Topic: Starting off

[greenman]

Hi there , youre probably fed up of stupid questions like this but here goes anyway.

I'd like to start a forum up, however I know Little to none X/Html. The downloadable packages on here are they designed with new starters like myself in mind.

How expensive is it to run if at all.

What does it cost to set up a web address.....a  dot com or a dot.co.uk ?

[Chas]

SimplePortal is a Portal (Front Page and Block System) that is added on to a Simple Machines forum. Click here http://www.simplemachines.org/ to read all about installing a forum on the web. It's easy and all you need to know is:
1. How to upload a website to a host via FTP.
2. How to set up a backoffice database on that same host. You'll usually find your hosting service will have all the info and instructions you need.
3. Time. It takes a while to learn about configuration and security settings and time to run the forum, promote it and make it work. Forums run by themselves but need running and constant input from the founder to make them a success. You can only relax (a little) once you have a core membership of 200 IMHO. You don't NEED to know about PHP/HTML/XML to set up a forum but it helps.

As to costs, that depends on your hosting service costs + advertising.

[greenman]

Many thanks Hal. Really appreciate it.