So you have setup all the forums and configured all of the settings, but you notice there is rarely anyone joining your forum. Was all of this hard work for nothing? No, all you need to do is promote your forum. There are many ways you can promote your forum to gain visitors. Each way has its strengths and weaknesses.

Free Promotion:

Word of Mouth
Word of mouth advertising is by far the easiest form of promotion. After you have gained a few loyal members they will begin to spread the word about your forum. It way be worth getting friends to join your forum and help get it off the ground.

Advertising on other forums
If you visit other forums, they may let you post a link to your forum (make sure it is not against their rules though). If you actively post on other forums, put a link to your new forum in your signature.

Search Engines
If your forum is hosted by InvisionFree, search engines will find it, and you will start to get traffic from people that are searching the internet. To help draw users to your forum you can put a short paragraph in the footer of your forum to give extra keywords for search engines to pick up. A simple description of your board is good enough.

Directories
Directories are similar to search engines except they are organized in a different fashion. Directories are like an online phone book with your website's address and information about it. Two of the most popular directories are the ones maintained by Google and Yahoo. You can submit your information to Yahoo's Directory or the Open Directory Project (Google's directory is powered by the Open Directory Project, which can be found through most popular search engines). The InvisionFree directory has thousands of forums sorted by category. Your forum can be added to the InvisionFree directory from your forum's Admin CP in the 'Board Directory' section.

Paid Promotion:

Advertising at InvisionFree
InvisionFree offers an inexpensive paid advertising solution to not only its registered forum users, but everyone else as well. You can advertise in our paid promotions forum that is located on the support board. Please visit our paid promotion page for more information.

Advertising Networks
Advertising your forum on an advertising network can be a bit pricey, but it does have many advantages. An advertising network is a service that places banners on their publisher's websites. Google Adwords is a good way to start off if you have a limited budget for advertising.

Promotion Aids:

Forum Theme
Selecting a good topic for your board will help you retain new members. If you focus on one main subject you can focus your promotion effects and be more successful.

Special Offers
For some forums, a good way to keep members active is to run contests. You might start a contest that gives away a game or a gift certificate. The contest would state that a member with more than 50 posts on your forum will be randomly selected to win.

Conclusion:

At this point, you should now know several ways to promote your forum, which will hopefully help you attract and retain new members.