Hello professionals! Recently I have been working on a forum, just done designing, modding and coding. I haven't told any of my friends yet. I have decided to open it officially in July 1st. When should I start advertising? When will be the best time to start advertising via AdWords? Can AdWords help me if I don't get many members? How or what can I do to make my forum highly populated? Any comments, advice and suggestions are appreciated!
first of all, content is what keeps people coming back so If you have that then you have to wait for it to become well known and then start advertising. I think you should put ads one your website only after you get 50 unique visitors per day.
I think you should start advertising as soon as your site is ready. You want to attract people to the forum and use it right away. If you wait for SEO to kick in, you might way a long time, especially if nobody knows about the site and don't contribute content. If only your friends use it, I assume you all pretty much know each other, it won't work. You need fresh blood in a forum. Attract them by advertising.