Forum Project Step 1 - Niche Pickin'

[elus2]

get the google toolbar for either explorer or firefox.

[Pog0]

Thanks. I had this toolbar, didn't look deep into the options though.

[Shoe]

One thing we might want to look into is the example discussed in this thread:

AdultFriendFinder.com thread

This is a personals site, that has many varitions of itself that use the exact same software (or "skins" if you will), such as friendfinder.com, alt.com, amigos.com, as well as sites for various ethniciites, religions, and origins. Each site runs on the exact same software and they all bring in major $$$. Maybe we should come up with a generic layout and just provide a "skin" for everyone.

[PanchoVilla]

is anyone else having lots of problems with the IRC room? I had problems logging in for the last 3 days as it always said my name was taken. Now it says my IP is banned and gives me a site to go to but that just lists all the details about my ISP.

[Neko]

I think my niche will be job resources in Canada for scientists...likely targeted more specifically towards recent graduates in the field of physics.

[Professorn]

Count me in! But I got zero knowledge, I'll try to help out the best I can, and probably learn more.. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DOTTT]

So what's going on? Are we doing this thing or not?

[elus2]

More than likely max has a ton of emails to get through. I'd exercise patience at this point in the game and maybe read up on your chosen niches.

[UncleSalty]

The next step will be choosing a domain name and finding hosting, which we should all be able to do without too much hand holding. You can see if your desired domain name is already taken by searching at the whois server on internic:

http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whoi...mp;type=domain

As was mentioned previously, we don't all want to be on the same hosting server or google will penalize any links we create to each other's sites. There are a number of hosting services out there that will provide you with a free domain name registration if you sign up for 1 year of hosting in advance. Expect to spend about $100 up front for a basic hosting package.

IMPORTANT: It sounds like we are all planning to learn one of the popular content management systems (CMS) like Joomla or Drupal to build our sites. That means you need to make sure your hosting service provides the minimum requirements as part of your account. From Joomla's website, the minimum requirements are:

PHP 4.3.x or above
MySQL 3.23.x or above
Apache 1.13.19 or above

The Drupal.org website indicates similar requirements. I guess the easiest way to confirm is to just tell your prospective hosting service that you plan on using a CMS to build your page and ask them to confirm that their webspace accounts are compatible.

Max, I hope you don't think I'm stepping on your toes. I know you're getting ready to move and I'm just trying to pitch in to move this thing forward.

Keep in mind when choosing a domain name: It is my understanding that you will get better search results if some of the keywords you are targeting are part of the name of your site. For example, my niche market is Investing in REITs and my site address will be www.reitprofit.com

[Nato76]

One suggestion when selecting a host is get one that has Fantastico. It makes it really easy when installing scripts like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, etc.