It seems like to start your own forum / discussion board, you would first need to purchase some space on a web server. Visit our web hosting forum to get some ideas on where to purchase hosting. It will run you about $10 per month for a host with PHP and MySQL support. You will then need to set up your forums. I recommend, for starters, phpBB which is available for free at www.phpbb.com . I would not think about trying to sell advertising or make any money off of the site from the start. First build the site, and get a steady number of visitors per day. Then, you may wish to consider joining the Google AdSense program at www.google.com/adsense/ to make some money on the side.

Hey,

I Agree Start off with phpBB, I Started using that acouple of Years ago and self-taught myself and its hard at first but it has its pluses in the end, you will enjoy it. I would start off getting Hosting Company, Look around for the Best Prices and someone with good Costumer Support, With SQL, FTP, Etc, Etc. Then I would Register on www.phpbb.com and start to learn some stuff before you Download and start, Or read the manual.

Once you have started to learn it and you think you got the handle of it, start and try to make your site what you want it to become.

Thanks,
Kevin