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Droneblog is where you look when you need the best drone reviews, recommendations, tips, and guidance.
It’s a place for drone enthusiasts of all kinds – those just getting started, aspiring professionals, and everyone in between.
We offer inspiration and practical tips to help you on your journey with drones.
What We Do
We stay up-to-date on breaking news in the drone industry, keeping you abreast of new releases, and everything you need to know about how to use those shiny new drone models.
We put each drone that we write about through a series of test flights designed to show its performance, its feature lineup, and what it’s like to actually fly.
Our recommendations are based on objective testing data and experience from hands-on, real-world testing.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help our readers become better drone pilots, from selecting the right drone for their needs to mastering all the ins and outs of getting the best performance possible out of their drone.
Why Should You Trust Us?
Experience
Most of our team and our contributing writers are experienced drone pilots with certifications either with the FAA or the European or UK equivalent.
Some of our contributors own and operate drone imaging businesses, while others are actively pursuing drone piloting excellence as a hobby. We fly and test the drones we write about.
Independence
Droneblog is owned by Ciobanu, LLC, a New York LLC formed and managed by Droneblog Founder, Vali Ciobanu. Ciobanu, LLC owns 100% of Droneblog. The Droneblog.com domain is also owned by Ciobanu, LLC.
Meet the Team
Droneblog is operated by a small team of passionate drone enthusiasts. In fact, we’re obsessed with drones.
Vali Ciobanu (Founder & Manager) is responsible for ensuring our content and reviews deliver the absolute best recommendations and most up-to-date tips, user guides and news. He continually looks for ways to improve our content coverage, reviews, and recommendations. Vali has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. Linkedin
Elizabeth Ciobanu (Editor-in-Chief) is responsible for making sure each and every piece of content is up to snuff. In addition to writing content, she helps with the vision casting and direction planning for the development of the website. Elizabeth has a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science and a Master’s Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
Gabriel Mihalcea (FPV Pilot / SEO Expert) Gabriel Mihalcea is a passionate FPV pilot, and expert drone pilot and content writer. He specializes in expert tips and how-tos. He works on fact-checking, and following specific guidelines across all articles on Droneblog before publishing. In addition, Gabriel is an FPV drone pilot who is in love with FPV and standard GPS drones and has a passion for writing that fires up his devotion to creating content and helping new drone pilots get into this hobby.
Nicole Malczan (Content Writer) is a heavy-hitting content writer, specializing in writing about drone laws and covering the latest news in the drone industry. Her writing background began in marketing, but once she was bitten by the drone bug, a gradual shift occurred. Malczan has written about drones for more than five years for various websites and shares her expertise and insights with the Droneblog community.
Peter Karanja is a freelance writer and drone enthusiast. He enjoys writing about how to fly drones safely, how drone pilots can advance their skills, and the latest news in the drone industry.
Keith Davis (Drone Business Owner) is the Pilot and Owner of a small Aerial Services Company in Tennessee. He has been a part of the drone community since it’s inception. Youtube
Daniel Cepeda (Professional Drone Pilot) is a drone pilot certified by EASA. He has completed several drone courses, including certification for the Phantom 4 and Parrot Disco AG drones. Linkedin
How We Make Money
Droneblog is a business. In order to pay for our operational expenses and allow the Droneblog team to earn a living, Droneblog.com uses referral links.
When you use our links to purchase a product or service Droneblog may earn a referral commission.
These referral links don’t cost you anything extra.
They simply tell the respective company that you came from Droneblog.com. These referral links financially support Droneblog and let us keep doing what we do best, creating great content.
Our referral links may influence which products we review and write about (in addition to where those products appear on Droneblog). However, our referral links do not affect our recommendations or reviews.
Companies don’t pay us to review their products and they cannot pay us to give positive reviews.
Referral Links & Relationships
The following table has a list of referral relationships Droneblog.com has with the products and services we review and write about.
In addition, we’ve listed brands that sent us free products.
| Brand | Affiliate partnership | Sent us free products/services |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot Institute | Yes | Yes |
| UAV Coach | Yes | Yes |
| DronePro Academy | Yes | Yes |
| John Peltier Photography | Yes | No |
| Drone Launch Academy | Yes | No |
| Altitude University | Yes | No |
| BetaFPV | Yes | Yes |
| Potensic | Yes | Yes |
| Ruko | Yes | No |
| Autel Robotics | Yes | No |
| EXO Drones | Yes | No |
| DJI | Yes | No |
We periodically update the above table.
However, if it looks like something is missing or if you have any questions on our financial interests, company relationships, referral links, free products, or anything else, please send us an email here.
We participate in a variety of referral link programs.
Some programs are with eCommerce platforms (like Amazon), some are through a 3rd party network (like ShareASale), and some are direct with a drone or other product manufacturer or service provider.
In many cases, there are different referral programs available that sell the same product.
We choose our referral programs based on a combination of where we think our readers most want to purchase from and on the commission rate.
Amazon.com Disclosure
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Still Have Questions?
If have any questions please don’t hesitate to send us your questions here.
Origin Story
Husband and wife team Vali and Elizabeth started Droneblog in 2014. Drones were just starting to enter the scene, and Vali immediately saw the huge potential for them to make change in a big way.
With a passion for domain names and drones, Droneblog was born. The only thing was, neither Vali nor Elizabeth had any idea how to go about developing a blog.
Droneblog was built little by little relying primarily on interviews, press releases and guest posts, enough to begin building a brand and a web presence, but not enough to live up to its potential.
Then in October 2020 they were inspired to take Droneblog in hand, do the hard work of learning how to run a blog properly, and completely overhaul the whole site, which included a lot of purging, pruning and rethinking the blog from the ground up.