I have some money to spend, but im looking for what would be most profitable for gaining more people to my site/forums. I was either thinking along the lines of adwords or buying a vBSEO license... any ideas? or other options? Thanks for any suggestions.
forums will need lot of money, not some money u buy vbseo, vb software then comes promotion part. you have to spend on link building, branding, letting people know your site. try for a blog rather that would be more suitable for getting returns and maintainence becomes low.
Sorry should have mentioned this, but I already have a licensed vBulletin forum and the forum is up and running...(about 45 people so far registered within 5 days)
then you must start spending in promotions, put up contests, brand your forum, also have your avatar in here so that people know about it. get your forum banners, do everything possible for people to notice it. its right step to buy vbseo then. though if you do not wish to spend you can try zoints, i have done it for my forum.
Contests are a good thing to go after, as long as you set them up right to get a good return out of them for more than it took to do it. Dont do PPC, its crap IMO.. Think of marketing like throwing a net. You want to throw a net out and leave it their.. So find one time fees, like paid reviews, etc. That way you get a link and it should stay around forever or a very long time to keep sending you traffic and some PR.