A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

[RKramkowski]

... I found out there wasn't one!

Well, I've come up with at least an initial idea. I was doing some searches to find a forum in my profession - that of management consultant. And to my surprise I couldn't find one. There were a few with a very narrow niche within consulting but not an overall general site. Since there are a lot of us out there, I began to think that this may be a good forum to build to get my feet wet and to get some exposure. Based on my research, it seems that phpBB is probably my best bet.

But now I have more questions... How do I control the type of ads that show up there so that they'd at least be somewhat relevant to potential members? How do I draw people to it to get them to join? How can I get it to show up in the search engines in the first place? Is there a way to effectively use links somehow to get it to show up in the search engines? What sort of things affect where a forum shows up in a search? Does SEO apply to forums as well? Is there a low-cost way to generate income from any ads that may appear within the forum?

Once I've got it up and running, are there any general guidelines as to things I should do to make it an active site? Are newsletters a good idea? Weekly or monthly tips? Other things? I do realize that each of these will take some work and I'll likely be the only content contributor for awhile, but is it also a good idea to solicit other members to submit things to the newsletter, tips, etc?

I am working on my own website for my own company (I've formed a corporation but am a sole practitioner within it) and don't yet have that complete so I can't use it as a site to place a link within.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

[Lynn Terry]