I have narrowed down all my ideas to two projects that I hope to get started only after I have carefully planned every step of the process. I have had these ideas in mind for some time and I wasn’t looking to make money off any of my sites. Only recently I noticed that I could make money without disrupting the main purpose/goal of each site.

Anyway,

1. My first project is going to be a website dealing with how to Gain Weight/How to Bulk up naturally and the right way. One of the major drawing points is the fact that I’m going to use my method of eating properly and working out on myself. (Or in other words I’m going to be a guinea pig).

This is my vision: I’ll have the website with all the info on it (healthy eating, workings out, live style changes, books on the stated topic as well as equipment etc.) and I’m going to have a Wordpress blog that will document my daily/weekly progression towards my goal and a companion forum for visitors to talk about their experiences bulking up, exercising, etc. I think having a blog with pictures especially will give me a chance to show that I’m legitimate plus it will give people who are following along a chance to not only read information off the website but to also get a chance to view the process.

(Side note: I've done a little research and I've seen that some people have do something similar to this but not as effective in my opinion. One thing I've noticed is they are always selling their ebooks to make money. I don't necessarily want to sell anything unless I could find a way to make it as painless as possible I'd rather just give free information and make money off the site in other ways --> Opinions anyone?)

2. My second project is something that I’ve been trying to do for a long time. I was scared in the past that I would only be limited to a website and didn’t want to have to even fathom how much work it was going to be. I did some research and ran into forums like this one and I realized that a blog could be just as effective. SOOOOOOOO…..

Basically I’m starting to get into photography as a pastime/hobby and I thought it would be fun to find an excuse to incorporate my hobby into one of my projects. I want to create an Urban Lifestyle site/blog documenting what goes on in Toronto, Canada. I got this inspiration when I read a magazine called Mass Appeal and when I was doing my research funny enough they also used a blog for their website (massappealmag.com). I plan to incorporated photography by taking lots of pictures and making it a really colorful and interactive blog


Does anyone have any general thoughts on how I should plan or anything else that comes to mind?

I like your idea of using your own story as a case study. I have a fitness site and I've found that people want specific examples of what they should do. So as you keep track of your own progress you can also educate others. I also like the fact that your blog is going to be specific just to your progress (diary-like) and then your site will have your static/tutorial information. People will want to come back to your blog just to see your progress.

Just make sure that you define what keywords you want to be found with when creating your sites. That will help you shape them. For example with your Toronto photo site, what kind of traffic are you going to be after? People visiting Toronto? Other digital photography students? I wasn't quite sure based on your explanation. Remember, search engine traffic is free and very targeted so make sure you define what kind of traffic you want to generate. That's one of those ideas where it sounds like a cool idea for you as a lover of photography, but just remember to turn it around to make it useful for others.

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Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

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2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
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I can't say much about the second idea, but the first one is interesting. I even know a couple of people who would be really interested in that, so tell me when it launches ;D

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The questions you've raised concerning my second project are valid and I'm going to need to reevaluate what my target audience is. I have tons of questions when it comes to defining keywords etc. but I want to actually get something on paper in terms of my planning before I move to that stage. I think I'm going to focus 65% of my time to my first project and the rest of the time on improving my Dreamweaver/HTML/CSS. I’ll leave the second project in queue until further notice

Cool