one (or fewer) cars. If the USA were to truly plan a greener future, we’d be building Bullet Trains as quickly as we could. A cynic might note that there is not nearly as much profit in Bullet Trains as there is in selling every household an EV or two! Imagine – 100K+ in revenue per household…a dream for capitalism, but not for the Planet.

2. Initial Cost of Vehicle and ongoing Costs.

Short Version – the 5 year cost of ownership or a Tesla Model Y is $52,000
The same for (larger) Avalon Hybrid is $30,000
The same for  Honda Hybrid is $24,000 to $27,000
A Tesla Y buyer is spending $25,000 extra over 5 years…

Do your own research at this Link – Tesla is not even in the top 100 vehicles for low cost of ownership.
https://caredge.com/ranks/costs

At present, the cost of a mid-level EV from Tesla is 50 to 100% more than a hybrid. “Green” applies to many things, including money (value for the dollar). Even if EV’s were greener then they are (they might be someday), they have to be affordable. The consumer could spend that extra 20 or 30K on many things which might provide better results (PV on their house, insulation, new furnace, carbon offsets, eBikes, etc.). None of these are as sexy “look at me” as a Tesla, but likely will provide MUCH more help for Mother Nature per dollar spent.

Some parts of an EV may outlast those on regular cars – but others, such as tires, roads and bridges, are going to cost more due to the excess weight.

Fuel costs can differ – in general an EV costs as much or more than a good hybrid in per mile driven (fuel). Gasoline can spike – some lucky few live near Hydro plants or have large Solar PV arrays on their own roof…in these cases, the EV gets both greener and cheaper.

Right now – the Energy Mix in most of the USA is such that approx. 60% of the Electricity is generated by Fossil Fuels (Nat Gas and Coal). Therefore, in most cases, the critics who say “Your Tesla is powered by Fossil Fuels” have a point. On the other hand, in a country like Norway where almost 100% of the electric is renewable Hydro, an EV is much cleaner when it comes to the actual emissions generated. In these types of use cases, an EV may only take a year or two to “pay for” the increased use of manufacturing materials.

Yale and others have done extensive studies on comparing EV’s – studying to see if they could be part of the solution to Global Warming (CO2 reduction), etc. – their summary? Exactly what I am saying in this article. The existing EV’s are not compatible with “Green”.
“the current demand level of personal motorized transport is compatible with ambitious climate targets only under two major conditions: (1) consumers must switch to more energy-and material-efficient vehicles, for example, smaller or shared electrified vehicles, and (2) the energy used to charge these vehicles must be highly decarbonized.” 

Current EV’s are not “smaller and shared” – and surely not more material efficient! In fact, some of the popular and newer models weigh as much as 6,000 lbs – DOUBLE the weight of many Hybrids and ICE cars. Double the weight, in general, means double the resources from the Planet.

Q and A – anticipating what many folks might ask

Q: If this is the case, why are so many people – including Elon Musk – promoting these machines?
A: Two Teslas in your garage = $100,000+ in revenue to Tesla. The cost of Bullet Trains, Trams, Light Rail and other upgrades to transportation and efficiency don’t “make money” in that fashion. “Capitalism” and “The Economy” left unchecked attempt to sell (and often create debt) the largest dollar outlay for “solutions”.

Q: What qualifications do you have? What do the real Experts say?
A: I have been in alt energy since the 1970’s – installed Solar Panels commercially starting in 1979. Imported, distributed, installed tens of millions of dollars worth of renewables. Studied energy of all types extensively.
Yale did a study in 2021 – quite detailed asking these same questions. The only way an EV works out, according to their research, is as I myself promote (small, shareable, public transit – and, more renewables. Here is their summary (read carefully).
“the current demand level of personal motorized transport is compatible with ambitious climate targets only under two major conditions: (1) consumers must switch to more energy-and material-efficient vehicles, for example, smaller or shared electrified vehicles, and (2) the energy used to charge these vehicles must be highly decarbonized.” 

Q: Would Full Self Driving Change the “Green Calculation:?
A: YES! In fact, the entire idea of Tesla being green is dependent on full self-driving – something called Level 4 or Level 5 automation. Tesla is currently at Level 2. WayMo (google) appears to be the current leader in this technology with Level 4 cars on the road.
However, we would need a large percentage of cars to have these features to move the needle.
In reality, this is unlikely for decades! Meanwhile, the folks buying these (and the resources used, etc.) are simply fooling themselves (but driving cool wheels in come cases)/

Q: When will Tesla have Full Self Driving?
A: The question should be modified to ask “Will Tesla EVER have Full Self Driving, and – if so, when is it likely?”.
There is no good answer to this so I will bring forward the current situation, delays and opinions of other experts. Tesla claimed, in 2019, that they might have this “Robo-Taxi” functioning by 2020. It didn’t occur. Now, Tesla is predicting 2024/2025, which is 10X as long as the original claims (made on AI Day in 2019). Some experts in AI (Artificial Intelligence) say it may never happen to the extent claimed – “never” meaning 20+ years, IMHO.
The writer, if he had to guess, would say it will be 20 years before self-driving makes an “energy dent” in the big picture of car culture.

Q: How many Companies are Actively working on Self-Driving cars or software?
A: Quite a few! It’s safe to guess about a dozen which have a very serious commitment to the project and many more working on smaller parts of the problem. This includes ALL the big car makers worldwide in addition to the newer EV-only companies, as well as various IC (chip) and computing companies.

Q: If I buy an EV now, will be be able to be upgraded to Full Self Driving with software?
A: Maybe…but probably not-don’t count on it in terms of making an expensive purchase decision. The Self-Driving hardware of Tesla was upgraded in 2019 and odds are it will be upgraded every few years. Newer hardware is vastly superior – and since the self-driving problem has not been fully solved, no one can say exactly what hardware is needed to get to Level 5. These problems have always been underestimated and there is no reason to think this will change.
Companies like WayMo (google) are likely to license out their software and hardware package to existing manufacturers…when and if that happens, you would know that you have a vehicle that passes the regulatory burden. Same with Tesla – if and when they have full approval from all the regulatory bodies and have their cars running in public at level 4 and 5 you will then know that the hardware/software is ready for the job.

Q: Can you detail some of the big problems of so-called “Car Culture”?
A: Sure, first – look around you! Highways are adding more and more lanes – and yet traffic persists. 40,000 dead each year just in the USA – many more terribly injured. Blacktop and roads and parking lots all create excess runoff and pollution – use large amount of energy to produce (blacktop made from coal, oil, etc.). Landscape is often ruined – take notes for just one day and see what your car does and what is needed to support it! Like this:
1. Parked in my garage (cost for garage, insurance, runoff, etc.).
2. Drove down my driveway (blacktop, runoff, heat sink).
3. Drove to Store (roads, lights, danger to pedestrians, large parking lots needed)
You get the idea. Your car is MUCH more than just “a car” – it requires vast amounts of support which costs money – and create many problems.
High Speed Rail, for example, would take up much less space and be many times as efficient per seat-mile. It doesn’t require rest stops, gas stations, hotels along the way, eateries, etc. – you get from here to there without the entire landscape in-between being highly disturbed.
The same is true, to some degree, with newer airliners. You need an airport at each end, but no ribbons of hotels and roads in-between.
Newer airlines get approx. 80 MPG for a single seat, making them more efficient than most cars for longer trips…even when two people are traveling (40 MPG equiv).

Summary – an EV may be a nice car. But, please, do not fool yourself that this is the path to a sustainable situation for wasteful countries and cultures like the USA. We need a real plan – which includes 10’s of thousands of miles of Bullet Trains, properly planned communities and much more.

It’s actually pretty simple. Look at your total lifestyle….if you are living in the typical “upper middle class or above” Western Fashion (flying here and there, have a nice house or two, two or more nice cars, TV’s, computers, etc.) you (and I) are the problem – not the solution.

Buying a Car or two…and then believing we are “Saving the World” due to slick marketing or talking points, is silly. We need real change…which isn’t going to happen by switching car brands.

The Great Reset – My own (back when) and a Friends

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With all the current stories about “The Great Reset”, I decided to post a couple of my own experiences. “Doing your Own Thing” is nothing new and was a major part of the Counterculture (hippie) Revolution of the late 1960’s.

The Assembly Line

I had this super-Hippie friend from the poor side of the tracks (SW Philly) named Jimmy. He wasn’t in our Main Line (philly) crowd being that he was dirt-poor and not local. I may have met him in Atlantic City or through other Overbrook connections.
We were broke – so one day Jimmy said “Craig, there is a local place that is hiring…let’s go over there” – and we did. The place was named “Mailers Unlimited” and it was a mail fulfillment center. They distributed magazines and did direct-mail for companies, etc.
I worked there doing various tasks for one week. One example would be taking a stack of magazines off a conveyor and putting them in a strapping machine, pushing a foot pedal to bundle them, and then repeating. Another job was stuffing envelopes.
At the end of that week I vowed that I would never again work a “rote” job like that…and I never have! To a young hippie it was the very definition of hell. Just like pushing that rock up the hill which then rolls down. That week seemed like a year – and you can just imagine how bad it was if I still write about it now!
The Type A Woman who Thought About It
I did a 10 day silent meditation retreat in about 2002 – ours was for “leaders and executives” – which didn’t differ from the regular courses other than it was at a really nice facility in the Berkshires. 11 hours of silent meditation a day makes a person “go through some things”.
On the 7th evening we had a group meditation and a few of our peers went up on stage to express their thoughts. A woman walked up – she looked like a typical “executive powerhouse” type A, maybe 35 years old.
“I just spent the last week realizing everything I have done in my life was useless and fruitless” (or something of the sort – it was exactly what the Great Resignation type of mindset today is cast as”.
I don’t think any of this is new – but to me it’s a great thing if younger people reexamine (or examine in the first place) their lives and plan accordingly.
Jimmy, by the way, a dirt-poor Irish kid who did a bunch of Psychedelics and probably in normal times would have ended up either nowhere or gotten lucky with a Union Job, ended up going to Japan to teach English (he had zero qualifications and was very non-verbal!).
He fell in love over there and made a full life in Japan!
Now THAT is a Great Reset!
“Do your thing – do what you wanna do – I can’t tell you, who to sock it to”
“Dance to the Beat of a Different Drummer”
“White Collared Conservative – walking down the street, pointing your Plastic Finger at me. You’re hoping my kind will soon drop and die, but I’m gonna wave my freak flag high”.

Why “What About” may be the two most Dangerous Words!

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No doubt you’ve been hearing “what about” – in relation to the massive COVID spikes in places like Florida and Texas.

What about India?
What about Bangladesh? (yes, I’ve heard this!).
What about California?
What about NYC?
What about Sweden?

In general it is usually best to consider those words and statements as a good time to end the “debate” . In the Twitterverse, one may even consider it akin to a person telling you to look at the Bald Eagle over there whilst they pick your wallet out of your pocket. In short, an attempt to make you and others take their eyes and minds off of what is most important.

Disinformation or Lack of Information

There are two main reasons why one might use these words in the present discussions of COVID. Some sincere and honest folks just may not know better. They heard it somewhere and it makes sense to them on the surface, so they repeat it. MANY others fall into the disinformation category where they are likely quoting an Echo Chamber which they believe will lead readers to, again, take their eye off the ball.

Where I Reside – Where I/You are Concerned

The world is complex enough without attempting to understand every corner of it. Predictably, most of us are concerned with where we and our families reside, work or travel. In my case that is Florida and Western MA.

This is the obvious answer to the question “Why are you concerned about MA and why are you comparing it with Florida?” and similar queries. When you spend many months or years in a place – including during a pandemic, the sum of your experiences and knowledge about that location will likely exceed that of random places. Living here, it is natural for me to post a tweet like this below – which lays out the vast differences in how the Pandemic is being handled now. Whoa! There is another key word and concept “NOW” and/or “now and in the future”. It should come as no surprise that worrying about last year will do absolutely nothing to change our status!

Mid-August 2021 Tweet

“What About” can go from Plain Wrong to Friggin Crazy!

The plain Jane “what about” may refer to Sweden, an example often used to argue that the pandemic can be handled without major swings in the way we all live. Examples such as this are just plain wrong in that the persons using them are completely unfamiliar with Sweden and their policies/populace so the point being made could actually be the opposite! A perfect example of a similar Talking Point used by the same general type of person was Switzerland…used for years to illustrate that “gun culture” and weapons ownership cannot be responsible for the US high violence, murder and suicide rates relating to firearms. Those using this example fail to mention (or do not know) that the weapons which the Citizen (Citizens make up a militia/guard there) are allowed to own at home HAVE NO AMMO. Yes, the Ammo is kept locked up in an armory in the local town or city. To even compare that to unlimited gun ownership and the ability to buy 1,000’s of rounds of ammo is off-the-wall. It makes the complete opposite point!

So, yes, those types of “what about” are plain wrong – the person may be clueless (which there is no excuse for) or, again, trying to spread things which are wrong…knowing that many won’t look it up.

Now we go to the crazy. There seems no end to how far folks will go to prove they are correct. One of my recent favorites may be related to Horse Dewormer in the sense that some have pointed to India during the pandemic as some sort of an example (along with claims that they eat horse dewormer which has saved them from COVID).  The same folks were pushing this when Deaths and Cases in India were 20% of what they are today – updated facts cannot be expected to sway these people.

When I hear claims which sound “off”, I immediately ask the question “What am I missing here?”. I’m not talking nuances or rounding errors, but rather questions which are fundamental to understanding the theory being put forward. The very obvious is “Why would we EVER have to look at somewhere 1/2 way around the world which has almost nothing in common with us?”. Yet this type of reason and/or common sense doesn’t appear to be popular, so we need a larger “hole to poke in theory” to illustrate why we should throw out “What about India”?

A person born in India in 1950 or before – those who would be most subject to death and complications from COVID – lived to 31 years of age. If born in 1940, they would be of Prime Avg Age for death from COVID (80+) – that population lived to an average of 27 years old. 

Put another way, the targets of COVID might have died 3X over waiting for the time of the pandemic when they might be hurt by COVID. 

If you do not fully understand the part above in italics, it’s time to delete your ˇTwitter Account and/or go back to the Sports interests you first joined for. If, however, you immediately “got it”, you can also now consider that knowledge as being foundational to COVID – that is, where much longer life spans exist, COVID will likely hurt much more.

We could get into Indians being mostly vegetarian….I’ve never noticed that being pushed forward. Why? Likely the folks pushing “India did great” are big consumers of meats. They may enjoy “fat shaming” their own countrymen, but get really quiet about whether a vegetarian diet might be associated with some better health outcomes. As with the Swiss example, the “what about’ crowd seems to overlook foundational facts!

Those of us here in the USA have plenty of examples close by – in our own country, Canada and even Mexico. There is no need for us to dig around the world and find narratives that we think fit our already decided conclusions. Not to say most Americans know even their own demographics well – but they might know them better than 1/2 way around the world.

Knowing the Ground which you Walk Upon 

Many years ago a direct marketing firm that took phone orders insisted that every one of their employees in the call center have a college degree. When asked for the reason they said “If the customer service people know more basics about the country, they are going to be able to relate to the caller much better”. I had experience with this in my own business – we took orders for $7,000 heating systems – sight unseen – over the phone. If a customer called from Stowe, VT and I inquired “is their snow on the mountain yet?”, it becomes a very personal connection. If they called from Eastern PA I might mention the Anthracite coal mines or the iron foundries and my own ancestors that lived and worked in the area. These are yet more examples of how we can better understand that of which we are familiar (by living, visiting, reading about, etc.). Given the Topic, I am more likely to listen to a person from South Carolina explaining to me about how the locals live and think.

The Current “What About” CA and NY, etc.

This is an “extra credit” subject – for those who wish to know why we currently hear the What About in regard to California, NY, NJ and similar places. At heart it’s simply a matter of trying to somehow find a place that might be worse than Florida. The problem is, when all dynamics, metrics and variables are figured in, there are no places in the USA that are worse than Florida.

The “method to the madness” involves certain sleights of hand. Current popular is the “since the beginning of the pandemic” trick. Putting aside that FL is projected to catch up and surpass even the hardest hit of states, the idea of comparison of the 1st wave to ANYTHING ELSE is foolish. The “excuses” matter very much. With no testing or treatment available it was impossible to identify or help many of those infected. The ramp-up of testing capability and the basics of treatment discovered in the first 60 days lowered mortality (deaths) by 70%. Since Florida didn’t get the first wave, they were spared a 5 or 6% mortality rate. If Dr. DeSantis had developed these tests and treatments we’d hail him…but we all know both tests and treatments came from elsewhere- the later from those first hard hit areas. The “luck” of missing the 1st wave is not an accomplishment, but a happenstance.

“What About” in relation to the crowded NE is well know – but, again, skipped over. Most dense places in the USA. 100X the arrivals from overseas hot spots into the airports. Public Transit. Multi-generational families in a house. Lack of any ability to distance. Lack of testing and treatment protocols…and so on. It’s that same old story – COVID is about “What you do with the hand dealt” – NOT about the hand dealt.

Any fair measurement of COVID actions and results would use two dates forward:
1. June 1, 2020 forward – as the date when testing, treatment and tracing – as well as most suggestions for mitigation of the disease – were known.
2. April 1, 2021 forward – which encompasses all of the above plus many millions of vaccinations – enough to do, if done right, the majority of the most vulnerable populations.

Talk about California – NOT

The whole “this state vs that” can lead to poor conclusions….as if comparing RI (1.2 million people in a tiny area) to CA (40 million, vast) or WY/ND/SD (less than a million, large areas) is going to inform. There are some cases where you can do this – for example, VT, NH, ME and SD/ND – all rural, small populations, less travel, etc. . The NE states blow away their midwestern counterparts in this COVID contest. However, in the case of California we have a state which is not like any other. Those who have interest in the state should probably consider it by regions due to both size and vast differences in behavior.

The “what about” crowd often uses CA. as a codeword or dog whistle, either not understanding or wanting to understand that region of the country. Did you know that some of the very first anti-mask protests were in SoCal? (southern California). April 17th – they surely didn’t have much patience!

I suspect many readers don’t know about – or understand – Southern California nor inland California. SoCal is the “Florida of California” and, in fact, was probably Florida before Florida was Florida. What do I mean? Everything. Hells Angels, Nixon and Reagan came from there, the “ME ME” always being elevated above the “WE WE” and so on. The same culture of selfishness you see in many places today was perfected there long ago.

The California that many people think of – and the one the Dog Whistles an What About crowd think they are critiquing, is the Bay Area – about 8 Million people who live within 100 miles or so of the Golden Gate. Unfortunately for the CA-Haters and What-Abouters, this area did relatively well w/COVID considering it’s massive density and many other factors. Again, we have those international airports – this time with vast Asian communities and so on. Incredible mobility of the population – Hong Kong one week, Europe, China etc – not the more limited Florida type of situation where most travel to the NE or Midwest.

San Francisco – with all the disadvantage (massive public transit, tight spaces, international airport, etc.) has about 600 deaths for a population the same as South Dakota. Imagine that! SD – with total room for distancing, months of pre-warning, testing and treatment available, has over 2,000 – well over TRIPLE the deaths. In theory, it should be the other way around – by a LONG shot. Germ Theory indicates that density and mixing (public transit) are two prime spreaders of disease.

Yet here we are. The “What About” crowd doesn’t consider 3X or 5X or even 10X the deaths to be indicators that science works.

However, if you have gotten this far reading – you are almost certainly not one of those people. Congratulations!

Part #5 How to start a successful (or failing) Blog in 2013-14

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It’s now going on one year since I had the idea of starting the Droneflyers.com blog and web site. This post will bring readers up to date on the effort and also offer some additional tips and advice.

Statistics of Traffic (Readership)

First, a quick update on readership – a metric webmasters call “traffic”. I use two measurement services to study the traffic – one is google analytics and the other is quantcast. Both are free. In order to get the most accurate measurements, you need to place a piece of code which they give you onto your pages.

Our quantcast stats are public and can be found at:
https://www.quantcast.com/droneflyers.com

If you hit the “month” tab, you will see that we are up to as many as 100,000 pages being read per month. The growth has been fairly slow and steady – expect for a very strong uptick during the holiday season. This was due to interest in quadcopters for gifts AND the amazing amount of free publicity given to drones when Amazon ran their story about using them for future deliveries. Our site traffic doubled during the week following that story. I expect our traffic to settle down somewhat now that the holiday season is over, so rather than compare it to the previous month, I will be comparing (internally) to the same month the year before.

Google Analytics chart - click to enlarge

Google Analytics chart – click to enlarge

The basics of the chart are shown in the upward angle of the chart. We had about 10,000 page views in the month of Feb, 2013 – the first month I started this blog. In December, we had about 10X that many, and in the previous months 4-6X as many. Once again this reaffirms the wisdom of purchasing an existing (but, in this case, abandoned) blog which had some traffic – as opposed to starting from scratch. I don’t think Droneflyers would be doing nearly as well if we hadn’t spent a few bucks to get a baseline of traffic and articles.

Current Setup of Site

The original site was a blog with articles posted by one author. The current site is still following this basic format, however I added a forum section which allows others to login and post their reviews, comments and questions. The forum part of the site has not been really busy – but that’s OK – in many ways it serves our purpose of not being complicated. In terms of keeping the site going, here are some of the important points which contribute to it’s success:

1. A very focused and clear mission and subject – We are a site geared toward beginners, those getting started in the hobby. More experienced hobbyists have plenty of other sites to visit – there is almost unlimited technical material on drones online! However, there is not much for those getting started – so we are focusing on those who are in their first couple years of R/C (radio controlled) quadcopter experience.

I should note that one of the biggest mistakes I see made on the internet is the tendency to claim too much “real estate”. In my opinion, you will be much better off to be narrowly focused and do a good job on that piece.

2. A mature attitude and member “vibe” – since the site is about quadcopters for beginners, we don’t allow off-topic conversations, arguments and all the stuff which seems to ruin much of the internet these days.

3. A subject which is growing or underserved – this is an “either/or” proposition. Let me explain. My other site, hearth.com, is focused on a very tiny niche subject – mostly people who heat their homes with woodstoves and firewood. Yet it has millions of page views per month – because the subject is underserved (not a lot of independent info) on the internet.
The quadcopter (drone) site covers a quickly growing subject. These consumer drones are really quite new – the last two years has brought the real explosion in their use. Also, to repeat, by focusing on beginners we are chasing a bit of that underserved market.

4. Consistency – although I don’t spend a lot of time on new articles and content for the site, I do make sure that it does not appear or become abandoned. Maybe I’ll post some good pictures, links, a couple comments, etc – and a few other forum members do also. Maybe I will update an existing articles and/or some links. It’s important to not let a week or two go by without adding something to your ongoing blog or forum…

5. Not forcing the issue – I don’t suggest putting a bunch of new features on a blog or forum unless there is a clear use for them. KISS is the word (keep it simple)….better to have fewer features which are used more than to have too many and have them languish. Watch the statistics and only offer new features, forums, subjects and articles based on what people actually want and need.

Promoting and Advertising Updates

In the former installments of this series, I mentioned the use of google adwords and similar programs as a low-cost way to spread the word. In this update, I’ll review most of the ways you need to promote your blog – both free and low-cost….

Cost per click advertising – These are programs such as google adwords – Bing has an equivalent as do some other large sites (Yahoo!, etc.). – My blog, Droneflyers.com, is currently spending about $50-$60 per month in google adwords. This amount sends about 400 extra visitors to the site per month.

Twitter – I have to admit it. I have never been a big fan of Twitter as a consumer. There is just TMI (too much information) to follow! However, Twitter does create a decent platform for you to promote your new site and articles. It also establishes you as a “player” in the particular sector which you blog about. In fact, one company contact me via Twitter and sent me an expensive sports camera (free) to review! It is also a good way for you to find decent links, stories and happenings which relate to your subject – and perhaps post them or blog about them.

Facebook – Many internet sites would benefit from having a page on Facebook. However, most of your real content should be on your site (blog, forum, etc.) NOT on Facebook. Facebook also allows low-cost advertising – called “boosting your post”, while allows your page to quickly become popular. Our Facebook page has only been active for a month (as of this writing), but as you can see we have a lot of exposure and “likes”
https://www.facebook.com/droneflyers

Other Forums and Sites – can provide traffic to your new site for no cost. Take part in valid discussions elsewhere on the net. Some sites allow you to post links to your site (reviews, for instance). Even Amazon product reviews can steer people to your site!

Of course, the original advice always applies – that is “Content Is King”. Adding quality articles, posts, pictures, videos, link and other content to your site is the best way for the search engines to “bless” you….meaning more readership at little or no cost.

Show me the $$$

In some of the former posts I mentioned the potential revenue sources for your blog/site. However, there is little need to concern yourself with these until you have decent traffic on your site – realistically, until you have a couple thousand pages read per week you are unlikely to be able to “monetize” your site if you are a publisher. However, some of you may be in the business of E-commerce, that is…selling things directly from your web site. Your content may be a way of educating and informing the customer. In such a case, it’s possible that $$ can be gleamed from a smaller readership…assuming the readers are targeted. As an example, if you sell consulting services, it may be that one out of every 500 visitors to your site contacts you for paid advice.

My experience is mostly with web publishing – that is, sites which provide information as opposed to products and services. In my case, income can be made in these ways:

1. Ad programs such as google adsense allow you to make money from ads served by google.

2. Sponsors you obtain – in this case you have to find sponsors who are willing to pay you for banners, text links or other promotion on your site.

3. Affiliate links – these are the Amazon (and similar) programs where you can place product links on your site and get paid a small commission if your readers click on them and make a purchase.

4. Book sales, etc – I used my blog writings as the basis for a book – called “Getting Started with Hobby Quadcopters and Drones”. This is an e-book (paperback available also) which I self-published at a very low cost. The book is selling well.

Currently, I am making 70% + of my site income from Amazon affiliates, 20% from book sales (which may be unrelated to the site – they find the book on Amazon) and 5% from Google Adsense.

While the site is not making enough for a full-time living, it is doing very well and is more than paying for my pursuit of this hobby and my investment of time and money. If I was able to invest more time into the effort it’s likely that it could provide 2X or 3X the current income, which would bring it up close to being a “full time job” in terms of $$.

In closing, I hope these posts provide some hints for YOU to succeed on the web.

Craig

Part #3 How to start a successful (or failing) Blog in 2013!

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Part #1 is here
Part #2 is here
This (below) is Part #3

Ok, I know y’all are waiting with baited breath as to the report forthcoming after 3 weeks of taking over the Droneflyers blog – so I will start with the fun stuff (the charts!) and then detail how I got there and also what my predictions are for the next couple of months.

So, without further ado, here are our WordPress stats – click on the pic for the larger version!

Chart shows growth in 3 weeks since purchase

Chart shows growth in 3 weeks since purchase

I’m very pleased. Based on these statistics, the decision to purchase an existing blog (with some visitors) seems valid, as I doubt I would have ever been able to build things up this quickly. The stats are self-explanatory – more people came and read more pages and stayed longer! So, let’s get into some details so that YOU can figure out what may be best for your efforts……

One question which you may be asking yourself is “Well, I don’t know shit….so how the heck am I gonna be able to find and buy a blog or domain which get’s some visitors….you know, like Craig did?”.

A valid question. However, there are many sites where people are selling domains and chances are that you can find one to buy for a very reasonable price which may be related to your subject. Here are some places you can buy existing web sites:

https://flippa.com/
https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/
and eBay!

There are various ways of confirming the statistics given by the domain sellers. You are welcome to email me for more details on this, but the basics are that any serious webmaster can give you direct access to their google stats so that you can see the figures without them having manipulated them. Some larger sites may have enough traffic to be verified by Quantcast – you can go to http://www.quantcast.com and type in the domain name (try it with hearth.com, etc.).

You could also check in the basic common sense ways! See if you can find the site by searching in google for the terms which are related to it! Notice whether article or forum posts on the site were written recently – or has it languished for years?

So what should you pay for a site? Obviously, as little as possible! For those starting “hobby” sites, you have to have a total budget and work within it. Because I am already in the web space…that is, I have income from existing properties, I can probably afford a bit more for my startup effort. I intend to spend approx $3K total in the first year for everything, from buying the site to advertising to giveaways, but it could be done with much less. Still, a total budget at or over $1,000 for the first year is probably an advantage in terms of quicker growth.

Let’s move on to how I was able to double the traffic within 2-3 weeks. Firstly, as I keep repeating, starting with SOME visitors is key to being able to do this. I cannot stress that enough – you are probably already sick of hearing it!

The next move is to make sure there is some newer content on the site. This may involve a couple hours of you adding and editing existing articles, changing the “about” section and contact info, etc.
There is no use spending time and money promoting a site which visitors will be disappointed with! As will be covered in later posts, Content is King. In fact, you should paste that phrase as a desktop background or print out a piece of paper and tape it to your wall! Content is King. Content is King. Content is King. Content is King.

Along with your initial remodeling, you should start a google account (if you don’t already have one) and install the google analytics tracking code on your site. This will allow precise measurement of your stats.

Your next step is to spend a small amount of money advertising. Don’t skip this step – it will cost you dearly. Come up with a budget…even if it’s $1 a day, to promote your site. Open up two accounts – one on Google Adwords and one on Bing Advertising and place your ads using keyword selection. These systems allow you to bid on relevant words and show your ads (text or graphic) to visitors who type them into a search engine. You only get charged when a visitor is actually sent to your site.

I set up google adwords with a small budget, around $2. daily, for the Droneflyers site. I bid very low for the visitors – maybe a maximum of 15 cents per. The graphic below shows my 3 week history with adwords:

Adwords Stats for Droneflyers

Adwords Stats for Droneflyers

To translate this – google showed my ad over 45,000 times (impressions) and sent 332 visitors to the Droneflyers.com web site – for a total expenditure of $37.02, or about $2 per day.

Why do I suggest you pay for advertising – even if your Blog or site is a hobby site with no income? My theory is that google and bing add some “weighting” to advertisers who appear on their site – not because they sell out for the $$$, but because the willingness to advertise a product shows that your site is a bit more serious and respectable (better for search results).

My prediction for the next couple of weeks? The growth will slow – I don’t expect traffic to double, but rather (hopefully) to maintain at the current level and rise slowly. I plan to officially launch the site and new forum on Apri 1 or thereabouts – at that point I will do some giveaways, PR and other efforts!

Well, it may be time to wrap up this post as I don’t want things to drone (pun intended) on for too long nor to present too much information and have some of it exit your ears after your brain fills up. Although my first intention was to finish up at Post#3, I will continue for at least another post. The next post will detail the free ways I used to build up traffic as well as some of my dilemas and predictions for the future of this failure…or successful….blog.

Quick Update – as of May, 2013 we are still experiencing rapid growth. The chart below shows the record upward growth – to well over 5,000 page views per week. Furthermore, the site has started to bring in some small revenues…more on that later!

Chart of Growth

Chart of Growth

Happy Blogging!

Craig

P.S. A fellow author and friend asked me WHY it was very important to increase traffic. My answer is as follows:

The key to the benefit in traffic is that it means you are not writing or forming a community for nothing. Being general here, but most people write or blog for one of two reasons – either to get “read” (the old author thing) or to get read and eventually make a buck. You cannot make ad or sponsorship money from a web site without having a ton of visitors. And, if you are an author, you are gonna feel bad if only 4 people read that tome you spent a couple years writing. So traffic=value. In a broader internet sense, you may want to check out the meaning of Metcafes Law – that is, the power of the network increases with the square of the user numbers (traffic!) or something like that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe’s_law

My first E-Book on Amazon!

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Well, I did it.

I published one of my short stories on Amazon as an E-book and sales have actually been pretty decent! The Book is called “Growing up Hippie – Living with the Rastas” and is an edited and longer version of the Rasta stories which were posted here last year.

You can buy the book for only 99 cents!

The link is at:
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Hippie-Rastafarians-ebook/dp/B008397HPG/

Enjoy!

How I become familiar with computers and then a Webmaster!

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How I become a Webmaster and started Hearth.com

For those who are unfamiliar, I am the founder and publisher of Hearth.com, a popular web site about wood stoves and related appliances which has been active since 1995.

When I first decided to start this informational hearth site, it was my goal to have 10,000 readers per month…now we have more than that number in ONE DAY. Stats for Fall, 2011, show 460,000 visitors in November alone, reading over 3 MILLION pages!

In fact, Hearth.com is the most read stove and fireplace publication in the world and perhaps the only independent source of hearth information on the internet or in print!

Let’s turn on the wayback machine and discover how Hearth.com came to be.
Continue reading →

More about Craig – childhood

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I was born in Philadelphia in November of 1953 – a baby boomer, for certain, albeit on the younger end of that generation. Although many periods in history are full of upheaval and change, there is something unique about the speed and severity of the changes which started to occur as I entered primary school. The sequence of events are fairly well known, but to see them close at hand as a growing child was quite alarming. Continue reading →

Steve Jobs on Life and Death

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I’m a big fan of Apple Computer and Steve Jobs since I purchased my first mac in 1984. There is something special about people who follow their dreams – at seemingly any cost! Despite the pundits, his company has now grown to be the worlds largest (market cap) and most valuable brand – a serious accomplishment!

I think all of us would be wise to read the following passage from a commencement speech he gave in 2005. It regards deaths – but, actually, refers more to life – specifically how to live it.

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“My third story is about death. Continue reading →

The Mind of a Mechanic

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Mechanic’s Mind – a term I have not heard before – and yet one that would seem to be obvious. I have never read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, yet the title brings to mind a definition possibly close to Mechanics Mind.

For the uninitiated, the closest thing might be the 1963 Movie Classic “The Man with the X-Ray Eyes“. This is the story of a normal man who started to see through things. At first, he only saw through the first layer…such as clothes or a wall. But as his powers increased, he started to see the breakdown of EVERYTHING to the extent that it all eventually became molecular! Continue reading →