Internet Babel

Time for a new approach for Internet Babel.

Look across the ‘mid-range’ MMO/IM Bloggers (and even the ‘top’ Bloggers, as I’ve mentioned before) and you see a lot of the same stuff – the latest affiliate schemes, our ’success’ stories, competitions, so-called ‘black-hat’ rubbish and paid reviews.

IB has been as guilty of that in the past as anyone,and now is as good a time as any to give it a revamp – the Blog currently has a ‘tired’ theme that needs a re-skin, and it’s missing a couple of plugins that I consider important.

The Blog itself (like most in this niche) lacks the interactivity and value-added things that a really useful site needs – and no, comments (even threaded ones) on their own aren’t enough.

I have a full-time freelance occupation developing sites and systems for people – Blogging is a sideline and my goal is to make enough from my own sites that I don’t have to work too hard for other people. I suspect many of you are in a similar situation (or at least aim to be).

So, I’m experimenting with a number of approaches to developing my current domain and site portfolio:

• via domain/site flipping
• by taking advantage of quick-hits on hot niche areas
• by developing a wide range of content-rich sites that I can SEO into a money-earning position
• by creating new scripts and software that people will want to use (or buy)

Nothing too ground-breaking there, but by reading about my little successes AND failures in these endeavours people reading this Blog might just pick up some practical tips and save some time in achieving their own goals.

To that end Internet Babel will expand to address what I hope people really want - namely:

• straight to the point tips and news about SEO, content, development and flipping
• a Forum, to introduce much more of a community aspect, and to be able to cover other topics in more detail (coding questions and tips, template/plugin discussions etc) without cluttering up the Blog 
• Classifieds/Directory areas to make it a genuine ‘resource’ site
• updates on ‘real’ projects and experiments that might give some pointers
• useful downloads

The blog will of course remain but I want to make Internet Babel more than that. If you don’t want to come along for the ride, that’s fine – but I hope you hang on in there and see what we can make of it together.

First off – a decent theme to replace this tired old thing – what’s the best one out there at the moment? (preferably free, cos I’m a miserable git – but I do like the look of the ‘Ultimate’ Theme)