A couple of replies I read on here got me thinking... are forums really worth the effort? From what I've read, it costs a lot to start up a successful forum, and then takes loads of effort moderating it and actually pulling the users in, so, is it really worth it?
They're easier to get up and running if you have an existing userbase (I.E: a site with tons of content and tons of users), which is also actually easier to establish than an out right forum, and doesn't cost nearly as much most times. They can be a lot of effort, there are millions of forums out there, so you NEED to give your visitors a reason to spend their time registering, but more importantly - to justify their time spend posting, moderating, or whatever else you put on the forum. Forums typically don't generate a lot of revenue (unless they're massive) or super specialized. There are ways to make it work, but honestly the time is probably better spent elsewhere.
Unless you have a solid idea, dedicated users, lots of time to interact with users initially and so on, your forum will fail. It's also a lot of work to get a forum off the ground. So they're generally not worth it.
I don't have a forum to make money exclusively from the forum. I use the forum to build report with people so they want to buy or use my services. It's a form of cheap advertisement.
it seems that the process can be sped up if someone does it for a full time job, its really all about having good information.but i guess if you do something just a little bit different than the competition you have a chance