seeking reccomendation on site structure

hello -

thanks to everyone for all the useful info around here.

Here is my situation:

I am currently planning a redesign and expansion to my small business site, http://www.revmedia.com. I know the site is pretty basic, but it hasn't been a priority so it's never really been worked on.

One of the new features will be a phpBB forum like this one, and for a fairly specific type of software discussion topic. There is no other such forum online. I expect that, over time, the forum will become loaded with useful information and will get traffic.

The question is:

I would really like to give this forum it's own name and sub-brand of my own brand. I want to keep it within the umbrella of my own company name, if possible.

Should I give the forum it's own domain (less desirable), a sub-domain (very handy as an admin, and would still contain my primary domain name), or just a directory like revmedia.com/forum?

I am trying to understand the ramifications of this on Google traffic.

thanks in advance for any opinions...
Dave

Dave,

It may be easier to build links to a new domain, or even a sub-domain, since other websites may be more willing to exchange with what they consider is the "frontpage". As far as Google is concerned, that's the only difference you need to take into account between the 3 options you mention. After that, all SEO considerations are the same.

Gringo.

So, Google will not even take into consideration whether a URL is a subdomain or not? If so, I would probably make the url something like:

myforum.mydomain.com

so that the association between the forum and my website is abundantly clear..

What would happen if I did that, and then added another domain which also pointed to the subdomain, so that

myforum.mydomain.com AND myforum.com would both point to the same place? Does that just make it worse or would it have no effect?

The reason I ask is because I have about 10 great domain names (highly memorable and easy) that I'm not using. They are incredibly relevant to my primary domain/topic so I'm trying to find a way to use them.

The position in Google is mostly down to number and type of links in terms of off-page factors and title, header and content in terms of on-page ones. It doesn't matter what your URL looks like if you make sure the above factors are OK.

Gringo.

Absolutely - the trick is how to set the pages correctly!

Followup Question:

If every page of the main site has a persistent link to the forum, and every forum page has a persistent link to the main site, what effect would that have?

I am still trying to understand PR properly.