In September 2013, I launched my FlyBoyz Blog “… into the aviation blog-o-sphere to see if it will take wing and fly with the other birds.” I then went on to state that “I don’t yet know where this flight may lead but I do know it will be exciting! Aviation and model building have brought me many years of enjoyment throughout my life and I hope this blog will allow you to share in some of that continued enjoyment.”
I ended my introductory statement with an invitation “to join me on my flight of re-discovery!”.
It has now been 9 years since I launched FlyBoyz and by all accounts, I’d have to say that the flight has been very successful so far!
Doing this blog has exposed me to many aviation related experiences that I could not have imagined when I first started it. It has brought me into contact with the AMA leadership and with aviation museum directors and restoration specialists and reunited me with my Marine Corps aviation roots and allowed me to get up close and personal with the new Marine One. It has brought me invitations to present my aviation experiences at aviation related meetings and events, introduced me to some of the top builders, craftsmen, and flyers in the Control Line and Free Flight disciplines. It has allowed me to share countless model aviation related events and contests with the larger modeling community. It has allowed me to share my many model builds and restorations with anyone who cares to see what I’m working on in my modeling activities. The blog opened the door which enabled me to launch an e-commerce website (the FlyBoyz Store) dedicated to the ‘recovery and return of vintage and classic model airplane kits and other items to the modeling community where they can once again be appreciated by modelers who would like to build the kits or add them to their own personal collection’.
And finally, the blog allowed me to connect with countless like-minded aviation enthusiasts and experts who have willingly shared their interests and experiences with me and thus to the larger aviation community thru my related blog posts. I have made many personal friendships that I am very grateful for and I want to thank everyone for all they have shared with me over the years.
But also, there are my blog viewers! What started out as a few emails about my aviation activities to a few family members and friends has grown into a blog with a world-wide readership!! I continue to be amazed by the reach that this blog has attained! To that end, I have included here a few statistics and graphics that depict some of the heights that FlyBoyz has managed to reach.
- FlyBoyz has attained a world-wide audience with over 5,000 unique visitors to the blog each and every month.
- This audience has included visitors from every continent and country on the globe – except one: North Korea.
- Since the blog started, there have been 340 Posts (including this one) published in the blog.
- The most viewed posts have all had over 3,000 views each.
- Control Line and Free Flight modeling have been the most written about Categories in the blog which, of course, reflects my predominant interest in these two modeling disciplines.
The following two graphics show Unique Visitors over a recent 30-day period. Each colored dot on the map represents the location of the visitors.
(Click on images to zoom in on them)
This graphic highlights the most popular Posts as viewed in the blog:
This graphic lists the 12 blog Categories with the most Posts attributed to each (the number of Posts listed exceeds the 340 published since some Posts are listed in more than one Category):
So what about the future of FlyBoyz? That remains an open question that I don’t have a good answer for at this point. The future depends on 2 primary factors: boredom and my willingness to keep posting. First off, I don’t want to get to the point where I am boring my audience with the same sort of Posts over and over again. During the course of writing this blog, I’ve stated that I’ll publish things that I find of personal interest. That approach has seemed to connect with my audience. If I run out of new and interesting things to ‘discover’, or if I get to the point where I’m publishing the same thing over and over again, then I will have reached the boredom stage. Secondly, it does take a fair amount of time to publish and maintain the blog. I’m retired now so that may imply I have the time for it. Not necessarily true as anyone who is also retired may agree with! Currently, I am publishing an average of 2 Posts per month. That seems to be a maintainable publishing rate that also serves to keep my audience engaged. But at some point, that equation will probably change. So until the boredom or willingness to post become an issue, I’ll keep it going at the current rate. I hope that makes sense!
So with all this having been said and the last 9 years reviewed, let me say once again that it has been a unique and enjoyable ‘flight’! I once again Thank everyone who has contributed to the blog in any manner, and I heartily Thank all my blog readers over the years.
In conclusion, ‘I invite you to CONTINUE joining me on my flight of re-discovery!’
Loading ...