Adding a forum

[debbiap]

I have a website with an free forum that maybe a dozen people have registered for, but there are no posts. I have about 1000+ hits a month and sell quite a few items in my online store. I believe my forum has a huge ad that pops up before they are able to post and this is stopping people from posting.

Can anyone recommend a forum that will bring in more traffic? I get plenty of email asking me to continue with my "blog of sorts" on orthodontic braces. I'm doing pretty good on google rankings but think that a great forum will boost the hits and in turn raise the online sales.

So any recommendations for a forum?
Thanks,
debbiap

[ultan]

You sound a little unsure of what your own forum is about...
Why not give us the URL and we take a look?

[debbiap]

LOL Ultan!

I know exactly what my forum is about..you're too funny. My site is all about orthodontic braces. The problem with the "free" forum that I use, is sometimes a huge add will pop up when you click on the forum link. There will be a tiny link on the ad that will let people move on to the forum, but I think most people don't see that and just click out of the ad. Hey, I would too!

So I need a new forum without ads and was wondering if anyone could suggest one. I've heard of both phpBB and vBulletin. Is one recommended over the other?

My website is: www.bracescentral.com
Not all links are working as my computer crashed and I had to get it restored. I am now downloading photos from offsite, so I can reload them again. But the forum link is working...on the left.

Thanks for taking a look. This is the first time I am hoping that the ad pops up! LOL

debbiap

[PrivateInvestigator]

take alook at http://www.seo-board.com it's first rate, free, search engine friendly and they have excellent customer support. no ads!

[debbiap]

Thanks so much PrivateInvestigator! This looks like exactly what I want! Can I ask you why the private investigator username? Just curious. Do you have a PI site? I have a friend that is an investigator for the Sheriff's dept and always found the job fascinating.

Thanks again for the lead!
debbiap

[pyowomaniac]

I use www.activeboard.com. It's a free forum too, but there's no pop ups. There's a banner at the top of the forum, but how many sites don't have banners? These boards look a lot more professional than some of the free ones out there. The look of a forum can be very discouraging, keep that in mind.

[kimberwyn]

Just so you keep an open mind, even with tons of traffic its extremely hard to get a forum going. Because when people only see a limited amount of posts, they're not compelled to post themselves.

[pairbrother]

hmm...i suggest, go for www.invisionfree.com , they also have free boards, and a banner ad, u can buy tht adspace for $5 for 30,000 hits!
And in place of tht ads, u can put ur own google ads or just nothing

[augustine]

Why not install one on your website?
That way you have more control on it rather than subscribe to a free one.

[bigbomba]

Then just pay for a forum, they are not that expensive. Without all those popups, your forum should really get going, and especially if you get so many hits. I wish my website was as successful as yours.