Great to be here!   Actually this is the first site that I've participated on that used SMF and I like it!  I've heard of people adding so many mods that they make it almost myspace like - but how is it to manage after you add mods?

phpBB becomes tough!

Do they exist for free?  I'm looking for something with forums, extensive and configurable profiles, multiple blogs, and a calendar that people can signup for events with.  Sounds pretty simple but I've yet to find everything in one package.

The system also need to be able to introduce advertising so I don't need to charge visitors.

Any ideas?

It seems that anything you can do to minimize the ad look and have it become more  part of the site's contact will help your earnings.   What I find is that people are GREAT at ignoring ads (why do we all buy TIVOs then?)  and the only way to get clicks is for people to find ads as valuable content.

Gosh I feel like I'm selling for them - but this is why I started playing with Rubicon.  They match ads to your site and act as your ad server.  It does take close to a week for them to match and start providing ads - but they seem to be going pretty well.

rubiconproject.com

I've been seeing about $30 a month with Adsense, but the ads don't seem to be targeted all that well sometimes.   Never looked at Adbrite directly but I am running their ads through the Rubicon Project ad server which gives you 4 or 5 ad networks like adsense, adbrite, cpx and shopzilla.

rubiconproject.com

This new redemption system is insane.  It allows registrars to hold your domain hostage for up to a year and ruin your valuable business brands.   

Essentially they load the site up with tacky advertising and limit the creativity and value of the web as a whole.   Why can't we just make the domain available when it expires and go from there?

I've heard this many times in the past and it's really sad how much control Google has on small online publishers.   I recently started paying with rubicon project just incase I ever get this email... 

www.rubiconproject.com

essentially they load you up in their ad server and mix and match ad products.  They take 1 or 2% of the take - which isn't bad for the risk they take.

So sorry you had to live through the hell of having your site hacked.   I recently lived thought it as well.  The bum must have broken in through somewhere and defaced 20 of the 50 sites hosted under my account!

Worst part is that it took days to find all the problems.  Thank goodness for backups!

I'm about to launch a new site in the next few months that will effectively fuel real meetings and people spending money in person at events around the state.  With this, we will start with an online campaign for sure - but once we have some content going we'll be hiring some college students to go to events and give out invitations to the site.

It will be very similiar to meetup.com but be funded by advertising spots on the calendar.

It's always cool to hear the history of a company.  There's always a story.

XO Communications used to be concentric networks and before the internet got big they ran a dialup BBS that essentially connected you to other BBSs around the US without long distance fees.  This must have been in the early 80s if I remember correctly.

But congrats to t35 - 8 years in the hosting business is huge, especially with the skyrocketing costs of power, real estate and colocation data centers!

Hi everyone!

Just found this board and was excited to jump in.   I've been interested in building websites for several years since buying my first domain name back in 1997.  About 150 domains later I'm just about to start looking at my sites as a business starting with my online community site focused around my home area - Long Island NY.

The Site is www.longislandbb.com and boasts about 10k registered users, but only about 15 are active posters.  Lots of bots and failed spam attempts.   It runs phpBB v2 but I'm looking at vBulletin, phpBB3 and SMF as well for this and other sites.

Look forward to hearing more about everyone and their website projects, especially about building traffic and monetizing it.