Ian, Stephanie, Stefan... sorry, I didn't mean to let this thread die and ignore your several most recent posts... I had to double-check my thread subscription preferences there, I was about to complain that I was sure I wasn't getting my email notifications properly, but I just searched through my filed emails, and it turns out I can't use that excuse. I honestly don't know what happened here, I must have got the last notification when I was very busy, told myself I'd come back to it later, and then accidentally filed it away in the next Inbox cleanout. =(
Anyway, allow me to revive this thread a little. First of all, I can't work out how the conversation turned to web hosting, I thought it might have been something I said, but reading through the history, it seems one moment I was talking about needing an inspired new idea for a web project, and the next minute everybody was suggesting I try free web hosting, so I can only assume something I said was misinterpreted somewhere along the line.
Hosting isn't even remotely the issue here. I have a server that is extremely cheap which I couldn't be happier with - I had some trouble with software configuration and whatnot previously because I don't have any skills in setting up a Linux webserver myself, and the sysadmin I took on when I bought the blank slate server ditched me for more "important" obligations, so for a while there I was toying with the idea of seeking a temporary alternative to get my sites back online, and briefly discussed the possibility of hosting with Stephanie's company, JC Hosting. But, as it turned out, [tab] has patched the gaps in my server with remarkable talent and above and beyond the call, and in an amazing timeframe no less, so now I have a top of the line, customized to an insanely specific extent, as I require, and for less that what I'd pay elsewhere for an "another brick in the wall" style virtual reseller account with some other companies I've seen. So hosting is absolutely not a hurdle for me - I can now host unlimited/infinite web projects of any level of complexity and any manner of content (so long as it's legal, of course!), with no problem. (Oh, though I think I owe [tab] my soul or my first born son, I forget which now! =P)
Which brings me back to the beginning on my issue here in this thread - I need a new site!
I actually came up with a decent idea the other week, which will be one of the first projects I implement once [tab] has put the last couple of finishing touches on the server for me... I was lying awake for hours in bed one night, as I do, and couldn't stop thinking about the old piece of wisdom, that a highly targeted niche site that caters to a small but precise demographic of traffic will be much more successful than yet another generic site in an oversaturated market, even if you pump a million untargeted hits a day through the thing.
Well, the idea came to me the next day while I was bored and sitting here picking through my collection of ancient classic games to find something to play. But game after game that I tried to install just wouldn't work on my current system - Windows 2000 is pretty unfriendly to DOS games from the 80's/90's! And then, while Googling around to find the usual obscure forum post in which somebody on the other side of the globe once got X game working on Y operating system, it hit me - what a perfect niche, classic gaming afficionados who need to make their old games work in an increasingly fast moving computer industry.
And hence, the day after that, I purchased the domain NewDogOldTricks.com - Who says you can't teach a New Dog Old Tricks? =)
I certainly don't expect it to be a high traffic, high profit site, but the beauty is its simplicity - the site content will be 90% user contributed, slotted into an article template system which I've designed (but will need to contract somebody to code). Then I generate revenue from Google AdSense and a couple of other related affiliate links. My aim is to set it up as a small background automated income stream, and then move onto other things.
So, things are on the move now, slowly, but I certainly expect a better business year in 2005 that I had last year!
But still, I'm on the lookout as always for something... bigger. I don't want to run 400 niche sites with ad banners and affiliate searchboxes on them. I need a project that I can pump my boundless free time and enthusiasm into and see a serious return from over the next five years or so...
Unfortunately, as you suggested Ian, a "day job" isn't an option for me due to health/disability reasons, so my online business really is going to have to start making it for me unless I want to spend the rest of my life with the poor quality of life that nothing but a government pension provides one!
So, back to square one, brainstorming-wise... there are a lot of brilliant ideas and concepts out there, and surely even in today's enormously overpopulated internet world, not all of them have been done to death endlessly already... we just have to come up with something great, and throw our shoulders to it...
