Create a Blog/message board

[burghtalk]

Hi,


I am a general newbie here, have done some searching to try to figure this out but have not been able to find exactly what I am looking for.


I am looking to create a website that is half blog half message board. The site I would like to model it after is www.phillyblog.com. I am sure you can guess that basically I would like to take this model and apply it to my home city. If you take a look at that site it is pretty simple and will hopefully give you an idea of what I want.

What I want to know is the best way to go about this for someone who is pretty decent with computers, has not done a lot of programming but would also like to use this as an opportunity to learn. Thank you in advance...

[Theresa]

Hi and welcome. It looks like that may be a Wordpress blog with a vBulletin message boards. If you like Wordpress, many hosts will have it available with a simple installation through the control panel. It is easier if you find a host that has this option. Although you can always upload them using an FTP program like Filezilla.

Basically you would need to find a web host, install Wordpress, install your message board program and then link them.

A lot of people will recommend against having a message board until you have a site receiving enough traffic to keep it going. I agree with that advice. I made the mistake of having a message board when I started my site and it is nearly impossible to keep it fresh without many visitors. So you may want to consider that as a second phase.

I hope this helps and I am sure others will be along soon with more comprehensive advice.

[burghtalk]

Thank you for the advice.

I have read the advice regarding not having a message board until you have traffic and the thing I am wondering is, can't you just have it sitting there. What exactly is the harm??

[Theresa]

You can install it and just not link to it, so it could just be sitting there without anyone knowing it was there. No harm in that at all and it would give you time to post at your leisure to "fill it up a bit" before you go live with it. You could even invite a few friends to help you out.

If you do install it and make it accessible to your viewers, the potential harm to your site is that it may look "dead" to viewers if there is not enough posting going on. That can give a bad impression, but I guess that may be a debatable issue. It is one of the things that is a judgement call for each individual.

[burghtalk]

Understandable, I know what you mean. I suppose as long as the blog is fresh then people will know that the site is not dead that people just need to start using the message board. As far as a host any suggestions?

[Theresa]

I'm not sure I can make any personal recommendations. My websites are too new to speak with authority. I have heard others recommend Monte Carlo, Website Tonight and Powweb. Lisa has links to some of those here.

I use x10Hosting. I started out with a free plan and then upgraded to a paid plan. I am very happy with them so far, but have only been there about 3 months.



Edited to add: If you do use a forum, vBulletin is a bit expensive, but there are several free forum scripts available. I use SMF and love it.

[lisa]

Originally Posted by burghtalk

Thank you for the advice.

I have read the advice regarding not having a message board until you have traffic and the thing I am wondering is, can't you just have it sitting there. What exactly is the harm??

Great points Theresa. I too agree that you don't want a dead board sitting out there but you can always hide it until you're ready.

Powweb is good and I just started using Hostgator for one of my sites and their customer support is awesome! They have a cpanel platform which means there is a free bulletin board/forum script you can use that they will help you setup.