I’m going to jump back into this thread I think. In reply to your “ if you were the owner of DiscussBiz what would you change / do differently than what we're doing now?” comment…

Like already mentioned, I would pay someone to design a really nice new skin. I would stay well away from the bland, stock-photography, cliché layouts that you see all over the place and go for something completely different. Bright colors, big fonts give it a unique style. I would try and make the forum appear more “fun and friendly” rather than corporate and business-like but at the same time make sure the site doesn’t loose its professionalism.

I would completely drop all of the adverts on the website in the first few months. For the few cents you will be making on them they are pretty pointless. I would only add adverts to the website when its got a solid user base and is getting a decent amount of traffic. I would also try and find another way to make money out of the site, forums are notoriously bad money makers when it comes to adsense and other PPC banners. Offer a premium membership upgrade with added features and the like.

Buy a copy of vbulletin and port the posts over.

I was going to rant on for longer but I need to head out now. That should get you started though.

Oh, and talkfreelance was designed by Tarun Hari, you can view his portfolio at vbcustom.com.