You need to find a niche and attack it with passion... When i jumped my community off, it started with 6 people... I spent generally 9-16 hrs a day working the forum, modifying it and steering it the direction i wanted. I had to be an active member, just like everyone else, dropping my admin hat.. It paid off.. my site is established.. It wasnt easy but it has paid off... I give the bigboard in my niche a run for their and then some.

moved to General vBulletin Discussions

Finally a good discussion here at vB.org

I believe anyone can be achieved, but only a select few will achieve what they want. It's because of lack of spirit, time and believe. With that I don't want to sound corny or drag you into the SelfHelp niche. It's to illustrate that it will take years to become succesful.

And when you got a big community? Is that just your aim? Most aim for the money, for the status etc. What is it you truly want?

-If it's just a community, then you can use sites like FaceBook.
-If you want status, create something many members will want to know/visit/download/install etc. Like a good modification here at vB.org
-If you want quick money, sell products - not experiences.

Foruming, building active communities is about building up an incredible and addicting experience for your members. It starts with being bold and clear about what you have to offer, something that others don't... the reason why to join YOUR forum.

People think 'What's In It For Me'... tell them! (ie. You sign up, you get a custom avatar and access to a great board full of social groups and lots of arcade games)

Then when you have them signed up and got your forum going a bit it's all about managing and supporting your community. Many forums slowly die when admins stop posting. Other sites are constantly camping with hosting/access problems. Others are bugged with spamming, trolling or even fraudulent posters.

Well, that's just a few things that came to my mind. Let me know if you want to know more, I'll subscribe to this topic. (Yeah, a busy admin needs to control his time!)