[Shelley_c]

Originally Posted by KTBleeding

Whoa whoa whoa.

Why not think up a website idea that is unique and not done yet? Why are you wanting to start something that hundreds of people have attempted? Unless you can do one of those sites in your list better than what is already out there, you won't be as successful as you are hoping. That's the cold hard truth.

Why would someone use your website over Youtube? Why would someone use you over Last.fm? Over Myspace / Facebook? Chances are, they won't. Especially if you're just going to buy a vBulletin license, and have third party modifications. ANYONE can do that. There would be absolutely no uniqueness, and no reason to join.

For vB styles / templates, there's plenty of competition out there too. To compete, you better be pretty damn good at providing releases and updates for all the versions of vB. I wouldn't want to take on that headache for a measily $30 a pop.. But then again, I never did code vB skins like most people do..

Totally agree, as a rule, I hate styling, But providing support for styles is a headache at best. It's one of the reasons why I never did get into the styling providing business. I prefer building them and selling them as a one off or to any styling providers. Though if your seriously about dipping your toes in the styling providing business mike you'll have to compete with some really great (and most importantly) excellent supported) styling providers. For customers/your members support is paramount. Customers if your selling will expect the updates yesterday, and, to quote the 30$ dollars a pop that is generous. A lot of styling providers provide 2 for 1 offers at 25$ a pop though you can easily recuperate the money pending on the quality of your designs.

And, if you cannot design, you'll have to have some dedicated resources at hand in the way of designers/coders etc on your team who will expect a cut for the designs they make and sell to you so profits will be cut further unless your doing this all free in which case you'll just have to have a dedicated team who think along the same lines as you or a gun held to their head.