how much does it cost to run your forum and do you use shared web hosting
The only cost to run your forum is domain + hosting, mostly new forums go with shared hosting instead of dedicated or VPS based. A forum with .com cost for me is about $7.99 (namesilo.com with coupon code "newonsilo" without quotes only for new registration) and a shared hosting which generally costs about >$10/yearly. I don't use shared hosts much as i own my own servers to host my websites.
The cost are variable, like Dark say, some use shared hostings, even some ppl use free mybb hosting Icyboard for example. For me i use own dedi servers for my site. Even a VPS can be cheap for arround $6 a month, then a domain variating from $5~$10 a year.
But what cost you more then the server/vps/hosting/domain is the time consumtion. Hosting/Managing/Administrating/Moderating a forum is a huge time eating thing, so plan if you have this time. It will cost much of it.
I use shared hosting for my forum projects, it usually cost me 5-10$ for hosting per month.
Once I factor in my time, many thousands a month.
