I have just finished installing a new template on BluenoserLinks. And I think that it looks good if I do say myself. I do have some more work that I would like to do on it before I think that it is good, but I am going to leave this for now.

So what do you think about the site NOW, I didn’t keep a screen shot of what it was before, but if you didn’t see it I am glad…..That means that you are a new to the directory and the first impression is even going to be better.

Anyway, I still have a few plans for this site, and soon the site is going to be the talk of the web.

So readers, what do you think of the site? Let me know what things you would like me to change, what things you like about the site, or if you just want to chat.

::EDIT::

It seems that there is some problems with the login/logout and register links with the new template. It does still work but it is not as “pretty” as I would like it to be so I am going to have to spend some more time on this sooner rather than later. I will post another update when this is complete.

If you remember last week I started talking about a new site that I have started work on.  I have done some more research and realize that this may not be a very easy niche to make money in, however it will be a great niche for me to expand my knowledge in my career.  Research done for content on the site will be used directly in my every day work.

Now for the site itself I have decided to use Joomla.  I have used Drupal before but after some research I think that Joomla will be the better fit for the site as a whole.  I needed something robust that I can start small with and then scale up as teh site got both popular and more content.  I am also going to have a forum that will be on a seprate sub-domain.  I want to seperate it as much as possible for administration and management reasons.  For the forum I am going to start with phpbb, however when the site starts to make some revenue I will be purchasing Vbulletin right away.  There is no better software, in my opinion, for running a large forum than VB right “out of the box”.

For the forum I am going to do very little modding to the default style, however for the main site I am going to try to make it unique and useable as possible.  For that I am having issues trying to figure out how it works with Joomla.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of styles out there for free download, or even pay for that matter.

So if you know of any good sites that may have a Joomla theme for DL or a designer that is willing to put one together for me let me know either by email or comment.

I have been thinking lately that I simply don’t have the time to spend on developing my online business to take it to the next level.  Therefore I have decided to work on my new idea.  Building a resource site for my industry.  I work in the Electrical Engineering/Design industry.  Most of the clients I work with are Commercial or Industrial.  Every once in a while I think of a tool that would be great for a consulting engineer to have, but can’t find it on an of the vendor websites.  So I am going to start the site myself.

Basically if I come across something that I think I would use on a weekly basis at the job I will build it for my site in my free time.  This will make me get more involved and learn more about the inner-workings of my industry.  If I find that people in my office think that the tool is useful then I will spread the word to other professionals.

Articles will be another thing, if I come across something that is especially useful I will write a quick “blog entry” with a link to the information.  This will be a good way to bookmark for myself since it will be searchable and other professionals as well.

I am thinking that at this point I will use drupal for the backend of the site but I am still not really sure if that is the best answer since I am going to be trying to program tools for the site and have never written a “module” for Drupal.

When the first tool is online I will be announcing it here and probably at a couple of other sites just to get some feedback.

As the readers here know, I was planning on having a contest on ThePartyLive, however that has changed, I have more work to do before I do that. 

When I was sitting around with a few friends on Thursday I asked them about my site and why they don’t post.  I told them that there were lots of topics and I am sure that they would enjoy at least one.  Well it turns out that the reason they didn’t click the link in my sig or MSN was because they couldn’t get a feel about what the site was about from the URL.  www.thepartylive.com doesn’t really describe Canadian discussion. 

So following that I feel that the reason I can’t get refferals into members may be that they either don’t know what the site is, or get a different impression from the link, and then when they find the site they decide to turn away.  That is why I am going to get a new URL (done) and start a change over.  I am going to do it slowly, over a couple of months and 301 everything from thepartylive.com to the new site.

When the new site is running and everything is active again I will start the contest, maybe get it rolling in August and then have the draw end of Sept.  By then I hope to have 6 VERY active members and some more people using TPLNews

I will annouce the new Name when I have the domain parked and new logo up.

It seems that lately I have been getting more and more ideas for some really cool tools, companies, websites, and contests.  This is great, I have been writing everyone down and have compiled a pretty good list.  However I have a huge problem.  I don’t have TIME.  My “real job” is starting to get nuts.  I have a shutdown at a pulp and paper plant that I am doing work at and that means a LOT of preparation so that I can be sure that the contractors are going to get all of their work down and there will not be any delay on start-up that was our cause.  This causes major headaches and a lot of finger pointing.

So what does a fellow do?  Do I try to squeeze some time in so that I get something out there?  Or do I just wait it out and hope no one else gets there first.  What do you do when you have a good/great idea, but just don’t have the time to implement it?