So every designer has that one project in their closet that they never like to talk about. About 2 years ago I decided I wanted to try my hand at some passive income with AdSense. I didn’t know anything about it really on top of not knowing what type of site to do or how to make one dynamic enough to update. So it was all a big exercise and learning process.I managed to squeeze out a “Hot or Not” type site about vanity plates called CoolPl8z. It’s something that interests me, something I could get plenty of material for living in VA and something that by nature, people are vane about in the first place so they’d be open to sharing. So I hacked together some PHP tutorial scripts, a simple DB and got an AdSense account.I did some simple SEO techniques , posted on some auto forums and for about 6 months watched my traffic go from 1 or 2 hits (by myself) to about 10 a day over the course of a few months. The I started getting linked up all over… AutoBlog, Yahoo, Cool Site Of The Day and tons of blog posts about the site or plates on it. It’s grown a ton over the last 2 years and I’m #1 and #2 for most vanity plate terms now.This week the Associated Press wrote an article about vanity plates and interviewed me and many plate owners about the subject. It was a nice little surprise to finish off the weekend seeing my daily traffic go from about 500 uniques a day to way over 10,000 as of 9pm EST. CHKITOUT

Just about 3 years ago I bought 1 of 2 remaining 2004 Nissan Maximas left on the lot at the end of January 05. This was something I told myself I would NEVER EVER do. Why?Reason #1 - I told myself I would never buy a new car because they lose their value instantly. This is the 2nd time I have gone against this thought having bought a new Civic with my wife around 2000.Reason #2 - I live by the rule of NEVER EVER buying anything that is first generation… cars… iPhones… Playstations. There are always bugs to be worked out and the 1st gen people are always the willing guinea pigs. The 2004 Maxima was a complete redesign.Be that as it may, I had sold my 4Runner and wanted to get into a very nice 4 door sporty sedan. I drove a lot of cars and during a clearance event I drove the Maxima which had a ton of bells and whistles and lots of HP for the money. Sold. I bought the extended warranty to help with the 1st gen issue. I’m glad I did because they had lots of issues and recalls.. most of which were fixed in the 2005 model (of course).One of the recalls was on the tires, but it was through Goodyear not Nissan. I’d have had some issues with my tires recently and was ready to by some new ones so I started searching forums for the best ones. Then I discovered the recall on the RSA models for 2004-2005 Maximas! Goodyear would replace them for free do to side wall splitting which I have read were causing blowouts. So I called the local Goodyear place, they knew all about it and I made an appointment the next day. I picked up my car later that day and all was well. Best news I think I’ve had since my son was born a year ago. I felt like I had won the lottery for the first time!