Getting a forum going

Any tips for getting a forum starting and people posting?

[Phaedrus]

Trying to get my forum area going - lots of people looking but hardly any posts

Any ideas?

[moltar]

Pay specialty posters to post like 1,000 posts, it'll get you going. Alternatevly you can post yourself under different names. I think the reason people look, but don't post is because of the sheep effect ("nobody is posting, so I won't either")...

[Beagle]

There are some great threads in the library (see that list of little words at the top of the page?). This one seems to speak to your question:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[treeline]

Post a few controversial ideas, get some blogging friends to mention them...

[FourDegreez]

Post a few controversial ideas

People definitely respond to controversial topics. I'm always amazed at how some topics can inspire 100s of posts, even if they've been discussed into the ground dozens of times before. Gay marriage, abortion, etc. ..probably don't apply to your forum, but every niche has its controversies, no?

[Komodo_Tale]

Start with an "Open" period where people can post without registering. After you establish some content and get people hooked, switch to registration required to post.

This may involve extra time for spam deleting/control at first, but can be well worth the momentum it can build.

Always let people read posts without registering, except for private or special forums/topics.

[Grassroots]

Post news into the forum and ask guests to comment, or create polls and ask guests to comment and vote. In time they will register if you provide extra benefits to "registered users".

Hey, I want a cool avatar - then register.

Etc. etc.

[BertieB]

Let me repeat the oft-mentioned cliché: less is more. Though it may sound obvious, keep forums small and cosy in the early days while you build up a userbase. After a while, certain types of topic will be discussed more, so split them off into sub-forums. Don't be tempted to overcategorize early on, and smaller yet tighter forums look busier than equally active forums that have many subsections.

For example, if your site's topic is Speciality Green Widgets, you may only need 2 forums to start with:

Speciality Green Widgets ~ Everything to do with SGWs!
Off Topic Discussion ~ Non-SGW talk can be found in here!

[petra]

I use adwords(targetted traffic), works beautifully!