As for the quality of recent articles – you mention you prefer many of the older ones; can you give me some examples so I can better gauge what articles you prefer in terms of content/length/subject/style etc?

Looking back at some of the older posts on this blog, I think that newer articles are of a much higher quality. However, if you can provide me with some examples of the older posts you prefer and the newer ones you feel are not as good, I will be able to ensure my writing standards don’t slip.

Anyway, your early articles were decent but since then they’ve been meh (who needs adjectives?) and thought of unsubscribing until recently. Showing a real life example, namely yourself, of the process that you are going through made me change my mind.

What’s my point? uhm … Rock on!

Very often I see vBadvanced being used when just putting the forum up on its own would be perfectly fine. A lot of people use the system to try to make their sites looks more advanced and modern. Unfortunately they often end up just looking more complicated, in my opinion.

Ramana – Thanks for the feedback!

Fly – This article may also help:

Should you add a forum to your blog?

Good luck, keep in touch and let us know how you get on.

Domaining – It depends what kind of work you want your designer to do. If you are looking for a new logo or page design, I don’t think you can go wrong with SitePoint Contests (now known as 99designs). You post a brief and your price, and receive a number of entries to choose from. Once you have found a good designer, you can commission them for further work in the future.

Laser – All this information will be revealed in a post closer to the launch date of my new community. I have never spent as much time or money on launching a new community before this one – I am putting maximum effort into getting everything just right prior to launch.

You sure spend a lot of time on developing your sites. May I ask how much cash you have spent so far, and what your expected budget for the completion of the site itself is?

I also agree that many sites hide their forums. It’s almost treated as a b. step-child. I’m not sure why that is.

One thing I would find useful is advice on how to find honest and capable designers. From what I have read they are really hard to find. Any suggestions about what to look for in a good designer and how to find good ones?

That’s part of why I like vBadvanced. Although it’s core design is so “modular” every link on the home page goes into a thread on the forum so it’s hard for visitors to miss.