How To Create A Forum Website

A forum website can be a highly powerful tool. Encouraging visitors to join and participate in online discussions can quickly drive organic traffic to your site, as well as create rich user-generated content. In addition, forums create new opportunities for brand exposure within a particular niche.

How do you build such a website? 

Read on to find out the five essential steps of creating your own forum website, complete with a review of the various types of web hosting to achieve your goal. 

Step 1 - Get Your Domain Name

Your domain name is where your website lives on the internet, and is your official address. It is how the customers remember and recommend your brand, therefore it is important to pick a domain name that resonates with your target audience. 

Ideally, your brand name should appear in your URL. When the desired name is unavailable, go for a close or shortened one. Keep in mind that 12 is the ideal number of characters for domain names.

Step 2 - Get Web Hosting

When it comes to hosting, cheap is expensive. If you look at the cost alone, it could create problems in the future. In addition to finding the right plan for you, you should decide whether you would like to go for a shared, VPS, cloud, or dedicated package, based on your needs.

Here are the key features to look for when choosing your hosting service provider.

• Convenience - Is the hosting service easy to use? Compare multiple hosts such as A2 Hosting, Fastcomet hosting, or read online feedback such as Hostinger reviews to find out what real users are saying. 
• Bandwidth - Can the web hosting service handle surges in traffic on your forum website? 
• Security - Is the web host safe and reliable? Make sure you know all the security protocols followed by the hosting service. 
• Space - Does the web host offer enough space for your hosting needs? Be sure to find out the disk space offered in GB. 
• Affordability - Make sure the hosting package meets your requirements and is in line with your budget.  

Step 3 - Choose Your Website Builder 

Building your website is the step that will make your vision a reality. WordPress is an excellent site builder that works with numerous third party-integrations and plugins to make your day-to-day work easy. 

The top things to look out for when choosing a website builder are:

• Ease of use - Simplicity is highly important, especially for beginners. 
• Responsiveness - Flexibility and functionality of the builder could help you scale your forum as you grow. 
• Customization - Professional templates, themes, and image libraries make designing easy.  
• Advanced tools - SEO and social media tools are important for marketing purposes. 
• Support - Tutorials, guides, and customer support are key to maintaining your forum. 

Step 4 - Add A Forum Plugin 

While it is difficult to create a custom forum from scratch, you can do so easily with a WordPress website. All you need to do is add a forum plugin in order to launch your website within minutes. 

The first step is to click ‘add new’ under the plugins section of the WordPress dashboard. Then, select the plugin of your choice, and hit ‘activate’ to start using it.  

The top forum plugins offered on WordPress are outlined below: 

• bbPress is a free open source plugin that comes with 200+ extensions.
• wpForo Forum offers three layouts for designing your WP forum site. 
• Simple:Press is great for managing multiple sites and WordPress forums with premium and free features. 

Step 5 - Tweak And Customize 

Forum websites are differentiated based on their style, rules, and conduct. Take a look at the five ways in which you can tweak your forum website before launching it, to make it unique and in line with your goals. 

• Privacy - Depending on the nature of your forum, you can choose to make it public or private. 
• User Controls - Roles such as participants, moderators, blocked members, or spectators must be set and configured. 
• Anonymous Publishing - While this is ideal for encouraging new visitors to post easily on your forum, it can also open your website to abuse such as trolling.
• Search - Activate the search option on the forum to let users find topics by using keywords.
• Memberships - Setting up a membership or subscription mechanism is the key to building a community. 
• Thread Replies - It is recommended to set up threads as it allows for context and continuity of forum discussions.

Summing Up 

By choosing a domain name and then signing up for cheap web hosting, you can have your forum website set up in no time, and with no large investments upfront. Once you build your website and select the forum plugin that suits your needs, you will be able to start engaging with your audience right away and creating your own community.