After a long wait, my first forum is finally up and running.  Turns out my designer didn’t have to travel abroad – he was playing a practical joke on me!  It worked.  But I’m glad it was only a joke because the forum looks great and I’m eager to get it up and running.  Right now I’m going to refrain from sharing the domain name with you… but perhaps I will in the future, we’ll have to see.

This forum ended up costing me much more than I anticipated.
$600 design + $160 vBulletin + $35 Installation + $50 in hacks + $150 vbSEO + $50 installation = $1045
(I’m not even sure if vbSEO is a worthwhile investment - I”ll let you know)

I’ve already put a $200 down payment on my next forum and I think it will end up costing me about the same.  Seeing as how this is a sizeable investment for me, I’ll be spending some time over the next week preparing for the “launch”.  The official “launch” date will be either Friday, November 3rd or 10th.  It depends how quickly I can get the forum tweaked to my liking.  Then, I’ll be recruiting friends, family and acquantances to become members and make a few posts.

My marketing blitz will focus on one thing – getting enthusiasts of my “niche” to my website to read about a contest where they can win a product related to the niche.  Of course, they have to become members and make posts to be entered into the contest.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I have to put all the pieces in the proper place before I want to attract volumes of targetted traffic.  This could be a tedious process, but it will be well worth it when the members come pouring in!

Stay tuned and I’ll keep you updated as the launch approaches.  Here goes nothing…