[Adrian Schneider]

If I had $7000 dollars to invest in a website, I would probably spend most of that just buying an existing one because in 10 months or so you have already made that money back. I guess it kind of acts as a nice secondary income.

Since this is about forums and not just a random site... I would probably start a community site for my local area, because the one we have pretty much stinks... Maybe even something like Craigs List so users can buy stuff. Just looking at the school district marketplace (my father is a teacher), there are a ton of people selling/buying things here.

As far as spending goes: I would build it myself, maybe pay someone to design it, but not 1000$, because most of the great sites have simple layouts (few graphics!). The only thing I can see costing money is hosting fees if it grows large, but the ad revenue should cover most of that.