I need an advice on starting a forum

Hello all, I'm trying to start a forum and I have no experience on how to do it. I know that I need to buy a domain name and a hosting plan but other than that I don't know what to do. So if someone could help me step by step on what to do or if there is a video tutorial I should watch then please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

 

Well you will have to decide what forum software best suits your needs after you get your domain and hosting. There are plenty of great free software out there including Simple Machines Forum and MyBB. There is also good paid ones including vBulletin, XenForo and IP.Board. Upload the software to your server and go through the installation process which most of the time is quite simple step by step. Make sure you read the requirements for each forum software.

 

Hi,

I suggest you create multiple user names and start quite a few discussions. I also recommend hiring a few form posters/topic starters. Its important to keep your forum as active as possible. No one likes to go anywhere , where there is no activity.

Best,
-C

 

As silly as having conversations with yourself sounds, it's not a bad idea and probably one of the cheapest ways to promote initial activity. You also need quality content that will make people want to engage in your community.

 

best advice : don't

 

1. Register a domain name (e.g. at Namecheap)
2. Get web hosting (e.g. at Hostgator)
3. Decide on forum platform (e.g. vBulletin, myBB, phpBB3, etc. - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software) and install
4. Setup and configure forum
5. Promote and monetize
6. Spend hours each day moderating and blocking spammers
7. Get tired
8. Give up, close/sell forum

 

Don't make it seem that hard, it's really easy to mange a forum there are mods that block spams and he can start a team with friends that are interested in running a forum also they can manage it together.

 

I would register a name at go daddy. Then i use Hostgator for my forum. I paid for vb its easy to use i think mine was like 195 cant rember tons of mods you can ad. Best free one i think is mybb. Try to get a niche if you can. Promote your forum on other blogs and forums. Main thing is dont give up. i've been lucky and havent had much spam but when one comes block it before they fill your whole forum up. Dont ad fake accounts users are smart they know what up with that old trick. Get a facebook fan page. Click on other forums pages related to yours if possiable. good way to get traffic. I started mine end of may 2011 and havent done much anything in way of promoting and its slowly gone up in rankings.

 

Thanks for all of your replies, I've started the forum and it's running but there are a few things I want to know. First, the site is about all kinds of professionals how do I arrange the members into the state they're from and their professions in the memberlist?

 

http://rt.com/usa/news/support-sopa-daddy-web-037/

 

Being that specific is going to be quite hard, as there are lots of variables. There may be an add-on which will help you catergorise them as you want to. It's not something which is going to be easily done though. You're better off having different sections for different professions rather than different groups.