– Different types of message boards to choose from

http://www.vbulletin.com

http://www.phpbb.com

http://getvanilla.com

http://www.proboards.com/

http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/forum/

http://www.ezboard.com

http://www.ivillage.com/messageboards

http://www.boards2go.com

– users can register to join in discussions and share thoughts on the topic

– this form of user generated content can grow very quickly but needs a lot of maintenance and enough people to keep it active so it doesn’t grow stale

– message boards can take up a lot of space if you don’t place limit the size of signature files and avatar images

– using a forum brings people back to your site so they can continue to participate in the conversations they joined adding a steady stream of traffic to your website

– forums are a great way to build relationship with your visitors establishing yourself as a trusted expert on your topics

– this is not a fast process, it takes time to build a community and keep it active, getting a message board off the ground is a lot of work

– adding moderators is necessary to keep things moving and keep away spammers.  In most communities people will volunteer to moderate, but it is usually a good idea to hire 1 or 2 people to work your boards as well

– it is probably better to have no forum than to have unactive “dead” forums with no recent activity so make sure you plan ahead and have some interest ahead of time