Have been dreaming of having your own Internet forum where people converge and have discussions on various topics in your niche? You used to visit other forums on the internet and wish to have something like that? Forum is one of the best means to build a community on the Internet and it is the easiest means to leverage community efforts and make money. Once you’re able to establish your forum and setup to monetizing it, you’re sure of consistent stream of revenue coming in to you non stop.
To build a forum is simple but to make it prosper requires considerable effort. How do you go about setting up your forum and what are the things required? Many have been able to build successful Internet forums in the past — Forums like The Warriors Forum, Digital Point, WebHostingTalks, and DNForum are some of the finest forums on the Internet and the owners are making real money from them. You too can have yours starting from today! But what are the things you need to put together to have your own successful Internet Forum?
1. Decide on a Niche – If you notice, all the forums I mentioned here are niche focused. The easiest way to build a successful forum is to focus on a niche. This way, you know your community is made up of people of similar interest which is easier to monetize than a broad forum. Make sure you choose a niche you are familiar with. If you know web hosting, you can set up discussion forum on web hosting, if you know domain name business, you can build community around that niche. Choosing a niche you are into will make the forum management more comfortable to you.
2. Choose a Forum Script – Once you’re armed with the niche, you move over to select your choice forum script. There are hundreds of nice scripts out there but some are better than the others. vBulletin is the most popular premium forum script and it is well maintained, all the forums I mentioned earlier runs of vBulletin. That tells you how popular vBulletin is. Some may prefer other scrips because of the cost or the ease of management. If you want free script that is robust and reliable more like the premium ones, you may go with Simple Machine Forum.
3. Register a Domain – It will be nice if your forum domain name is descriptive to your niche. If you can lay your hands on a Keyword Rich Domain of your niche, that will be very nice – it will be a very good beginning for your search engine optimization. In the absence of that, you may go for Generic easy to remember domain that is short. Register it with a registrar of your choice.
Do not register you domain with your host because if you have problem with them and decides to move elsewhere, some may obstruct your domain. It is a wrong decision that I always avoid though it work for some people and can even be free forever.
4. Select a Reliable Host – When selecting a host, be sure that it run PHP 5 because most forum scripts are written in PHP. Selecting a host isn’t an easy task and what worked for one person may not work very well for the other. There are great web hosts out there in hundreds if not thousands. Some of the ones I use are Liquid Web and Rackspace, that’s just my choice and what work for me, you may go somewhere else. You can also see some suggestions on WebhostingTalk.com.
5. Download and Upload your file – If you go for free script such as simple machine, you just go to their site and download the latest release. Within minutes, you’ll have your forum installed and running. Your host can help you do the installation depending on the hosting company but most will surely assist for customer satisfaction sake. If not, then Follow this tutorial to do it yourself. Better still you can contact a professional web developer to help you out.
Start Learning The Rope – Once you’re through with these five steps, the next is to get down to work and start learning how to manage your forum – front end and back end – everything will be fun from that moment henceforth.
Drop your questions below and let’s take it further. We hope to add more resources during commenting
What does the word NICHE mean in internet forum sir?
NICHE means many things but in marketing, A niche is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing. Your niche is your area of interest and specialization
Thanks for your reply.
I'm really trying to create a Forum Site.
I have prepared the features i need to use, but i'm confused about the best hosting to use that wont be giving me error when people visit the site.
As a newbie i'll start with SMF as you suggested, but do u think its advisable to redesign? as i want all my topics to be at the middle page just like nairaland, for instance i want exactly like this- itfi.net , but mine wont be for christian as that, as i have my own features for it.
Thank you sir.
Ok, Simple Machines Forum is a good choice. LIQUID HOST is a good host, one of the best in the industry.
Of course you can redesign (Customize) if you so wish and the default look is also ok.
Featuring content on the home page like Nairaland will require deep customization.
Yes i chatted with their customer service, but trust me their hosting packages can make one commit suicide lol. But they asserted since its for new forum with free software, i should use shared hosting. Is there no affordable shared hosting u can refer me to sir?
Thank you.
Arvixe Shared hosting is cheaper and very good too. Maybe you can try that one.
Thank you bro, i'm really learning from you even though I've learned a lot here before.
If i'm to use arvixe hosting for 12 month for my forum site using SMF software, do you think arvixe 'PERSONAL CLASS'' for $4/month will be perfect for my new forum site? And i've already got my domain registered. Or is a must for me to go for a hosting package higher than 'PERSONAL CLASS'' for $4/month despite the forum will be a new forum?
Though PHP Scripts do consume much resources but I think share personal hosting plan will be good at the beginning. Should your site grow past it, you can always upgrade. It is a good idea to test the water with the smallest of plan and upgrade if the need be. Forum is not easy to push-start so start with personal class first.
Howdy are using WordPress for your blog platform? I'm new to the blog world but I'm trying to get started and set
up my own. Do you need any html coding knowledge to
make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Wow, incredible weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for?
you make blogging look easy. The full glance of your site is fantastic, let
alone the content!
Sir, i still need more explanation concerning how to my account will be credited using the forum site i created
Sir.what businesses can i do with 100k?
Where can i source for used clothes online and small importation business?
Thanks for all the ideals
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Nice Tips, I am think of starting a good and profitable forum and you really nailed it.
Thanks Darlington. Through this, I have been able to build a forum for students interested in ICAN Exam. Its called IcanExam.com and the growth is organic and quite mpressve.
Thanks
how do i start the internet business and is another seminar comming
A niche is a particular topic or category e.g e.g Politics, entertainments, fashion etc, all these are different niches.