Need a boost of traffic

I need a boost of traffic to my forums.

1) computer based discussion forum and photography

2) downloads graphics, community (warez :S) forum

2 is decent activity, needs bulk mail sent but my servers arnt being nice and sending mail atm, so I need traffic other ways and #1 has exsisted for almost 4 years now just restarted database a few months ago.

PM for links and make offers.

 

I'm not real sure what you're asking for. If you're looking for someone to spam for you that ain't gonna work.
donrock

 

I would suggest to promote through social sites rather than using email marketing.

 

Yeah, email marketing is standing on its last leg! All unsolicited mail (SPAM) is considered by people as intrusive and they do not want to get such mails for sure.

As for the bookmarking sites I can say that if you submit your forum to the appropriate community or section of the bookmarking site, if there is one, you will more likely get people visiting your forum as the people who will visit your forum will definitely look for a specific niche or topic, then find your forum on the listings and hopefully end up browsing it and registering.

The second way of finding your forum out is less irritating for the target audience, don't you think?
You have to aim at people who are likely to search for the information and resources that your forum offers. People who want to be served that piece of information.

 

What about article marketing?

You could do it on 2 levels:
1. Bulk send articles related to your sites to directories.
2. Send better quality articles manually.

 

bobchrist, agree.

 

You can optimize your sites to get rank well in search engines. Ranking good in search engines means that you will get targeted traffic

 

I agree with social sites. This is the thing that I'm planning on doing next month because I will be using the money to payoff the bills on our house this month.

 

cmanns,

Make sure that at all times , the community is made to feel as if they are an integral part of what's going on with the forum. I'd like to suggest a method - create some sort of a points system that adds to any posters totals whenever they post and then let them redeem them for some freebies. This ensures 2 things simultaneously; 1) posters will feel like their posts are counted for and continue willingly, and 2) feeling like they ARE in a true community, they'll spread the forum name like wildfire through "word-of-mouth" (the MOST powerful traffic generator EVER).