I read a lot about how to have a good blog, how to get more readers, how to retain readers, etc. Almost all of the articles I read say to pick a niche, and stick with it. They all say don’t be too broad, if you’re going to write about optimizing for search engines, keep it on topic. I tend to write a little bit on the broader side of things, but I do have a niche.

What Is My Niche?

My niche is topics of interest for entrepreneurs, and I think I would be safe to say that young entrepreneurs in particular would have an even greater interest in my blog. You have to keep in mind that my blog is not meant to be just guides and tips for entrepreneurs, but things that an entrepreneur may have an interest in. For example, your average entrepreneur likes money, business, and nice things. I think the categories of topics I have generally fit the interest of most entrepreneurs:

• Cars: Whether it’s a slightly easier easier goal like the new BMW m3, or you’re shooting to get a Dodge Viper with a matching helicopter, cars are many times a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.
• Business/Blogging/Web Sites: This category is about blogging tips, learning to use the web better, other websites out there, and web business.
• Design: We like nice looking things, whether it be a good looking website, or a piece of artwork.
• Friends & Family: This is more of the personable part of the my blog. My domain name is my name, you should be able to know more about me as a person than just some anonymous articles.
• Investing: We’ve all heard the phrase “It takes money to make money”. That’s what investing is all about. I’m definitely more in the beginning stages of learning about investing (like stocks, etc), so join me in my journey.
• Making Money: This is about ideas for making money, how much money I’ve made doing something, etc.
• My Business: I own a plethora of businesses (ActiveTuning, Tri Megatech, this blog, Video Experiment), and have had my share of projects in the past. I am constantly looking for new opportunity, and I love to share what I can.
• Off Topic: General off topic articles that I like. This can range from a really funny video to an article that really doesn’t match the content from other categories.
• Real Estate: Lets be honest, the last 10 years of real estate has been crazy. I’ve been trying to follow the market as much as possible, and I’m also looking for my first place to buy. This also includes more general real estate content like mansion hunting in Northern Viriginia.
• Reviews: This could be a review of anything from a new product I purchased to a website of interest (or paid) that I wanted to take a further look into.
• Technology: This new era of business revolves around technology. People have the opportunity to start a business in just a few clicks of a mouse. I talk about technology like eCommerce platforms, but even things like the latest plasma TV.
• Ramblings: This is similar to “Off Topic” but more related to my personal information.

I’d be interested to get a better idea of what my readers background and interests are. Are you an entrepreneur? If so, do these topics interest you? Are there other topics that you think I should be covering? If you’re not an entrepreneur, what interests you about this blog?

My business partner for Tri Megatech turned me on to a comedian that has now become my favorite. His name is Brian Regan. Surprisingly he is a clean comic (meaning no cursing), but I find his comedy to be gut-hurting funny. If you’ve never heard anything from Brian Regan, watch this video from the Improv (and let me know what you think!):

Ok I realize that my last name “Pitlyuk” is not easy to spell.  This pretty much takes everybody that doesn’t bookmark me or doesn’t RSS feed me out of the return visitors list because most people won’t remember how to spell my domain name.  I have now registered DavePit.com, which points to my real domain name.  DavePit.com is easy enough to remember, right?  So now you guys have no excuse to not come back (that is unless you don’t like my content ;)).

Oh, and just FYI - My name is pronounced “Pit Luck”.  Easy enough

A new U.S. budget carrier, Skybus, is going to start offering one-way plane tickets for $10. The carrier currently flies to locations like Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale, Vancouver, Boston, Seattle, and more. The carrier will offer at least 10 seats on each flight that can be had for $10 (not including taxes and fees), keep in mind these are advanced purchases. You are still going to pay a lot for last minute fairs.

Skybus is an interesting concept in budget carriers. They are subsidizing their expenses by only offering ticket sales online (so no call center overhead), charging extra for bag check and priority seating, and offer advertising throughout the inside and outside of the planes. One of the plane’s will display a Nationwide Insurance logo on the fuselage, on top of ads on the tray tables, overhead bins, restroom doors, and refreshment cart.

I realize $10 for a plane ticket is hard to pass up, but it’s just a promotion. Would you be willing to keep paying less for plane tickets in return for worse service and less amenities? What about advertising plastered everywhere? I would to an extent. This all reminds me of the movie Idiocracy. I’m just waiting for everything to have advertising, and Gatorade to replace water.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve been looking for some sort of sports car for just the summer. The main thing is I wanted to be able to drive it, but minimize my cost as much as possible since I only plan on keeping it through late summer. I will still be writing a post on how this can be done, but in the meantime, check out the 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10 I just bought!

I’ll have more pictures when it arrives as I have to have it shipped from NY state. The car has under 15,000 original miles, and is showroom quality. This will now be a fun summer, and it will be nice to have two Vipers in the garage.

Last Updated 4/29/08

Update 11/8/2007: I will be continually updating this post as I go through more vehicles, so feel free to bookmark and check back from time to time.

Cars have always been a huge source of inspiration for me. In fact, my day job is near a Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati dealership, and I find myself visiting at least once every week or two for my own personal inspiration. So for somebody into cars, it’s interesting to take a look at my progression of vehicles so far:

1998-2004: 1994 Nissan Altima GXE

This was my very first car, and my entrance into the world of Nissan. I started doing slight modifications before modifications to imports got big. Simple things like exhaust, audio, etc made the car slightly sportier for its time.

2003-2004: 2003 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE

With 245hp from the factory, the 3.5 SE Altima was a sleeper. Nobody expected that it would be that fast, but it was classified as a sport family sedan. This car was the single thing that was the link to launching one of my companies (ActiveTuning), as I had met my business partner through Altima forums. I ordered it from the factory, and while waiting the 3 months for it to arrive, I was already amassing parts in my bedroom. By the time it was sold, I had completely re-done the car and put it into a few shows. It had full exhaust (intake, headers, race pipe, catback), custom audio setup, painted dash, wheels, suspension, the full works.

2004-2007: 2004 Nissan 350Z

My 350Z was the first time that I had just completely re-done a car and went all out. Over $40,000 was spent in the car (after the price of the car) for modifications. All of the work was done by myself and people helping me, so that was a great satisfaction. The car was pushing over 400hp to the wheels after installing an APS twin turbo. Other major modifications were body kit, many carbon fiber parts, in-car PC, wheels, suspension, fiberglassed audio system, and much more. If you could see it, it had probably been changed.

This was my car at Hot Import Nights 2006, notice the fiberglassed sub box in the trunk.

This was my in-car PC. It was a fully functional PC running Windows XP with GPS.

2005-2006: 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10

This Dodge Viper was purchased solely for the purpose of using it for a business venture called SmashMyViper.com. The car was stock other than wheels, but of course it’s a Viper, and it’s still a beast with a V10 pushing 400hp.

2005-2006: 1994 Toyota Camry

The 94′ Camry seems out of place in the list, but it was purchased for the purpose of a “beater car”. A high-mileage, inexpensive, but reliable car used to keep the miles off of the expensive cars. I drove this for about a year before I had the itch to drive around in a car that was more fun on a daily basis.

2006-2007: 1998 Honda CBR600 F3

Late last summer I started getting into dirt bikes with a friend. This eventually lead into motorcycles, so I picked this up as a starter bike. It had a little over 10,000 miles, never dropped, perfect condition for $3,000…an excellent deal considering I sold it for more than I paid for it.

2006-2007: 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe

The 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe was my daily driver vehicle for almost 2 years. It was essentially Infiniti’s version of the 350Z, but with more luxury. The car is loaded with navigation and 19″ OEM wheels from a newer model G35.

Update: 11/8/2007: I have since updated the wheels on the car and installed 19″ Volk SF Challenges! I plan on keeping the rest of the car stock.

2007-2008: 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10

I purchased the car back in May and wrote about it here.

2008-2008: 1997 Chevrolet C5 Corvette

I picked up the Corvette for my 2008 Summer car. I will plan on selling it starting around July-August. With 345hp stock, but much more added from the various modifications, this car is pretty beast-like…and could closely compare to the Viper in terms of straight-line performance. I was originally planning on purchasing a newer generation C6 body Corvette, but decided to spend half the price on this.

2007-Current: 1999 Honda Accord Coupe EX

Just purchased this car in November as a new beater car.

2007-Current: 2002 Honda CBR600 F4i

Replaced my old CBR600 F3 with this newer body style F4i.

2008-Current: 1997 Dodge Viper GTS

Well, the Corvette did not last long before I realized that I would much rather have a Viper in the garage. I decided to pick up my actual dream car version of the Viper, which is a blue 97 GTS with white stripes. With 450hp, and only 6,300 miles on the odometer when I picked it up, it was ready to go! The only thing I’ve done so far was add a Corsa exhaust and Random Tech high flow cats. It makes it much louder, and should give about 30 more hp to the car.

Have an old vehicle you want to get rid of? Learn how to donate your car or donate your boat to your favorite charity. Car donation services are a great way to give back and receive a tax break and other car donation benefits too.

Most of us have all heard this phrase before, right? Reuters reported on Tuesday that the number of households considered “ultra-rich” have boosted up 23%, and there are now over 1 million classified into this category.

What makes you “ultra-rich”?  You have to have a net worth of $5 million, not including your primary residence. Things you can look at are cash, stocks, cars, investment properties, valuables, etc.  The number of households classified in this category went from 930,000 in 2005 to over 1 million in 2006, but that’s not the crazy part.  Just 10 years ago in 1996, there were only 250,000 households that could be considered “ultra-rich” in the US.

So the important question to look at is what has been fueling the net worth growth of the US in the past 10 years?  A large part of that I’m sure has been the crazy spike in real estate value over the last 5 years.  Other factors that tie into economic growth are stock market gains and the market for private companies.  Let’s take Doubleclick for example.  The company was taken private by Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity in 2005 for $1.1 billion.  2 years later in on April 13th, 2007, Google acquires Doubleclick for $3.1 billion cash.  2 years, $2 billion profit.

Another important thing to note is that “the wealthiest households are business owners”.  I’m not quite in that category just yet, but I’m working my way up there!

I was at a store the other day and happened to find a Dora The Explorer toy that I found to be funny. Here’s what it looks like as it comes:

The one I saw had the basket in the front missing:

Obviously the one piece that represents something phallic is just the piece that holds the basket onto Dora.

Here’s a comparison shot next to each other:

Maybe it’s just my dirty mind, but I found it to be hilarious!

Update: I was doing a little internet research and found another dirty Dora The Explorer sexual toy:

Last weekend I went back home to NJ. I’m originally from there, and my mom and brother are still there. I decided to take my ex-girlfriend Crystal to dinner at Acacia (Horrible website, they should hire Tri Megatech), which considers themselves progressive American cuisine. The restaurant is located in Lawrenceville, NJ, right across the street from Lawrenceville prep school, a top private school in the country.

Acacia considers themselves fine dining, with appetizer, dinner for two, and desert, the bill came out to be around $100 after tip. One thing to note is they are BYOB, which means no liquor license. If you want wine with your dinner, it’s your job to bring it yourself.

Appetizer

We started off with garlic roasted shrimp set on a creamy mascarpone polenta. I’ve never had mascarpone polenta before, but it was very good. We ate most of it before I realized that I forgot to take a picture!

Dinner

For dinner I had the grilled black angus filet mignon. It’s set on top of a smoked bacon potato and sweet potato tart. It’s topped off with onion rings.

Crystal had the chicken breast filled with truffled goat cheese. She thought it was very tasty, but it would have been better without so much breading.

Desert

This was another one that I forgot to take a picture of before eating some of it! The desert was excellent, we split the chocolate mousse dome on a triple chocolate brownie with a side of mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate covered strawberry:

Atmosphere

Acacia is a pretty small restaurant, that is a bit hidden. Here’s a couple pictures:

The After Party

After dinner we met up with a couple of friends at Top Dog in Cherry Hill, NJ for some drinking and dancing. Top Dog is a great place where you can just hang out and drink at the bar if you don’t feel like dancing, or pay $5 to go upstairs to the dance club.

I tried two new restaurants this weekend that I thought I’d share:

Ted’s Montana Grill

Ted’s Montana Grill is owned by Ted Turner, yes the same guy you’re thinking. I was told by a co-worker to try this place because they had a really good burger. It’s not your ordinary burger though, it’s made from bison (buffalo) meat. I’ve never had bison before, so I decided to give it a shot after doing some indoor go-karting. I must say, this ended up being one of my top 3 burgers of all time. Bison meat tasted so good, it was more lean than beef so after eating a big burger I felt a good full.

For under $11, it won’t break the bank, but will offer a finer dining experience. Ted’s is located in the mid-east and eastern US, I definitely recommend trying to bison burger.

J.R.’s Stockyards Inn

The second place I went to was J.R.’s Stockyards Inn, located in McLean, VA. My friend was with me, and really wanted to go as he stated they had an excellent prime rib sandwich. The restaurant is bit more upscale, so when we got there we found out that sandwiches were not allowed to be served in the dining area. We moved to the bar, and ordered our sandwiches. I got the chicken sandwich, which was really good. The cheese was melted perfectly, which I love.

If you have any recommendations for dining in the Northern Virginia area, I’m always all ears!