Why your Forum Host will (probably) Fail

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nightfox818

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Hey guys! Before I begin, time to start with a little disclaimer. First, I'm not trying to discourage you from starting a forum host - I'm trying to open your eyes because it isn't as easy as it sounds. Second, everything in this article is from what I've learned first hand. I've been in the hosting industry since 2006 and I've made mistakes and learned. I want to help you be as successful as you want to be. Trust me: it looks easy to launch a host and see money dropping in but it doesn't happen. You have to work at it.

YOU WILL FAIL BECAUSE...

The number one mistake: your domain name. If you really want to know why you're going to fail, it's probably because of your "domain". To even be noticed, you need a standard TLD (Top Level Domain) such as .com, .net, or .org. Country-code TLDs are fine too (such as .co.uk or .us) but I'd suggest avoiding them unless your specifically targeting your country. A .com is going to appeal better to most users.

If you're hosting forums off of a domain like "mybbhost.joessite.co.cc", you're going to not get as many visitors as possible. Also, if you're using an obvious free domain, most people won't take you serious anyways. Also, no one wants a forum URL like "someforum.mybbhost.joessite.co.cc".

Your main site is too confusing/cluttered or you don't even have one. I've seen plenty of forum hosts that only have forums as their main site or they cram every possible piece of information onto a single page and add about 50 billion advertisements to the page. If a visitor cannot find your registration link in 5 seconds or less, they're more than likely going to leave. If they can't find what they're looking for, they're going to leave. The average web user spends about 10 seconds on a page before switching. You have basically 10 seconds (or less) to sell your service.

Your service is ad-free. Now, nothing is wrong with ad-free. It's a great bonus, however it could be the one "feature" that brings your service down. Servers cost money to run. Electricity, disk space, and the Internet aren't free. How are you paying for your service? Are you selling "premium" features that sell enough to pay for your service each month? Do you work enough hours with a "real" job that the service gets paid off each month? If you answered "no" to any of these, you're going to get a rude awakening. You're not going to get far hosting forums on a shared hosting account (and your host will more than likely hate you for it) and mommy and daddy aren't fans of paying for a server out of their own pocket (trust me, I know about this). Your site needs ads to survive. Of course, until your site grows, you're not going to make profit or even enough to cover your bills.

Ads are not evil. Yes, some networks do happen to allow annoying and harmful ads (ones that play sounds, ones that "break" their assigned space and get right in your face, ones that install viruses and spyware on your computer in the background) but stick to trusted ones like Google Adsense and you'll be ok. Or, start your own ad-server and easily sell your own ad space. If you set your own policies, you can enforce it.

Your database will break and you won't know what to do. Depending on the number of forums you host and the number per database, there's A LOT of activity. When there is that much traffic, something is bound to break eventually. You have to familiarize yourself with not just the MyBB core software but the database. I gave myself the title of "Database Monkey" because almost every forsaken hour of the day, I was inside the database tweaking, fixing, optimizing, and repeating. With a good number of forums, the more you'll be into the database(s). You'll see nothing but lines of MySQL code and database tables in your sleep.

Your server will encounter unscheduled maintenance. Unless you have your server mirrored to a backup server, you're going to eventually see some unplanned downtime. While you'll be mad because your provider NOW decided to give you new IPs, just think how your hosted board admins are going to be. Their forums are in YOUR hands for any sort of reasons. Shoot for 99.99999% uptime. Make sure your provider knows to give you AT LEAST 72 hours notice of ANY server maintenance - NO exceptions. Get it in your Service Level Agreement/contract.

You're not installing themes, you're lacking themes, you're not encouraging customization. Always add themes. Daily. If daily is too much for you, weekly. No excuses. Or develop your own plugin to allow users to select colors and basically build their own theme from the ACP.

Your plugin selection sucks. You're not updating them and you're not adding the ones the people want. As a provider, I have the policy of "I'll add any interesting plugin I like. If there's one you want, tell me why it's going to benefit everyone (not just you) and I'll install it." Of course, there's also a policy about licensing. If the plugin can only be licensed for ONE forum, then it won't get installed. If you're not sure, always ask first. The last thing you really want is a lawsuit you can't win (or settlement you can't pay). Most scripts are protected by International Copyright Law (meaning the author can drag you to court in their country) or United States Copyright Law (which does extend into lots of countries). Generally, if the plugin is covered under the GPL, Apache, BSD, Creative Commons, or some other widely-known open source license, you're fine. Sometimes plugins might have their own custom license. Always read it!

Be ready to troubleshoot plugins too. And if templates have to be modified to use the plugin (like with most shout boxes), be sure to tell your users!

Things go wrong when you're asleep. You can't prevent it. Things just happen. You just have to be prepared for the worst. Always have a backup method to reach your users. Blogger is a great tool for this and so is WordPress.com if you prefer the WordPress platform. Also, Twitter is great too but I prefer a WordPress blog. You just can't fit all problems in 250 characters.

You didn't expect the worst. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. AND Back up!!!! And once more so you remember: BACK UP. Everything is stored in the database. If you don't have a DAILY database backup of EVERY database, you'll find angry admins coming after you. The MOST damage you want is a SINGLE missing post per forum.

Implement a data recovery plan and TEST it. Your plan means nothing if you can't even use it. Start a localhost server on your own computer at home. Try doing a fresh install of MyBB and the mod and restoring the database(s). Everything works? Congratulations! Things don't work? Start Googling and take advantage of the MyBB community.

You're not taking your job seriously. You have to take every portion of your job seriously. When you start out, you have to wear many hats and fill every role. Honestly, you can do it. It's harder than it sounds but it is possible.

In Conclusion...
I know many of you might form your own opinions about this article, which I hope you do. I hope this article inspires you to expand your service, grow your service, and be the best service. I'll be there next to you every step of the way. Get into the business to make friends. Your competition can be your best of friends.

I wish you luck in your endeavors.
 
Superb nightfox.

Im new to all of this and keep brainstorming ideas everyday.
 
nice post

but if you allow me , i got a few comments about a few things

Ads are not evil. Yes, some networks do happen to allow annoying and harmful ads (ones that play sounds, ones that "break" their assigned space and get right in your face, ones that install viruses and spyware on your computer in the background) but stick to trusted ones like Google Adsense and you'll be ok. Or, start your own ad-server and easily sell your own ad space. If you set your own policies, you can enforce it.
the comment i have over this is personal but not for 100%

it goes about google adsense , i tryed about 25 differend ad programs and they give all the same problem (specialy google gives the biggest problem)

google bans you from the moment you got 100$+ and request a payout
i got 2X banned from google adsense , 1X from a proxy site and 1X from a mybb multi forum (click fraude was the reason for both )
so i was losing a lot of money and time on them when they make profit with my ads

then my second comment
ake sure your provider knows to give you AT LEAST 72 hours notice of ANY server maintenance - NO exceptions. Get it in your Service Level Agreement/contract.

there is something that is called unexpected , that means that a datacenter/host is not possible to warn you 72 hours before it will happends , else it is a planned maint and those stuff are always warned

depends what host you have , they say if they do maints every XX days or they do maints only when it is needed
a ip change will never happends with a good host , as ip's are locked to the main server and not to a account
even if the ip change then you wont notice it , as the domain name takes care of the ip :D

the point i mean with it , it is not possible to put it in your sla (service level agreement) as it is just imposible to warn before something unexpected happends
its the host that need to keep everything online no mather what happends , but you can not expect them that they need to warn you 72 hours before they do a upgrade of there firewall ??

then a other thing i like to give comment on
You didn't expect the worst.
you say that they need to make backups , but so far i know are backups not a responsibility of the host
specialy not when you offer your clients to take backups

it is the same as my clients , i got 1 main backup that i make every 2 days (3X per week)
but if a client lost his webiste , i do not going restore the backup for it , as the backup is for when the server goes badly wrong and not to restore a client his site when he desided to delete index.html

it is the client itself there responsibility to take care of what can happends , not the host , the clients can not blame you for it as they should know about it
specialy when you "forget" to put in the tos that you make backups ^^

then my final comment
You're not taking your job seriously. You have to take every portion of your job seriously. When you start out, you have to wear many hats and fill every role. Honestly, you can do it. It's harder than it sounds but it is possible.
it depends what you mean with this

i know persones who do everything they can to start up a mybb forum but are not able to do it
then i know other persones who do nothing on it and got it better running then you can think of

it depends on the skills and the way you take care of it (he does not even have plugins and templates , just a basic install on a .info domain)

and that is differend per persone to persone
ofcourse if you do not promote , then you wont be able to get clients , but if you promote and your website is broken , then you wont get clients eather
so thats what i mean with that it depends how you take care of stuff

hopely this cleared up a few things where i got comment over

but i need to say , this is basicly more personal experiance comment and it does not apply to every1
every persone is differend , i know even persones who got a website with only ads on it and they gain 150k visitors per month (just ads on a subdomain)

hopely this post can help you to make your desisions :D

Greetings From PowerChaos
 
This is totally very good and informative post so thanks a lot for aware us about this type of information. Very excellent post.
 
Reasons for Fail the Forum are as bellow :

1) There is no relevent comment.
2) If you are banned.
3) If the connection to the database is broken.
4) Your server will encounter unscheduled maintenance.
5) Service is add-free.
 
This article certainly has received some interesting responses!

Remember: I'm not trying to discurage you! This is like tough love! It's to help you think, react, and hopefully make your service awesome!
 
The reasons are like :

1. web mail is no subitute for real mail hosting.
2. Forcing the Software as a Service model .
3. the per site pricing is another example of gouging customers who have multiple sites.
4. Emails have gone un answered in terms of professional packages for multiple domain setups.
 

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