I have been thinking more and more about what I want to build out over the coming year as the summer quickly rushes towards the fall, I want to start having something to do when the colder weather hits, other than watching television and playing video games. So I figured I'd put my ideas out there, and you can all let me know your thoughts.
I have over twenty different ideas, and already have the domains to follow through on them. Here are just a handful of project ideas that I think have potential and that I'd enjoy doing. I'll write about more of my ideas in a follow up post.
BuyWPThemes.com - Information on Premium Themes. I would create a gallery of the current theme options available in the premium WordPress theme marketplace, while also tracking changes, updates, news, and maybe even include a few interviews with the creators. I know more than a few of them well, and could put up some interesting details on what they have done, and continue to do. I could also use this as my own personal coupon database for Premium Themes, since I am always spending money on them.
The content would primarily come from the creators of the themes, with my own thoughts, ideas and dedicated posts to fill the gaps. I would also look for people willing to guest post, and pay for some contributions, as there are more thoughts regarding premium themes than just the ones that I have.
The potential for profit might not be very high, but that depends on how many premium WordPress theme affiliate companies I sign up for, and then how many themes I sell through it. Also, if premium theme authors found my site to be decent, some may even purchase advertising.
CelebReader.com - I think of this as being a PopURLS for Celebrity sites, focusing in on the niche, and showing off a handful of the most popular sites latest post titles, images from various sources, and video links from a few popular sources. It would mostly be automated and wouldn't need much interaction from me besides setting it up, and constantly expanding and improving it.
With content growth next to nothing, since it will be close to a single page site, with no archive, Celebreader might not do well on search engines and whatnot, but could become highly viral if I pick the right blogs, images and videos to put in one place. I worry though that this niche is highly saturated, and those seeking this information will be savvy enough to use an RSS reader or have all of their own personal favourite sites bookmarked already. Growth might be slow, and as such, potential for profit through ad sales on the page would be low, especially in the short term.
LifeSnips.com - I used to own LifeSpy.com, a site I really enjoyed owning and managing. I am a sucker for lifestyle tips, tricks and answering questions. I've even already had a design done for this site by James McDonald, the designer that did this blog as well as Blogging Pro. I haven't yet had the design coded, but it does look amazing.
Content would come from myself, quoted from other similar blogs, and from a stable of bloggers that I'd hire to keep it flowing fast. This niche is also very saturated, but I enjoy it, and I think that because of my passion, it could do very well.
With the expense of hiring bloggers, I feel that potential profit would be very low, but over the long term, the possibilities with this site look very promising.
OneBigCanada.com - Another PopURLs style site, but focusing solely on Canadian content and news. With sections for each province and territory, OneBigCanada.com would cover the country from coast to coast pointing out the popular blogs, services, and news publications available for each area. It would be part directory/index and part start-page for someone wanting to read all about everything going on in Canada. I might separate each area into its own page, with its own focus. I haven't thought user interface out yet, but I think there is a strong need for Canadians to promote their own country more, and I hope that is what this site would do.
Competition would be fierce, but this is one project where I wouldn't be looking for major growth, more as just a service for myself and those that find there is a need for such a thing.
TenTopBlogs.com - TenTopBlogs is really my own realization that certain sites list FAR too many blogs to be useful. I've focused in on Geek topics thus far, and the site is already built. It needs a design, logo, and branding, as well as some code refinement, and of course it needs all the categories filled out. TenTopBlogs is highly subjective to me, the person running it, but I think that with a proper submission form, I could add blogs that are highly requested, either filling out the TenTopBlogs list for that niche, or pushing out a blog that people don't feel belongs.
Each section shows off the five latest posts from the ten top blogs in any given niche. I will probably stick to tech and geek topics as they are what I am most passionate about, and what I feel resonates the most with the tech savvy audience I hope to attract.
Direct ad sales to products and services, not blogs would be the source of revenue once traffic was high enough to appeal to advertisers. Profit would be low, but as this is another project I am passionate and personally invested in (custom coded by me), I think it has potential.
WebHostReality.com - This was a project I was originally going to do with someone else. It was to be a blog and site focusing in on the reality of hosting with various companies. Giving tips, tricks, ideas, coupons, and more regarding various services. I've re-launched it already to test out the Gravity Forms WordPress extension. I've used dozens of different hosting companies since joining the world wide web.
Content would come from submissions, my own writing, as well as some freelance writers. Potential for profit, if I can bust through the high level of saturation in the market, would be medium to high. The hardest part about running such a site is to not promote solely based on the potential income of the affiliate programs. Some of the biggest payouts are by some of the worst web hosts, and some of the best web hosts, do not have an affiliate program. I'd have to use user feedback to make sure various writings are held in check.
So that's it for this post. Please let me know what you think of them, and while it might seem crazy to you, ideas come easily to me, it is filtering those ideas down to a point where I have only a few projects to work on so I am not overwhelmed that is hard for me. Also, I really enjoy launching new projects, but get frustrated with longer term maintenance of those projects (though I've been getting better about sticking with things over the long term).
Note: I don't plan to build and maintain all of these, they are just ideas that I have domains for. Some have been started, some have not.
Now it is your turn, let me know what you think in the comments below.
To be honest - I don't think any of these ideas would do much besides taking up your valuable time. There's already so many similar sites out there.
I suggest you try something that's out of your comfort zone. A kind of project you've never done before.
Let me know if you do :)
To be honest - I don't think any of these ideas would do much besides taking up your valuable time. There's already so many similar sites out there.
I suggest you try something that's out of your comfort zone. A kind of project you've never done before.
Let me know if you do :)
I guess it comes down to what your goal is, entertaining yourself, making money, etc
OneBigCanada appeals most to me but rather than a popurls, I would prefer like a lifestyle blog about canada that shows a side to the country other than polar bears :)
I guess it comes down to what your goal is, entertaining yourself, making money, etc
OneBigCanada appeals most to me but rather than a popurls, I would prefer like a lifestyle blog about canada that shows a side to the country other than polar bears :)
I don't feel like there is a project outside my comfort zone. I feel like I've done and could do just about any topic on any type of site...lol. I've always thought that sticking to your passions was a wise piece of advice, despite working on a variety of projects for others that weren't in line with my passions to make sure that I earned what I needed to get my family through the next month. I mean, if you think of a niche, I've probably written at least one post about it at one point or another. I've tried everything from Black hat to white hat SEO, and everything from running arbitrage to Affiliate funnels. :)
I don't feel like there is a project outside my comfort zone. I feel like I've done and could do just about any topic on any type of site...lol. I've always thought that sticking to your passions was a wise piece of advice, despite working on a variety of projects for others that weren't in line with my passions to make sure that I earned what I needed to get my family through the next month. I mean, if you think of a niche, I've probably written at least one post about it at one point or another. I've tried everything from Black hat to white hat SEO, and everything from running arbitrage to Affiliate funnels. :)
Chris - I'd love to talk about Canada... I've thought numerous times about taking another trip across the country. I've lived both on the west coast and here in Ontario, and have been to nearly every province and territory. I worry though that the tone I write in (teaching/training) might not work out too well in creating a popular Canadian lifestyle blog. I'll have to think about that more.
Chris - I'd love to talk about Canada... I've thought numerous times about taking another trip across the country. I've lived both on the west coast and here in Ontario, and have been to nearly every province and territory. I worry though that the tone I write in (teaching/training) might not work out too well in creating a popular Canadian lifestyle blog. I'll have to think about that more.
Well I obviously don't know what your passions exactly are, but what I mean by stepping out of your comfort zone is that you look further than another blog. Perhaps come-up with an iPhone app or web-service of some sort.
Well I obviously don't know what your passions exactly are, but what I mean by stepping out of your comfort zone is that you look further than another blog. Perhaps come-up with an iPhone app or web-service of some sort.
Oh, and how come the commentators here have no name ? :)
Oh, and how come the commentators here have no name ? :)
Re: Comments - Never got around to fixing/changing it... If nothing else, I should fix my Gravatar, eh?
As for web services and iPhone apps. I agree that those would push me out of my comfort zone, and it is because of that "zone" issue that I've never really given them much consideration before.
Back before various Twitter-related games existed, I was going to do one based on Super Heroes, but never got around to it.
Re: Comments - Never got around to fixing/changing it... If nothing else, I should fix my Gravatar, eh?
As for web services and iPhone apps. I agree that those would push me out of my comfort zone, and it is because of that "zone" issue that I've never really given them much consideration before.
Back before various Twitter-related games existed, I was going to do one based on Super Heroes, but never got around to it.
[...] previously (Project Ideas: What Should I Work On?), I talked about some domains I owned, and my own plans for them. I’ve been thinking long and [...]
[...] previously (Project Ideas: What Should I Work On?), I talked about some domains I owned, and my own plans for them. I’ve been thinking long and [...]