Hi, I'm just wondering if setting up forums is a service people would want? And how much would I charge? Thanks, Misha Edit: I think I posted in wrong place by accident. Maybe move it to general buisness?
Its a pretty easy installation and if you ask me if you can read the directions anyone can do it. But there is always those folks who can't so yeah people will want the service. I see people on the service forums doing things such as this for $5-10 so yeah there ya go
Trouble with this is, a lot of hosts run cpanel which has fantastico in it. This means that even the newest person to website making can fairly easily install phpbb or some other forum software. It may be hard to find people to buy your service mate.
Problem is if " fantistico " is used, it changed the code so much, that the software creators 99% of the time will not provide you with support.
I doubt it just due to the simpleness of forum uploading and setting up. I think anyone who is wanting to set up a forum and knows where to get free forum software from will know how to upload a forum and if not the forum upload guides and setting up guides will make it simpler for them.
fantastico does not install the latest version with the newest security updates. Whatever version of the forum that fantastico installs might be months / years behind the newest version. This will leave your forum and server open to hacks. Even if someone does use fantastico, they still need to download and install the newest version of the forum. ===================================== Personally I would stay away from that free crappy forum software and go with something like Vbulletin. Later on if your customer needs support then can use the VBulletin ticket system. I would start out at around $250 US dollars and go up from there. That price would cover the cost of a Vbulletin license as well. After the $250, then offer a package deal such as X number of mods and a theme installed for $300. Describe to the customer some of the modifications that can be installed to the forum, such as automatic video embedding software, a downloads section, paid memberships, members picture galleries. If the customer has a nitch, then set up the forum like a business - with paid subscriptions, private member sections and so forth. Convince the customer you are not setting up a forum, you are setting up a place a business, just like a store. Instead of buying an item, the forum is providing a service. By only charging a few dollars you are selling yourself short and making your service cheap. Charge a quality price for a quality product. Do not give the customer a cheap product and do not charge a cheap fee.
Its not you that would be buying it, its your customer. I would tell them - money up front for the forum software, non-refundable because they will be buying the software. Then X amount of money to install it and mod it out. I do not believe in selling myself or anyone else's labor short. The prices mentioned by other people $10 and such - I would not even think about setting up a forum for $10. That is almost laughable. Even for free forum software such as phpbb, I would start at least $55 and go up, maybe even $95 an hour depending on the customer. If its a doctor or lawyer, oh you gonna pay some money for this forum. I dont down bid or negotiate, this is the price and its going to be worth my time. And in return the customer gets a quality product. This is a site one of the members of my forum had built - http://www.eatlikeanative.com/ Take a look at that. This is the kind of product you make money off of. I did not build that site, its just an example.