How much do you spend on your Forum?

Nudaii

Well-known member
I run a (ATM) Private forum for a small niche (christian fiction writers), while I will be allowing registration in near future (due to co admin really wanting to invite people), It won't use adsense, subscriptions or donations, as for my personal sites i don't use them.

Between licenses, custom add-ons, premium add-ons and the like, currently the site is coming close to $1200 spent in 6 months (preparing for public launch soon).

How much do you spend on your "Hobby" forums?

Am i as eccentric as i feel?:D
 
Imagine spending $1,101 on the domain that you want, alone. I got a package deal for that much, but the domain I wanted was more than worth it to me. After that, I spent around $500 on licenses and skins across all sites.
 
Imagine spending $1,101 on the domain that you want, alone. I got a package deal for that much, but the domain I wanted was more than worth it to me. After that, I spent around $500 on licenses and skins across all sites.


I too just spent a big chunk on both .com and .net for domains for my EQ Next project I'll be starting. They are currently on hold in Godaddy as it takes 5 days from auction purchase to process them to your account. Been 4 days now, so I should receive them either on Friday or Monday.
 
Domain $10 (don't rush, think about it long enough and eventually you come up with a suitable available domain name)
XenForo $120
Sometimes a skin: $30 (I don't care if a few other sites out there look like mine, odds that anyone will stumble into both -- other than XF's default theme -- are about zero)
Hosting: $54 monthly for close to 30 sites, lots of excess capacity
Occasional license renewals when I feel that I HAVE to upgrade (e.g. everything will be moved to XF 1.2.x).

I don't use paid add-ons. That said, there are a couple that I would pay for if I had to (XenTag, BB Code manager). I prefer to run my sites with as few add-ons as possible. Having been involved in software development for 40+ years, I've realized there is a lot of long-term value in running minimally modified, off-the-shelf software.

I try to be cheap. :D
 
Well aside from other hosting /addon related cost i do organize BBQ/fishfry events and other get togethers which sometimes runs good billing.
 
Running various hobby forums with different software (some free, some proprietary) over the past 13 years, I have spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on hosting, domains and renewals, SSL certificates, forum software, custom skins, logo design, etc. We are all a little eccentric I think (y)
 
Initial domain name and software (vB) a few hundred bucks. The yearly fees, custom add-ons, additional software, another €300/year. Hosting started cheap but obviously increased over the years as traffic went up, now at €4500 / year. A new server probably every 5-6 years that's another €5000 or €6000. Recently bought a better domain for €20000.

But this is an 11 year old big board so...

Personally I would recommend against spending a lot of money at the start since you don't know if it will even succeed. The less money you put at risk the better.
 
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Almost $100 USD for my domains:
.net
.me
.info
.org
.biz
.co

$100 USD for my server / every month
 
I try to set a budget $150 month between my sites :) Usually my main focus is the one getting 60% or more of my budget :P
 
My forums are literally "hobby forums" and I spend easily $10,000 a year to just keep them up and running. I also spend many times that amount buying forums.
 
Not forums per-se, but I spend around $100 a month. After I got set up with BSA, there's still money to be had among other forms of site income. Forums are more costly to run than regular sites.
 
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