Been a week since the last update, so I’ve got a few things to cover:

• GamingPCGuide sold
• Dreamhost
• AzoogleAds
• New Project revealed

GamingPCGuide sold

GamingPCGuide was a site I bought a while ago from the guy who used to run College Startup. It wasn’t really a site that I had plans for, in fact the main reason I bought it was so that I could get the rights to this Wordpress theme. With that accomplished I wasn’t really sure what to do with the site, and it languished for the last month or so, with no new content or updates.

So when a friend asked if I’d be interested in selling it, I jumped at the chance, and sold it for the same price I bought it for originally. In the end, I got the rights to the theme above for free, so I’m pretty happy with the outcome. The site has potential, and a pretty good domain, but I just didn’t have a plan for it, nor the passion for the subject to write good content. I’ve sold it to somebody who does though, so it’s a definite win-win.

Dreamhost

I’ve been a huge proponent of Dreamhost since I started hosting with them, pushing their “777″ deal (where you get a year’s hosting plus a domain for under $10) on various message boards. I’m still a fan, but the downtime the past two weeks is getting to be pretty ridiculous. Just check out their status page and look at the various problems they’ve had recently. I’m hoping they get things straightened out, or I’m going to be forced to switch hosts, a headache I don’t really want to have to deal with right now.

AzoogleAds

I also signed up with AzoogleAds this week, and I can say that I prefer them hugely to Commission Junction. The offers are much easier to promote, and CJ is just too cluttered, with too many advertisers with similar products competing with one another. I made about $100 just screwing around the other day, and I’ve gotta say it’s pretty easy money. I’m planning on getting into PPC a little bit with this, and I’ll report back when I see how it goes. I’m also now using it on Mobile Herald in the right sidebar. Mobile Herald doesn’t get a lot of traffic yet, but that banner pays $11 per lead, so I think it’ll work fairly well since the site heavily emphasizes ring tone news.

New Project revealed

So I figure I’m not going to be too secretive about my new project since I’m hoping to get it launched in the next month anyway.

I played sports in high school, and didn’t really know much about marching band, but my wife (and most of her family) is musically inclined. Since meeting her I’ve realized what a huge sub-culture band kids are. Kids take marching band and marching band competitions seriously, and most band kids hang out together, form their own social niche, etc. It seems like a great subject for a community focused site.

I did some searching and only found one site (http://www.marchingbandplanet.com/) that has an active marching band message board. And it’s, to put it bluntly, pretty ugly. I think this is a niche that is ripe for the taking if done right. And I am planning on doing it right. I’m going to get a VBulletin license, have a logo designed, and get an attractive skin for the forum.

The first thing I did with this project was to purchase a domain: MarchingBandForums.com. It’s long, but it has all the keywords I want and it’s easy to say so I’m happy with it.

The second thing I’m getting done is the logo, and I’m having a competition for it over at SitePoint (you can see it here). It’s the first competition I’ve run at SitePoint, so I’m very interested to see the entries! It runs through August 1st, and I’ll put the winning logo up here when the contest ends. You guys will have to tell me if I picked well or not.

Have a great week!