Hello.

I have installed the software, arranged the categories, made the rules, everything OK. I just need to find a way, to drive members to my forum-only website now.

I could give a link to some webmastering communities I am member of, and ask people to help by registering, posting something and referring their friends, but that's simply not possible. It's a Greek-speaking aquarium/fish forum, a specialised subject, combined with a not-so-widespread language. Not everyone knows about fish, corals and plants, and even less people speak the Hellenic language.

So, being an amateur at internet marketing, SEO and such, I would like getting some help from you on this topic. How to advertise, where, and what else to do in order to drive potential members to my forum.

research on other popular web forum which relate to your topic

find a niche point which only exist in your site but they dont

find more paid poster to create quality posts and threads

moderate your site strictly spam disallow

Good Luck!

You can seek help of forum posters who can get your forum started. Once people see posts and member they might also will get them self registered with your forum.

This method words for new forum.

Do to the nature of the the forum (localized and niche), make up some fliers and visit your local pet stores and aquarium suppliers.
Spend your weekends driving to nearby cities to pass the fliers around businesses.

Mail some to places you don't want to drive too. You may get free promotion from the vendors as they can call it a form of support to their customers.

a very good discussion,
many will gain knowledge on how to start ..

I would tend to think that the first step is absolutely some paid posts to generate interest for future viewers. Then cross posting in loosely related forums would also drive relevant traffic.

Then cross posting in loosely related forums would also drive relevant traffic.

And annoy the moderators of the forum you are abusing

What forum software are you using? I recently released a free aquatic theme for open source PunBB

I can easily edit the header image for you to include your forum name, or I can just shoot you the .PSD Photoshop file over if ya want

Just make the topic interesting.. usually, people goes to forum to gain something new and interesting topic to learn about..

make it a unique and precise conversation to enjoy by everyone..!

Try writing some articles related to your topic and submitting them to article directories with a link back to your site.

paid posts FTL.... goto a general forum. take the best posts from there. or come up with your own AEs/ discussions. content builds forums.

do link exchange with related sites, not for the typical link-exchange concept, but to get visitors

first thing you need to do; get visitors
most will leave your forum almost immediately as it isn't active yet, but once you do get visitors you have to go for the paid postings (or post like craze yourself), slowly some people will start to post and so you can grow slowly

but yes, having paid postings for a while to get started is a very common practice for forums ...

related sites get you visitors.... but not that many... usually they are higher quality hits