How to start a good and successful forum

kinkarso · Jul 2, 2006

Hi,

I am finally ready to start a big webmaster community with all the money I have saved up. Can someone please give me some suggestions on how to start? I am thinking of running a big posting contest with cash prizes at first, but is there an alternative? If not, how should I run it? When should I start?

Thank You,
Donny

Olney · Jul 2, 2006

Contest are good but have something that members can't get anyplace. That or make a "better place" on the internet.
A community is a place members live virtually I think. Take yourself out of the picture & think exactly why you'd like to be a member of the site you are creating.

Already having some people interested in your project really helps.

Good Luck..

monkeyhead · Jul 2, 2006

I also find that unique custom designs appear to draw members to your forum, so long as you dont have a poor design. A little tip is create multiple accounts and get a little discussion going to act like theres activity, as most people are unlikely to post on an un active forum. Another thing is to get unique content, and give what similar forums are giving to there members plus more.
From experience its hard to really get a forum going without the money to put into it. In others words to get much out of it you have to put somthing into it.
Matt

harleyx · Jul 2, 2006

Start with an existing, established website. Figure out a hook for getting people interested in joining the discussion, contributing, or asking questions that relates directly to your established sites content.

If you want a great litmus test, start by offering comments on the content first. If you don't get much in the way of comments, you won't get much response from a forum.

kinkarso · Jul 2, 2006

I have a $1500+ budget to start my forum. What should I spend it on? I'd like to create a new forum from scratch. How much should I spend on it's resources (hosting, domain, vB licence - leased or owned, etc), and how much should I spend on advertising and populating it?

Thank You,
Donny

RazorNF · Jul 2, 2006

Another thing to keep in mind. Nothing sucks more than having to restore backups and have missing users and posts.

Forum aside, something to do regardless of whatever kind of site you want to develop - I would suggest to find a reliable host, one with a proven track record.

When I first started out, I made the mistake of looking for the cheapest cpanel resellers I could find, and trust me, you do get what you pay for. You would not believe how many times, I'd get an email saying "you must update your nameservers to our new improved servers within 48 hours", or the number of times I'd go to my site and find a sql connect error and when reporting it, to be told "you'll have to re-add the database and recreate the user", with no other explanations whatsoever.

And not just one provider, alot seem to be like that and change hands so often... Too many people are buying webhosting businesses off ebay with no clue how to operate one. I've learned my lesson.

dcristo · Jul 2, 2006

I couldn't agree with harleyx more. Start with an already established website that gets good traffic. Post Questions on the forum when you first launch it which require answers to help with forum activity.

Shaggy · Jul 2, 2006

Thats what I did with 3 of my forums. It made it much easier to start it up.

NavySeals91 · Jul 3, 2006

Get an owned VB liscense, it is cheaper in the long run.

etech-peter · Jul 4, 2006

Posting contests are good way to get the activity going in a new forum. Make sure you offer something lucrative to keep the activity going. At the same time you can also post in other relevant forums with your forum's contest link in your sig.

Salient · Jul 4, 2006

I started from scratch on a couple. Best advise I can give is; be sure you have an intimate knowledge of the forum topics and consistently be a part of the forum (use good grammar).

If the content you provide is rich then people will stick around.

Shaggy · Jul 4, 2006

Also, its best to start a forum that has little around of that same topic. Its tuff nowadays to find a topic that hasn't been overdone, but there are still some that are out there.

kinkarso · Aug 4, 2006

Ok, here's my progress. I bought a few forums. The main one is RapAvenue.com. It currently has 100,000+ posts and 2,500+ members. I started a free ipod nano contest, and a few people are competing for it, but it's taking way too long

. What should I do? I can't remove the contest because some people are already trying to get at it (like 1/5 of the way there though

), and I really don't want to wait for it to end since I'm planning on something different for the forum (another contest). Should I increase the prize pool?

Thank you,
Donny

Preoccupy · Aug 5, 2006

I think dnforum.com is a success in the domain forum industry... maybe you should try and ask the admin of this forum for some suggestions. If you want your site to be a success, the best would be to ask someone who is a success in the similar business. Since dnforum is related to domains, you want to start a big webmaster community so since it is somewhat in similar area, try and ask the admin of this forum for some suggestions and some ways to make it a success!

Hope this was some help to your problem solving !!:sleep:

kinkarso said:
Hi,

I am finally ready to start a big webmaster community with all the money I have saved up. Can someone please give me some suggestions on how to start? I am thinking of running a big posting contest with cash prizes at first, but is there an alternative? If not, how should I run it? When should I start?

Thank You,
Donny

carlton · Aug 5, 2006

Wonder if someone can address the importance of having a 24 hr. moderator(s). I've thought about starting a forum too but the time demand seems pretty steep. Thoughts?