[Generator Man]

Originally Posted by Syxguns

I started with 1 year, but that first year goes by quick!!

Here is a link about securing your forum: Securing vB Link

Wow that was a huge guide, I think I would have know a lot more if I got the forum. Yeah I think I'll go with one year offer, since I gotta pay 475 dollars for the forum, host, installation, and domain.

[Syxguns]

The list seems a lot larger than it really is. I would show you a picture to help you understand it a little better, but once you purchase the forum and have FTP access to your site, you will see how easy it is. The trick then is to remember before you ever upload anything to change the names of the folders you are uploading to the names you have changed on your site. It's pretty simple once you do it a couple of times.

[Generator Man]

Yeah I am reading the thread and I was like wtf? I just need to figure out how the hell I am gonna get 475 dollars. I got about 200 dollars right now. I mean its a good thing I found out all about this stuff before I just buy the forum and that's it not knowing about domain and hosting. That's why I had a bad feeling this whole week.

[BirdOPrey5]

DO you really think you need Blogs and CMS from the start? If you're just learning forums that could keep you busy for a long time before you need to worry about CMS/Blogs... In that case you can save some money upfront and get the forum only package. Later if you upgrade to the suite it is only like $10 more then not buying it from the start. ($100 to upgrade later.)

[ForceHSS]

Originally Posted by Generator Man

Wow that was a huge guide, I think I would have know a lot more if I got the forum. Yeah I think I'll go with one year offer, since I gotta pay 475 dollars for the forum, host, installation, and domain.

If you pm me I could bring that price down for you

[BirdOPrey5]

Unlicensed users can't PM and people should not be making offers for paid services in this forum.

If/when he becomes licensed he can use the Requests for Paid Services forum to get bids from multiple people.

[borbole]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

You should get a web host and domain first, yes.

I like URLJet and use them myself, but they are on the more expensive side. Up to you. You will see hosting preferences get very personal so we try to keep them on the forum I linked above.

Please don't get discouraged by "an hour" going by. This site (vbulletin.org) is run by volunteers and we aren't always online all day. I'm sure in a day or two more people will be chiming in with ideas as well.

URJet will install vBulletin for you, I believe- that's kind of like cheating I mean I understand it gets you up and running quickly but I think there is something to be said for figuring it out yourself- since you're going to be using it best to learn it from the ground up.

Originally Posted by Generator Man

Yeah I am reading the thread and I was like wtf? I just need to figure out how the hell I am gonna get 475 dollars. I got about 200 dollars right now. I mean its a good thing I found out all about this stuff before I just buy the forum and that's it not knowing about domain and hosting. That's why I had a bad feeling this whole week.

As mentioned above, it would be better to start off with the forum only first and see how thing will go. Then later when your forum grows you can add the suite and the blog. About paying to have your forum installed, you could save yourself that money by simply taking a look at the installation guide and doing the install yourself. It is pretty easy.

https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/install/

[Generator Man]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

DO you really think you need Blogs and CMS from the start? If you're just learning forums that could keep you busy for a long time before you need to worry about CMS/Blogs... In that case you can save some money upfront and get the forum only package. Later if you upgrade to the suite it is only like $10 more then not buying it from the start. ($100 to upgrade later.)

So only for 195 dollars for just the forum, hosting and domain for like 39 dollars. So I just saved like over 200 dollars. Wow that was just a relief.

--------------- Added 04 Aug 2012 at 00:55 ---------------

Now my only issue is learning how to install it, I read the whole manual, and to tell the truth I felt so clueless. Sorry guys for sounding like and idiot, I think I will be learning more on computers when I grow up when I saw this manual. I didn't know what most of things meant here. I was reading everything and I couldn't even comprehend anything in this manual.

[Simon Lloyd]

Installing is pretty simple, just set up a databse in your website control panel, unzip the package you got when you buy the software, go to includes/config.php and edit the database name, user name and password for the database, upload via ftp in ascii mode to your /public_html folder, then visit www.yoursitehere.com/install/install.php (if you uploaded to a filder then put your folder name between .com/ and /install) and just follow the instructions

[ForceHSS]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Unlicensed users can't PM and people should not be making offers for paid services in this forum.

If/when he becomes licensed he can use the Requests for Paid Services forum to get bids from multiple people.

That's not what I meant

[Generator Man]

Okay I have the exact amount for just about everything. 195 for the forum, 25 for hosting, and 14 for domain. I got 234 dollars right now and I will buy it as soon as possible. I just got another question, does any of this cost tax? I have the exact amount for everything and I don't wanna pay more because of tax.

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Generator Man

Okay I have the exact amount for just about everything. 195 for the forum, 25 for hosting, and 14 for domain. I got 234 dollars right now and I will buy it as soon as possible. I just got another question, does any of this cost tax? I have the exact amount for everything and I don't wanna pay more because of tax.

These are questions you can ask at vbulletin.com pre-sales, your perspective host and perspective registrar for the domain

[Generator Man]

Okay no problem, I am just gonna save a few more extra dollars just in case if I gotta deal with tax and stuff. Thanks anyways, I really do appreciate the help these past few days.

[metalguy639]

Sorry to be late to the party but there are other things that you will need to consider eventually and think about. If you are not able to install it yourself you may eventually want to install some of the hacks on here once you buy the license, and you may want to have a custom skin down the road. All these things cost money. There are plenty of people who do these things for board owners for a fee. Its great to get it all started for the amount you have but keep in mind that will not be the only money you pay out for the forum if you do not plan on learning stuff yourself or you can't. vBulletin comes out of the box with just a default skin, default settings, and a default set up. There are most likely some things that you have seen on another forum and thought that is really a cool feature I like it. Do not expect it to come right out of the box. In most cases its an add-on or a hack that was installed to enhance the board. If you are not particularly thrilled with the default skin there are free skins and there are skins that you can purchase from other sites. There are also custom skins and those can cost big bucks. So just keep in mind that this is an investment of sorts and something that you will be pouring money into. You will not just pay the initial amount and then everything is dandy and the sun comes out.