Congrats, you've signed up for a Vanilla forum! Now what?

Starting a community is an exciting but large undertaking. Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to begin, especially if this your first time using Vanilla Forums. Here's a list of 10 things we recommend you do first.

1. Confirm Account and Billing info.
Before you dive into customizing your forum, it's a good idea to double check that your account and billing info is correct and ready to go. This will ensure that your forum subscription is never interrupted.

1. Visit your account at https://vanillaforums.com/account.
2. Sign in with the login information provided in your welcome/new forum email.
3. Confirm your plan, your credit card info, and select your billing notification preferences.

Have any questions about your account or your preferred payment option not appearing? Contact billing@vanillaforums.com. We're happy to help!

2. Select Your Logo.
This is an important first step in setting up your forum, as it can instantly convey the personality, brand and purpose of your site. Accepted file types include .jpg, .gif and .png. Files should be no larger than 10 mb.

1. Sign into your forum with the administrative username & password you used when creating your account..
2. Click "Dashboard" in the main menu once signed in.
3. Under the "Appearance" section, select "Banner."
4. Enter your homepage title, your site description, upload your banner title OR banner logo, and upload a favicon. Click "Save".

3. Select Your Layout.
Vanilla offers different options for how users can view your forum. Here, you can select from "Discussions," "Categories," or "Activity" layout options.

1. Select "Homepage," under Appearance.
2. Select the page you want your users to see as soon as they visit your forum (Tip: all Discussions is the most popular.) Click "Save".

4. Select Your Theme.
Your forum's theme is like its wallpaper. A nice theme makes your forum more inviting and memorable , so it's important to select one right from the get-go.

1. Select "Themes," under Appearance.
2. Choose your theme. You can "Preview" a theme before clicking "Apply."

Don't see any themes you like? You can customize a theme (or create your own) by editing the html/css. Click "Customize Theme" under the Appearance category, or contact us if you'd like Team Vanilla to create a custom theme for you.

5. Customize your domain name
Instead of having your new forum's url look like this: joesforum.vanillaforums.com, it can look like this: joesforum.com or forum.joeswebsite.com It's a simple, two-step process that we recommend for all new forum owners. (Please note that you must purchase or create your desired url from a domain registrar before customizing your Vanilla Forums domain.)

1. Log in to the domain name registrar where your domain is hosted (ex. GoDaddy, Rackspace, etc.)
2. In your Admin control panel, create a DNS record for your domain so that it points at our servers. You have two choices here:
   1. If you want to use a subdomain (forum.joeswebsite.com) create a CName record for your domain that points to your Vanilla address: joesforum.vanillaforums.com
   2. If you want to use a top level domain (joesforum.com) create an A Record for your domain, using your forum's IP address. To look up your forum's IP address:
      1. Visit http://network-tools.com/
      2. Choose "Lookup" from the list of radio buttons
      3. Enter your forum name (joesforum.vanillaforums.com) in the long box, select "Go"
      4. Look further down the page, it will list your IP address
3. Back in your Vanilla Dashboard, you'll notice a Custom Domain menu under the Appearance category. You can alternatively follow directions for setting up your custom domain here. Or, if you've already followed instructions to configure your custom domain, you can confirm that it's configured properly here.

6. Add users
It's not a community without any users! Select "Users" below the "Appearance" category in your Dashboard.

1. Click "Add User"
2. Enter a username and password (or generate a password.)
3. Enter the user's email
4. (Carefully!) check the role(s) that apply to this new user

User login information will then automatically be emailed to your new users. As an Admin, you'll always be able to edit your user's roles, and password re-sets are always available, too.

7. Registration Settings
How do you want your users to access your forum? Do you want to grant them access immediately, or do you prefer reviewing and accepting applicants individually? Select "Registration" from under the "Users" area of your Dashboard to choose from a variety of options.

8. Set up social connect
How do you want your community to log in to your forum? Via a password, or via a social network, like Twitter, or Facebook? Add different authentication methods by selecting "Authentication" from your Dashboard.

Here are some step-by-step instructions for configuring Facebook, Twitter or Google Sign-In for your forum.

9. Categories
Categories organize your community's discussions. Select Categories from your Dashboard menu to add a new category. You can configure custom permissions for each category you create, however this isn't necessarily something you have to do right away.

Beware: Categories can start to add up. In your Dashboard under Categories, you can organize and nest your categories by dragging and dropping them. As you're working, click "View Page" at any time to see what your work looks like live on your forum!

Also, check out our video tutorial on editing and organizing categories.

10. Addons
Vanilla is endlessly pluggable and customizable. However, if you're just starting out, select Browse Addons from your Dashboard to view some of our more basic and most popular plugins. Each Addon has a brief description next to it, so be sure to read more about the plugin before enabling it. You can always keep track of your enabled vs. disabled plugins here in the Browse Addons menu.

... And you've made it through the fist 10 essential steps! Now it's time to focus on building up your content and growing your community.

Questions? Join the conversation with other hosted customers here. Interested in having Team Vanilla customize something special for your forum? Contact us anytime.

Welcome Aboard!