There are many companies that can help you get online, I own a search engine marketing and website development company that is considered one of the top 10 in the nation. You need to hire a website designer that understands search engine optimization.   Joel Mclaughlin Online business search engine optimization services.

vbulletin is your best choice for forum software.   (Next to a custom coded solution, but that's cost prohibitive)   I've work with a website (contracted) and the traffic was 250K+ per day running vbulletin.   Those free ones wouldn't handle that!   Get Vbulletin now, and save yourself the headache of switching later.  

I think the best thing you can do is create an in-depth business plan even for your online business. Unfortunately, too many people jump in without research and an in-depth plan and then they give up or waste time.   Tom HinsleyTrade Show Displays

I would recommend against starting a forum. They can be a lot of work without much return. If you do I would recommend vBulletin as mentioned before.

If you're looking to create an online forum-based website, I would go with Vbulletin + VBSEO to make it search engine-friendly.  It will benefit you in the long run since your old forum threads are optimized and are indexed better within Google's search results - *layman's terms* your forum will be more likely to display if a keyword if it is discussed in your forum.

I owned a forum before, and it required a lot of time to maintain. The good thing is it grew fast once after 6 months of promotion. Good Luck

Besides the technical side of launching a forum which could include Vbulletin another popular forum software, you'll have to figure out how to monetize the website. Will you run PPC ads or affliliate links and where will you place these. Then you'll need to figure out how to promote your site such as through Digital Point and SEO methods so people come to an interact on your message board.

PhpBB is easy to use and install. If you have cpanel, it would probably be there as an option to install.

What kind of assistance are looking for? Technical or business start-up info? If you are looking for start-up info, check out the blog post Making Money Online, which discuss some of the legal and regulatory requirements for doing business over the Internet. Message Edited by BobK on 03-23-2009 09:15 PM

Hi I'd agree with KP. Forums are hard to get going these days, maybe a blog is a better way to go? I'm thinking of starting one on www.buycake.co.uk Buy Cake I'd appreciate advice from people with experience. Thanks Message Edited by NicoleD on 06-16-2009 01:52 PM