How much to setup a online user/help forum?

[KeithTalent]

I'm working on a big project for a class and there is a small part where we have decided to consider eliminating the 24 hour helpline and implement an online-based user forum to alleviate the costs currently associated with the helpline. Easy enough to do some quick calculations to support it, or so I thought. :frown:

This is such a tiny part of our report but I have spent an inordinate amount of time just trying to find numbers anywhere

Anyone have any good links/tips where I can go? Just trying to find some resources out there and I figured some of the wonderful people of ATOT may know

I am not asking anyone to do homework for me, just wanted to know if you guys know of any sites where these types of things are discussed, or where I may be able to find some estimated numbers for setup/maintenance.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
KT

PS: Happy St. Patty's Day :beer:

 

[FoBoT]

almost any web hosting will include forum software that you can setup through the control panel

you just have to buy a web hosting package that will handle the bandwidth you expect. or you start small and upgrade your package as you use more bandwidth

 

[KeithTalent]

Fair enough, but I still need to figure out the approximate costs of that, assuming a certain amount of traffic/bandwidth usage, etc..

Unfortunately there are no specifics in the company's financials to try and extrapolate from.

 

[everman]

webhostingtalk.com might help.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: everman
webhostingtalk.com might help.

Thank you very much!

Looks like a useful place: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=590587 that thread in particular looks as if it may be able to help.

Time for some serious reading!

Thanks again,
KT
:beer:

 

[KeithTalent]

On a somewhat related note, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to run AT on a monthly basis?

Just curious.

 

[KeithTalent]

Ok I am bumping this up because I am confused by some numbers I am looking at here: Website Statistics

I am trying to do a basic bandwidth estimation as follows: Avg. Daily Visitors X Av. Page Views X Avg. Page Size X 31 (conversion rate) X 1.75 (estimate error allowance) using data from the above link for estimates. However, what exactly does "Daily Pageviews (per million)" mean and how do I get that to a number I can use for the above formula?

Any website/bandwidth gurus out there that can help?

Thanks!

KT

 

[InverseOfNeo]

Daily Pageviews (per million) is to my knowledge how many pages get viewed a day (in millions). For instance, if you have 10 visitors, 3 view 5 pages, and the rest view 2, there would be 29 pageviews.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: InverseOfNeo
Daily Pageviews (per million) is to my knowledge how many pages get viewed a day (in millions). For instance, if you have 10 visitors, 3 view 5 pages, and the rest view 2, there would be 29 pageviews.

Ok, so you are saying that is essentially a comparison of how many pages viewed on your site versus the entire number of page views across the web as a whole? Maybe I am still confused as to how the 'per million' comes into play.

For examplke that graph says EA had approximately 120 page views per day in (beginning of January) for every million page views across the web? If so is there a way to get an estimate for my formula from that? Not that I can think of.

KT

 

[RossMAN]

Post your questions on WHT and you'll probably receive some helpful replies:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

 

[KeithTalent]

Thanks RossMAN, will do!

 

[RossMAN]

YGPM