Yesterday my webmaster forum reached its 10,000th post! The first post was created at 06-11-2007, which is 4 months ago. That is an average of 2,500 posts per month. Thanks to everyone who participated and I want to encourage other people to sign up and join the discussion! Lets break down my investment in this project:
- vBulletin License: $180 (inclusive VAT)
- Skin from vBskinworks: $30
- Promotion: $150
- Contests: $300
- Paid Posts: $50
That is a total number of $710.. hmm I have a feeling I spended way more lol
A vBulletin license is not cheap but the system is really great and I used it before so I was used to the admin section. The skin was cheap because it is not a custom one. Maybe I will order a custom one later. The promotion costs are not really high as you might noticed. This is going to change soon though, I already contacted some other webmaster related forums to buy banner ads on their forums. I wanted to wait with that till I reached 10,000 posts.
The contest helped a lot if we talk about activity. Also after the contest most members stayed and are still posting. Currently I am thinking of a new contest, if anyone has a great idea please let me know in the comments 
I also used a small amount of paid posts. I know a lot of people that are against it but I just wanted to try it out and see some extra activity around which worked pretty well.
The most important thing of getting a forum running is being active yourself. If the admin is not active and not posting, why would others? If you have a member base of 2,000 + than the admin don’t have to participate that much because there are a lot of other members discussing. Smaller forums need an active admin! I think that is the key to success.
My goal for this forum is to make it really big and make it my number 1 earner. The 10,000th post is reached now and the only way is up. If you are looking for a place to talk about anything that is webmaster related 9mb is a good place for you. There is also a marketplace where you can list sites, links or services for sale.
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October 16th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I have to agree, vBulletin is the best, but that price tag is a little steep for me.
Got a number on how much you have made, or do you not disclose that?
Also, when is your new theme coming? It has been a long time since you said you were getting one.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Congratulations on the milestone! Yea I was wondering what you’ve made from the site after you disclosed your outgoings on it. But as you’ve said before it’s more of a longterm project so I guess not a huge amount yet?
October 16th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I didn’t make anything yet from the forum, only some pennies with adsense! I am planning to sell banner slots on top of it when the time is right !
Yeah I am having problems with the new theme! Have to fix that soon though
October 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I’m more of an IPB man myself, but I can’t know VB. It’s just as good.
Building a successful forums is one of the hardest things to do in my book. So congrats on hitting 10,000 posts!
October 18th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Nice work.. you sure showed me how to build a forum. while leaving mine in your wake.. lol nice work.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Tasty indeed.
A question the Swiss_Mouse would like to ask:
How did you initially drive traffic so that you had posters? You had to have done something extraordinary….
October 19th, 2007 at 10:15 am
It is not that I did something extraordinary!
I just created a lot of new threads and promoted it alot with social bookmark sites and on other forums
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