What fun questions to take a stab at, heartbreaker.
For free forum software, why not use phpBB?
Assigning a moderator would come as your forum got popular. You might get posters that enjoy the site so much that they ask to be moderators. That will come with time.
Making money from your forum is a difficult task because the ad click through rate is usually not very good for forums. The benefit to a forum is the free content that all your members would be posting on a daily basis. The search engines love forums because of all the fresh content. The other benefit is that when your visitor likes the content on your forum then he/she is more likely to return to your site again and again. If the forum is related to what you are selling on your site then you should see those returning visitors eventually buying your product or service.
Forums are kind of like the lounge chairs at Barnes and Nobles (the book store). They make the visitor feel welcomed and the visitor is pleased and so decides to stay and eventually buy the book they were thumbing through while sitting in the lounge chair.
After you set up your forum you will need members. Couple ways to do this...
Ask friends & family, set up a couple usernames yourself and 'talk' to yourself, start a contest and advertise it among popular webmaster forums, etc. You can also use a paid posting service such as the one I own: http://www.inb0x.com
I've got hundreds of writers that are ready to sign up and start talking.
I wish you well in your journey, heartbreaker! |
