All new forums have problems getting posts and signups. Contests could bring you good results. Here is my experience with a recent contest help at webcosmoForums.com. I ran the contest for a month ending on June 19, 2008. When I started that I was kind of unsure of the results. But at the end it worked great. I had 200 signups, 1000 new threads, 7000+ posts during the contest. Now I am starting another contest starting on July 1. If you have a new forum, I would suggest considering contest as your marketing method.