I wouldn't want to get a bank loan to invest in a online project. It's to much of a high risk investment and you could risk getting yourself into piles of debt. 

Try setting aside 10-20 percent of your earnings a month to meet your financial goal, for example 500$ which could be used to kick start your online project.

I wouldn't borrow money to start up a forum... they are very, very tough to monetize, especially now in the world of social media.

The "borrow from Facebook" thing is misleading, though. I mean, it gives you some leverage, but because of thresholds - you cannot spend $100 a day - off the bat (something like that).  However, it's the best situation for someone with no or bad credit I think.

OK, the other ad places, Bing and Google, operate the same.

I doubt any bank would fund an online thing unless you have some really hard evidence to back up that you will make a profit.

I've bought the majority of my licenses using a credit card.. ?

I highly doubt I'll be able to monetise my website any time soon, there simply isn't the traffic coming in right now.

I'm doing it as a hobby, and hopefully a learning tool for the future.

Building credit is essential to successfully receive a loan from the bank, although having assets and long stable work history is also a huge plus. You could also speak with a financial advisor and try different banks, best of luck!

I mean you might be able to look at the so called 'payday' lender places in order to get an injection of money but I certainly wouldn't advocate that for a forum in any manner. As has been said, unless you've got a strong forum pulling in the money each month (1. Please tell us how and 2. Jobs please) I'm not sure a bank would even consider the possibility of paying out their money for a website. I like to put aside a small portion of my income monthly to self-fund my projects.

The amount of money needed to get done what I - really need done (the drum lesson website) would be $10,000 at least, but really $20,000 - the price of a new car!   In that case, good employment is needed and/or serious bank loans!  Well, I could try Kickstarter or Indegogo, but the problem is asking people to give, when there's nothing in it for them.   At least it seems that way, but maybe drummers would chip in, but I really need them as Patreon supporters further down the road, not funding the startup.

Posted by: TheJason

The amount of money needed to get done what I - really need done (the drum lesson website) would be $10,000 at least, but really $20,000 - the price of a new car!   In that case, good employment is needed and/or serious bank loans!  Well, I could try Kickstarter or Indegogo, but the problem is asking people to give, when there's nothing in it for them.   At least it seems that way, but maybe drummers would chip in, but I really need them as Patreon supporters further down the road, not funding the startup.

May I ask what you are trying to do to your website that would cost something like that? That's a hefty amount of money and as I've mentioned, not an amount I'd be willing to just have hanging over my head in relation to a forum. If you're making like $1000 a month guaranteed from the site then hell, go ahead as at least you'll probably have a shot at paying it off then. I only ask because there are probably some free options for what you're wanting to do out there in some manner, or at the very least, lower cost options. Like at my job for example we can either pay £1000 a year to an external company to manage our booking systems or we can install a £15 a month WordPress plugin and take five minutes out of our day to manage it. I'm not sure much needs 20K!

I'm going to echo Marteebe... 

How on earth is the project going to cost that much? Are you buying recording programs, new cameras, high end microphones, a studio renovation, etc... off this?

Cause if so... this may sound cold but abandon the idea now. If you go to a bank trying to get a loan for this kind of thing (as a business) they will absolutely want to see proof that you have done your research, you know the market, you can provide a return on the investment they give you. They aren't going to gamble on maybe you strike it big. The risk to reward ratio is just too high for them. 

If you go to a bank trying to get a personal loan, they might give it to you. I mean credit score isn't the be-all/end-all thing sometimes it's made out to be. It's just a tool they're going to look at to help decide whether or not you'd be a good candidate. The more important factor they're going to want is to ensure that you have a good paying job and thusly can actually afford to make payments. I mean they're not going to just hand you ten thousand dollars with a 5 year repayment plan at 5% (giving you monthly payments of just shy of 190$) when you can't afford to pay more than $50 a month.  Especially not if you plan to quit your job to do this full time... (To them that's a redflag indicating they're probably going to get screwed over.)

I would personally recommend staying away from any of those payday loan places as they're traps. The only time I would ever advise someone to use one was if they had a good paying job (and thusly didn't actually need to borrow the money) but were going to go to them to take out small loans to rebuild their credit score. Anything else is just going to lead to financial trouble. 

I think if you need money to fund the project the best bet is to look for ways to cut corners/costs. Like do you need a high end professional microphone that costs $500 or could you make do with one that costs $50? Or do you have a microphone already that you can use?

Or can you take side jobs, like teaching others to play drums, to help make a bit extra? 

Or even just setting aside a bit extra from your current job (easier said than done at times) to pay for things?