What resources are required to start a forum?

I am planning to start a forum, could you people guide me what resources are required to start a forum.

1) which forum software is best
2) which hosting plan is best for forum
3) what additional resources are required to start a new forum?

 

1) I would go with vB + vBSEO if paid software. As a free option I would suggest MyBB or SMF.

2) You can start with a shared hosting plan, but I would recommend VPS hosting for a forum. I have great experience with Lunarpages VPS. You can read my review (Review by HF, April 23, 2010) over at Lunarpages VPS Review.

3) There is a great resource at Managing Communities. It's a blog run by Patrick, author of the book Managing Online Forums.

 

1) which forum software is best
VB is best IMO
2) which hosting plan is best for forum
you can start cheap with a shared plan.
3) what additional resources are required to start a new forum?
willing to work hard for a year to the least.

 

if you are new to it then I will suggest you to look at http://www.forumify.com to create your first free forum and learn from there. Then you can go for better forum scripts like vbulletin or any other you like. (Though I don't own formify.com but the owner is a nice person and I know him from another Webmasters forum).

 

Resources:
How much does it cost to run a forum?

 

1) which forum software is best - Depends on what you like. Id recommend both vB and IPB if your going for paid, however either MyBB or phpBB for free.
2) which hosting plan is best for forum - You can use a basic shared hosting package until your forum grows.
3) what additional resources are required to start a new forum? - Just pay the hosing and domain costs and your good to go.

Good luck!

 

Personally Id recomend Vbulletin although I hear that IPB is just as good aswell. As for hosting I'd start off with a small shared plan considering that your forum will not be eating up any resources since it will be fairly new. As for other resources Id make sure you make your forum seo friendly and post fresh content daily. Many new forum owners don't realize that without content your forum is nothing. Also try and make sure you pick a niche that you know something about or else your forum wont succeed for sure.

 

Why someone would recommend a VPS for a starter forum is beyond me? You only need a cheap shared host for a new forum if you're just starting out and learning. Don't waste your money on VPS.

As for software. Download and install the free packages and see which one you feel suits you best. Don't listen to anyone about something so subjective. You will mainly get biased uneducated opinions.

 

Do most of the free packages allow you to transfer the database to paid versions of IPB or vB? I know that most (or all) of the free forum hosting sites do not let you get access to the database.

 

Some free forums hosts provide this service for free, some provide it for a fee and some don't provide it at all. Majority of the big forum software such as phpBB, myBB, SMF etc. can be converted to most of the other forum software such as IPB, vB etc. however it depends on the conversion software available from the forum software distributor you'd like to go to, such as vB solutions, or invision power.

 

Just remember something you get what you pay for. The same applies to forum software aswell...

 

Yes you get VALUE for your money. You can never say you overpaid when it's free. I'm willing to bet you have free software running on your computer too. Maybe Firefox, OpenOffice, anti-virus (AVG, Avast), a text editor, Divx, Winrar, or any other number of free downloads.

Yes you can pay for a software and it might have stuff you want but you can also get something free which might suit your needs. I simply suggest you try the free packages first. You'll likely be suprised with what you find. If non suit you then you can always buy VB or IPB.

 

From the numbers that I have read, anywhere from 85% - 95% of all new websites close before they are 1 year old. With that in mind, do not sink a lot of money into the project until you see that its going to take off. Why buy a vbulletin license only to close your site a few months later.

Start with something like a shared host, SMF or MYBB, give it a year, see what happens, and go from there. Who knows, you might be perfectly happy with that free forum software and stick with it.

Even if you did go with commercial grade software, take a look at invision power board. There has been a lot of drama here lately with vbulletin.

 

yah
if u had money
i suggest u buy IPBoard rather than VB
they have more feature built in rather VB..
if u want to free software
phpBB is the best

 

Dreamhost has these nifty promotions going - one year for ~$9

Grab a domain (not from Dreamhost), pick a good free software (SMF or MyBB) and try it out.

 

I can't stress this enough, but SMF is the best forum software. Secure and fast. And most of all it is absolutely FREE.