vBulletin Boards

[The_Grudge]

I've had this idea for a long time about setting up a web forum. I know there are tons of "board" software out there but I prefer vBulletin as I find the forums much easier to use than some of it's competitors.

So I've got a few questions about setting up a forum.

1) In terms of hosting a forum, can you use just a generic web server for a few bucks a month as if you had a regular website? Then, as traffic grows expand from there?

2) How does vBulletin work? I know you purchase it for $160 or so but how does one go about implementing it, creating forum categories etc?

3) Once a forum is created, how do you draw people to it? Most people won't know about it and those that do will show up to see 3 threads and leave....do these things take off on their own after a while or is it nearly impossible to get a user group setup?

4) How hard is it to moderate? Let's say I have 6 or 7 forums. Can that be done by one or two guys? I mean, there are a lot of idiots out there!