I am building a site that will have a forum component. What would be the best way to getting many users in a short period of time? Is it worth it to pay people to post topics? The main problem is that no one wants to join if there are little posts, and there are little posts because no one wants to join. A catch 22.
I wouldn't pay ppl to post as you will more than likely just get a load of meaningless posts rather than anything of any substance.
What's your niche? I am doing a write up on how to get members to join/post in my blog, it is not done yet. I'll post them once I am done with it.
I think the best thing to do is have a referral contest, it gets traffic coming and at the very least the people participating in the contest will keep coming back. I also think paid posting companies are worth it if you find a good one. Look around the site and see if the writing is competent (the site owner will probably be the main poster). Buy a small package and see what the results are like, if the results are quality then get a larger package.
You can say stuff to promote the forums like "talk to me in the forums for more info!" on your main page
Try some google Ads, and Ads on similar and popular forums. Also you shall post some useful things in your forum, and make that forum show up in the first page of google SERPs. So people find the useful information from search engines, and then will come to your forums for those information. But I think Ads are the most important source of traffic. BTW, what's the category of your forum?
Having a referral contest is a good idea. That way people that are members on the forum can invite their friends to join. You might get more members to stick around that way.
When I actually put time into a business forum, I'd try to put a link at the end of each article on the main site to go to the forum to discuss it. (need to do that again actually). On my newer forum (in my sig) I did't hire anyone. It's a freelance writing forum, and I ran a small private networking group, so the initial members came from there. Writers love to write, including in forums, so dicussions took off pretty quickly, and members are growing faster all the time, and I've barely promoted. It definitely depends on your niche, and what else you can tie to to. Offer something of interest in a private area that requires registration (we do that by offering our highest paying writers markets in a private marketplace). Just choose something niche-related. I'd never hire forum posters though. I did do some post exchanges, and that was better in my opinion b/c I could know ahead of time if they had any business interest (only did it on the biz forum), and they knew if they posted crap, they'd get the same on theirs, and noone wants that. So maybe start a thread asking if anyone wants to exchange posts.
start building backlinks. put your site in your sig and start posting on sites related to your niche. That was my plan, and its been working pretty well
find another webmaster with a young forum, and agree to cross post each others forums. yes, you will be helping a competitor, but at least the posts will be relevant and factual