Yes I was thinking that also. My main objective here was to, give it a try (my first website) and see if I get enough visitor's to need to open my own domain. Yes, I can't afford all that is necessary to being a "for real" webmaster, yet. I have just uploaded the site 11 days ago so I am actually trying to work out all of the kinks before I attract too many visitor's.

That's because there are a million tech forums out there, all of them offering free support and most of them encouraging open source. The only way you can rank remotely among them is by breaking the bank.

Don't consider it a sacrifice or something. A forum can be a very wise investment. Put some AdSense advertisements up there, make $10 a month or so to pay for decent hosting and a domain. Get a good theme, modify your forum, have lots of activity, throw in a few articles, advertise, and have a contest once or twice a year to boot.

The result is that you'll make a killing from advertisements and the overall value of the site will skyrocket.

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Don't get discouraged and give up, but also do pay very close attention to what Ryan posted in this thread. One thing to strongly consider in your niche is to develop a good rapport on a competitor forum by building a large post count. After your forum is up and running then add your link in your signature. You may be capable of attracting some visits and with luck maybe members as well.

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I see . I like the posting on other forums idea (with link in my sig.). Also, I seemed to have under-estimated the whole forum concept. You all seem to be quite successful (or just really good at giving advice). This is also an un-arguable statement, but I guess I decided to stick with what I know!!

Thank you all for your responses, I appreciate it.