I have been lucky with the forums, like Podiatry Arena that I run as they came along at the right time and I knew the right people to get involved with. They still take a tremendous amount of work to keep them going. To start a forum today is not such an easy task as most niches are full of forums and if not, you still have to get people to the forum, and then some of them will join and then some of them may post a message and some of them may come back again – its a diminished number or percent each time (this is the 90:9:1 rule of forums).
The best advice I can give anyone starting up is first build a list, an email list first – spend time building it first before you launch; invite them along; run contests; get them involved. Most importantly, make sure the content is there so that they want to join and want to keep taking part. Fresh content is the key. If it is not fresh people do not stay; they do not join; they do not contribute; and they do not come back.
One option, especially for a not too specialized forum is to use a paid service. I have used PostLoops and can not recommend them highly enough. You do not just get a couple of posters who do not have English as their first language!
