I hope i dont get in any trouble for posting this but here i do not wish to upset/offend the staff here, I am thinking of opening a site alot like this place! (Like board style, shop, credit system, ect, ect...) Now the problem is i know very little about these things. So i am curious and looking for info on how to go about doing this. Now i have a site with 14oo members but its an invisionfree forum and i find that most dont stay because of that reason, so i am thinking of going all out! So any help will be most helpful so: How much does a site like this cost per month/year for the hosting, domain, and other things that im not aware of? Where do i find good/reliable hosting? How much does a skin cost? How do i go about instaling mods for it like this place has? (Arcade, shop, credit system, ect, ect...) I guess those are just a couple of the basic questions, any other info thtat i am not aware of will be most helpful also... Now i need to think of a name that will be extremly catchy! Thanks in advance for any help.
I was going to develop a site a little while ago, so I know the answer to some of the questions. Domains range in price depending on which site you get your domain from. I have heard amazing feedback from "godaddy.com" So you can try out their site, they have domains for $10 US a year I believe. As for skins, you can get skins made from prices ranging from $20-$200 US. (Yes, there is a big range; it can even go much higher!) You would most probably end up paying about $50 if you want a decent one made, if it is custom. You can get pre-made ones for cheaper I believe. Probably was not too much help, this was basically what I learned from making a site. Prices range very much, depends on how many hookups you have, so it helps knowing people.
Thanks for the help Sniper! I will plan on paying about $1oo for a skin then to make sure it is great, i will check godaddy for sure, now i need to find out how much hosting costs, where to go for skins, coding, mods, and people who can install them...
If you want a skin for like a $100 dollars, find someone who can code the skin to whoever you want, if you want a freelance designer, it will be a lot more like $500-1000.
Yeah, make a checklist: Domain Hosting IPB lisence Mods Advertising? Staff Good ideas Lots of free time Will power to make it take off
It's not that hard. If you want an IPB forum go to their site (www.invisionpower.com) and you can buy for one. Installing an IPB forum is easy as hell (upload all the folders/files in the upload folder, chmodd some folders and install it. I'm pretty sure there is an install guide too which will help you doing the things that need to be done. Skins can vary. A good skin can cost around $30/$40. And spending $100 is in my opinion way too much. Installing mods are easy, as long you follow the guide which is included with the mod.
Several years ago I ran a pretty large car-based forum for about 2 years , 40k members or so, so if you need any help at all shoot me a PM or catch me on a messenger/IRC, Ill try to answer whatever questions I can. Yea, theres nothing too hard about setting it up. there are several problems with getting a good community up and running...and keep interest in the site. I wouldn't go into this venture alone. Id form a small group of "staff" now to help you out. Also, find a good site *cough* GR *cough* and use it as a model as far as the forum layouts and such. But when starting out, keep it simple with as few sections as you can, that way they look to have more threads/replies than having 23849042 sections with 1 or 2 posts in each. It will create more of an "illusion" of a very active forum. Installing, hosting, domain, mods etc is all pretty basic and as Nica said, usually has a guide, or there is some form of support. As far as advertisement, see what you can do as far as "trading" links until you have enough member-base that paying to advertise will actually draw in new members.
Im afraid i will need some hand holding guys i hope im not getting to anoying yet. Ok now i got my domain, and the P**fessional Webhosting package located here: http://www.invisionpower.com/hosting/shared.html but now i cant figure out what to do next, as far as how do i get them all to work together?
They give you the IPB lisence. So check your email or w/e, they should give you info on setting up the board. Oh about the domain. Log into the website where you bought the domain. Then change the Nameservers (DNS) to the ones you should have been told when you bought your hosting with ipb. E.g, NS1.HOSTINGCOMPANY.COM, NS2.HOSTINGCOMPANY.COM
ALSO, not to burst your bubble buuut. If you had you heart set on having some nice mods then think again: "IP.Board provided with website and community hosting accounts is an encoded product which means you will not be able to add modifications to the software. To have unencoded source files, you may purchase an IP.Board License in addition to the hosting."
