Originally Posted by GTAce Not true. A domain and hosting are a must, but outside of that, nothing is absolutely necessary. I can guarantee that there are people out there who did not invest a dime (outside of hosting) who are miles beyond those who spend hundreds of dollars on software, designs, advertising, contests, etc. Now...does investing help your forums? Of course it does, it helps a whole lot...but to say that you must invest money to prevent being a drag in the beginning is not true. It's all a matter of time and dedication.

True. If the interest is there, and competition is light, you can get away without advertising and build a decent sized community by self promotion of posting in other places to get the word out, a decent Google placement and lots of time and effort.

My forum, which isn't really big but is successful in my niche averages about 1,000 posts per day and was built without spending a dime on advertising.

If your forum subject is really narrow in scope and has a small audience, you might need advertising from the start to make people aware your site is out there.

Really depends on your forum subject matter, size of the target audience and where that audience can be reached.

Good suggestions Broken!