Some very basic help needed

[scblogs]

I really want to start my own site using vBulletin. I have never had a site as big as this. In fact, I've only used free hosting in the past. So if someone could please help me out, it would be appreciated. I tried looking through all of the FAQs and everything, but I just got more confused.

Basically, I want to know:

1. exactly what I need in order to run vBulletin
2. how much I should plan on investing financially and timewise

[Floris]

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in the vBulletin Forum Software and for contacting vBulletin Sales.

1. On this page in the left column is displayed what you need to run vBulletin http://www.vBulletin.com/features.php

You will need: A web hosting account that supports those above specs. And it is probably easier if you have a unique personal domain name (which you can register for example at namecheap.com or directly from your provider).

Once you have a hosting account, and a domain name, you can buy vBulletin and install it.

2. I do not know what the hosting account is going to cost, but a shared hosting account can be purchased for $100 a year, and for example a high professional VPS account could be $100 a month. It just depends on how big your forum is (how much storage you need, and monthly traffic). Domain names are between $3 and $13 dollar.

As far as vBulletin goes, you can choose between two licenses.

Leased License
This is a license you pay per 12 months. It is $85 per 12 months. A great solution if you want to temporary run a forum.

Owned License
This is a license you pay once for. And you can then run it for an unlimited period of time. The cost is $160. A great solution if you want to run a forum for a longer period of time.

Both licenses come with 12 months download access to any new version that will come out (within those 12 months). You can at any time (for the owned license) download the versions that were available to you in those 12 months.

Time wise .. Buying the hosting, domains, getting then reachable over the net, and buying, downloading and installing vBulletin .. can be done within the hour, but since it is your first time, assume it takes you an afternoon. As far as totally setting it up (your forum structure, your staff setup, your color changes) that is a learning process, and can be done fairly quickly. But some catch on quicker than others.

Good luck with your upcoming community, and we're looking forward having you as a customer. If you have any questions feel free to post them.

All the best,