Hey all lets say I made a forum for marijuana users (this is not my idea just an example) what kind of ways can I drive traffic to this forum besides content on the site/seo? just trying to get initial traffic b/c ppl don't visit forums if no one else is on them lol.
get forum posters from buy/sell that way when people visit your forum it will look busy and they may require create interesting topics create controversary topics offer competitions and incentives
It depends on how much time you agree to wait before the good results. If the speak seriously it's a trade-off between money and time. if you do SEO yourself and advertise your forum using free sources you'll get the reuslts, stable results but not fast results. But if you have money for advertising you can spend them for example for: 1) our visitors can earn money with us - you get $$$ for every valuable post. 2) for registered users - bring your friend and get $50... 3) many other attractive ideas.
Try to get partnership with marijuna companies and ask them to get on to your site for their brand representation.