I've been thinking of doing this for a while now. While I was cleaning my room today, I was thinking how cool it would be to start a site and track it here just to see how various promotional techniques work - while I was thinking this, I knocked an old dog training book off a shelf and it hit me in the face - looks like a sign to me I'll start a site on 'dogs' I won't be too specific. I mean I won't give the exact keywords I chose or link to the site because that doesn't really matter. I will mention everything about the methodology and my thought process. If I skip over something someone wants me to explain more fully, or if you have a suggestion about how to promote the site, feel free to chime in. Promotion plans - The site itself will be about 15 (original) pages not counting home, contact, privacy, and sitemap page I'll use xsitepro to build the site and add an XML feed which I'll submit to a couple of feed directories each time I update the site (probably 5-10 times total) I intend to take each of the 15 pages, rewrite the content and submit it to ezinearticles and goarticles Also I'll probably sign up to a couple of forums and put the site in my sig Dogs is a little broad for a niche, so heading over to http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php to do some keyword research on dogs, I soon discover that there are 2 types of sites that are adsense candidates - dog health and dog accessories They each have strengths and weaknesses. The dog health sites pay less for clicks (an estimate from putting the keywords in Google's adwords tool) and there are fewer searches, but it would be much, much easier to rank for the health keywords than for the dog accessory keywords because there's a fraction of the competition. I'd really like to do both. The dog health issues would be easier to write good content for and rank for the keywords but I'd really love to have a shot at the higher $ clicks with the dog accessory keywords. Then I have a brainstorm - I'll make the site specific to one breed. I head over to Wikipedia and look up dog breeds (I could probably list 80 or so dog breeds off the top of my head, but I like to be inspired). Going down the list until I run into one I like I go back to the keyword tool and check - hmmmm 1000 searches a day on the breed name. Heading back to Google, I discover that the first page of results for the breed name (no quotes) is #1-wikipedia, #2-american kennel club, #3 - a MFA page, #4 a club about this breed, #5 a guy selling mugs with the picture of his dog, #6 american kennel club different page, Enough!! I'm sold. I register a .info domain (hey this is for fun, why should I spend more than 2 bucks? ) I'll update in a day or 2 when I've written a few pages of content. I'm thinking that once the site is finished, I'll update here every X days or at landmarks (1st click, whatever). Again, anyone who wants to add anything about your favorite promotion techniques feel free.