So I totally have this plan to be the ultra-niche Nick Denton. Unfortunately my name has far more syllables but I'll try to live up to his example.

Thus, some new projects of mine, currently undergoing extensive testing:

www.hewnandhammered.com/pho
www.hewnandhammered.com/eats

which will soon have their own domains, and perhaps more attractive mastheads.

My own skill could not possibly match that of the beautiful & talented Mark van Bronkhorst, who made me a great piece using his own Verdigris, which I find quite useful & have been availing myself of on a daily basis for awhile now:

www.hewnandhammered.com

I'm also working on

www.mocosanfrancisco.com

and of course that old standby, my favorite,

www.typographi.com

Meanwhile, if anyone has ideas of niches that might warrant a site and fulfill the following criteria:

a. audience must be own/use personal computer & internet (this is why hewn & hammered is not such a success; i missed this most important rule);

b. audience must have disposable income

c. audience must have time to contribute - as the entire idea here is to get these things self-sufficient to the point where i don't need to take much time editing, and can leave most of the content creation up to a group of 2-3 dozen individual authors.

d. niche must be somewhat approachable and of interest to hobbyists/amateurs outside the professional practice, if there is one.

e. each site needs a catchy name & attractive identity or is not worth producing.

f. and of course there needs to be some available content on the Internet - hopefully lots of disparate little bits all looking for some glue to hold them together.

i was thinking of one for people involved in GIS - cartographers and planners and the like - they spend a lot of time on the 'net, work mostly on computers, professionally network just as much as folks in our own trade.

any ideas?