How to Run a Successful Forum
Before you read the rules, you should know what it takes to make money with your message board. You might be used to free tools such as forum hosts or open source forum scripts. The truth is, you will never get the traffic you need to succeed without investing in professional tools. Your forum may have hundreds of competitors so you need to be a cut above the rest.
There are three important items you don't want to skimp on when building your forum:
- Hosting
- Forum software
- Domain names
1. Hosting
Forum software takes substantial server resources. In order for your forum to grow you need a decent hosting package. If your site doesn't load quickly visitors will leave and in turn the community will not thrive.
HostGator has fast, high quality servers and reasonably priced hosting packages. If you are just starting out, the baby package for $7.95/month is a good choice. It allows unlimited domains for a great price.
2. Forum software
Most forum scripts do little to combat spam posts and bot registrations. You spend so much time deleting the garbage that it is hard to focus on important factors such as promoting your forum. Without good forum software, your experience as an admin will be nothing more than frustrating.
vBulletin streamlines administrator functions and makes it a pleasure to run a forum. It is by far the best.
3. Domain names
The sites that last have short snappy names that are easy to remember and spell.
GoDaddy is a solid choice for domain names. The pricing is excellent and the control panel is leading edge.
Rules
Please play fair. If you don't, why should anyone bother to join?
Any attempts at cheating will have you banned from the list. This includes but is not limited to spamming and proxy voting. Your site's staff must be notified that such methods of voting are UNACCEPTABLE, and therefore they must not help in such activities.