I’ll be the first to say that Hampton Roads is probably on the bottom of the list when it comes to design and interactive hotspots. While I like to consider myself an innovator and decent designer in the area (it’s up for debate), there have only been a handful of other respectable shops around town IMHO. With the addition of new blood and AIGA over the last few years I really feel like this is changing. We have had some amazing speakers with AIGA over the last few months and next Friday’s presentation by Stefan Sagmeister will set the bar yet another level hirer. If you live in the area or even DC, Richmond or even the Raleigh area you owe it to yourself to try and attend the event. It isn’t everyday that someone as good as Sagmeister will be in our area. http://www.aigahamptonroads.org/events/34
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!
I’ve been freelancing for about 6 months now full time. Last summer I switched over to a 1 pager portfolio in the interest of getting spidered come the following year when I had planned to go freelance. It only took a few months for me to get into the top 10. Last fall I started getting emails daily for help with Flash. Whether it be a large company looking to help fight a fire on a tight deadline or a small studio looking to expand their capabilities, I was being found.The traffic to my site has continued to grow over this year and I decided to look into some keywords today. I’m number 1 on a bunch of Freelance + Actionscript mixes. I’m really not the best AS guy out there but I’ve been fortunate with all my choices to date. Having that extra organic traffic is a good thing to have as a freelancer. So for all you 1 page haters out there, here is another example of why they work.
