Week 2 – WordPress Site Theme and Launching the Blog

We put in 14 hours this week. This week we confirmed a choice for out niche site topic, found a domain name, chose a theme for the WordPress site, and created a logo.

The great thing about using WordPress and Hostmonster.com is that you can get the site up in just a few clicks and about 5 minutes.

For some reason it feels like we are already behind. As if the website should be finished by now. In fact, we probably could have finished but a few of our choices has forced us to take longer than normal.

• We decided before starting our search that we wanted to do a pregnancy related site. If we just made a list of our interests/hobbies and looked for profitable niches related to them, it would have been a lot easier and faster.
• We are very picky on web design. With the niche site, especially at the beginning, the look of the site is not as important. Using almost any of the free WordPress site themes would work as long as they are not too visually busy and easy to navigate.
• We decided to change the main domain which added an extra hour or two (I explain this in the time breakdown section).

Week #2 Results

Finalizing a niche and WordPress site design

Niche Site Journal Week 2 – WordPress Site Theme and Launching the Blog

This week we have put in our full 14 hours. Our time went into confirming a choice for our niche site topic, finding a domain name, choosing a theme for the wordpress site, and creating a logo.

These are all important things that needed to be done, but it feels like we should have a finished the site by now.  A few choices we have made during this process has caused us to take longer than need be.  Those are:

• We decided before starting our search that we wanted to do a pregnancy related site.  If we just made a list of our interests/hobbies and looked for profitable niches related to them, it would have been a lot easier and faster.
• We are very picky on web design.  With niche site, especially at the beginning, the look of the site is not as important.  Using almost any of the free WordPress site themes would work as long as they are not too visually busy and easy to navigate.
• We decided to change the main domain which added an extra hour or two (I explain this in the time breakdown section).

Week #2 Results

Finalizing a niche and WordPress site design

bad call at Packer game (funny)

Living in WI I have been flooded with people talking about the bad call made during the NFL game by the 2nd string refs. I figure this image says it all!

Niche Site Journal Week 1 – Choosing a niche site topic

I have decided to take up the challenge of the Niche Site Duel and in doing so I’ve also decided to drag my wife into it as well. Instead of doing the duel with Leah (my wife) and I trying to build sites at the same time, we are planning to work together on each site including choosing a niche site, writing posts, creating videos, etc, etc.

Each website will be different in that for one we will be mostly be using Pat’s technique and the other one using Tyrone’s.

RULES:

Week 1 – Choosing a niche site topic

This is the 1st week of this experiment with Niche Sites. We are very excited and have high hopes for the possibility of making a full time living off of Niche Sites.

We are not 100% sure on the best way to format these blogs for easy reading of information so you might notice a change in layouts over time. We do know that we want to include: Income & expenses, the number of hours put in with what we did, plans for the future and the lessons we learned.

If you have any suggestions or questions, we would love to hear them in the comment section below. But first…

It is time to get started with the Niche Site Journal!

So, let’s get started with a strategy.

Short Animation: Death Buy Lemonade

An animator at the Milwaukee Animation Group meeting suggested this video for the Video of the Week.  It is a student film by Kyu-bum Lee.  It is created with traditional animation techniques which always blows me away as I stick primarily with digital tools.  Without going on too long, let me introduce to you “Death Buy Lemonade”:

What I love about this film is that it has no dialogue.

1. No voice over actors were needed.  I have gone through the process of directing voice over work and

TagLine to Digital Media Alchemist

Yesterday you might have noticed I switched the tagline of my blog from “Making money publishing comic books online” to “Becoming a Digital Media Alchemist”. The reasons for the changes are many but the main was is you, my audience and friends.

COMIC BOOK ARTISTS AREN’T THE ONLY ARTIST WHO CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Through my experiences with Kickstarter and my research into how to make money as an independent artist without getting stuck in the world of Freelance I have been approached and asked by many people who are interested in using what I have learned to do the same in a variety of digital media. Film Makers, podcasters, writters, musicians and other media creators can learn from each other and I feel this gives me an opportunity to help more people make money in their choosen media make money online.

What does the new tagline mean for future posts: