Starting a forum

glowgirl_2

Hi, I would like to start up a forum, can anyone recommend a way to do this without it costing too much - thank you

cally6008

https://www.proboards.com - easy and quick

are you wanting to make money from your forum ?

glowgirl_2

Yes, definitely, any ideas would be much appreciated, I already have adsense on a blog I run - thank for the reply:)

cally6008

What subject would your forum be about ?

glowgirl_2

Hi cally6008, it would be a beauty forum mainly for people to swap reviews on products something along the lines of this http://www.makeupalley.com but with mainly products available in the UK.

Hi goonerAFC - I've pmd you

Thanks guys:T

sarahreader

There are links to forum software you can use to add to your blog through your hosting (if you have cpanel).

Starting up is the hardest part as most people will leave a forum if they see it's not busy. To get around this there are very cheap forum posting services you can use to make it look busy or just use Amazon Turk. This encourages real people to join and you're away.

technik_2

easy to buy hosting for a few quid in some cases and many come with cPanel and fantastico. fantastico being one click installation of a lot of popular software...including forums.

mightymole

as someone said proboards.com

they do free forum hosting and have a support forum board with graphics codes etc

glowgirl_2

Great info, thank you all, any more ideas on earning an income from the forum would be welcome.

jasonwatkins

the only way you're realistically going to earn an income from a forum is advertising, but you've got to find a happy medium so that the adverts aren't obtrusive.

The main problem you're going to get though is attracting members.

I ran a forum for 2 years with an average daily use of only 8 or 9 people. It was only when the Channel 4 news forum closed that it went up to around 35-40 per day.

PasturesNew

In the main, running a forum isn't a way to make money. On average you're better off running a website or blogging.

Forums can become a pain in the bum to monitor too - once people start moaning or squabbling.

Having a forum as part of your website/blog is an idea, but just to run one on its own for its own benefit is hard work.