forum cost and traffic

Discussion in 'vBulletin' started by laxmi, Jul 6, 2007.

  1. #1
    how much it costs to build a forum?and after that how many days it will take to get natural traffic?how can i build traffic?
     
    laxmi, Jul 6, 2007 IP
  2. Agent_Smith

    Agent_Smith Well-Known Member

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    #2
    That question is way to bland to be ansered... If you want a decent forum, get vbulletin for professional wise, or IPB for more of a fun type forum. Both of $140 and up. or vbulletin $85 yearly.
     
    Agent_Smith, Jul 7, 2007 IP
  3. laxmi

    laxmi Well-Known Member

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    #3
    do i have to pay hosting charges or anything like that?please provide the complete list of things i have to pay for whether it is monthly or yearly?
     
    laxmi, Jul 7, 2007 IP
  4. CaitSith4343

    CaitSith4343 Peon

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    #4
    Domain: $8.88/year from namecheap (prices vary from different registrars).

    Hosting: You get what you pay for. You can get hosting for a few bucks a month, but expect significant downtime and slow speeds. Or you can go with a pretty reliable host like hostgator and pay a little more (still pretty cheap). Also, if you don't want to spend anything, you can go to a site such as proboards and get a free "remotely hosted" forum, where you will have limited control. If you choose to do this, you dont really need a domain, because they will give you a free subdomain such as yournamehere.proboards.com

    Forum Software: You can find free forum software such as phpBB, or you can pay for software with more features, such as vbulletin. You can pay a $160 one time fee that gets you a vbulletin license (1 year of updates), or you can pay $85 a year for a leased license. You can also check out IPB forum software.

    Design: If you want your forum to look unique and have a different design than the default phpbb, vb, etc. forum skins, you can upgrade. You can search around for free skins, which won't be unique, or you can pay someone to create a custom skin for you. For a decent design you will be paying $100+ and for someone to code it you will be paying $100+. You can probably find people for cheaper but you probably wont be guaranteed quality.

    As you can see you have a lot of options. You can start a forum for little or no money, or you can put some money into it and come out with a unique and attractive forum, its up to you.
     
    CaitSith4343, Jul 7, 2007 IP
  5. masroor

    masroor Banned

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    #5
    you have use SMF Forum which is free and best try it
     
    masroor, Jul 8, 2007 IP
  6. DeViAnThans3

    DeViAnThans3 Peon

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    #6
    This is a pretty complete overview, indeed.
    In order to get natural traffic, you should do several advertising first, you need to gain members.
    You could do a posting contest (eg. "$100 for the poster with the most posts at the end of August" -- or "$0.10 per quality post" (where $0.10 depends on what you expect of course)), or a referral contest (eg. "$50 for guy with most referrals with at least 5 posts" -- or "$1 per referral with at least 5 posts").
    You could also do signature advertising, pay people to have your link in their signature (on forums). On DP that'ld be like $10/mo in a signature of somebody with 1k posts; well something like that.
    Adwords is also a possibility, however I never used it, so I can't give you an estimated cost.
    Getting traffic is extremely expanded market, you can do so much for it. You could pay companies for banners, text links, or pay traffic companies for example 1k uniques -- however I had bad experiences with that kind of traffic -- and you can think out 1001 other traffic bringing methods. :)
     
    DeViAnThans3, Jul 8, 2007 IP
  7. laxmi

    laxmi Well-Known Member

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    #7
    what is meant by forum software?
     
    laxmi, Jul 8, 2007 IP
  8. masroor

    masroor Banned

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    #8
    you have to use SMF Forum it is completely free and he is saying about forum not forum software
     
    masroor, Jul 8, 2007 IP
  9. laxmi

    laxmi Well-Known Member

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    #9
    85$ per year is it cheap price or else too much cost?:cool: And do they design and give me forum or else i have to design myself?:confused: and does the forum require ssl certificate?
     
    laxmi, Jul 8, 2007 IP
  10. laxmi

    laxmi Well-Known Member

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    #10
    what are the good ways to build traffic for forum?:)
     
    laxmi, Jul 9, 2007 IP
  11. Fisker

    Fisker Well-Known Member

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    #11
    I have one simple and newbiisg type of question. I never see any adsense or or other such affiliates programs on any forum then how do forum owners make a living and earn??
     
    Fisker, Jul 9, 2007 IP
  12. masroor

    masroor Banned

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    #12
    you can see in Digital Point here is adsense ad's and there are many companies which have google adsense on there forum
     
    masroor, Jul 9, 2007 IP
  13. laxmi

    laxmi Well-Known Member

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    #13
    unless and until there is no traffic there is no use of putting ads on forum.but what is the good way to bring traffic to forums?:confused:
     
    laxmi, Jul 9, 2007 IP