Hi From NC & 2nd home Park City, Utah

[evrl]

Hi,

I just happened to stumble across this site last week some time and am very impressed with the valuable information it provides. Thanks Lisa for the dedication you have shown to making your informational sites a great resource to many.

I have a few brand new sites in the works so I am looking forward to scanning Lisa site on how to create a web site and this forum to help keep me on the right path.

At least one of my sites will have a vbulletin forum on it and I wanted to ask you Lisa about how you set this forum up and integrated it into your informational website. Where is the best place to post my questions concerning this so others can benefit from your response?: I looking forward to learning from you all and hope I can contribute as I go along in my new adventure!

[lisa]

Hi Evrl

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the kind words. Setting up this forum is pretty easy as long as you understand the basics of FTP-ing files to your server. Vbulletin comes with instructions. There are also free ones you can try like www.phpbb.com but of course it doesn't have as many bells and whistles as vbulleting.

Although, as I tell others who want to start a forum, don't do so until you have at least 500 (preferably 1,000) visitors per day. The reason being, it's very hard to build activity if your site doesn't have very much activity.

[Lajocar]

Originally Posted by lisa

Although, as I tell others who want to start a forum, don't do so until you have at least 500 (preferably 1,000) visitors per day. The reason being, it's very hard to build activity if your site doesn't have very much activity.

Good point Lisa, I tried to start a forum a couple of times and gave up just because of this reason and also the spam factor.

[evrl]

Originally Posted by lisa

Hi Evrl

Although, as I tell others who want to start a forum, don't do so until you have at least 500 (preferably 1,000) visitors per day. The reason being, it's very hard to build activity if your site doesn't have very much activity.

What if the site is meant to be designed around a forum" sorta like a magazine website where all the news is link to the forum for comments? An example would be macrumors.com.

Also this forum is very much needed and very specific to a targeted group. Basically it will be for certain college (a very specialized school) and would be a community forum for parents of students attending, students, and high schooler who are seeking out information on the process for getting into this college. there has not been a forum created yet to meet those needs and it is long overdue. It would target about 10,000 people and I have the sources to promote it heavily. I would not make money from the forum itself but rather from the informational site it would be linked to. Have you seen forums like that succeed from scratch? Thanks for the help

Gen

[lisa]

If you already have the audience and the interest then that may be a different thing. Most people who try to start forums don't have the audience yet. So if you know people who are interested then it may be worth a try.

[Lajocar]

So the audience is the most important factor. If you have the traffic then the forum can be active.

I would say it can take a couple of weeks or even months to get decent traffic to a new forum.

What some forum webmasters do is they create multiple profiles and just post themselves from different accounts to start the ball rolling.

It can be a endurance exercise.

[evrl]

Yes

I have the sources to let every student and parent know w/in a week of starting so i need to be sure it is top notch so that when they do visit they will want to participate.

This school more, than most, has huge parents support and involvement so there are parents clubs throughout the country but no national forum. but there is a very active listserv that was started back in late 90's . So there will be huge enthusiasm to have something that takes them into the 21st century!!

There is also not a forum set up for the students as of yet, so that need will be filled. I will also have a section on forum for those who may be interested in the application process and information. I feel confident it will be successful if I make it appealing

[Lajocar]

I think that it is a good idea to get kids and parents to participate in forum.

They can ask questions and raise their opinions on the topic categories that you are going create in forum.

[Rob]

Welcome to WebsiteBabble.

Enjoy your stay here