Forum creation and management questions

[white_hat_123]

Hi. Let me preface this by saying that I am a total novice with any programing. I am considering finding someone to create a site with a forum (like this) except about gardening. I do not care about making tons of money off it, but it would be nice to at least cover some costs. I thought of starting out small and limiting the forums to only a few topics. The only reason for considering this is that I am a member of an active forum that is having lots of technical issues and many of the members have become my friends and are all upset about the direction of the forum we currently use. I have a friend that I can pay to create the site for me, but I have no idea how hard it would be to manage from the back end. It would be all free. The only possible source of covering costs would be if I get sponsors/advertisements. Again, my primary purpose is not to generate income, but to provide a nice service and cover my costs. I do not want a logistical nightmare though. Is it hard to manage a site like what I have described?