The Philosophic Roots of the Paris Agreement Part V: “Small is Beautiful”

“Whenever something is wrong, something is too big.”

-Leopold Kohr

In energy, what is hyped as new and transformative is often not. Renewable energies predate the fossil-fuel era—and with a 100 percent market share, no less. Wind power and solar power have a nineteenth century history, not only a twentieth. Fuel cell physics was developed in the mid-19^th century. Electric vehicles dominated the transportation market until the internal combustion engine took over a century ago. Energy conservation/efficiency is as old as energy itself.

Enter the environmental panacea of smallness, the fourth strand in the philosophical underpinnings of the Church of Climate. Other movements behind the global aspirations to control climate change from the enhanced greenhouse effect in this series were Deep Ecology, Malthusianism, and Conservationism. (The political roots of the Paris climate agreement, involving Enron CEO Ken Lay and President George H. W. Bush, were explored here.)

For many decades, the small-is-beautiful movement has influenced energy thinking and public policy. Getting beyond central-station power plants and their energies (natural gas, coal, oil, and uranium) has been an environmental movement within a movement.

In energy policy, smallness is manifested in distributed generation (DT) as an alternative to power plants, the technology of choice from the days of Thomas Edison and Samuel Insull (Bradley 2011, Part I). Fuel cells yesterday and rooftop solar today; the mantra continues.

Beyond Baseload, Fossil Fuels?

“The use of the term ‘baseload’ generation is no longer helpful for purposes of planning and operating today’s electricity system,” concludes a recent study sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to another just released analysis, cosponsored by the American Wind Energy Association, the power system is benefitting from “both grid-connected and distributed solar and wind generation” as well as “growing adaptation of small-scale, decentralized generating technologies on customers’ premises,” upending “the economics of older fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants in many parts of the country.”

In a front-page article in the Houston Chronicle, “Tech Out to Disrupt Power Industry,” author James Osborne sees a new energy future. “Out are centralized, fossil-fuel-fired plants sending electricity in one direction.” He continues:

In are rooftop solar systems, smart thermostats, home battery systems and wind farms. All are controlled by computer algorithms and updated hardware that pull in and analyze thousands of data points on weather, pricing and electricity consumption to create a power grid that can shift demand when supplies run thin and rely more on renewable energy.

The catch? “‘In a few years, maybe a couple decades, when we look back we will be surprised we used to burn all this fossil fuel,’ said Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of AutoGrid, a startup outside San Francisco. ‘There’s fundamentally no reason to do that anymore’.”

Where have we heard this before? Perhaps in Christopher Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen’s 1994 book, Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution:

Fortuitously, technology is being developed to link each fuel cell, flywheel, and air conditioner electronically, allowing the grid to operate as a single “smart” system that avoids overloading lines and turns off decentralized generators when crews are repairing wires (p. 258).

Back-to-nature with high-tech? Time to live affordably and sustainably off the grid? A new energy of era? Energy fundamentals have not really changed; distributed generation is very expensive and infrastructure heavy.

“Small is Beautiful”

The “small is beautiful” movement can be traced to E. F. Schumacher, who in the 1950s warned the Federation of British Industry that “the first signs of a world oil famine” were “visible” (Bradley 2009, p. 227). The “voice in the wilderness” (Bradley 2009, p. 227) came of age with his 1973 book, Small is Beautiful, a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

Soon, he found himself in the company of Queen Elizabeth and Royal Dutch Shell at home, and California Governor Jerry Brown and President Jimmy Carter abroad. During the energy crises, he became a hero of thousands of newly minted neo-Malthusians as the new guru of less-is-more (Bradley, 2009, p. 228).

Schumacher’s Malthusianism became spiritual when he left atheism for Zen Buddhism. A Buddhist economy, he said, would make “the distinction between ‘renewable’ and ‘non-renewable’ resources.” Affluence and materialism were bad. “Modern man has built a system of production that ravishes nature and a type of society that mutilates man,” he wrote (Bradley, 2009, p. 227).

Crossing the ideas of other market critics such as John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul Ehrlich, and Amory Lovins, Schumacher sought to replace “the philosophy of materialism” with a “magnanimous kind of prudence,” leading to “justice, fortitude, and temperantia, which means knowing when enough is enough” (Bradley, 2009, pp. 227–28).

Smallness, Not Growth

Another well-timed book, Limits to Growth (1972), sponsored by The Club of Rome, predicted “collapse,” because the “basic behavioral mode of the world system is exponential growth of population and capital” (Bradley, 2009, p. 234). After their book was completed (it would sell 9 million copies in 29 languages), Dennis and Donella Meadows retreated to a New Hampshire farm “to learn about homesteading and wait for the coming collapse.” Going small, they would wait … and wait.

Kenneth Boulding challenged his fellow economists to reconsider economic growth. “Bigger is not necessarily better,” he wrote. “For the poor, growth in income is entirely desirable; for the rich, it may simply mean corruption and luxury.” He urged “a fundamental change in human consciousness,” one that admittedly would require “an adjustment of our ethical, religious, and national systems which may be quite traumatic” (Bradley, p. 239).

On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, Sir Roy Harrod similarly decried the “religious … grand objective” of economic growth embedded in neoclassical economics (Nikiforuk, p. 144).

In The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude (2012), Andew Nikiforuk pleaded for a new approach to living. “A haphazard and improbable emancipation movement has begun to take shape,” he posited.

Around the world, families and groups of individuals are walking away in ever growing numbers from petroleum and the inanimate slave culture of frantic consumption. They are exchanging quantity for quality and relearning the practical arts. Those seeking liberty eat slowly, travel locally, plant gardens, work ethically, build communities, share tools, and eschew bigness in economic and political life. Above all, they are relearning what it means to live within their means, with grace (p. 249).

Distributed Generation

“A world of completely isolated and self-sufficient economies could conceivably be a peaceful one,” stated Benjamin Higgins and Jean Downing Higgins in Economic Development of a Small Planet (1979). “And in these days of energy shortage, a higher degree of self-sufficiency, achieved by using local renewable materials wherever possible, could … lead to a rich variety of indigenous efforts rather than increasing world uniformity, and to greater independence” (p. 265).

In the same year, Barbara Ward in Progress for a Small Planet spoke of “the new emphasis on smaller and leaner units of production” (p. 136) as part of “a balanced and conserving planet” (p. 277).

In 1994, Flavin and Lenssen wrote about “a new breed of smaller electricity generators” that was challenging the paradigm of “large central stations.” Gas-fired, these units soon may be obliterated by even smaller, more modular generating and storage technologies that are now rapidly entering the market, including fuel cells, rooftop solar generators, and flywheels. Together, these inventions could make power generation at the household level economical (pp. 256–57).

In 2007, Joseph Romm looked to distributed generation as a way beyond central-station electricity. “Cogen and other on-site power systems, such as solar panels, are called distributed energy as opposed to large central-station power plants, like coal or nuclear,” he explained. “Their market penetration is limited by barriers that have nothing to do with their cost or performance—especially the countless obstacles and fees that major utilities can place in their way” (pp. 167–68). Only bad play stood in the way of this ready technology, in his view.

Fuel Cells

Some decades ago, electricity from fuel cells was the next big thing. The battery-like designs, fueled by natural gas, could be sited almost anywhere, even providing “power from the basement” (Bradley, 2018, chapter 13).

The principle of combining energy and oxygen to create electric current and water was proven in 1839. The modern fuel cell was developed at Cambridge University in the mid-twentieth century. By the early 1970s, nearly 50 companies, most of them US businesses, had invested north of $50 million (several hundred million in today’s dollars) to commercialize the technology. Major firms were involved, including Exxon, Arco, and Westinghouse (Bradley, 2018, chapter 13).

Fuel cells became popular discourse as part of a postcarbon energy future. In this scenario, renewables would create hydrogen (via electrolysis of water) for the home or business or industry. Distributed generation would supplant the power grid. “In the United States,” Christopher Flavin reported in 1996, “the race is on” (p. 14). The leader was ONSI Corporation, a United Technologies unit that had just completed the world’s first fuel-cell manufacturing facility to produce dozens of units annually at half the cost of earlier models. Allied Signal, IBM, Dow Chemical, and Ballard Power Systems were also in the fuel-cell market, leading Flavin to predict that “a commercial takeoff for fuel cells is likely within the next decade” (p. 14).

It would not happen. “Fuel cells continue to face major challenges,” summarized Daniel Yergin in 2011. “The fuel cells themselves—the device that converts hydrogen or another chemical feedstock into electricity—are expensive and will require substantial investment and breakthroughs for commercialization” (Yergin, p. 707). And today, virtually no environmental organization touts this technology, probably because natural gas is no longer considered a bridge fuel to sustainability (as back in the 1990s) but, according to Michael Brune of the Sierra Club, “a gangplank to a destabilized climate and an impoverished economy” (Bryce, p. 275).

Conclusion

Central-station power, enjoying scale economies in production and from mass diversified consumption (to improve load factors), remains king compared to distributed generation for grid energy. (Off-grid is another, free-market story.)

In Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (1999), Peter Huber documented that “The Hard technology of modern capitalism is fantastically efficient” (p. 146). “Generally speaking,” he writes, “the greenest fuels are the ones that contain the most energy per pound of material that must be mined, trucked, pumped, piped, and burnt” (p. 105). Dilute renewables such as electricity from wind and solar are environmentally suspect because of their huge land dedication, among other factors.

Robert Bryce has also noted the superior density and thus performance of fossil fuels, as well as uranium. “Density is green” because we can wring “more energy and more food from smaller pieces of land” (p. xxii).

Natural economies of scale and grid reliability emerge from a let the consumer decide energy policy. In a free society, small, medium, and large can be beautiful.

Bibliography

Bradley, Robert. Capitalism at Work: Business, Government, and Energy. Salem, MA: M & M Scrivener Press, 2009.

Bradley, Robert. Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons and Scrivener Publishing, 2011.

Bradley, Robert. Enron Ascending: The Forgotten Years, 1984–1996. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons and Scrivener Publishing, 2018.

Bryce, Robert. Smaller, Faster, Lighter, Denser, Cheaper. New York: Public Affairs, 2014.

Flavin, Christopher, and Nicholas Lenssen. Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.

Flavin, Christopher. “Power Shock: The Next Energy Revolution.” World Watch, January/February 1996, 10–19.

Higgins, Benjamin, and Jean Downing Higgins. Economic Development of a Small Planet. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979.

Huber, Peter. Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Meadows, Donella, et al. The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe Books, 1972.

Nikiforuk, Andrew. The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude. Toronto: Greystone Books, 2012.

Romm, Joseph. Hell and High Water: Global Warming—the Solution and the Politics—And What We Should Do. New York: William Morrow, 2007.

Schumacher, E. F. Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. London: Blond & Biggs, 1973.

Ward, Barbara. Progress for a Small Planet. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979.

Yergin, Daniel. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.

The post The Philosophic Roots of the Paris Agreement Part V: “Small is Beautiful” appeared first on IER.

How Content Can Succeed By Making Enemies - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Getting readers on board with your ideas isn't the only way to achieve content success. Sometimes, stirring up a little controversy and earning a few rivals can work incredibly well — but there's certainly a right and a wrong way to do it. Rand details how to use the power of making enemies work to your advantage in today's Whiteboard Friday.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Today, we're going to chat about something a little interesting — how content can succeed by making enemies. I know you're thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute, I thought my job was to make friends with my content." Yes, and one of the best ways to make close friends is to make enemies too.

So, in my opinion, I think that companies and businesses, programs, organizations of all kinds, efforts of all kinds tend to do really well when they get people on their side. So if I'm trying to create a movement or I'm trying to get people to believe in what I'm doing, I need to have positions, data, stories, and content that can bring people to my site. One of the best ways to do that is actually to think about it in opposition to something else, basically try and figure out how you can earn some enemies.

A few examples of content that makes enemies & allies

I'll give you a few examples, because I think that will help add some context here. I did a little bit of research. My share data is from BuzzSumo, and my link data here is from Ahrefs. But for example, this piece called "There Are Now Twice as Many Solar Jobs as Coal Jobs in the US," this is essentially just data-driven content, but it clearly makes friends and enemies. It makes enemies with sort of this classic, old-school Americana belief set around how important coal jobs are, and it creates, through the enemy that it builds around that, simply by sharing data, it also creates allies, people who are on the side of this story, who want to share it and amplify it and have it reach its potential and reach more people.

Same is true here. So this is a story called "Yoga Is a Good Alternative to Physical Therapy." Clearly, it did extremely well, tens of thousands of shares and thousands of links, lots of ranking keywords for it. But it creates some enemies. Physical therapists are not going to be thrilled that this is the case. Despite the research behind it, this is frustrating for many of those folks. So you've created friends, allies, people who are yoga practitioners and yoga instructors. You've also created enemies, potentially those folks who don't believe that this might be the case despite what the research might show.

Third one, "The 50 Most Powerful Public Relations Firms in America," I think this was actually from The Observer. So they're writing in the UK, but they managed to rank for lots and lots of keywords around "best PR firms" and all those sorts of things. They have thousands of shares, thousands of links. I mean 11,000 links, that's darn impressive for a story of this nature. And they've created enemies. They've created enemies of all the people who are not in the 50 most powerful, who feel that they should be, and they've created allies of the people who are in there. They've also created some allies and enemies deeper inside the story, which you can check out.

"Replace Your Lawn with These Superior Alternatives," well, guess what? You have now created some enemies in the lawn care world and in the lawn supply world and in the passionate communities, very passionate communities, especially here in the United States, around people who sort of believe that homes should have lawns and nothing else, grass lawns in this case. This piece didn't do that well in terms of shares, but did phenomenally well in terms of links. This was on Lifehacker, and it ranks for all sorts of things, 11,000+ links.

Before you create, ask yourself: Who will help amplify this, and why?

So you can see that these might not be things that you naturally think of as earning enemies. But when you're creating content, if you can go through this exercise, I have this rule, that I've talked about many times over the years, for content success, especially content amplification success. That is before you ever create something, before you brainstorm the idea, come up with the title, come up with the content, before you do that, ask yourself: Who will help amplify this and why? Why will they help?

One of the great things about framing things in terms of who are my allies, the people on my side, and who are the enemies I'm going to create is that the "who" becomes much more clear. The people who support your ideas, your ethics, or your position, your logic, your data and want to help amplify that, those are people who are potential amplifiers. The people, the detractors, the enemies that you're going to build help you often to identify that group.

The "why" becomes much more clear too. The existence of that common enemy, the chance to show that you have support and beliefs in people, that's a powerful catalyst for that amplification, for the behavior you're attempting to drive in your community and your content consumers. I've found that thinking about it this way often gets content creators and SEOs in the right frame of mind to build stuff that can do really well.

Some dos and don'ts

Do... backup content with data

A few dos and don'ts if you're pursuing this path of content generation and ideation. Do back up as much as you can with facts and data, not just opinion. That should be relatively obvious, but it can be dangerous in this kind of world, as you go down this path, to not do that.

Do... convey a world view

I do suggest that you try and convey a world view, not necessarily if you're thinking on the political spectrum of like from all the way left to all the way right or those kinds of things. I think it's okay to convey a world view around it, but I would urge you to provide multiple angles of appeal.

So if you're saying, "Hey, you should replace your lawn with these superior alternatives," don't make it purely that it's about conservation and ecological health. You can also make it about financial responsibility. You can also make it about the ease with which you can care for these lawns versus other ones. So now it becomes something that appeals across a broader range of the spectrum.

Same thing with something like solar jobs versus coal jobs. If you can get it to be economically focused and you can give it a capitalist bent, you can potentially appeal to multiple ends of the ideological spectrum with that world view.

Do... collect input from notable parties

Third, I would urge you to get inputs from notable folks before you create and publish this content, especially if the issue that you're talking about is going to be culturally or socially or politically charged. Some of these fit into that. Yoga probably not so much, but potentially the solar jobs/coal jobs one, that might be something to run the actual content that you've created by some folks who are in the energy space so that they can help you along those lines, potentially the energy and the political space if you can.

Don't... be provocative just to be provocative

Some don'ts. I do not urge you and I'm not suggesting that you should create provocative content purely to be provocative. Instead, I'm urging you to think about the content that you create and how you angle it using this framing of mind rather than saying, "Okay, what could we say that would really piss people off?" That's not what I'm urging you to do. I'm urging you to say, "How can we take things that we already have, beliefs and positions, data, stories, whatever content and how do we angle them in such a way that we think about who are the enemies, who are the allies, how do we get that buy-in, how do we get that amplification?"

Don't... choose indefensible positions

Second, I would not choose enemies or positions that you can't defend against. So, for example, if you were considering a path that you think might get you into a world of litigious danger, you should probably stay away from that. Likewise, if your positions are relatively indefensible and you've talked to some folks in the field and done the dues and they're like, "I don't know about that," you might not want to pursue it.

Don't... give up on the first try

Third, do not give up if your first attempts in this sort of framing don't work. You should expect that you will have to, just like any other form of content, practice, iterate, and do this multiple times before you have success.

Don't... be unprofessional

Don't be unprofessional when you do this type of content. It can be a little bit tempting when you're framing things in terms of, "How do I make enemies out of this?" to get on the attack. That is not necessary. I think that actually content that builds enemies does so even better when it does it from a non-attack vector mode.

Don't... sweat the Haterade

Don't forget that if you're getting some Haterade for the content you create, a lot of people when they start drinking the Haterade online, they run. They think, "Okay, we've done something wrong." That's actually not the case. In my experience, that means you're doing something right. You're building something special. People don't tend to fight against and argue against ideas and people and organizations for no reason. They do so because they're a threat.

If you've created a threat to your enemies, you have also generally created something special for your allies and the people on your side. That means you're doing something right. In Moz's early days, I can tell you, back when we were called SEOmoz, for years and years and years we got all sorts of hate, and it was actually a pretty good sign that we were doing something right, that we were building something special.

So I look forward to your comments. I'd love to see any examples of stuff that you have as well, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Solarize Delta County Farms Enters Its Final Month!

Solar Energy International’s (SEI) Solarize Delta County Farms, a community-powered outreach program offering a streamlined process to go solar by partnering with a local installer, is entering its final month. After 10 weeks of 20 outreach events reaching over 500 community members, the program is entering its final three weeks and registration closes on July 18.

Solarize Delta County Farms is the last of three Solarize programs which have been implemented by SEI in Delta County in the past three years. After the success of the first two programs, this final program was designed with the mission of providing more resources to farms and business, crucial components to the Delta County Economy. In the past month, the Solarize team has partnered with the Colorado Energy Office and the Department of Agriculture for outreach programs to farmers, along with other events such as a sustainable farming documentary viewing and solar and micro-hydro farm tours.

Mid-way through June with one month left to go, the program was successful in garnering community commitment to 100 kW of newly installed solar in the form of both residential and commercial systems. Comparatively, last year the program ended with 150 kW, and the year before with 123 kW. Per program design, if more community members go solar, there will be a higher rebate back on solar system equipment cost.

Community members interested in going solar who register for the program now will be eligible for an exclusive program discount, but only if they register by July 18. Registering for the program includes a free remote site assessment, and a no-cost, no-commitment onsite assessment from our partnered installers, Empowered Energy Systems.

The Solarize Team will be appearing throughout Delta County in July at various community events and through Solarize outreach events. Community members can see the team to learn more about the program at Celebrate Cedaredge on July 1 or Cherry Days in Paonia on July 4. There will also be a financing workshop on July 13 at 138 Grand Avenue in Paonia from 6-8 p.m., a Summer Solarize Celebration at Delicious Orchards on July 14, 6-8 p.m. and a Registration Rush Happy Hour in Delta at CB’s Tavern on July 17 from 5:30- 7 p.m.
Interested community members can sign up for Solarize at https://www.solarenergy.org/solarize-delta-county-farms/ or contact the Solarize Team at 970-527-7657 x213 or email solarize@solarenergy.org.

The post Solarize Delta County Farms Enters Its Final Month! appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

SEI Instructor Spotlight: Will White

One of the things that makes SEI unique is the incredible backgrounds our 40+ instructors bring to their classes. Will White is no different. He works with SEI as a Curriculum Developer and Instructor and has been working in the solar industry for more than 10 years. He is also the face behind the newly invigorated PV206: Solar Business and Technical Sales course.

Will began working in the renewable energy industry in 2005 as an installer for small East Coast integrator. During more than ten years with that company, which eventually became RGS Energy, he took on many roles. After starting as an installer, he worked in sales, design, and project management, and he eventually became the Director of Construction for the East Coast. He brought this experience to curriculum team, in particular to the PV206 course so it would be relevant and engaging for solar professional doing PV Sales whether they are coming from a technical or business background.

Like many, Will started his career as an installer before transitioning into sales. He managed the full sales process from the initial customer contact, to the preliminary evaluation, site visit, quote and preliminary design. This process is mirrored in the PV206 curriculum which “goes through the entire sales process, breaking it into steps and going through them each in detail. Coming from PV101, and you know basic technical information of solar so you can confidently sell a residential PV system.” He added “sales people can come from technical background or sales background. There’s a lot that goes into solar, and it can get confusing for customers quickly. It is a talent for salespeople to give customers enough information to give them options without making them confused or overwhelmed.”

In addition to his sales experience, Will has experience in wind power, solar thermal, and all scales of PV, although he has primarily focused on residential systems. He is passionate about implementing high quality, code compliant installation techniques. He is a NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional and was previously a NABCEP Certified Solar Heating Installer. In his free time, Will can be found working with his wife and young daughter on their homestead in central Vermont, which features an off-grid strawbale house.

The post SEI Instructor Spotlight: Will White appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

MozCon: Why You Should Attend & How to Get the Most Out of It

Posted by ronell-smith

MozCon 2013 (left to right): Greg Gifford, Nathan Bylof, Nathan Hammer, Susan Wenograd, and myself

I remember my first MozCon like it was yesterday.

It’s the place where I would hear the quote that would forever change the arc of my career.

“The world is freaking complicated, so let me start with everything I don’t know,” said Google’s Avinash Kaushik, during the Q&A, after speaking at MozCon 2013. “Nine hundred years from now, I will fix what’s broken today. …Get good at what you do.”

Though I didn’t know it at the the time, those were words I needed to hear, and that would lead me to make some career decisions I desperately needed to make. Decisions I never would have made if I hadn’t chosen to attend MozCon, the Super Bowl of marketing events (in my opinion).

Walking into the large (gigantic) room for the first time felt like being on the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland. I hurriedly raced to the front to find a seat so I could take in all of the action.

Once settled in, I sat back and enjoyed the music as lights danced along the walls.

Who wouldn’t want to be here? I thought.

Once the show started and Rand walked out, I was immediately sold: The decision to attend MozCon was the right one. By the end of the show, I would be saying it was one of the best career decisions I could have made.

But I almost missed it.

How and why MozCon?

I discovered MozCon like most of you: while reading the Moz blog, which I had been perusing since 2010, when I started building a website for an online, members-only newsletter.

One of my friends, an executive at a large company, had recently shared with me that online marketing was blistering hot.

“If you’re focusing your energy anywhere else, Ronell, you’re making a mistake,” he said. “We just hired a digital marketing manager, and we’re paying her more than $90,000.”

Those words served as an imprimatur for me to eagerly study and read SEO blogs and set up Twitter lists to follow prominent SEO authors.

Learning SEO was far less fun than applying it to the website I was in the process of helping to build.

In the years that followed, I continued reading the blog while making steps to meet members of the community, both locally and online.

One of the first people I met in the Moz SEO community was Greg Gifford, who agreed to meet me for lunch after I reached out to him via DM on Twitter.

He mentioned MozCon, which at the time wasn’t on my radar. (As a bonus, he said if I attended, he’d introduce me to Ruth Burr, who I’d been following on Twitter, and was a hyooge fan of.)

I started doing some investigating, wondering if it was an event I should invest in.

Also, during this same period, I was getting my content strategy sea legs and had reached out to Jon Colman, who was nice enough to mentor me. He also recommended that I attend MozCon, not the least because content strategy and UX superstar Karen McGrane was speaking.

I was officially sold.

That night, I put a plan into action:

• Signed up for Moz Pro to get the MozCon discount
• Bought a ticket to the show
• Purchased airline and hotel tickets through Priceline

Then I used to following weeks to devise a plan to help me get everything I could out of the show.

The conference of all conferences

Honestly, I didn’t expect to be blow away by MozCon.

For seven of the 10 previous years, I edited a magazine that helped finance a trade show that hosted tens of thousands of people, from all over the world.

Nothing could top that, I thought. I was wrong.

The show, the lights, the people — and the single-track focus — blew me away. Right away.

I remember Richard Baxter was the first speaker up that first morning.

By the time he was done sharing strategies for effective outreach, I was thinking, “I’ve already recouped my expense. I don’t plan to ever miss this show again.”

And I haven’t.

So important did MozCon become to me after that first show, that I began to plan summer travel around it.

How could one event become that important?

Five key reasons:

• Content
• People & relationships
• Personal & career development

I’ll explore each in detail since I think they each help make my point about the value of MozCon. (Also, if you haven’t read it already, check out Rand’s post, The Case For & Against Attending Marketing Conferences, which also touches on the value of these events.)

#1 - Content

You expect me to say the content you’ll be privy to at MozCon is the best you’ll hear anywhere.

Yeah, but…

The show hand-picks only the best speakers. But these same speakers present elsewhere, too, right?

What I mean by "content" is that the information you glean holistically from the show can help marketers from all areas of the business better do their work.

For example, when I came to my first MozCon, I had a handful of clients who’d reached out to me for PR, media relations, branding, and content work.

But I was starting to get calls and emails for this thing called “content marketing,” of which I was only vaguely familiar.

The information I learned from the speakers (and the informal conversations between speakers and after the show), made it possible for me to take on content marketing clients and, six months later, head content marketing for one of the most successful digital strategy agencies in Dallas/Fort Worth.

There really is something for everyone at MozCon.

#2 - People & relationships

Most of the folks I talk to on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis are folks I met at one of the last four MozCons.

For example, I met Susan E. Wenograd at MozCon 2013, where we shared a seat next to one another for the entire event. She’s been one of my closest friends ever since.

MozCon 2015: I'm chastising Damon Gochneaur for trying to sell me some links — I'm kidding, Google.

The folks seated beside you or roaming the halls during the event are some of the sharpest and most accomplished you’ll meet anywhere.

They are also some of the most helpful and genuine.

I felt this during my first event; I learned the truth of this sentiment in the weeks, months, and years that have followed.

Whether you’re as green as I was, or an advanced T-shaped marketer with a decade of experience behind you, the event will be fun, exciting, and full of new tips, tactics, and strategies you can immediately put to use.

#3 - Personal & career development

I know most people make decisions about attending events based on the cost and the known value — that is, based on previous similar events, how much they are likely to earn, either in a new job, new work, or additional responsibilities.

That’s the wrong way to look at MozCon, or any event.

Let’s keep it real for a moment: No matter who you are, where you work, what you do, or how much you enjoy your work, you’re are ALWAYS in the process of getting fired or (hopefully) changing jobs.

You should (must) be attending events to keep yourself relevant, visible, and on top of your game, whether that’s in paid media, content, social media, SEO, email marketing, etc.

That’s why the “Is it worth it?” argument is not beneficial at all.

I cannot tell you how many times, over the last four years, when I’ve been stuck on a content strategy, SEO or web design issue and been able to reach out to someone I would never have met were it not for MozCon.

For example, every time I share the benefits of Paid Social with a local business owner, I feel I should cut Kane Jamison (met at MozCon 2014) a check.

So, go to MozCon, not because you can see the tangible benefits (you cannot know those); go to MozCon because your career and your personal development will be nourished by it far beyond any financial reward.

Now you know how I feel and what I’ve gleaned from MozCon, you’re probably saying, “Yeah, but how can I be certain to get the most out of the event?”

I’m glad you asked.

How you can get the most out of MozCon

First, start following and interacting with Twitter and Facebook groups to find folks attending MozCon.

Dive in and ask questions, answer questions, or set up a get-together during the event.

Next, during the event, follow the #mozcon Twitter hashtag, making note of folks who are tweeting info from the event. Pay close attention to not simply the info, but also what they are gleaning and how they plan to use the event for their work.

If you find a few folks sharing info germane to your work or experiences, it wouldn’t hurt to retweet them and, maybe later during the show, send a group text asking to get together during the pub crawl or maybe join up for breakfast.

Then, once the show is over, continue to follow folks on social media, in addition to reading (and leaving comments on) their blogs, sending them “Great meeting you. Let’s stay in touch” emails, and looking for other opportunities to stay in their orbit, including meeting up at future events.

Many of the folks I initially met at MozCon have become friends I see throughout the year at other events.

But, wait!

I mentioned nothing about how to get the most out of the event itself.

Well, I have a different philosophy than most folks: Instead of writing copious notes and trying to capture every word from each speaker, I think of and jot down a theme for each talk while the speaker is still presenting. Along with that theme, I’ll include some notes that encapsulate the main nuggets of the talk and that will help me remember it later.

For example, Dr. Pete’s 2016 talk, You Can't Type a Concept: Why Keywords Still Matter, spurred me to redouble my focus (and my learning with regard to content and SEO) on search intent, on-page SEO, and knowing the audience’s needs as well as possible.

Then, once the show is over, I create a theme to encapsulate the entire event by asking myself three questions:

1. What did I learn that I can apply right away?
2. What can I create and share that’ll make me more valuable to teammates, clients or prospective clients?
3. How does this information make me better at [X]?

For the 2013 show, my answers were…

1. I don’t need to know everything about SEO to begin to take on SEO-related work, which I was initially reluctant to do.
2. Content that highlights my in-depth knowledge of the types of content that resonates with audiences I’d researched/was familiar with.
3. It makes me more aware of how how search, social, and content fit together.

After hearing Avinash’s quote, I had the theme in my head, for me and for the handful of brands I was consulting at the time: “You won’t win by running the competition’s race; make them chase you.”

MozCon 2013: Avinash Kaushik of Google

This meant I helped them think beyond content, social media, and SEO, and instead had them focus on creating the best content experience possible, which would help them more easily accomplish their goals.

I’ve repeated the process each year since, including in 2016, when I doubled-down on Featured Snippets after seeing Taking the Top Spot: How to Earn More Featured Snippets, by Rob Bucci.

You can do the same.

It all begins with attending the show and being willing to step outside your comfort zone.

What say you?

Are you MozCon bound?

Count me in!

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SEI Student Spotlight: Eli Bowles

Eli Bowles has been in the renewable energy industry for over six years, but enrolled at Solar Energy International (SEI) to jump start his solar training! Eli is currently a Renewable Energy Instructor at the College of Southern Idaho with a background as a Wind Turbine Technician and training specialist.  He brings years of practical and technical experience to his students but came to SEI to deepen his knowledge of solar as the growing industry is where many of his students will seek careers.

“Training at SEI is going to have a phenomenal impact on my classes. Our program is limited compared to SEI. We don’t have the ability to look and see and feel like you do at SEI. The labyard here is so immense and awesome, it is really expanding my knowledge. I have so many ideas to take back to campus to incorporate the hands on learning I’ve experienced these past two weeks” Eli shared of his solar training experience.

He is currently completing his Solar Professionals Trainer Certificate through SEI’s Solar Professional’s Certificate Program which connects quality instructors to SEI’s best classroom curriculum and lab training experience to see first hand what it takes to put on a full solar training program at his college. In the fall, Eli will return to campus armed with his career experience, SEI Certificate Training and his incredible passion for all things renewable to instill his students with a solid education and some sage career advice.

 

 

 

The post SEI Student Spotlight: Eli Bowles appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

Delta-Montrose Electric Association and SEI Bolster Solar in the Schools Program

Solar Energy International’s (SEI) Solar in the Schools program secured solid funding this month, when Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) committed $150,000 to the program. DMEA’s Board of Directors voted unanimously at their regular May board meeting to funnel $150,000 from the co-op’s Unclaimed Capital Credit fund to support the installation of solar electric systems at five high schools within DMEA’s service territory.

Where does DMEA’s Unclaimed Capital Credit fund come from? As a member-owned cooperative, DMEA returns excess revenue back to its members in the form of capital credits. In some cases, DMEA is unable to locate members who have moved away from the service territory or passed away. After 5 1Ž2 years, capital credits that remain unclaimed are transferred to a fund for charitable and educational purposes.

“We make every effort to find members who are no longer on our system so we can return their capital credits. Sometimes, it’s just not possible. We recognize that money still belongs to the members of the co-op and we’re responsible for making sure it is funneled back into the community. DMEA’s board has specifically focused on supporting educational programs. Solar in the Schools was a natural fit,” explained DMEA CEO, Jasen Bronec.

SEI’s Solar in the Schools program works in local schools to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) training while focusing on renewable energy. Recently SEI began a solar training program in Delta and Paonia High Schools. This semester-long training includes online and practical training. With the funding from DMEA, SEI can now go beyond just teaching students about solar energy. Solar electric systems will be installed at each high school within DMEA’s service territory so students can gain real-life experience with building the array, monitoring production, and better understanding their energy consumption.

“SEI’s Solar in the Schools high school training program empowers students at a critical time in their lives by creating technical career pathways for students to excel in whichever direction life takes them. We are thrilled by DMEA’s decision to fund the PV installations in area high schools. Having these PV systems in place will be a powerful tool to engage young people with hands-on technical training right in their school,” says Kathy Swartz, SEI Executive Director.

SEI will provide technical assistance in the design and installation of the 10 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at Delta High School, Hotchkiss High School, Cedaredge High School, Olathe High School, and Montrose High School. (Paonia High School already has funding for a 10kW PV system through other grants secured through SEI.) “We are really excited about the continued efforts to introduce solar in schools and we look forward to expanding various opportunities for our students,” said Kurt Clay, assistant superintendent/public relations at Delta County School District.

Through the program, students will be involved in various steps of the project, including determining the best site, design and construction of the system, or energy production evaluation. The actual installation will be conducted by an installation company(ies) in DMEA’s service territory. The installation partners will be selected through a rigorous RFP process, led by SEI.

“This is great news for a lot of reasons,” says Ben Graves, a science teacher at Delta High School. “At Delta High School, thirty students have completed ‘Introduction to Solar Electric Design and Installation,’ a vocational course that we partner with SEI to offer to high school juniors and seniors. Many of these students are looking for careers in the growing local solar industry. Furthermore, having the PV systems on campus will enhance students’ understanding of the relationship between their energy consumption and the potential for local renewable production. The installation of the 10kW array and our subsequent real-time monitoring will infuse rich STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math) principles and practices into our AP Physics, AP Environmental Science, and vocational Solar Electric Design programs.”

________________________________

About DMEA: DMEA is a rural electric distribution cooperative, located in Montrose, Colorado. DMEA was originally founded in 1938, as Delta-Montrose Rural Power Lines Association. A board of directors from nine districts covering three counties governs the cooperative. DMEA serves approximately 32,000 residential, commercial and industrial meters, on over 3,000 miles of cooperative owned distribution line.

About SEI: For over 25 years, Solar Energy International (SEI) has provided industry-leading technical training and expertise in renewable energy to empower people, communities, and businesses worldwide. With over 55,000 alumni worldwide and named the 2015 IREC Accredited Clean Energy Training Provider of the Year, SEI is the leader in renewable energy education. Visit www.solarenergy.org

The post Delta-Montrose Electric Association and SEI Bolster Solar in the Schools Program appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

SEI Job Opportunity: Director of Curriculum and Instruction

Vision of Curriculum and Instruction Department

SEI’s mission is to provide industry-leading technical training and expertise in renewable energy to empower people, communities, and businesses worldwide. Since 1991, SEI has provided training for all levels of professionals within the solar electric industry; whether a person is new to the industry or wants to expand their skills—from grid-tied to battery-based to O&M, from residential to utility-scale to microgrids. The Curriculum and Instruction Department is responsible for ensuring that our online, in-person, hands-on, and contract trainings are industry-leading and delivered to SEI’s standards in the appropriate language.

Purpose of Director of Curriculum and Instruction

To fulfill this vision, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction ensures that the Department has the resources and direction that it needs to develop new curriculum for our general public and contract trainings, update over 500 hours of existing curriculum, and maintain state-of-the-art content and quality in solar training. This position ensures that the presentation of the curriculum maintains SEI’s standards and is taught by experienced instructors who uphold SEI’s vision. As the Director of the Curriculum and Instruction Department, this position ensures that budgets and deadlines are met and represents the team at the Operating Committee through a two-way communication flow. Additionally, this position plays a key role in curriculum development.

This is a full-time, salaried position that is based remotely. Approximately half of the time will be managing the team and the other half of the time will be developing curriculum. This position will supervise SEI’s curriculum developers (currently six, plus project-specific subject-matter experts), Workshop Coordinator, Director of Online Learning, Online Course Manager, and the Solar in the Schools Manager.

This position will co-instruct one online and in-person training each year.

Responsibilities

• Represent Curriculum and Instruction Department in Operating Committee meetings
• Ensure a two-way flow of communication between the Department and the Operating Committee
• Report on the Department’s work-plan and budget
• Uphold the organization’s vision and strategic plan and develop a plan for how their department achieves these goals
• Liaison with Lab Yard Manager, Student Services Team, Business Development Managers, and Contract Training Manager
• Create and update the Department’s annual work-plan and priorities, and oversee and coordinate Department members’ schedules to effectively accomplish annual goals
• Update existing and develop new curriculum in conjunction with the team
• Work with the Department to ensure that ongoing deadlines and priorities are clear and workflow processes are followed
• Complete annual reviews and contracts for Department members
• Modify, create, and implement work-flow processes for Paonia-based and remote team members
• Oversee document archival and storage processes
• Schedule, create agenda for, and moderate Department meetings, and participate in sub-committees as required
• Assist with the planning for SEI’s annual PV instructor training
• Assist with planning conference curriculum and instruction, and represent SEI at industry conferences
• Ensure IREC and DPOS requirements are met and assist with yearly renewal documentation
• Coordinate Curriculum Development Team involvement with SEI Engineering and Professional Services contracts
• Develop relationships with potential industry partners, donors, and contractors
• Develop and manage annual department budget and review and submit Department members’ timesheets and invoices
• Develop and update portfolio of content that can be offered as contract trainings
• Keep a pulse on the wellness, efficiency, and needs of the Department

Preferred skills and abilities

• Five years experience managing technical teams of at least 10 people, especially of remote workers
• Two years training or experience in adult education, both in-person and online
• Two years experience in solar industry
• Ability to travel up to 15% of the year, including to Paonia, Colorado, and to conferences
• Excellent written, verbal, and organizational skills
• Ability to communicate efficiently with co-workers via email and Skype
• Working knowledge of Spanish language is preferred but not required
• Experience and expertise using MS PowerPoint and MS Office, Adobe Illustrator, CAD, Google drive and other industry-specific software
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in related field

Salary and benefits:

Salary dependent on experience. Additional benefits include health insurance, paid time-off, and a retirement package.

To Apply:

Applications due July 21, 2017, with a start date of approximately early September. To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume, and three references letter in one combined PDF to jobs@solarenergy.org.

The post SEI Job Opportunity: Director of Curriculum and Instruction appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

6 CRO Mistakes You Might Be Making (And How to Fix Them)

Posted by lkolowich

You just ran what you thought was a really promising conversion test. In an effort to raise the number of visitors that convert into demo requests on your product pages, you test an attractive new redesign on one of your pages using a good ol’ A/B test. Half of the people who visit that page see the original product page design, and half see the new, attractive design.

You run the test for an entire month, and as you expected, conversions are up — from 2% to 10%. Boy, do you feel great! You take these results to your boss and advise that, based on your findings, all product pages should be moved over to your redesign. She gives you the go-ahead.

But when you roll out the new design, you notice the number of demo requests goes down. You wonder if it’s seasonality, so you wait a few more months. That’s when you start to notice MRR is decreasing, too. What gives?

Turns out, you didn’t test that page long enough for results to be statistically significant. Because that product page only saw 50 views per day, you would’ve needed to wait until over 150,000 people viewed the page before you could achieve a 95% confidence level — which would take over eight years to accomplish. Because you failed to calculate those numbers correctly, your company is losing business.

A risky business

Miscalculating sample size is just one of the many CRO mistakes marketers make in the CRO space. It’s easy for marketers to trick themselves into thinking they’re improving their marketing, when in fact, they’re leading their business down a dangerous path by basing tests on incomplete research, small sample sizes, and so on.

But remember: The primary goal of CRO is to find the truth. Basing a critical decision on faulty assumptions and tests lacking statistical significance won’t get you there.

To help save you time and overcome that steep learning curve, here are some of the most common mistakes marketers make with conversion rate optimization. As you test and tweak and fine-tune your marketing, keep these mistakes in mind, and keep learning.

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6 CRO mistakes you might be making

1) You think of CRO as mostly A/B testing.

Equating A/B testing with CRO is like calling a square a rectangle. While A/B testing is a type of CRO, it’s just one tool of many. A/B testing only covers testing a single variable against another to see which performs better, while CRO includes all manner of testing methodologies, all with the goal of leading your website visitors to take a desired action.

If you think you’re "doing CRO" just by A/B testing everything, you’re not being very smart about your testing. There are plenty of occasions where A/B testing isn’t helpful at all — for example, if your sample size isn’t large enough to collect the proper amount of data. Does the webpage you want to test get only a few hundred visits per month? Then it could take months to round up enough traffic to achieve statistical significance.

If you A/B test a page with low traffic and then decide six weeks down the line that you want to stop the test, then that’s your prerogative — but your test results won’t be based on anything scientific.

A/B testing is a great place to start with your CRO education, but it’s important to educate yourself on many different testing methodologies so you aren’t restricting yourself. For example, if you want to see a major lift in conversions on a webpage in only a few weeks, try making multiple, radical changes instead of testing one variable at a time. Take Weather.com, for example: They changed many different variables on one of their landing pages all at once, including the page design, headline, navigation, and more. The result? A whopping 225% increase in conversions.

2) You don’t provide context for your conversion rates.

When you read that line about the 225% lift in conversions on Weather.com, did you wonder what I meant by "conversions?"

If you did, then you’re thinking like a CRO.

Conversion rates can measure any number of things: purchases, leads, prospects, subscribers, users — it all depends on the goal of the page. Just saying “we saw a huge increase in conversions” doesn’t mean much if you don’t provide people with what the conversion means. In the case of Weather.com, I was referring specifically to trial subscriptions: Weather.com saw a 225% increase in trial subscriptions on that page. Now the meaning of that conversion rate increase is a lot more clear.

But even stating the metric isn’t telling the whole story. When exactly was that test run? Different days of the week and of the month can yield very different conversion rates.

For that reason, even if your test achieves 98% significance after three days, you still need to run that test for the rest of the full week because of how different conversion rate can be on different days. Same goes for months: Don’t run a test during the holiday-heavy month of December and expect the results to be the same as if you’d run it for the month of March. Seasonality will affect your conversion rate.

Other things that can have a major impact on conversion rate? Device type is one. Visitors might be willing to fill out that longer form on desktop, but are mobile visitors converting at the same rate? Better investigate. Channel is another: Be wary of reporting “average” conversion rates. If some channels have much higher conversion rates than others, you should consider treating the channels differently.

Finally, remember that conversion rate isn’t the most important metric for your business. It’s important that your conversions are leading to revenue for the company. If you made your product free, I’ll bet your conversion rates would skyrocket — but you wouldn’t be making any money, would you? Conversion rate doesn’t always tell you whether your business is doing better than it was. Be careful that you aren’t thinking of conversions in a vacuum so you don’t steer off-course.

3) You don’t really understand the statistics.

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started learning CRO was thinking I could rely on what I remembered from my college statistics courses to run conversion tests. Just because you’re running experiments does not make you a scientist.

Statistics is the backbone of CRO, and if you don’t understand it inside and out, then you won’t be able to run proper tests and could seriously derail your marketing efforts.

What if you stop your test too early because you didn’t wait to achieve 98% statistical significance? After all, isn’t 90% good enough?

No, and here’s why: Think of statistical significance like placing a bet. Are you really willing to bet on 90% odds on your test results? Running a test to 90% significance and then declaring a winner is like saying, "I'm 90% sure this is the right design and I'm willing to bet everything on it.” It’s just not good enough.

If you’re in need of a statistics refresh, don’t panic. It’ll take discipline and practice, but it’ll make you into a much better marketer — and it’ll make your testing methodology much, much tighter. Start by reading this Moz post by Craig Bradford, which covers sample size, statistical significance, confidence intervals, and percentage change.

4) You don’t experiment on pages or campaigns that are already doing well.

Just because something is doing well doesn’t mean you should just leave it be. Often, it’s these marketing assets that have the highest potential to perform even better when optimized. Some of our biggest CRO wins here at HubSpot have come from assets that were already performing well.

I’ll give you two examples.

The first comes from a project run by Pam Vaughan on HubSpot’s web strategy team, called “historical optimization.” The project involved updating and republishing old blog posts to generate more traffic and leads.

But this didn’t mean updating just any old blog posts; it meant updating the blog posts that were already the most influential in generating traffic and leads. In her attribution analysis, Pam made two surprising discoveries:

• 76% of our monthly blog views came from "old" posts (in other words, posts published prior to that month).
• 92% of our monthly blog leads also came from "old" posts.

Why? Because these were the blog posts that had slowly built up search authority and were ranking on search engines like Google. They were generating a ton of organic traffic month after month after month.

The goal of the project, then, was to figure out: a) how to get more leads from our high-traffic but low-converting blog posts; and b) how to get more traffic to our high-converting posts. By optimizing these already high-performing posts for traffic and conversions, we more than doubled the number of monthly leads generated by the old posts we've optimized.

Another example? In the last few weeks, Nick Barrasso from our marketing acquisition team did a leads audit of our blog. He discovered that some of our best-performing blog posts for traffic were actually leading readers to some of our worst-performing offers.

To give a lead conversion lift to 50 of these high-traffic, low-converting posts, Nick conducted a test in which he replaced each post’s primary call-to-action with a call-to-action leading visitors to an offer that was most tightly aligned with the post’s topic and had the highest submission rate. After one week, these posts generated 100% more leads than average.

The bottom line is this: Don’t focus solely on optimizing marketing assets that need the most work. Many times, you’ll find that the lowest-hanging fruit are pages that are already performing well for traffic and/or leads and, when optimized even further, can result in much bigger lifts.

5) You base your CRO tests on tactics instead of research.

When it comes to CRO, process is everything. Remove your ego and assumptions from the equation, stop relying on individual tactics to optimize your marketing, and instead take a systematic approach to CRO.

Your CRO process should always start with research. In fact, conducting research should be the step you spend the most time on. Why? Because the research and analysis you do in this step will lead you to the problems — and it’s only when you know where the problems lie that you can come up with a hypothesis for overcoming them.

Remember that test I just talked about that doubled leads for 50 top HubSpot blog posts in a week? Nick didn’t just wake up one day and realize our high-traffic blog posts might be leading to low-performing offers. He discovered this only by doing hours and hours of research into our lead gen strategy from the blog.

Paddy Moogan wrote a great post on Moz on where to look for data in the research stage. What does your sales process look like, for example? Have you ever reviewed the full funnel? “Try to find where the most common drop-off points are and take a deeper dive into why,” he suggests.

Here’s an (oversimplified) overview of what a CRO process should look like:

• Step 1: Do your research.

• Step 2: Form and validate your hypothesis.

• Step 3: Establish your control, and create a treatment.

• Step 4: Conduct the experiment.

• Step 5: Analyze your experiment data.

• Step 6: Conduct a follow-up experiment.

As you go through these steps, be sure you’re recording your hypothesis, test methodology, success criteria, and analysis in a replicable way. My team at HubSpot uses the template below, which was inspired by content from Brian Balfour’s online Reforge Growth programs. We’ve created an editable version in Google Sheets here that you can copy and customize yourself.

Don’t forget the last step in the process: Conduct a follow-up experiment. What can you refine for your next test? How can you make improvements?

6) You give up after a "failed" test.

One of the most important pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten around CRO is this: “A test doesn’t ‘fail’ unless something breaks. You either get the result you want, or you learned something.”

It came from Sam Woods, a growth marketer, CRO, and copywriter at HubSpot, after I used the word “fail” a few too many times after months of unsuccessful tests on a single landing page.

What he taught me was a major part of the CRO mindset: Don’t give up after the first test. (Or the second, or the third.) Instead, approach every test systematically and objectively, putting aside your previous assumptions and any hope that the results would swing one way or the other.

As Peep Laja said, “Genuine CROs are always willing to change their minds.” Learn from tests that didn’t go the way you expected, use them to tweak your hypothesis, and then iterate, iterate, iterate.

I hope this list has inspired you to double down on your CRO skills and take a more systematic approach to your experiments. Mastering conversion rate optimization comes with a steep learning curve — and there’s really no cutting corners. You can save a whole lot of time (and money) by avoiding the mistakes I outlined above.

Have you ever made any of these CRO mistakes? Do you have any CRO mistakes to add to the list? Tell us about your experiences and ideas in the comments.

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BP Sees Large Drop in Global Coal Production, Small Drop in Consumption

According to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy[i], global coal production dropped by 6.5 percent in 2016 with a slower drop in global coal consumption of 1.7 percent. Coal consumption was 2.1 percent higher than coal production in 2016, lowering the level of global coal stocks. China, the world’s largest energy consumer and emitter of greenhouse gases, consumed the less coal in 2016 than in any of the previous six years, dropping its consumption by 1.6 percent from the previous 2015. In the United States, coal consumption dropped by over 8 percent to a level last seen in the early 1980s. Not all countries lowered their coal use, however. Turkey and the Ukraine, for example, increased their use of coal, as did Indonesia and some other Asian countries.

Coal’s share of the energy market dropped from 28.9 percent in 2015 to 28.1 percent in 2016, but it still remained the number two fuel of choice among the world’s economies.

BP also noted that global carbon dioxide emissions stayed fairly flat over the past 3 years, growing at only 0.1 percent in 2016. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions were down by 2.0 percent and China’s carbon dioxide emissions were down 0.7 percent, but remained over 70 percent higher than those of the United States. India, the world’s third largest emitter increased its carbon dioxide emissions by 5.0 percent (113.7 million metric tons)—the largest quantitative increase of any country. The chart below depicts the growing carbon dioxide emissions in Asia as those countries become more industrialized.

Source: Bloomberg

Global Energy Demand

In 2016, global energy demand was weak, growing by just 1 percent, about half the average growth rate of the past decade. Almost all the growth came from fast-growing developing economies, with China and India together accounting for half of the growth.

Energy demand in India increased 5.4 percent and in China 1.3 percent—about a quarter of its 10-year average growth rate. The increase in demand in China, however, made it the world’s largest energy growth market for the 16th consecutive year.

Oil Production and Consumption

Global oil production increased 0.5 percent in 2016 while consumption rose 1.6 percent, exceeding the ten-year rate of growth of 1.2 percent. Oil consumption was 4.8 percent higher than production, reducing oil inventories. India’s oil consumption increased 7.8 percent (by 325,000 barrels a day), and China’s increased 3.3 percent (by 395,000 barrels per day). U.S. oil demand increased by 0.5 percent (100,000 barrels per day). Demand from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of industrialized nations, grew 0.9 percent in 2016, compared to a 2.3 percent increase in the oil demand of non-OECD countries.

Weak oil prices affected the growth in oil production—an increase of just 446,000 barrels per day. Production from OPEC grew by 1.2 million barrels per day (3.2 percent), with considerable increases from Iran (703,000 barrels per day), Iraq (434,000 barrels per day) and Saudi Arabia (363,000 barrels per day). Non-OPEC oil production decreased by 780,000 barrels per day (1.5 percent). The largest declines in oil production were in the United States (down 403,000 barrels per day), China (down 310,000 barrels per day) and Nigeria (down 276,000 barrels per day).

Natural Gas Production and Consumption

In 2016, global natural gas consumption increased by 1.5 percent—slower than the 10-year average rate of 2.3 percent. There was strong growth in natural gas consumption in the European Union (up 7.1 percent), the Middle East (up 3.5 percent) and China (up 7.7 percent).

Global natural gas production rose by just 0.3 percent. This was the weakest growth in natural gas production in 34 years, outside the financial crisis in 2008. Lower gas prices resulted in decreased natural gas production that fell for the first time since the shale gas renaissance began. Australian gas production increased by 25 percent, however, as new LNG facilities were commissioned. LNG production is expected to increase as additional new LNG projects are brought online.

Non-hydroelectric Renewable Energy

The supply of wind, solar and other non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources increased by a combined 14 percent in 2016, but represented just 3.2 percent of the global energy mix. Wind grew by almost 16 percent and solar power grew by almost 30 percent in 2016. According to BP, China slightly surpassed the United States last year as the world’s biggest non-hydroelectric renewable power producer. The Asia Pacific region and the Europe & Eurasia region were the largest producing regions for non-hydroelectric renewable power.

Nuclear Power 

In 2016, nuclear power generation increased by 1.3 percent—51.2 terawatt hours. China’s nuclear output accounted for almost all the growth in nuclear power, increasing by 24.5 percent. China’s incremental growth in nuclear power was the largest from any country since 2004. Belgium increased its nuclear power generation by 66 percent in 2016—by 17.4 terawatt hours. The United States is still the largest generator of nuclear power in the world.

Hydroelectric Generation

Hydroelectric power generation increased by 2.8 percent in 2016—increasing by 119.6 terawatt hours. The largest incremental increases came from China and Brazil.

Conclusion

While markets somewhat shifted in 2016, it is not clear how much is structural and whether the change will persist. What is clear is that despite non-hydroelectric renewables growing at a double digit pace, they still do not make up much of the energy market (just 3.2 percent), while fossil fuels remain dominant, making up 86 percent of the global market in 2016.

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[i] BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2017, http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/using-the-review/downloads.html

The post BP Sees Large Drop in Global Coal Production, Small Drop in Consumption appeared first on IER.

Paint by Numbers: Using Data to Produce Great Content

Posted by rjonesx.

It's not every day that I write about content. To be honest, it's probably a once-a-year kind of thing. I will readily admit that I'm a "links are king" kind of SEO, and have been since starting in this industry more than a decade ago. However, I do look over the fence from time to time to see if the grass is greener and, on occasion, I actually like what I see. Prior to joining Moz, I was a consultant at an agency like many of you reading this blog post. More often than not, one of the key concerns of my clients was what to write about. It seems that webmasters and business owners alike can easily acquire writer's block after trudging through the uninspiring task of turning a list of keywords into website copy. So where do you look when you have run out of words

Numbers.

Alright, stick with me here. I imagine for some of you the idea of poring over numbers to remedy writer's block would be like trying to stop a headache with a brick. It's adding insult to injury. What I hope to show you in the next couple of paragraphs is how data can be an incredible source of inspiration in writing, especially if you can hit a few key principles: expose, relate, surprise, and share.

Expose

Chances are your business or website generates some amount of unique, first party data that you can expose to the world. It might be from analytics, your rank tracker like Moz, or from raw user data if you operate a forum. I'll give you examples of how you might tap into these resources (especially when they don't seem obvious or plenteous) but let's start with a canonical example of one great use of first-party data in an industry that seems directly at odds with — dating.

The thought of quantifying and analyzing our love lives seems like an oxymoron of sorts. However, one of the most successful uses of data for content has been produced by the team at OK Cupid, whose "data"-tagged blog posts have earned thousands of solid backlinks and enviable traffic. The team at OK Cupid accomplishes this by tapping their huge resource for unique data, generated by their user base. Let's look at one quick example: Congrats Graduates: No One Gives a Sh*t.

The blog post is fairly straightforward (and not particularly long) but it used unique data that isn't really available to the average person. Because OK Cupid is in a privileged position, they can provide this kind of insight to their audience at large.

But maybe you don't have a million customers with profiles on your site; where can you look for first party data? Well, here are a couple of ideas of the types of data your company or organization might have which can easily be turned into interesting content:

• Google Analytics, Search Console data and Adwords data: Do you see trends around holidays that are interesting? Perhaps you notice that more people search for certain keywords at certain times. This could be even more interesting if there's a local holiday (like a festival or event) that makes your data unique from the rest of the country.
• Sales data: When do your sales go up or down? Do they coincide with events? Or do they happen to coincide with completely different types of keywords? Try using Google Correlate, which will identify keywords that follow the same patterns as your data.
• Survey data: Use your sales or lead history to run surveys and generate insightful content.
  • A clothing store could compare responses to questions about personality by the colors of clothing that people purchase (Potential headline: Is It True What They Say About Red?)
  • A car parts store could compare the size of certain accessories to favorite sports (Potential headline: Big Trucks and Big Hits)
  • An insurance provider could compare the type of insurance requested vs. the level of education (Potential headline: What Smart People Do Differently with Insurance)

There are probably tons more sources of unique, first-party data that you or your business have generated over the years which can be turned into great content. If you dig through the data long enough, you'll hit pay dirt.

Relate

Data is foreign. It's a language almost no one speaks in their day-to-day conversations, a notation meant for machines. This consideration requires that we make data immediately relatable to our readers. We shouldn't just ask "What does the data say?", but instead "What does the data say to me?" How we make data relatable is simple — organize your data by how people identify themselves. This can be geographic, economic, biological, social, or cultural distinctions with which we regularly categorize ourselves.

Many of the best examples of this kind of strategy involve geography (perhaps because everyone lives somewhere, and it's pretty non-controversial to make generic claims about one location or another). Take a look at a map of your country and try not to look first towards where you live. I'm a North Carolinian, and I almost immediately find myself interested in anything that compares my state to others.

So maybe you aren't OK Cupid with millions of users and you can't find unique data to share — don't worry, there's still hope. The example below is a rather ingenious method of using Google Adwords data to build a geographical story that's relatable to any potential customer in the United States. The webmasters at Opulent used state-level Keyword Planner to visualize popularity across the country in a piece they call the "State of Style."

When I found this on Reddit's DataIsBeautiful (where most of these examples come from), I immediately checked to see what performed best in North Carolina. I honestly couldn't care less about popular fashion or jewelry brands, but my interest in North Carolina eclipsed that lack of interest. Geography-based data visualization has produced successful content related to in sports, politics, beer, and even knitting.

If you walk away with any practical ideas from this post, I think this example has got to be it. Fire up an Adwords campaign and find out how consumer demand breaks down in your industry at a state-by-state level. Are you a marketer and want to attract clients in a particular sector? Here's your chance to write a whitepaper on national demand. If you're a local business, you can target Google Keyword Planner to your city and compare it to other cities around the country.

Surprise

Perhaps the greatest opportunity with data-focused content is the chance to truly surprise your reader. There's something exciting about learning an interesting fact (who hasn't seen one of these lying around and didn't pick it up?). So, how do you make your data "pop?" How do you make numbers fascinating?

Perspective.

Let's start with a simple statistic:

The cost of ending polio between 2013 and 2018 is

$5.5 Billion Dollars.

How does that number feel to you? Does it feel big or little? Is it interesting on its own? Probably not, let's try and spice it up a bit.

$5.5 billion dollars doesn't seem that much when you realize people spend that amount on iPhones every 2 weeks. We could rid the world of polio for that much! Or, what if we present it like this...

In this light, it seems almost insane to spend that much money preventing just a couple more polio cases relative to the huge gains we could make on malaria. Of course, the statistics don't tell the full story. Polio is in the end-stages of eradication where the cost-per-case is much higher, and as malaria is attacked, it too will see cost-per-case increase. But the point remains the same: by giving the polio numbers some sort of context, some sort of forced perspective, we make the data far more intriguing and appealing.

So how would this work with content for your own site? Let's look at an example from BestPlay.co, which wrote a piece on Board Games are Getting Worse. Board games aren't a data-centric industry, but that doesn't keep them from producing awesome content with data. Here's a generic graph they provide in the piece which shows off average board game ratings.

There really isn't much to see here. There's nothing intrinsically shocking about the data as we look at it. So how do they add perspective to make their point and give the user intrigue? Simple — apply a historical perspective.

With this historical perspective, we can see board game scores getting better and better up until 2012, when they began to take a dive — the first multi-year dive in their recorded history. To draw users in, you use comparison to provide surprising perspectives.

Share

This final method is the one that I think is most overlooked. Once you've created your fancy piece of content, let your audience do some leg work for you by releasing the data set. There's an entire community of the Internet just looking for great data sets which could take advantage of your data and cite your content in their own publications. You can find everything from All of Donald Trump's Tweets to Everything Lost at TSA to Hand-drawn Pictures of Pineapples. While there is a good chance your data set won't ever be used, it can pick up a couple of extra links in the event that it does.

Putting it all together

What happens when a webmaster combines these types of methods — exposing unique data, making it relatable and surprising, even for a topic that seems averse to data? You get something like this: Jeans vs. Leggings.

This piece played the geography card for relatability:

They compared user interest in jeans to give perspective to the growth of demand for leggings:

Slice.com reveals their first-party data to make interesting, data-driven content that ultimately scores them links from sites like In Style Magazine, Shape.com, and the NY Post. Looking at fashion through the lens of data meant great traffic and great shares.

How do I get started?

Get down and dirty with the data. Don't wait until you end up with a nice report in your hand, but start slicing and dicing things looking for interesting patterns or results. You can start with the data you already have: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Adwords, and, if you're a Moz customer, even your rank tracking data or keyword research data. If none of these avenues work, dig through the amazing data resources found on Reddit or WebHose. Look for a story in the numbers by relating the data to your audience and making comparisons to provide perspective. It isn't a foolproof formula, but it is pretty close. The right slice of data will cut straight through writer's block.

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The Wind Lobby’s Policy Two-Step

On Tuesday, June 20, 2017, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced the publication of a report touting wind as both a cost-effective and a reliable source of energy for the electricity grid. The report—which was supported with AWEA funding and written by the Analysis Group—presents energy-source diversity on the grid as a necessary good and wind’s emergence as a product of market forces. IER’s initial response can be found here and today we will follow up with an addendum from IER’s chief economist, Dr. Robert Murphy. Murphy’s commentary can be read below:

The Analysis Group report illustrates the familiar two-step in current energy policy debates. On the one hand, it is considered critical to keep in place measures such as state-based Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and federal measures such as the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP). On the other hand, when critics object to the distortions that these measures cause, the defenders rush to claim that these policies have very little impact on the energy sector, because the major changes are all driven by market fundamentals. So which is it? If most of the changes really are driven by the market, then the interventionists shouldn’t defend RPS, PTC, CPP, and so on with such vigor.

To reiterate, this contradiction is evident in the Analysis Group report. Ostensibly the report seems to knock down the objections to interventions that promote wind and solar power, by claiming that the major changes in the electricity generation sector are caused by fundamentals, rather than government policies:

[T]he evidence shows that electricity markets have undergone a fundamental shift, one that is dominated by fundamental forces of electricity market supply, demand, and pricing that took shape with the shale gas boom and the economic downturn in the 2008-2009 period, but that also includes the rapid growth of renewables as costs declined and performance improved. (Analysis Group, p. 23)

We don’t need to argue about this conclusion. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the Analysis Group is right.

In that case, the strong advocates for RPS, PTC, CPP, and other energy-sector interventions are wrong for thinking their favorite measures are actually that important. They should join forces with IER, where we have been saying all along that we don’t favor one energy source versus another. Rather, our point has always been that a neutral tax and regulatory environment—where policymakers and officials do not penalize or reward particular technologies—is most conducive to consumer well-being.

Besides making economic sense, the de-politicization of energy markets would reduce conflict. For example, the Analysis Group authors are somewhat cynical about certain players in the debate, when they write that objections about grid reliability sometimes “reflect a first line of defense by opponents of the changes underway in the industry” (p. 2). But this claim only makes sense in the context of political interventions. If we had a relatively free market in energy, any industry group who saw their market share decreasing would have no one to complain to, except their customers. The only reason we are even talking about “offense” and “first line of defense” in this context, is that certain groups are advocating policy measures where the government will intervene to help some energy sources and hurt others. No wonder the debate has become politicized.

As an additional point, we should clarify the Analysis Group’s contention regarding consumers and diversification. On page 2 they write: “The ongoing diversification of generation supply…has lowered wholesale electricity costs in most parts of the U.S. and has contributed to recent declines in consumers’ overall cost of living.”

No doubt, the supporters of the PTC and other renewables mandates would take this as evidence that their policies help consumers.

However, it’s not the diversification of energy sources per se that causes electricity prices to drop. It depends on the cause of the diversification. For example, the fracking boom did indeed cause the price of natural gas to fall, which led to a shift away from coal-fired and into gas-fired power plants. This is a market phenomenon which clearly benefits consumers; falling costs of production ultimately lead to lower retail prices in a competitive market.

But if a change in the energy mix results not from market forces but instead from political mandates, then this raises energy prices for consumers (other things equal). And finally, to the extent that tax credits lower wholesale (and hence retail) prices, note that this outcome is still less advantageous than if a general tax cut were given to the energy sector as a whole (rather than singling out specific producers).

The post The Wind Lobby’s Policy Two-Step appeared first on IER.