Hey,
I am <<snipped>> considering different marketing strategies. Before I spend all my time creating a forum on my web hosting site, I would like to here from people who have already experienced it to see if it is worth it or not?

Hello,

If you have a interesting site where clients or users can share ideas and dicuss just about anhythng related, then its a great idea. Any fourm can be a success, but you have to work at it, its constant work to moderate it and manage it. Always some updates or tweaks and setting changes/adds. Its very fun and can draw alot of people, if you want to try it for free try phpbb.com, if ou plan to get serious and offer alot more then just a fourm, the best in the biz is vbulletin.com/
Good luck

If you decide to have a Forum, you can also try SMF (Simple Machines Forum), another free forum that is easier to learn and maintain over phpbb3 (I think).

Good for communication with yourcustoners as well as SEO

just don't allow the users to post if you can't moderate

I have moderated many forums before and also created quite a few. I was just wondering whether it was actually worth while.

forums could be handled as an interactive FAQ.

You couldnt have much activity unless you have atleast 30 clients minimum.

How ever, keep doing stuffs that could interact with your customers all the way.