It seems like a lot longer than a month ago that I started this, but my first substantive post was on March 23rd – just one month ago. I had put off starting a blog for a long time, because there are just so many out there, and I didn’t want to end up talking to myself. I wondered if I could say anything that someone else, somewhere, hadn’t already covered in detail. I happened upon The Ergosphere one day while doing some research, and I thought “This guy is really doing something important here. He is educating people on a very important issue.” I contacted him and we had a bit of an e-mail exchange, and he encouraged me try my hand at blogging. My friend Scott Page also started a blog in January, All-Too-Common Dissent , and I was encouraged by his experience as well. So, I decided to take the plunge.
Of course traffic starts out very slowly in the beginning. My first few posts were on ethanol, and when the topic would come up at The Oil Drum or The Daily Kos , I would reference the things I had written. I got a Site Meter so I could monitor traffic and make sure I am not just talking to myself. Slowly, traffic started to grow. It was interesting to see where people were coming from, but one of the most valuable pieces of information I got from the Site Meter was the category “Recent Visitors by Referral”. That tells me how they found my blog. By the way you can see this information as well if you click on it at the bottom of the page; you can see details on the last 100 visitors.
It turns out that traffic really picked after some very nice plugs that I got from other web sites. One morning I noticed that I had 100 visitors overnight, and when I checked the referrals I found they were coming from a very nice plug at The Ergosphere: I must be coming back as a cockroach.
A couple of days later, traffic spiked again. I checked the referrals, and found that I had gotten a plug from Peak Oil Debunked : COAL AND THE EROEI OF CORN ETHANOL. A lot of the traffic still originates from one of those 2 sites, so I know they both have a large audience.
Then, on Wednesday, I had a huge traffic spike. I saw that it was coming from Salon.com. Reporter Andrew Leonard mentioned my blog in an article there: Here comes the ethanol bubble.
You have to wade through an ad to get to the article (which is very timely, in my opinion, and worth going through the ad) so I will reproduce what he said here:
For an entertainingly obsessive fixation on the issue, check out my new favorite blog, chemical engineer Robert Rapier’s R-Squared — thanks to Peak Oil Debunked for the tip.
I laughed so hard when I read that. “Entertainingly obsessive.” My friends who have read that said “Boy, he has you pegged, doesn’t he?” Yeah, I guess he does. I can be pretty single-minded. I am just glad he thought it was entertaining. But now I feel the pressure. I actually changed a headline as a result of that plug because I thought my initial headline was too inflammatory. I don’t want to be “entertainingly obnoxious”, or “entertainingly inflammatory”. I wouldn’t mind “entertainingly educational”, though.
Lately, I have gotten quite a few referrals from a French message board:
Vive la France! I speak some German, but no French. So I really don’t know what this one says:
Sur ces sujets, voir le blog de Robert Rapier qui se présente comme un spécialiste du sujet.
:
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/Par exemple, son article “The Future of E85” où il fait l’effrayante prédiction que la transformation du charbon en carburant liquide se fera principalement par l’intermédiaire de l’éthanol.
R. Rapier intervient également souvent sur the oildrum (je me sens souvent assez proche de ses analyses).
I know that when I use Google to translate the page, that last part comes out as “I smell myself often rather near to his analyses.” I think something was lost in the translation.
Seriously, my primary objective is to provide a source of information about energy issues in general. Sometimes I will be discussing alternative energy. Sometimes I will be discussing the energy market, or maybe defending the oil industry against political posturing. I strongly believe that we need to make serious preparations for Peak Oil, and I want to communicate that sense of urgency. I want to make a case for the steps I believe we need to take, but I also listen to the opinions of others. I can change my mind. I could embrace grain ethanol tomorrow if it had double the EROI that it does. I try to be very objective and scientific in my analyses. I try to communicate information as honestly and as “entertainingly” as I know how.
It’s been a fun month. I have had visitors from at least 30 states, and probably 2 dozen foreign countries (welcome New Caledonia and Estonia!). I have had visits from the offices of half a dozen state governments, several departments of the federal government, some foreign governments, and even someone from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information. A few nights ago, someone from Microsoft in Redmond was reading some of my ethanol-bashing articles. I presume that’s Bill, trying to determine whether to dump his ethanol investments. :^)
Anyway, I am not out of ideas yet. In my next essay, I will address the recent run-up in oil prices, and the speculation that this is “The Peak”. If you have something specific you would like to see addressed, and I think it is within the realm of the things I know something about, I will try to address it. Thanks for reading.
RR
ive enjoyed reading your posts at ToD and now here as well.
please do continue
R2;
Keep on blogging, brother.
Subkommander Dred
I linked in from Salon. Amazing how traffic can spike when something is timely and catches the public’s interest. Energy is certainly a sticky, timely topic. Keep up the good work.
je me sens souvent assez proche de ses analyses
translation: I share similar views
literally: I often feel (“sens”) quite close/aligned to his analysis
hope this helps
Any blogger who shares his expert knowledge, in an accessible and down-to earth manner, is a treasure. Engineer-Poet and the folks at the Oil Drum have raised the quality of the Web and now you are also. Thanks for all the posts so far and remember to pace yourself so that blogging remains fun.
Thanks to all for the comments (and for the French translation!). Much appreciated.
RR
It seems like a lot longer than a month ago that I started this, but my first substantive post was on March 23rd – just one month ago.
Robert,
Where is your 23 March post? I can only find posts back as far as 12 April.
Gary
There are some posts in the March Archives link over on the right, underneath the “Previous Posts” section. It only keeps a certain number of posts on the page before it starts archiving them.
RR
Don’t some of these people say the nicest things?
<grin>
Hello,
Here is the translation of my link to your blog (the thread is about a possible gas crisis in United States next summer) :
—
On these subjects, you can read the blog of Robert Rapier, who presents himself as an energy specialist.
For example, his article intitled “The Future of E85” where he makes the frightening prediction that ethanol will be increasly used as the most effective way to transform coal to liquids.
R. Rapier intervenes also frequently on TOD (I agree most often with his analyses).
—
The last remark refers for instance to your debate with Stuart Staniford (and nearly all the Tod folks) about “peak-oil already happened in 2005” versus “production can increase a little for a few years”. I’d like to participate, but writing in English is too time-consuming for me.
We also have here at oleocene.org the same discussion and I am also quite alone on the “optimist” side (even if I am convinced that the time when the demand will be constrained is not far away).
Anyway, thanks for your work ! I’ve been reading (and writing) about peak-oil for more than two years. But, when you are not a specialist, it is very difficult to make one’s opinion on very technical issues (like the interest -or non-interest- of ethanol).
It’s why the opinion of people who have some expertise in the domain while also “peak-oil aware” is precious.
Sincerely,
Herve (“Devenson”)
The last remark refers for instance to your debate with Stuart Staniford (and nearly all the Tod folks) about “peak-oil already happened in 2005” versus “production can increase a little for a few years”. I’d like to participate, but writing in English is too time-consuming for me.
Believe me, I understand. I have the same problem in trying to write in German. I can do it, but it takes a while.
Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like we agree on much. Hopefully, our vision of the future will prevail. I still expect very difficult times ahead, but not the end of the world.
RR