2009 December | Blogger Boon

Having a lot of trouble figuring out my niche….

I am having a lot of trouble finding my niche… I am reading through blogs about blogging and they are trying to explain it to me; It needs to be…

Something I Am Passionate About
Something Net-workable
Something I can compete in
Something with a high search volume
Something I can monetize

… Well I am already stuck at #1… What am I passionate about? I dont know. I have friends that have passions. My buddy is obsessed with hunting, my mother is obsessed with travel and being a pilot, my father could rant for ages about his profession, my sister loves law…

.. I mean sure, I LIKE a lot of things, but what am I Passionate about?… ok I’ll try to make a list…

Skiing
Gaining Weight (I want to have a hot body lol)

Ok well i guess thats a start… I look forward to winter every year because it means Ski season is coming. I love the feeling I get from it, I swooping through turns, leaning up against the mountain on a sharp carve. Feeling the weightless rush as I float over rolling hills on the way down a crisp corduroy slope, the balance, the precision, the form. Maybe I will create a “Skiing” Category on my blog and blog about my skiing experiences.

Weight Gain… My new years resolution almost every year for the past… oh, I don’t know, 8 years, has been to gain weight, get in the gym, and to get a nice hot body. Before I started, weighing in at a measily 118lbs, there werent too many people who could find the figure of a holocaust victim attractive… For 2009, again, my new years resolution was to gain weight…. And well I actually did it this time. I started counting calories, I found out what I needed to do to gain, and got my ass in the gym at least 3 times a week. To show for it I have gained about 12lbs of solid mass. I feel great, get sick less often, and look much better than I used to. But 130lbs isn’t enough. My 2010 New Years Resolution is to hit 150… no wait, 160lbs… I should be able to gain 30lbs in an entire year if I take this seriously. Maybe my blog can help with that. OK, I’ll add a new category called “Weight Gain” to help me stay motivated. It may become a good resource for other “hard gainers” like me as the internet is FULL of weight loss solutions and hardly any weight gain solutions…

Moving on past things I am passionate about… Are these

Networkable? Check- there are a TON of people just like me who love these things
Somthing I can compete in? Hopefully- If my writing style is good enough, and my content is interesting enough, I may just be able to compete in these topics.
Something high in search volume? Yes- I’m pretty sure a TON of people ski and a TON of skinny guys like me are out there trying to gain weight.
Something I can monetize? I think so… I’ll have to do some digging for this one. Potentially products that help me with my weight gain could be advertised, I wouldn’t want a page full of diet pill ads!.. I am sure I could find something for skiing but it might take some digging.

Well I guess I have done it then… You’ve just seen me walk through the process of developing my niche. It was easier than I thought!… Am I going to have to redesign my website for just these things? Should I keep this blog for separate / personal posts and create a new blog dedicated to weight gain and skiing? Yea I think that would be a good idea. I’ll try and come up with a new separate blog for these two niche topics.

Rain-X Latitude vs Anco Contour Premium vs Bosch Icon

Rain-X Latitude vs Anco Contour Premium vs Bosch Icon windshield wiper blade comparison
Updated Jan 25th 2010 – See bottom

Not all bracket-less wiper blades (also called beam blades) are created equal. I have tried Anco Contour Premium, Bosch Icon and now Rain-X Latitudes and I must say that Rain-X Latitude Wiper Blades are by far, not only the worst bracket-less wiper blades I have ever had, they come close to being the WORST wiper blades I have ever had, in general.

Compared to regular bracket (old fashion) wiper blades, Rain-X Latitude Blades cost twice as much. That’s where the differences stop. They do not work any better than traditional wipers and they do not last longer either. At high speeds they also skip just like traditional blades. I started getting bad streaks after only 1 month of ownership and not even during bug season. Transitioning to winter, the rubber blades gets to hard they become completely useless (anything below 30 Degrees Fahrenheit). I must blast my windshield with hot air for at least 10 minutes until they soften up to the point of being able to remove fluids, and if I stop using defroster mode to heat the windshield, they stiffen up and become useless again (dangerously useless)!

In comparison to other bracket-less wiper blades (Bosch Icons and Anco Contour Premium blades), well, there is no comparison. Both the Bosch and Anco have a different spoiler design. Where Rain-X Latitudes have their spoiler right in the middle of the blade, making them symmetrical (and useless), Anco and Bosch put theirs on 1 side, making them work more like a real spoiler (see image). The effect of this real “spoiler” design creates down force on the blade and thus, the faster you go, the better these wipers work. Never will these skip on the highway, even in the winter.

Find Bosch Icon Wiper Blades Cheap (click here)

Bracketless Wiper Blade

I have found the Bosch Icons to have better longitudinal structural rigidity than the Anco Contour Blades. Where on 20″+ plus blade sizes the Anco’s may start to skip at the ends where they aren’t quite stiff enough, however annoying it is, it doesn’t seem to effect performance too much. Both of these work well in the winter and stay soft enough to remove water even during very cold temperatures. Ice buildup is not a problem and one smack against the windshield after a night of freezing rain is usually enough to completely clear them. I feel that while the Anco’s perform very well, the Bosch Icon’s seem slightly better in almost every way (maybe its just me).

An annoyance some people find (with all bracketless blades) is that the ends of the blades do not make as good contact as traditional wiper blades do. You may find that the last 2-3 inches of the blade smear a bit on certain lengths of the wiper stroke. For example, on my old Saab, the last 4 inches of the blade wouldn’t make contact on the lower right hand side of my windshield (but would for about 70% of the rest of the stroke), leaving that area either dirty or wet. These areas of no contact are nowhere near my line of sight, and thus, do not bother me, but some people find it very annoying.

In my opinion, there are no better blades than the Bosch Icons and they will always be my blade of choice. Not only do they outperform other bracket less blade designs, they last, for me, about twice as long as the cheap old fashion blades and completely outperform anything I have tried in cold winter weather.

What do you think of these blades? What other kinds are out there?

Update: Here is an interesting development… It was a pretty gusty day today in Maine (Blades are just over 4 months old at this point). As I was driving along the highway at about 60MPH, a gust of wind hit and literally blew apart my Rain-X Latitude Windshield Wiper into pieces. The entire spoiler on one side of the frame flew off, taking with it the clip that holds the rubber wiping blade in place, in turn which caused the rubber wiping blade to slide 1/2 way out of the frame! This was pretty dangerous as it was raining very hard and I was left with only a fraction of my wiper actually clearing my windshield, not to mention this is absolutely ridiculous for a $17 blade! See the picture below. VIP auto parts (where I bought the blade) was kind enough to replace it for me free of charge.. So we’ll see how long this new Rain-X blade lasts. Unfortunately they don’t carry any other bracket-less wipers at that store so I’m stuck with this brand for at least another 6 months or so (if they last that long!)

Update 2!:Ok so my new Rain-X Latitude replacement wiper blade (because the old one exploded a few weeks ago) has started leaving a large 3″ wide smear section directly in the middle section of the blade, right in front of my view through the windshield, for the entire sweep. Yes I have tried cleaning the blade… I am dumbfounded. In my entire history (over the years) with these I am now on my 3rd set of Rain-X blades and the quality has remained consistently horrible…

Broken Rain-X Latitude Wiper

(click to enlarge)

Brushing up on some SEO

So as I continue on learning about blogging, I turn to my next book, “SEO Warrior”. This should teach me how to drive traffic to my site through search engine optimization. My content is useless if no one can find my site, and if no one can find my site, that means no income. After this book, once I am actually getting traffic, I will read a book about how to more effectively use tools like adsense and other advertising / affiliate programs. I’m not sure what book that will be, but if anyone has a suggestion, I’d be glad to hear it!

When I am finished with SEO Warrior I’ll be sure to write a review.

Spinach Instead of Pasta?

People seem to be ordering spinach in the place of pasta a lot recently. Maybe there was something on the today show telling people that this was a good idea? Well guess what, it IS a good idea. Spinach make you feel fuller than you would if you were to eat the equivalent amount of calories in pasta. Spinach also has more beneficial vitamins and nutrients than pasta. Maybe we should start serving pasta made from spinach?

See a Pasta and Spinach nutrition facts comparison below (gathered from nutritiondata.com)

Pasta nutrition facts

Spinach nutrition facts

Innapropriate times for texting

So I was waiting on a table the other day, just a 2 top at a booth, a mother and son (about 7) in for lunch. Normally this would be a great bonding experience where parents can communicate with their children, talk about each others day or recent events, etc… But this table was a little different. BOTH the mom and son spent the ENTIRE time texting and going online with their blackberry mobile devices (who buys their 7 year old a blackberry anyways?). Not only were they not paying attention to each other, they could hardly look up for me to take their order. OK, so I’m making a big deal out of something stupid, but WTF, seriously, WTF is wrong with these people.

Texting at the table

It seems like this is a pretty common occurrence these days, its not the first time I have seen such a thing while waiting tables, but it still strikes me as incredibly rude and strange. If I was eating dinner with someone and they started texting or answered their phone I would be pissed (i know there are some situations in which it is ok…). I guess most people don’t share my sense of cell phone manners. Do you?

Blogger Boon

Boon's Personal Weblog

Having a lot of trouble figuring out my niche….

Rain-X Latitude vs Anco Contour Premium vs Bosch Icon

Brushing up on some SEO

Spinach Instead of Pasta?

Innapropriate times for texting

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