The first step to customising your phpBB forum is to download and install a new template. You can download them from the official site: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/ Instructions come with most downloads or there are lots of tutorials on the forums about it.

Secondly, you will want to modify your forum to make it stand out and look better than all the competing forums. Once again, I link you to the official site: http://www.phpbb.com/mods/ There are hundreds of mods there ready for you to use and also a tutorial on how to create your own.

I highly recommend changing your forum's look, feel and layout, too many phpBB forums out there could be a lot more successful if they had their own unique look, rather than the generic, default phpBB look that lots have. A quick Google search found lots of handy tutorials on customising phpBB, and here are the two that I think are very useful and worth a read: Firstly, there is the phpBB knowledge base. http://www.phpbb.com/kb/

Thirdly, I suggest you spend time on this fantastic tutorial: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/build-a-phpbb-forum

Finally, once again, any trouble you might have, do not be afraid to post at WebForumz! A lot of members on the forums use phpBB to run their websites, and will be happy to help!