I market, distribute, and manufacture, industrial durable goods online. I find niche markets and dominate them online with my freakish self-taught Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. My websites typically appear at #1 on Google for hundreds of searches. Finding the niche markets are quite a challenge. If you find one, and you're good at marketing and SEO, you have a chance to hammer away at the category and dominate it online. For example, you can't use your SEO and marketing skills to attempt to take over the cell phone sales industry online... there are too many players and other companies that spend millions of dollars PER MONTH to stay at the top of that highly competitive heap. The same goes for car tires and stereos. If you find something unusual that INDUSTRY purchases for higher dollars (and the category is not dominated yet) you have a shot at becoming the king of that category online. More and more purchasing is done online as time passes. I do NO advertising or trade shows anymore... ONLY dominance through buying the best domain names and well-designed SEO. The biggest mistake that businesses make with their websites is that the owners want to impress their friends and clients with a cool looking website. Those typically don't get found in online searches. My websites are VERY wordy. When combined with proper SEO, they get my phone to ring. If you're not found at the top of a Google search, it doesn't matter how fancy your website is. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in this should do their OWN learning about SEO and NOT hire an SEO company. Most are scammers that follow a formula that makes them a quick buck, not you. Google's online webmaster info and tutorials will teach you 90% of what you need to know. The rest is trial and error... and occasional luck.

I design my own websites, do my own SEO programming, photography, logos, product design, drafting, prototype building, marketing, manufacturing (mostly by outsourcing to local vendors to keep my equipment costs and labor rates down), account sales, billing, invoicing, building maintenance, hiring of short term crew help... and I answer my phone to make a sale even if I'm on a rare vacation. I have no employees or partners. I have 65 websites, 3 of which are for a new niche market that I discovered yesterday. I'll have that dominated in about 4 months. I began learning SEO in 2000 out of desperation and truly launched things in 2008 with the ability to find other niche products.

You

can do it

too.

 

I work in the IT field so I understand the SEO angle, but what products, specifically, do you market and distribute? And manufacturing is a big one - what kinds of things? Do you care to share a web site or two? Just got me curious.....

 

I don't share specific information about my exact approach. I sent a private message to BurgXK8 to keep this thread from getting too far off track. Anyone is welcome to contact me about how I make a living, or Jaguar stuff, via private message.

 

Jeff--hope you understand where these questions are coming from. We admire your escapades with the XKR and I am sure that most of us here (including me) would love to be having the same fun. But the where-with-all to do so (at least the financial aspect) eludes most working stiffs. The consequences that would enable me to drop 50 large on a vehicle project would be something like unexpectedly receiving a humongous amount of "fun money" that I would more likely consider completely disposable--like buying a winning lottery ticket or hitting some freak jackpot in Vegas. Consequently there is normal curiosity when an average Joe who has been struggling much of his life (at least by your account) suddenly takes on a hobby more often reserved for the rich and famous.

No criticism from me for you wanting to do whatever you want with your time and money but you have to admit it begs our curiosity. Now pardon me while I buy that lottery ticket so I can have the same fun!

Doug

 

Guys, checkout the recent models forums, there lots of people have bought/leased new cars where $50K depreciation in 3 years isn't uncommon, they may have some tips as well.

 

No problem. I like telling people how I make a living, and even give free lessons to friends as to how to do it. I've gotten so busy this year that I gave away a start-up that is a lot of fun, but I couldn't justify the time expenditure vs. profit per item made as compared to another product category. My friends still work in my factory as they make the goods (no rent needed to pay my direction) and get it off the ground. They'll eventually take the equipment to their own place. I still support them with credit card processing and advising, but that makes me feel good and it's nice to have some folks in the building besides just me.

The amount of money that I've spent is like lottery money to me, too! My fiancee has purchased 2 new cars in the 9 years we've been together and my total vehicle expenditures will still be less than hers during that period of time (that's kind of how I justify it). The truck that I drove for YEARS still sits beside our garage. It is a 1974 Mazda rotary pickup truck that runs on propane and has a supercharger (go figure). It's a fun little beater! Since I keep vehicles for a long period of time, I look at this like a one-time large expenditure in the direction of a vehicle.

The biggest reason that I have been so good about posting pictures along the way is because I KNOW that many would like to do this to their car, but they may never have the opportunity to do so. I feel like it would be a waste to not share in some of the adventure. I am so used to being poor that I used to live my life through others' escapades online. I've been a member of many car forums over the years, usually not having been able to actually participate very much because I never had one of the vehicles that belonged in the club.

I am a poor man that has had a recent run of luck and decided to have some fun. =) I'm not completely ridiculous, though, I spend much more on building my business and helping my fiancee update the house with its first new washer/dryer and swamp cooler, etc.

I have a lot of catching up to do. At the age of 49, this is my very first nice car. You should see the crap that I've driven... for decades.

 

That's one spiffy diffy! Alan at Falconworks adjusted the shims with great accuracy so that testing of the differential yielded positive dye results. Notice how the pinion gear contact marks in the dye are centered and don't run off of the edges. That will yield a long lasting, quiet differential.

 

The rear end goes up now. Here are a few pics:



Thanks to Steve M. for the awesome brakes!



The tail lenses are going in, too.



This is my official Jaguar guard dog, Teddy. You mess with the Jag, Teddy messes with you. Haaaah!



Of course, Photobucket's editing software isn't working again, so Teddy's image is sideways. It's OK, though, 'cause he'll knock you over and this is how you'll see him anyway. =)

 

Jeff,
What's a swamp cooler and is it something I should get for my wife. Do I need to buy the swamp first and then worry if it's too warm ?
I hugely admire what you have done with your car - can't hope to do that but maybe if I start with a very small swamp -

 

David

A swamp cooler is an air conditioner for people who don't have any humidity. When your life involves 120 F heat and 4% humidity on a good day then normal A/C just doesn't cut it. Instead you blow air through a sponge with the tap dripping.

The irony of it is that the very last place you would want a swamp cooler is in a swamp. Just as anyone in Washington DC.

$0.02

N

 

Thanks Jeff. Here in the UK, 99.99% of the population don't have (or need) air conditioning and we don't really get hot and humid at the same time. One day a year we get hot, and the other 364 we get humid but we call it rain.
Thanks for the explanation.
Cheers,
David.

 

Except for when my wife and I visited England late in 2002 and London was having some kind of godawful heat wave and the hotel we were staying in (Hilton London Mews if I recall) was not air conditioned. Worse we had brought clothes expecting cool weather!

Doug

 

I dunno - spent a summer over there in 2006 studying and it was plenty hot. The Bodlian library system at Oxford has several buildings, with older stone ones being ok as they had decent ventilation and/or were kept cool by the massive amounts of stone (such as Radcliffe Camera). But the newer ones were poorly ventilated. Seems the more efficient modern buildings are so well insulated that they can't shed the heat in the summer months.

 

Yes - a bit of exaggeration I guess, but we certainly don't get extremes of temperature and/or humidity that you get in parts of the US or other countries. Most modern hotels and office blocks etc. do have air-con, but most of our housing stock is fairly old (our house was built around 1750 and that's not that unusual) and it just isn't worth "retro-fitting" an aircon system for the relatively few days it would be appreciated.
In guess I was lucky - I bought my XK8 six weeks ago, and that was followed by a month of dry & warm (roof down) weather.
But ...... I'm sitting here now watching the rain pouring down with temperature of 18 degrees. That's Summer !!

 

David, anytime you are tired of the rain in the UK, you are welcome to visit Memphis where it is usually in the 90s with about 60% humidity this time of year. We are having an unusual cool spell at the moment with highs in the 80s.

Jeff, hurry up and get finished with your car. I'm waiting for you to finish your project so I can make a quick run through AZ to swap our cars. Both are silver. Same same.

 

The rear end is now up in the car, re-installed. Brake lines are measured for. Pics probably tomorrow. =)

 

Look what I found on Youtube:

 

This thing is so loud - you hear the SC whine before you see the car. Jeff, is it as loud inside the car? It sure looks like fun though.

 

Mmmmmmm, want!

 

It is not as loud on the inside. Those videos do a better job of showing what the twin screw kit sounds like. Everyone says that they can hear the thing coming from a long distance away... my friends know when I'm coming down the street and magically appear outside their doors to hop into the car. Haaah!