I have decided to have a go at creating my own forum... I recently set up my own wedding video business (www.everlastingmemories.org.uk) and now want to set up a kind of wedding planning resource site for the midlands UK. With this I hope to be able to sell some directory listings and make some adsense money from the forum. I'm ok with the website stuff (i think) but I have no idea what to do with the forum. I think I'll go with vbulletin but have no idea what to do. So I'm looking for an idiots guide to setting up, maintaining, promoting, getting traffic to, getting people to post etc. etc. etc. everything really. If anyone can give me any help (or point me in the direction of a forum post that has the info I need) I'd be very very grateful. Thanks for reading
vB is not all that hard and well worth the money... Set up is not all that hard, just follow the instructions. Though you may wish to look on vBulletin.com at some of their sticky threads on it, as well as the sticky posts on security. Promoting is not all that hard either. Submit to directories in your spare time. Find related blogs (including photography blogs) and make USEFUL comments (complete with a link to your site). Write articles and submit them to article sites (complete with link of course). Getting members is the tricky part. Don't give up, and remain active as the admin. Start new threads that warrant discussion. Get friends, family, and even employees to all post on it... that'll keep the place at least partially active. Heh, set up a hidden forum just for them, then you can even stage long discussions in advance. Just don't give up!
Just make sure you are offering unique content otherwise your not going to get any hits or a good start in the big world of seo and marketing your site / biz. Good luck
I recommend vBulletin, or a highly modified phpbb. SMF is too brisk to be bothered with, the default unchangeable fonts are horrible, but if you’re not all for eye-candy and professionalism impression then go with whatever you will.
You can get a lot of help here: http://www.adminfuel.com An article on help choosing a piece of software is here: http://www.adminfuel.com/picking_the_right_forum_software-p4.html There are lots around. There is commercial battle between vB and IPB, however I think vB takes it. With free software there is a crunch between phpBB, SMF and MyBB. The latest versions of each bring something new, and it is really up to you on which you choose