[Ted S]

Getting users is a function of having something people want to join/ visit and getting the word out there. Both elements require a lot of work, which can be circumvented to a degree by money. Growing a large forum also takes time, especially in the absence of money or having another site or sites to feed your site from. If you want to grow to something bigger than the average forum you need to develop a truly unique website that is better than the competing sites and visibly so. From this point you need a comprehensive marketing plan which you can execute against to grow your site day by day. Over time as you approach a critical mass your site will start growing on your own but rarely does sites become huge overnight.