Entrepreneurs face a lot of choices about their businesses, such as where to get funding, whether to incorporate and market their product or service. While specific circumstances influence these decisions, it helps to get advice from other entrepreneurs. Start an online business forum and you can help business owners everywhere. While it's unlikely that a free Web host will give you your own domain name and allow you to install a forum, you can buy your own website and install a free forum.
Instructions
1. Get a Web hosting account and a domain name. Choose a domain name that matches the name you want for your forum. For example, choose "businesstalk.com" if you want your forum to be called "Business Talk."
2. Download free forum software from a provider such as Simple Machines, phpBB or Vanilla. The complete forum comes in a single ZIP or TAR file format.
3. Upload the file to your website in the directory where you want the forum to appear. This will likely be the home directory, but if you want the forum to exist on a subdomain such as "forum.businesstalk.com" you must upload it to the "forum" directory.
4. Extract the file. Read the "readme" file for instructions to follow them to install the forum on your website.
5. Visit your administration panel and make forum categories for the basic topics you want members to discuss. For example, "Choosing a Name," "Funding," "Marketing" and "Website Help" are all common things that business owners will discuss. Make relevant folders within these categories, such as "Online Marketing" in the "Marketing" category.
6. Join business forums and advertise your forum in your signature. Include a link to your forum in your email signatures and in the comments you leave on blogs as well.
