Kind of vague, but...

[Lgolos]

How can I advertise my forum? I designed it and everything, and I have a few members, but I want to know how to really attract members who will post. I know this is a bit bland, but can I get some help?

 

[RossOliver]

You could advertise it in your signature (as you are doing already) and be active on other forums

Try and get a link exchange with a similar website...

You could run a competition to attract new members...

I haven't came across an effective, free (or paid, for that matter) form of advertisement yet though :/

-Ross

 

[Caitlyn]

If you are referring to the forum in your sig, then you seem to be doing well with 180 members. But I noticed on thing that kind of bugged me was that it is IF. No offense intended here, but IF seems kind of minimal, ammature, etc. Know what I mean?

 

[mojo]

How can I advertise my forum? I designed it and everything, and I have a few members, but I want to know how to really attract members who will post. I know this is a bit bland, but can I get some help?

You can go a couple routes.

1. Patience - Just stay active in your forum, build links to your site, SEO your site, and work toward good rankings in the search engines.
2. Build a little activity, organize some people to post alot on your forum for a set time, and advertise the heck out of it during that time with things like adwords.

I chose option 1. The area my site is in has a ton of competition, and it is hard to get them away from the places they have already built a reputation in. I basically had to wait until my site reached popularity in the search engines, which took over a year.

 

[BrandonSheley]

a good thing is to add your site to link directories.. like dmoz.com
if your looking for a list of directories, I can post one..
having back-links to your site will help you tremendiously, and having quality content will keep users at your site

 

[michaeb]

What exactly do you mean by back links? as in websites that link to you but ones that you dont like back to? Or two way? Is good SEO and good content enough to drive a website and a forum you think?

 

[Lgolos]

I want to upgrade to a V-bulletin, but I uh...

Don't have money.

Lol.

And the main forum I go to does not allow sig ads, I got banned for putting in an image that linked to my forum.

But thanks for the suggestions, a bit ironic really since I'm opening a paid posts website.