I am thinking of starting a forum and have a few questions.

1. How is designing a forum different from designing a regular webpage?

2. Would it be difficult to learn to do myself?

3. What sort of costs should I expect in hiring someone to design a forum for me?

Thanks for any advice,
Shadrach

designing a forum?

Backend code as well or just the template.

I could do it with some sort of software package or even hire someone to do it cheaply. But whether I did it or someone else it would have to be the full package.

Are there hosting companies that specialize in this sort of website? I spoke with network solutions and they didn't have any packages designed for forums.

If I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about well.. I don't. Enlighten me.

Shadrach

Oh and FYI.. I think it would improve a great forum to add the log-in to each page. The only place to log in as it is, is from the home page. That same space is blank on every other page. Why not put the log-in prompt there?

Many hosting accounts have forums available as an installable package in whatever control panel they use.
eg: We have YaBB, phpBB & phpBB3 available on anything above the Basic package level.

All you then need to do is set it up with the database etc, and "skin" the package with a standard template or one of your own design.

Who do you work with?

In what way?

Sorry.. I misread that. You made the statement "We have YaBB, phpBB,..." as an example. I thought you were talking about your company.

With a total custom forum design top to bottom - how much could we expect to pay?

Our company is looking at investing in our own forum to drive traffic to our webstore. I am interested in design prices and what we could expect to receive for that price. We don't want to overpay.

If its fairly simple, I would rather do it myself. But from what I've read so far this is a little more involved that a web page design.

Thanks,
Shadrach

It's a mish mash of a group of companies and we all share various parts of the work. and part of that involves having two dedicated servers in a managed datacentre.

Our company is looking at investing in our own forum to drive traffic to our webstore.

Do NOT start a forum based on that premise. Because it simply won't! Been there, tried it.
The forum took up a fair chunk of time keeping it free from crap and drove no sales whatsoever.
Have a forum as a "help desk", have a forum as a means of client communication, but don't have a forum as a promotional tool for your own site.

I agree. You are better off building a blog if you want to promote your business.

So it would better to use the forum to generate revenue through advertising.

The thing is last year we paid a lot of money(more than 10K) for a year long advertising relationship with a forum related to our industry and really didn't see any fruit from it. We would much rather spend that same money on a forum of our own; set ourselves up as one of the sponsors along with others; get the same benefit of increased traffic; but make money from other sponsors as well.

Maybe my thinking is messed up.

I appreciate any advice. Keep it coming.

Shadrach

The thing is last year we paid a lot of money(more than 10K) for a year long advertising relationship with a forum related to our industry and really didn't see any fruit from it

This alone should tell you that a forum isn't going to generate sales.
And promoting it to be able to generate revenue will probably cost more that what you spent in the advertising.
Forum members don't go to click adverts, do you click any of the adverts here? Do you even notice them?

Quite honestly putting the 10k into a Adwords campaign will yield a better ROI

No. I don't really look at the ads here. But if they are so ineffective why does any company put up the money.

I understand that a forum, as well as online communities and blogs are a great way to pick up information and better understand the market. But is that the only value they have?

If no revenue is generated, what value do the owners of this forum receive apart from information gained?

Thanks,
Shadrach

The scripts that power this site (there is a link down there in that faded footer) are considered by many to be the best there are. All cPanel hosting accounts will offer one or more that are free to install.

The process and skills to build one from scratch are beyond......... If you had to ask forget it.

The rest of the comments I will leave to Chis to answer if he feels like it.

I wouldn't start a forum to try and drive busienss to your website. I tried that to and the time you will spend promoting it managing it and coming up with content will surpass 10k in time alone. If you were unhappy with that marketing venue then try google or yahoo ad words. You could get some really good trafiic doing that. If you really wanrt to drive traffic to your site I would start a blog and even a resource section on your site. Establish yourself as thought leaders and people will link you and that will help more than anything over the long run.

Good luck

Kuta
removed

Thanks for all your help.

shadrach

Hi All:
I think designing a forum is quite different from designing a regular webpage because with a forum you have to realize all the options that a normal person needs, because a person will stay too much time on the forum, in comparison with a normal webpage.
Felix Trogare
New York University

To start a forum, you would need to pay about $100/year for web hosting. I would also purchase the vBulletin forum script which costs $180.00.
You'll have to find a web designer to design a unique skin for your forum. I have seen web designers offering to design custom vBulletin skin for around $400.
You can also purchase a pre-made skins for far less.

With $500, you can have a good looking forum with a year of hosting.

I think if you want to do ,it would be easy.
to do now.

Originally Posted by Shadrach

I am thinking of starting a forum and have a few questions.

1. How is designing a forum different from designing a regular webpage?

2. Would it be difficult to learn to do myself?

3. What sort of costs should I expect in hiring someone to design a forum for me?

Thanks for any advice,
Shadrach

to generally answer your question, designing your own forum would be very difficult if you dont have enough knowledge on the language used in making your forum.. hiring someone to make a unique design for your forum would cost around $1000.. but there are alternatives like buying pre-made designs and there are also free ones..

Originally Posted by wayfarer07

I agree. You are better off building a blog if you want to promote your business.

I wouldn't even stop there. Go for an online magazine format. Then you can publish regular content which will certainly drive traffic to your webstore if the content is all properly relevant.

Here's an example of what I consider to be one of the most professional online magazines I ever read: http://www.sitepronews.com/

With a magazine you don't just have lots of organic traffic, you have a very easy way to set up a very good subscription mailing list for people who want your useful free info sent to them in the most helpful way possible.

Blogs, of course, can work too - but they're so passe, aren't they? Just kidding. **** this windows-keyboard-attached-to-mac combo... how can I find the acute accent? At least in html it's just a ´ away.