Maintaining an online forum is one of the best
ways to drive sales, develop brand reputation, and
promote goodwill with your customers. Some of
the world’s most successful businesses, such as
Microsoft and Apple, maintain active forums to
provide support and a place for discussion for
their customers. Building a successful forum,
however, isn’t always easy; in fact, it can be
downright daunting when your forum has zero
users. While a successful forum can take months
– if not years – to build, the following steps
should set you in the right direction.
1. Use the right software
The backbones of any successful forum are a
functional website and the forum software itself.
Today, many companies such as Livecity provide
an easy way for people to build a modern and
standards-compliant website with little to no
coding experience. A good website will not only
better promote your brand but also provide a
convenient gateway to the forum.
When it comes to forum software, there are a
wide range of options. Some of the most popular
include the free-to-use phpBB and the pay-per-
use vBulletin. While most software will provide
the same function, be sure to do plenty of
research and find the package that works best for
you.
2. Find a niche and stick to it
Many forums make the mistake of trying to cram
too many subjects into a single message board.
While trying to appeal to as wide of a user base as
possible is certainly a good intention, it can result
in the forum being overly-diversified to the point
where it becomes confusing and crowded.
Instead, try to keep the number of message
boards on your forum to a minimum and have
them revolve around a single niche. The niche
doesn’t always need to relate directly to your
brand, but make sure it’s relevant and provides
users with a reason to be active on the forum.
3. Reach out to potential community members
Building the forum is only half the battle: The next
and arguably most difficult half is finding your
users. While starting out can be difficult,
remember to stay genuine while user-hunting;
posting threads under fake user accounts is not
only dishonest, but it can also be very obvious to
potential members. To help gain an initial
membership, try to reach out to friends or
associates interested in your niche and use the
forum as a “home base” for discussion.
4. Produce good content
For the foreseeable future, good content will
remain the driver of good search engine
optimization (SEO). When it comes to forums,
developing good content means maintaining a
genuine user base and keeping advertising bots –
programs sent to maliciously advertise on your
forum – at bay.
5. Maintain a good support network
One of the biggest reasons why users go to
forums in the first place is for support and
troubleshooting. As a result, being an active and
helpful administrator while providing your users
with good support resources is essential to
maintaining an active user base and driving sales.
Be sure to maintain an up-to-date bulletin board
featuring popular support resources, such as a
thread on frequently asked questions about your
niche or product.

http://www.livecity.com/site/live/articles/how-to-build-a-successful-online-forum-from-scratch.html

Do u really know the meaning of 'from scratch' ??

fattbabakay:
Do u really know the meaning of 'from scratch' ??

what does creating forum scratch mean?

Hmmm

Just like that
Nonsense