Is it worth create a forum?

Hi guys,

I was thinking this days to try to make a forum and I would like to have some information before.
Probably the forum will be general one(in english).I`m planning to pay people at the begining to post.

How hard is it to start a forum this days?

I plan to use a free forum software like phpbb forum (I don`t want to pay $200 for vbullentin)
I heard that forum`s don`t earn money that much, is that true?

Should I make the forum on a domain or a subdomain?

Any tips?

 

Can you please guys give me feedback?

 

Don't waste money for a forum. Just use a free forum script and make your forum. If you want more features you can convert it to a vBulletin or another forum later.

 

Hi guys,
If you want to do just do it, don't hesitate.
But i suggest you don't wast much money for a forum, i think you best to get a free forum script to try.
Hope you can got it.

 

I played a little bit with SMF on a test forum. It works fast, and I like the design so probably my choice will be SMF.

 

Don't spent much money for it

 

SMF and Mybb are the best free forum softwares- don't use Phpbb.

Yes, I reckon it is worth creating a forum. You don't feel like you're working, just creating and adding to discussions. I run ForumZAdmin.com, which is a small but growing forum for forum owners.

 

Oh and your forum should be on a domain, subdomains don't work at all.

 

I bought the domain and installed SMF.Now the challange is to get people to write on the forum .
Any tips?

 

You should check out my forum for forum owners ForumZAdmin.com

 

There's nothing wrong with making the forum on a sub-domain/directory IF you plan on having a main site too IMO.

As for tips for getting new members, define a target audience and research what promotions would work for that. For a general forum, I imagine SEO is going to be hard...

 

You are right, seo is almost impossible for ar general forum. I can just bring some links to it to get some authority.

 

I would suggest you to use MyBB forum software and don't spent any money to buy forum software. And please buy a domain cause hosting forum on sub domains looks odd.

 

Well if you have the time yes it is worth it.

 

I would not pay people to post on your forum. There are other types of rewards that you can offer. Go for it if you want it. The only regret you might have is not trying in the first place.

 

What type of rewards? And how would write on a empty forum?

 

1+ on that. I´ve recently started a forum and I´ve been creating users and topics to populate the forum myself. A couple of real users have popped up but I don´t want to lose them. What type of rewards do you mean? Thanks!

 

I was thinking something like vouchers for the users that have 20 or 30 posts on my forum.

 

Don't listen to these people telling you not to waste time on a forum. It can be very draining and takes up a lot of your time to make a forum but once it becomes successful, trust me, it pays off. I run 3 big gaming forums so I know it best, you just need the right people to help you out with it, I suggest to go for your close friends you can trust and once you have the community, you will love your site. Also, it depends on what kind of genre your forum is going to be, hence attracting what kind of age group. If you're interested, pm me and I can help you out with this forum. I have an un-used vbulletin licence so I can loan it to you.

 

I only problem is that I think I need a budget of at lest 1000 dollars to get the forum started. I paid some guys from fiverr to add some content and some from postloop but I still did got any visitors.