About mid-Feb this year I started a website about Niagara Falls. I have been sitting on this idea for some time while driving around Niagara Falls answering the same questions to the tourists in the back of my car - and that maybe I should take my lazy tendencies and combine my weird skill set and this new AI thing and create a website that explains it all.
(spoiler: Canada is better - don’t forget your passport)
A few late nights later my idea was a reality:
The Falls
It’s a directory about Nigara I added a chicken wing index for prices, a page about where to park and border wait times. There’s more so go visit the falls before you visit the falls.
One site done, and it’s early early days so traffic is not anything to write home about yet, so I while I was waiting I built another website, and then another and oh heck, what’s one more?
I’m now up to six sites. or seven. or five - I forget. All posts are written by AI and edited by yours truly after the child goes to bed.
Just One More
After figuring out how to make one site, all those ideas in the back of my head came rushing out and spilled out onto the keyboard.
I ended up with 7 sites created to date ( more on that in a bit)
I then had the bright idea to “ build in public ” and share every detail of every site and how much this project cost over the years and the goal: hang up the uber keys in 2 years and replace my income with my little empire of websites.
I’m shooting for $100 a day of online income. Will I get there? Dunno, and that’s half the fun.
So much fun that I made a website to track it all:
BW is googling “Have husband committed” while I write this.
All the numbers for all the sites are available at www.jims.one
You can see the intro where I explain the deal, the daily earnings (zero, of course) and the profit and loss. I’ve made enough for a coffee so far. Trouble is that I have spent about 100 coffee’s worth figuring out all this out - the hosting costs and the API fees. Don’t show this to BW. I am begging you.
If you want to help with this project there’s a share button on the site and also a link to the Amazon where I get a small cut if you click the button first and then buy all the ~~crap from china~~ stuff you’ve been meaning to get.
The numbers are still bright red for now, but that’s okay as it’s early days still and BW believes in me. Besides, as I write this I still have 695 more days to go. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
So bookmark jims.one and keep coming to check.. or subscribe to the matching newsletter at scamless.substack.com where I write weekly about the failures and successes of this silly little side project.
Done now, right? Oh NO.
After a month of wild west spending I have got the budget for all my websites down to about the same price as taking the child to see the new Spongebob movie. BW is only slightly miffed at this point.
For the most part, these cost pennies per day to auto update and babysit themselves with some scripts and gremlins and other stuff I don’t really understand but my new best friend Claude does.
I still have room on my server and the recipe for all this down pat at this point - so I made a few more sites:
Linernotes
I got tired of the streaming apps and the lack of reviews on records and gear so I made my own. My favorite part is the rating system for the gear reviews and the chances your wife will let you own it: The Wife Acceptance Factor is a real thing - go look it up.
I just wanted a little program to shuffle albums because everything is playlists and I’m old- I like albums - not lists. I got a bit carried away.
Meet Sparkles
This one started with the child: For Christmas I was gifted a robot vacuum. It worked for a week and then when my 60th rolled around I was gifted a fancier one that actually - the child named her sparkles.
soo….
I made a robot vacuum review site where you can pick a name for your new robot vacuum:
ramseeker.com
Memory price tracking. Not that big of a deal now compared to when it was launched in 1997 but I still had the domain and room on my server..soo..why not?
we have that at home
We’re coming to the age where the “Hey Dad!” statement is followed by “Can I have a….(insert expensive item here) and this gave me an idea - review the crap that gets asked for with a yes/no/meh verdict and offer substitutes or sometimes just a plain no. Because sometimes even Dad says no.
The ASSMRB
Making this site was the most fun I have had in a while. I started with an archive of my late father’s diecast car collection. I took photos of each and every one - over 1000 cars - and sold them all on eBay. It took me 3 years. But then what to do with all these photos?
At first I thought I would just post them all, one by one. Trouble is, I can’t identify a 55 Chevy from a 42 Ford. I asked AI if they could help with this - it said “I’ve got this”.
AI didn’t have this.
It turns out AI isn’t all there yet and can’t match a photo of a Ford Mustang and write a matching title. It was saying that the Mustang was a Chevy Panel Van with Cragar Wheels.
Then I thought: Let’s lean into the errors and make it look as if this was a government website that can’t even identify a car correctly. Thus the ASSMRB was born:
ASSMRB
American Society of Scale Model Rebuttal Bureau
Est. 1966 · Official Trucks Cars Trains and Belt Buckles Identification Division (OTCTBBID)
Bureau Hours: Wednesdays, 6:00am – 7:00am
Closed on holidays, near-holidays, and days following holidays.
The Bureau observes all federal, provincial, and self-declared holidays.
My hope is that those on the internet that know about these old cars will Rebut these obvious errors and leave a comment correcting me so I can change the Title to the correct one and have the the site updated accordingly.
When that happens the red button turns green and Dad’s headshot is replaced with mine. I hope Dad would have found the humor in this as I try to save a bunch of photos of cars and trucks that were important to him.
That’s it. All six - or seven websites - all made when the child and wife go to bed the past few months and I’m left to my own devices with an internet connection and our credit card number taking to a machine like it’s my new best friend
Want to help?
Bookmark jims.one and look me up on my 62nd Birthday. I will be out ubering I bet.
Or share this post on the facebooks or twitters or whatever the child is asking she can join (and we say no) that’s popular with all the cool kids these days.
Until Next (website),
TH and Co.
