im totally new to this process. my goal is place a forum on the website for my local town. I plan to go ahead and buy vBulletin tonight and host it on the domain that i have in mind.

only thing is, i know little about ftp, ive never used one befoer, what should i know before purchasing? what do i need to purchase, i would rather just buy it for a year and purchase the license to vBull outright.

I was thinking godaddy, but their packages are confusing, do i need a package? i assume i will need ftp access (from reading the vbull install manual) but i dont know what features are just an upsell and what features i can use. since i plan to market advertisements on the site ill need some tracking info about my users, etc.



also do i need any extra software to use vBull beyond a text editor and ftp client.....

OK right.

1) You'll need to buy a domain name from somewhere - search around - Godaddy offer some quite cheaply.

2) Choose a hosting company - whatever meets your needs and one which is reputable and reliable and has good reviews.

3) The welcome email they'll send will have details about changing the nameservers and stuff over to their ones so that your domain forwards to their server.

4) The welcome email will also tell you FTP login details and other features that are on offer.

5) Get an FTP client such as SmartFTP or FileZilla. These are free. You can use the FTP details to login to your site and upload things.

6) Create your site in whatever you wish. If you are using forums, you should download and then FTP to your server vbulletin and install this. For making the actual site, you may wish to use Dreamweaver or another WYSIWYG editor or simply Notepad to code things (more advanced). Then upload the files using the FTP client to your server space.

Hope this clears up a few issues,
Dan

Everything that Dan said plus

You can buy plans that will include Forum, blog and tons of other free stuff included
and installed for you on your site ready to go. You can also buy plans that will include
domain registration or you will pay for registration as little as $2.00/year


fastreplies

whats your forum look like?

We just customized one for our directory but layout has many skins that you can use for your forum.
Check forum.amray.com for better idea





fastreplies

You would need to buy a hosting package to host your website. It is better to buy your domain name at the same time as buying a hosting package because most web hosting companies will offer you the domain free if you sign up for a year of hosting.
I made a blog post about this and the recommended web hosting companies that it is safe to go with: http://internetdealing.blogspot.com/...-are-some.html

You would need basic hosting which costs around $7.95/month. With this hosting plan, you can have php/mysql that you would need to get vbulletin running.

Originally Posted by ablaye

You would need to buy a hosting package to host your website.

Wow, this is something new.
Who left your cage open?
How he can have site online without somebody hosted for him

Originally Posted by ablaye

It is better to buy your domain name at the same time as buying a hosting package because most web hosting companies will offer you the domain free if you sign up for a year of hosting.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, you just said he don't need to buy any hosting package...
Can you make your mind for god sake what he need and/or don't need.

And aren't you repeating what I said above, that he can get domain with hosting?
Or you think if it's come from your mouth, it will be official?

Originally Posted by ablaye

I made a blog post about this and the recommended web hosting companies that it is safe to go with

And who made you an expert on subject?
Oh, let me guess! Hmmm... they paid you money to promote them.
Did I hit bullseye? Yap, I did indid.

Originally Posted by ablaye

You would need basic hosting which costs around $7.95/month. With this hosting plan, you can have php/mysql that you would need to get vbulletin running.

Aga, you even have plan for him Mr. Buymybullpromo
Oh man, when are you going to learn???

fastreplies

Oh, let me guess! Hmmm... they paid you money to promote them.

Indirectly, yes. He's using affiliate links for every single one of the companies he's recommending. Of course, linking to that blog post is almost like posting those affiliate links here. Well, linking to your own blog would be self promotion anyway.

I made a blog post about this and the recommended web hosting companies that it is safe to go with

Based on tens if not hundreds of posts I've read, some of the hosts on that list, can hardly qualify to be described as "safe".

also do i need any extra software to use vBull beyond a text editor and ftp client.....

Cpanel which is used on the almost each web hosting provider have it.
I think web host with PHP and MySQL supporting will suit you.
I would recomend you make list of web hosting companies and make invistigation on it.

I can add that if you never managed forums vBulletin might be a little cofusing for the first few days but it is really better than free forum software especially on the spam level. It kicks more spam than any other forums I ever used.

I'll have to agree with hcolor, vbulletin is a better option over other open source forum program for a non-tech person, you will have to worry less about technical related issues and focus more on the building the forum to a success.