Here are the specific steps you need to take if you want to create a truly successful forum.

Choose a web host.

The first thing you want to do is evaluate your current web hosting company and look at other options. Open bulk sites with urlopener in just a second.

Jerry ‘s Best Web Hosting Choice can help you get a good idea of ​​whether you’re paying a fair price, how fast your server is, and whether the server can handle the forum load if it becomes popular. For example, are there any additional options for moving to dedicated server hosting?

Once you’ve narrowed down your choice of hosting companies , take the time to contact them and explain what your vision for your online forum is and if they have options to handle the load if your forum has a noticeable traffic spike.

Also, learn more about upgrade costs if your forum becomes popular. You can start small with cheap shared hosting; but as your forum grows, you may need a VPS or dedicated hosting to handle forum traffic .

Set up a forum platform.

Once you’ve placed your hosting, it’s time to choose the type of forum you’d like to have on your site. There are many different types of software that you can use and each has its own benefits.

Want only a discussion without private messages? Muut can do it. They offer a free 14 day trial and then you can choose from their free plan or premium plan which starts at $16/month and adds features like advanced branding, custom domain and user database. The platform is hosted by Muut servers, which is also an added bonus if you’re not quite ready to upgrade to a VPS .

PHPBB

phpBB is an open source forum. You install the software on your own website and use it completely free of charge, except for the web hosting fee .

As it is open source, you can find online help from various developers that will help you set up your forum so that it is fully customized. The style database contains hundreds of style and image packs to help you further customize your forum.

Simple Machines

Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is free software that allows you to create an online community even if you have little programming knowledge. It integrates with SQL database and is so optimized that it doesn’t have to pull extensive resources from your server. Changes can be easily made through the package manager.

This makes it easy and quick to add features.

Reference

vBulletin is one of the few forum software solutions that offers the ability to both host on your own site or use their cloud servers to host your forum. If you’re not very tech savvy, then the cloud (starting at $15/month) is probably the easiest solution for you. You can get your forum up and running in about 15 minutes and customize it to suit your tastes and the overall look of your website.

MyBB

MyBB is free and open source software. You can implement threads, private messages. Because it’s open source, there are many additional plugins and themes to help you customize your community. The admin panel gives you a lot of personalization options.

Kunena offers a different option for the forum and specifically for those who run their websites on the Joomla platform . Kunen is essentially an extension. This is a free forum and you don’t have to write any hacks or bridges to use its features.

BBPress

bbPress integrates with your WordPress site, giving you a blogging platform forum experience. Basically, it combines the best of both worlds. With bbPress you will only have one admin panel. It’s easy to set up and moderate, and won’t slow down . You can also create multi-site forums and even allow your users to create content for you using this platform. There are many plugins and themes for this forum software.

Vanilla

Vanilla is another solution that allows you to either use it as an open source software that you host on your own site, or you can use their cloud solution. You can try their cloud solution for free for a month to see what you think of the included features. The open source option provides community support, but no official technical support.

Create forum rules

Once you’ve installed the actual software, before opening a forum for users, you’ll want to come up with a set of rules that will govern behavior on your site.

  • Discriminatory comments
  • Obscene language
  • Incendiary positions
  • Spam and self-promotion
  • External links

Of course, you’ll want to consider your topic and think about what issues are likely to arise around that topic. It’s also a good idea to look into the Terms of Service (TOS) of other forums. Once you’ve implemented your rules, post them to the top sticky thread so that new members understand the rules. You can also ask them to agree to the Terms of Use when registering to access the forums.

Selecting (and sorting) forum topics

Choosing topics sounds like a simple task, but you need to look at what topics you want to cover today as well as in the future.

Finding a niche is an important element in building a successful online community. The Yackity Yack community will not be as successful as the community of golf enthusiasts.

If you look at the Warrior Forum example above in the excellent examples section, you will see that they have fairly general categories, and then within those general categories, topics are further broken down into specific topics. By choosing general topics, you leave yourself room for the development of your forum.

If you already have a business, obviously you will need a niche community associated with that business. If you just want to build an online community and are just getting started, then the sky is the limit and you can choose any niche you want. Keep in mind that you will probably need to be an expert or be in close contact with an expert on a given topic, as your members may have questions for the moderators and site owners.

For example, if you select the theme “Starting a business” in this category, you can add themes/topics such as “franchises to buy”, “choosing a location”, or “finding investors”.

Questions to ask:

  • Who is your audience?
  • What do they do/know/want?

Answer these questions and you’ll have a better idea of ​​the niche your community should cover.

SEO tool to the rescue

For example, SEM Rush “Case Study Tool” allows you to generate content ideas based on the country’s monthly search volume. The screenshot below shows the various subtopics under Hiking – you can use these subtopic suggestions to segment your forum.