I have the minimum set in vBulletin to ten (10) characters and haven't had any complaints. ;)

Yes. Free advertising is nice but some places you just can't get to without paid advertising.

No, guests are not allowed to view profiles on our forum nor do we display email addresses to members. I believe it helps to keep the SPAM down.

I was responding to the question, "how long does it usally take to get a good forum off the ground?"

IMO, the two (2) primary factors that will determine "how long" are:

1. Subject Matter: What...

Are you asking me? :?:

IMO, that will depend on your subject matter and your promotion efforts.

I agree 110%. If I wasn't so interested in the subject matter there is no way I would invest the time, energy and resources needed to keep my sales and marketing forum running.

You might consider a name like vg-forum.com

Here is a post with a few ideas: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/post143812-4.html

To my knowledge, "A Small Orange" is reliable.

Yes, you can place your own logo on your vBulletin forum even when the branding has not been removed.

You might check into "A Small Orange". I believe they have hosting as low as $5 per month.

I'm currently running vBulletin 3.07 on both my boards and am anxiously awaiting 3.5. :)

I believe the minimum requirements are:
PHP 4.1.0
MySQ: 3.23.33