I'm new to creating sites but I'm interested in purchasing the Vbulletin license and expect to have around 100 members within the first couple months and with a bit of advertising, I expect to have a 2-5 thousand within the end of the first year.

I don't know anything about the technical side of creating sites but does anyone have any advise about servers, maintaining the site, resolving issues etc?

I would be eternally grateful for any advice offered.

If you don't know much about servers, I'd go with managed hosting. If you plan on the forum getting pretty active, definitely go for a VPS instead of shared hosting. A managed VPS host should be able to handle the server issues for you. Then maybe also pay the little extra to have vBulletin staff install vB for you...although it isn't that hard. But if you aren't familiar, vB staff could save you some time and headaches...and of course make sure it's done right.

At least for a while, you should be fine with shared hosting. Forums can take a while to really take off. Paying hundreds of dollars per month while waiting for that might not be the best approach. Unless you're blessed and own a fortune of course. :)

The most important thing when it comes to forums (or sites in general) is to have a recent backup of files and databases. If you have that, no matter how serious the issue, sooner or later the forum can be back in business. If the data is lost, nothing can bring it back.

Don't rely on the host's backups, as they can turn out to be faulty or missing. Technology isn't perfect, and hosts don't assume responsibility for the integrity and availability of your data (read the TOS).

Vbulletin has forum and separate section for web hosting. I think that there would be the best places to ask.

At least for a while, you should be fine with shared hosting. Forums can take a while to really take off. Paying hundreds of dollars per month while waiting for that might not be the best approach. Unless you're blessed and own a fortune of course. :)

The most important thing when it comes to forums (or sites in general) is to have a recent backup of files and databases. If you have that, no matter how serious the issue, sooner or later the forum can be back in business. If the data is lost, nothing can bring it back.

Don't rely on the host's backups, as they can turn out to be faulty or missing. Technology isn't perfect, and hosts don't assume responsibility for the integrity and availability of your data (read the TOS).

I've not got a fortune to start off with, I was originally looking at spending around $250 for the site, as well as shared hosting from one.com and around $2,000 for marketing purposes and once I can see some money is coming in and there's a flock of new members, then I was planning on purchasing a dedicated server possibly from uk2.net unless advised otherwise from anyone on here.

Does anyone know what tools I'll need to get this up and running, as I have some contacts that will rarely help as well as some friends that are good with photoshop etc, a laptop, a good business mind and that's about it :P

Thanks again for the help, I really don't know anything about this stuff, even the most basic stuff, so all advice is very much appreciated. :)

Hi ServerPoint,

I asked Vbulletin earlier today and they mentioned they don't officially recommend anyone but they directed me to this site for help. :)

Hi ServerPoint,

I asked Vbulletin earlier today and they mentioned they don't officially recommend anyone but they directed me to this site for help. :)
Any PHP/MySQL web host will be ok for you. Just make sure that web hoster support right PHP/Mysql version for your Vbulletin software

It was mentioned earlier, but I would like to reinforce the creation of backups, because many times things in forums go wrong and you will need that backup. I recommend a daily backup.

And what do I need to do for these back ups and how do I implement Vbulletin into my shared server?

Thanks alot for all the advice guys and girls. :)

I BELIEVE that vbulletin admin panel has option for backups.

Also, the installation of vbulletin is fairly easy if you follow the docs...but as said before, you can pay vbulletin to install it for you.

Dont use the backup tool in vbulletin. It can timeout and leave an incomplete backup. It is safer to do a backup from your control panel and download it to your pc.

as well as shared hosting from one.com

Are you committed to one.com?

Have you checked reviews here?

Are you committed to one.com?

Have you checked reviews here?

Nope, I haven't bought it yet but was just about to, what's wrong with them, as I was recommended to use them at least throughout the early stages?

Can you show me the reviews section please, so I could checkout some of the responses to shared hosting sites until I can be sure to generate enough traffic in order to want to use dedicated servers?

Streamlinenet was also a consideration but I'm not sure anymore. :confused:

Does anyone know what tools I'll need to get this up and running, as I have some contacts that will rarely help as well as some friends that are good with photoshop etc, a laptop, a good business mind and that's about it :P


There are 4 basic stages which should get you up and running:

1) Register a domain, I highly recommend NameCheap.com (http://www.namecheap.com) or GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)

2) Find a web host which won't be easy. ldcdc nailed it. Forums take a long time to take off and it's pointless spending hundreds of dollars to host a whopping 200 member forum. Look for a quality web host with proven reliability/support/hardware and network. I would spend around $10/mo for web hosting from a reputable web host. In order for you to successfully install vBulletin just look for Linux web hosting, PHP, and MySQL. 98% of the web hosts here should be able to offer that.

3) Purchase or lease a vBulletin license. Install vBulletin software which can be tricky for a novice. This is where having a quality web host comes in handy. Most web hosts do not support "third party applications" but some will go above and beyond and offer assistance, if time allows. After you install vBulletin then it's time to customize with themes, skins, colors, etc.

4) Market to get the word out and drum up a user base.

If you're successful, you'll be back here in 6-12 months asking for a VPS recommendation :)

There are 4 basic stages which should get you up and running:

1) Register a domain, I highly recommend NameCheap.com (http://www.namecheap.com) or GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)

2) Find a web host which won't be easy. ldcdc nailed it. Forums take a long time to take off and it's pointless spending hundreds of dollars to host a whopping 200 member forum. Look for a quality web host with proven reliability/support/hardware and network. I would spend around $10/mo for web hosting from a reputable web host. In order for you to successfully install vBulletin just look for Linux web hosting, PHP, and MySQL. 98% of the web hosts here should be able to offer that.

3) Purchase or lease a vBulletin license. Install vBulletin software which can be tricky for a novice. This is where having a quality web host comes in handy. Most web hosts do not support "third party applications" but some will go above and beyond and offer assistance, if time allows. After you install vBulletin then it's time to customize with themes, skins, colors, etc.

4) Market to get the word out and drum up a user base.

If you're successful, you'll be back here in 6-12 months asking for a VPS recommendation :)

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking, this is why I've been looking at maybe doing something with either 1and1.com/co.uk, one.com, streamlinenet.co.uk, uk2.net but I was hoping people can suggest who is the best company to use until the site can get bigger.

Thanks a lot for the advice. :)

Do you definitely want UK hosting?

Forums take quite a lot resources especially MySQL. If you target only 100 for the first couple months, you'll be fine with shared hosting. But if you start to reach around 50 users online at the same time definitely you need dedicated server, even VPS can't handle. Looking for the plan you have I say at least in 6 months you have to move from shared hosting to VPS and at the end of month you must prepare dedicated server. Because of the technical issue you have, you should explain your plan to the web hosting providers, ask them if they can help you when the site gets bigger and compare their answers.

Sounds like you find a host that can move you up the scale from shared to VPS to dedicated as you need.

Moving hosts is a pain.

Nope, so far I never find it. I have to move by myself and yes it's a pain. :)

Sounds like you find a host that can move you up the scale from shared to VPS to dedicated as you need.

Moving hosts is a pain.

Also a good idea before you start to promote is to optimize it for search engines, and configure the vB settings for optimal performance. Out of the box vB is "ok" but it can be made to perform 10 times better.

There's some good articles out there on tweaking vBulletin to get you started. Also vBulletin.org is a great resource for free themes and modifications.

Do you definitely want UK hosting?

Nope, it can be from anywhere in the world, as long as they have good customer service and a good connection. :)

I was looking at maybe using the baby package from Hostgator, would anyone recommend them, as I spoke to them via live chat and they seemed pretty good?

Lots of people here recommend Hostgator.

Also LiquidWeb, MediaLayer, MediaTemple, Webfaction, Dotable...

Have a look through the forum for a few hours and see which names keep coming up!

Also a good idea before you start to promote is to optimize it for search engines, and configure the vB settings for optimal performance. Out of the box vB is "ok" but it can be made to perform 10 times better.

There's some good articles out there on tweaking vBulletin to get you started. Also vBulletin.org is a great resource for free themes and modifications.

How would I go about performing optimised search engine marketing via Vbulletin, as I was contemplating purchasing a high traffic package that would cost around $240?

Just for the heck of it, I'd look at MediaLayer (http://medialayer.net/). They market towards people who are interesting in running PHP applications on their servers, such as blogs and message boards. :)

Optimize for search engine meaning finding good keywords for your site and create unique contents with targeted keywords. In term of vb the efforts may involve a site's coding, modify vb theme in presentation layer as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully indexing your site.

Anyway in your case I think SEO is the second thing you should do. First you should think to setup your VB and as time goes by you'll learn how to do SEO.

How would I go about performing optimised search engine marketing via Vbulletin, as I was contemplating purchasing a high traffic package that would cost around $240?

I'm not sure what this $240 "High Traffic Package" is all about, but it's never really a good idea buying traffic. Most of it comes from pop-ups, pop-unders, redirects etc and this traffic has got no interest in your site and all it does is run up your bandwidth.

Optimizing vBulletin is about making it more attractive to search engines to achieve a higher ranking. But as sphere said, get your hosting and forum running first and then you can read some articles to learn the basics.

I'm not sure what this $240 "High Traffic Package" is all about, but it's never really a good idea buying traffic. Most of it comes from pop-ups, pop-unders, redirects etc and this traffic has got no interest in your site and all it does is run up your bandwidth.

Optimizing vBulletin is about making it more attractive to search engines to achieve a higher ranking. But as sphere said, get your hosting and forum running first and then you can read some articles to learn the basics.

The high traffic package is in relation to reaching the top of 400 search engine results via meta tags etc, so it has nothing to do with pop ups as far as i'm aware. :)

I think top 400 isn't enough, you have to get to the first page of search engine result or at least top 50. I rarely look to third page when I'm searching with Google.

Back to the topic, have you found any host yet? Hostgator is fine. That's the first thing you should do now. Later ask here again what to do next.

I think top 400 isn't enough, you have to get to the first page of search engine result or at least top 50. I rarely look to third page when I'm searching with Google.

Back to the topic, have you found any host yet? Hostgator is fine. That's the first thing you should do now. Later ask here again what to do next.

I meant to get to the top of 400 seperate search engines. :)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Hostgator is now the way to go, they seemed to get a better response than other shared hosting sites that I've seen. :)

Thanks for the interest in the topic and all the advice offered, it's really appreciated. :)

Hostgator is a good choice, there are several reviews here and here (http://whreviews.com/hostgator.htm).

Speaking from personal experience, I was able to get my forums (which I later sold) on the first page of Google without paying $250 fees. It takes a lot of hard work. Content is king and I cannot emphasize this enough!!! It helps if the admins/mods post a lot. Get some quality Moderators and encourage people to post, a lot.

Do not prepay for web hosting, even if you get a discount. What if it sucks 3 months later and the TOS/AUP clearly states no prorated refunds? Most importantly remember to download frequent backups.

Hostgator is a good choice, there are several reviews here and here (http://whreviews.com/hostgator.htm).

Speaking from personal experience, I was able to get my forums (which I later sold) on the first page of Google without paying $250 fees. It takes a lot of hard work. Content is king and I cannot emphasize this enough!!! It helps if the admins/mods post a lot. Get some quality Moderators and encourage people to post, a lot.

Do not prepay for web hosting, even if you get a discount. What if it sucks 3 months later and the TOS/AUP clearly states no prorated refunds? Most importantly remember to download frequent backups.

Thanks a lot for that, that was very helpful as always. :)

Do you know any vouchers for Vbulletin or hostgator?
I know hostgator has a 20% discount for the first bill, so i was thinking of maybe doing it for a span of 3 months and review it from there but then I noticed the $9.94 discount via the link you sent. :)

How often should I do backup downloads, should I do this on a daily basis and how do I go about doing this?

How often should I do backup downloads, should I do this on a daily basis and how do I go about doing this?

That just depends how much content you feel is acceptable to loose. Would you be worried if you lost a week of posts? If so backup more often that that. ;)