forums?

[Lord_Scorch]

Hello;

To begin, I must ask this of you: Will you be dedicated? Will you spend atleast 1 hour on it a day to better it? Will you work in unison with your fellow friends? If you said no, I recommend not starting. If you said yes, here's where to begin:

• Find a nichè that suites you. An example of this would be: A forum dedicated to the history of the Roman way of life. It has to be something that appeases you, and you want to stick to. If you don't agree with the subject, you won't stick with it.
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• Next, I would find a software you wish to run your forum off of. Some examples would be: Simple Machines Forums (SMF), MyBulletinBoard (MyBB), Invision Power Board, (IPB), etcetera. Some may cost money, but those are most of the time worth the extra cash. They have alot of cool features.
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• Pick a domain relating to your nichè. Let's use the example above about Roman history. We could get two types of domains: A free domain, or a paid one. Free ones are usually stuck with those who don't want to put out the money to pay. They may also relate those to who don't have the money to put out. Which is fine too. But a paid domain shows you're ready to put some effort into the site. So, most likely find a paid one. Back to our example: romanhistory.com would be a good one, wouldn't it? Yes. It fits your nichè perfectly. But if it's taken, you should go with something like.. romanhistory.net. Same thing, just different ending.
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• Find a good host. Most good hosts are paid, but there are some good free ones out there. I recommend you choose wisely because you don't want a host that goes offline often. That would destroy traffic you'd get to your site.
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• Setting up the forums: this is the easy part. You create forums, and sub-forums to fit your sites purpose. You could also add plugins to better your forums as well - such as the Awards plugin on this site. It gives a feature to the posters of your forums, to keep them coming back.
  

If you have any questions / concerns, please Private Message me.

-LS