If you're not planning to invest...

[The Elite]

Don't waste our time.

Don't waste our time promoting your failed forum. Don't waste our time asking for assistance unless you're going to invest. Don't waste the free webhosts bandwidth.

If you're not planning to invest money paying $8.00 for a TLD, then don't go and promote your forum. Unless your forum is giving me free money and products, I will not click your co.cc link.

A forum is a resource, not an algorithm. I should go on your forum with the expectation of utilising what it has to offer, not attempting to remember whether your domain is s1.icyboards.randomdomainwithaletterrandomlyplacedthere.co.tr or s1.icyboards.rand0mdomainwithaletterrandomlyplacedthere.co.tr.

Furthermore, if your forum is hosted on 000webhost. Don't expect real criticism. The only useful criticism you can receive will be from someone who tells you "Your forum is on a free host, why bother reviewing something that will go down in 1 week." That is the cruel truth, time is money. If you're not going to invest money, why would you invest time.

Having a community is a give take relationship. You need to provide them with resources on a fast and reliable webhost with a somewhat decent domain name, in return you'll receive praise, a growing community and even revenue. Don't bother taking without giving.

By providing users a small forum, you should have a reliable shared webhost when starting. You can't just start a forum with the mentality, "I'll buy a domain and hosting if we get big", sadly, that's not how it works. You won't get big without prior investment and effort on your behalf.

 

[Jake]

....What? Why was this posted?

 

[The Elite]

....What? Why was this posted?

What's wrong with it...?

 

[Tindris]

In this case I am going to have to say I really don't agree with you. Many people don't have money to spend online but still may want to have a go. No market or option in life should be unavailable for people just because they don't have as much money as somebody else.

There are ways of running forums without spending on them, it takes more time, effort and skill but it is completely possible. I would rather join a forum where I knew that the admin had put a lot of time and effort into creating what I saw before me than if I knew he had just spent a load of money on it and not done most of the hard work himself.

I appreciate you writing articles like this but maybe you need to broaden the perspective you have on the world of foruming and take a look at the possibilities that FP offers for people that don't spend real money to create their forums anyway. FP is a prime example of what I am trying to say in this post.

 

[Fait]

For exaple like me i havent payed much my forums been running for 1 year i know many sucessfully forums that are on free hosts

 

[Cam]

By providing users a small forum, you should have a reliable shared webhost when starting. You can't just start a forum with the mentality, "I'll buy a domain and hosting if we get big", sadly, that's not how it works. You won't get big without prior investment and effort on your behalf.

I don't completely agree with that, but I understand where you're coming from on that. I have seen many, many, people start forums, websites, blogs, projects, etc and then say "We'll actually start investing if it gets big." To me, the administrator shows little confidence in a site. It's basically saying, "I am not going to invest anything now as I think this site has a good chance of being a complete failure." I can understand those people who literally can't invest anything, but it doesn't make sense to me for people to choose not to invest when they easily can. I think a forum can succeed without investing. I have seen a few administrators that have not invested a penny and have still managed to have a successful forum.

 

[kavin]

Well i agree with The Elite.
He never mentioned anywhere that we need a Dedicated server, with paid staff and things like that.
What he is actually wishing to say is, you need to invest money on things like a proper TLD and a proper hosting.
I agree with him on that part. Because i too never liked to visit a Forum that is hosted for free (multiforums) or the ones with a .co.cc or a .co.nr domain.

Although, for those who say, "i don't have a job, i don't have a source of earning, How can i invest?", i would say, "Look for opportunities".
When i started my site, i grabbed a promo from Hostable.com which gives you 3 years unlimited hosting for $1.
For domain, i grabbed an offer from a fellow FP member who bought a domain for about 4500 FP$'s.
I did a lot of posting works and graphics in FP to earn FP$'s.
Finally i had a site with proper TLD, a paid hosting.

If you are not confident about your site's success, and you never want to invest atleast something, you will rarely get it to succeed.

 

[Fergal]

Forum Promotion started out on a free forum host and it did OK. Saying that, I have to admit that I sometimes avoid forums that don't have their own domain name.

 

[Fait]

I do have the money to invest in my site hopefully i will get a proper domain name soon as my latest goal to archive

 

[Nebulous]

The Elite, why are you talking about "our time" ? As if you speak for everyone here. Ive been a member of lots of great forums that were on a free host / software and didn't have a proper domain. Ultimately, its about the community interaction for some of us.

However, personally I prefer to use premium software, paid hosting & a proper domain. Still, I wont discriminate on other forums for not having that.

 

[Fait]

Infact Webmaster Addict started on a free host a year later we moved to Mybb

 

[AnAccount]

Now this I don't agree with at all. Even if you don't put one cent into a forum, that doesn't mean it can't be successful. I'm sure there are quite a few forums out there that have probably been around for years, and the owner can't afford even so much as a domain, and they're still doing quite well. Some people just don't trust purchasing things online and that's completely understandable. I agreed with the majority of your other posts but this one is going way too far right here.

 

[Gimgak]

Pretty much agree with this 100%, there are some exceptions to the rule (FP, that RPG site advertised on here with 3mil+ posts, etc) but most sites that start out as free hosted sites will fail. Same can be said for paid sites too though of course.

 

[Fait]

Any site can fail even if you went to IPB

 

[kavin]

Any site can fail even if you went to IPB

But the failure percent is less when starting with paid ones.
The main reason is, people who invest money on their forum tend to put lot of efforts to improve the community, as they need to get the investment back.

But people stating with free hosts and free domains generally don't put much efforts, as they think they have nothing to loose if their Forum fails. They can go ahead and start yet another Forum.

I'm not saying everyone is doing this. There are some successful cases like this Forumpromotion's one. But generally people who invest put much efforts that people who don't.

 

[Jon12345]

Forums require a huge investment to succeed, but it isn't always in money. Time is required and we all know, time is money.

 

[Fullmoon]

My forum lasted 7 years on free host and free domains, This kind of thing angers me, Not everyone has means to pay for domains, hosting etc.

Have you ever thought that people may do it for a hobby?! I love my forum, I do now pay for a host and I have my own domain. I did this as soon as I got my credit card.

I started my forum when I was 15. I would have never got it to where it is today without promoting it like I have done.

Just because someone has a free host and free domain doesnt mean they aren't putting the effort in.

You can invest all the money you want into a site but if you don't have the community to back it up your screwed

 

[juststeven]

Just because you've got some money doesn't give you the right to bring down every forum with no investment. I went a year without investing a penny in my forum and it got 8000+ posts and 400+ members.

I know some some huge forums on free hosts with no investment, I'm talking about 500,000+ posts here.

 

[Fait]

And i think Forumpromotion started on a free host and look were they are today

 

[Spazmatic]

I agree with this.


One thing to think about is if you have the ability to make that money back. Some people open forums for fun, not to make money. I wouldn't recommend spending a ton of money on your forum if you have no way of getting any money.