Starting an Online Forum

I am going to start an online forum.

The niche is targeted but pretty saturated, however, the forum would only be part of a website and the website receives a good amount of returning visitors and new unique visitors every day. The forum would not be the primary focus of the website.

The primary goals of the forum would to help retain and attract returning and new visitors and to be able to promote some of my related websites by way of the forum. The goal of the forum would not necessarily be to make money through the forum directly.

I also want to keep my costs down, so vbulletin or some other paid forum software is out of the question, at least for the moment.

Before I start I would like some tips, ideas, thoughts etc.

Thanks

 

Even though you say the forum isn't a main focus you should still encourage participation. If you have an email list you could send them a message to get in your forum and start asking questions. Since its new you'll need to put in a lot of effort by answering the questions to keep it going. Forums can be great for traffic especially if you have lots of topics on different key phrases. Good Luck!

 

You better start with vB platform.

Because when your user based in growing,its will posed a problem using freeware forum script.

 

Actually some of the free forum software handles load better than vbulletin.

 

So what are some of the features that I should look for in forum software in general?

 

That could be a great addition for your community.
Expect to put some time on this at the beginning.

 

Make sure you have people that are sure to be read to participate. Nothing will make people hit the back button faster than an empty forum.

 

MyBB is free, and I like it better than any other forum software.
About running a forum, make sure to post a lot yourself, and constantly invite people from many other places. The theme is a very important part of a forum, and plays a significant role whether a visitor registers there, or to your competitors.

 

Instead of thinking about features, you should concentrate on encouraging and maintaining activity which is the most critical thing for any new forum.