Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi everyone,

I am looking into starting an online forum/community similar to fmylife.com.  I want to make something where users can post a 1-2 sentence reply where other users can rate their posts.  Judging from what I have described you can see how similar this is to fmylife.com.  I have no experience in building websites and was wondering if something like this would require advanced website building skills?  In addition, what else can you guys recommend?  I've looked into godaddy dot com into buying a domain and their are several options that can be "added-on," such as a secure website, email, etc.  Are these necessary for the website I want to build?

Thanks everyone

phyek

fmylife looks similar to twitter.

You will need a srcipt (program), there are a few "forum" scripts available both free ad for a cost. There are also scripts that are "clones" of fmylife and twitter should you want those specific features.

Setting up a foum is not typically something that is done sucessfully without some understanding or experience... although it is possible, if the script comes with good instructions and support.

You will need web hosting that is compatable with the script you use.

A lot of hosting comes with email (the hosting I offer does). You can also use gmail to handle your email needs.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Thanks for the info.  Could you provide me with some links to free and paid sites/resources where I can get scripts to run a forum similar to twitter/fmylife.

From what I understand I need to buy a domain, hosting, and design the site using the scripts in order to achieve my end goal...is this correct?

I take it from the questions this is the first time you`ll be starting a website?

Ok you have a theme or niche so thats your first step. Before you buy anything the next step it to have it clear on what you plan is once you have it up and running, write down!

A sort of business plan to your self, it will be easy to do if you just get out a sheet of legal paid and jot down ideas, everything from the name, the main idea behind the forum and goals. If you plan to make money from it decide how, via memberships, ppc ads, banner ads ect.

Then once you have that down organize it. I know this sounds silly but remember if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

Do you want to make money from this site? If so you should go with a pay forum script, and if this is you first time get one that has tech support and will help you install it. The paid scripts will have a lot more features and be much easier to add advertising. At least thats my opinion on most other scripts I`ve seen.

If its just a forum most PHP scripts can be customized from the admin panel. So you wont need to build a site.

As far as links to see the scripts you could try www.turn-k.net they have a script called k-rate that could work for you. They also have different versions starting from $59 to $129 depending on the features more importantly they have a demo you can install on your web server to try first.

Other than that go to hotscripts.com or just do a google search for twitter clone or fmylife clone.

You`ll need hosting also and the domain. If this is your first go at it try a free domain like .co.cc or .cz.cc also so it would be www.yourname.co.cc and look for a free hosting service that dose not require to to host ads. Again google will point you in the right direction. Later if you start to make money and want to get a .com name you can forward the free .co.cc to the new so you don´t lose traffic.

Also for a few bucks a month look into hostgator.com

Hope this help

Hey phyek,

 

Like jediwebmaster said, there are simple, cost free options available but you need to first get down your business plan and decide what is going to be your revenue source, advertising/marketing model in order to launch a website. Thre are tons of forums and twitter clones now inthe internet. if you are not targetting a specific audience, you will be lost in the rubble.

First make sure whom you are targetting and hope you can reach them to get the revenue model. If you are sure, then go ahead and signup with hosting company or free hosting and start trying scripts which you can find from hotscripts.com or scriptsden.com. But be careful when you buying the scripts because they promise and never deliver. Try out their demo site first and then purchase their product. I can suggest some like joomsocial is good and similar to ning.com. You can even try ning.com first free and check out how it is recieved and go from there.

 

Always don't hesitate to contact if you have any questions. Happy to answer.

 

Phyek

Have you had a look at a ning community

You can create a ning community free and they are fully customizable and you can even use your own domain name.

Have a look at my community and if you want to trial a ning community to see what options are available, just sign up at ning.com

I kept my community very simple and basic

See http://www.australiancontacts.ning.com

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Regards Michael Clayton (rexiedexie)

My Affiliate Articles & Web Page Traffic

The first thing you need to do is check to see if you have $5K - $10K in the bank. If not, you then will need to decide if you want to become a website programmer. If not, then you should stop!

If you want to become a website programmer then start by getting a programming book on Java and PHP. Those are good languages to start with.

If you are smart and don't want to become a website programmer, but instead want to run a business. Then you need $5K - $10K to start and run a successful commercial website. The best bet is to find a professional web development company to help you. They'll set up the domain, hosting, script, search, etc. that you'll need to build and market your site. Keep in mind you'll still need to do some marketing yourself as every business owner does.

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I am sure you will find many useful info and experts in this site to help you complete your community.

I realise the post is old, but since you didn't say if you'd achieved anything I thought I'd contribute.

Essentially, yes, it does require some advanced web development skills.
As others have said, you could buy scripts etc. But if you're not willing to pay a lot for support you'll basically be screwed, given that you say you've no previous experience in this area.

If you're very serious about this and want it to succeed, I'd get a book on PHP and MySQL. I've no idea why someone else mentioned Java, as this is pretty much useless on the web. If they meant Javascript, then fair enough.

PHP isn't super difficult to learn(I'm doing so now) but will take time and even within PHP, forums are a specialist thing as most people just buy a licence for vBulletin.

If, however, you didn't want to build a forum and just wanted to clone fml, well, that's easier. Once you've learned PHP and MySQL to a decent level you could build something like that in a weekend.