With the growth of Gator Envy and the nature of the site, I decided to take the plunge and purchase a live chat program for my members. How hard did it hit my wallet? Less then you might think…only $5 via Paypal can land you one of the top live chatting applications you can have on your website, FlashChat.

When installing a live chat application on a site with Vbulletin, FlashChat is pretty much a no-brainer. It works great with Vbulletin and the good folks at VBulletin.org have developed a mod for easy integration.

I haven’t yet installed FlashChat on my forum, but I will likely get it done this weekend. I felt having a chat on Gator Envy was a good idea because it gives Gator fans who can’t go to the games a place to chat with other Gator fans as the game is being played. You can limit the chat room to specified numbers or usergroups, so it will never get to the point that it drains all your server’s resources. In addition to game chats, I also felt like the chat room opens up the opportunity for me to invite former Gator players to hold live Q&As with my members.

Be sure to check out Gator Envy on Monday to see the chat room integration. You will have to be a forum member to have access, so be sure to sign up if you haven’t already.