Uhm my site is about gaming. How can I get people to look at those things? I haven't seen a advertising forum on vforums yet so that can't work. I'm really confused and this has got to be the hardest part about making a forum. It's pretty much just me because all my friends don't join or are just not posting.

Never get your friends to join, they never post because a lot of the time they aren't interested at all and only join cause they are your mate.

In the end, gaming forums would be difficult to advertise as there isn't really much medium for them to exist in as you can't advertise in games. Post on other large gaming sites to try and attract some attention to yourself, just word of mouth really for gaming forums.

On the contrary there as I know of 2 Advertising forum mine http://vfad.vforums.co.uk and Ajay™ has one http://vfadvertise.vforums.co.uk

Darkmage

EDIT:



Thats true, I had one of my Best friends that I have known for 18 years, since we were babies. I asked him to join, he did, he posted a few times, and never came on. He really wasnt into the forum thing in the first place. I begged him into it.

Can you write good? How bout write a press release announcing your site and it's goals...etc

Then write a few articles relating to your forum's niche and submit them to article directories for a longterm quality backlink.

Also find blogs related to your niche and write reviews, exchange link's. Always look for a way to spread the word about your forum without being named as a spammer.

Any forum you belong to, if your able to, add your site into your siggie. You'd be amazed how many times someone clicks on links in peoples siggies. Just contribute to the communities you belong to and if people like you they will click on your siggie links.

I can name a lot of free advertising methods to get your site out, but what works for me, may not work for other's. Keep searching google and experiement in getting your site out in the world.

Try running a contest on your site with the winner or winners getting something in return. For example, free homepage advertising for a month, free text link in header/footer for a month. Think of something good to keep your members interested and talk about your site on other places they visit.

Look at your competitors site and see how you can make your site stand out more. Starting a forum means, you are competing with hundreds or thousands more related to your niche. Make sure your forum is SEO'd to better help your site get indexed faster in all major search engines and also get a good ranking in them.

Good luck