I'm thinking of starting a forum. Is it best to start the forum with a team or to do all the work alone and benefit from it solely? What do you prefer?
with a team is more better, because doing a forum is not as easy as doing a blog. but if you can spend more time on your forum, then start alone.
I would start alone with a small forum. If I see some decent traffic over a period of time then I'll consider expanding it and getting a few more helpers on board, as you need help moderating a big forum.
It depends on which niche you are getting into. If you are going to start off in a saturated niche, then you may want to get all the help you can. However, if you are starting off in a niche with less competition, then you may want to go at it alone... Only way to tell is to get it going!
You need some dedication that's for sure. It's best to start off with atleast a few dedicated people who will help make topics and posts just to get you started. To build some content you may want to consider paying people to post (be careful with this, make sure you get quality posts). Other than that it's just promotion and continually posting and keeping the forum fresh.
Its totally depends up to your time management. But I suggest to work with a team or group if you have no shortage of budget. On that way you have much time to gather more promotion ideas, you know traffic is the thing.