How to get people to visit your forum / get the conversation started?

[getbigyadig]

Pretty straightforward question. I want to start a forum for people to discuss a niche, but have little experience building a popular forum.

[AdoptionHelp]

In online communities you need to achieve "critical mass" to prevent the eternal churn that happens when your visitors feel like they're in an empty community. If you have an advertising budget, consider spending a lot of it right up front. Otherwise a social campaign could work, consider link-baity types of content: quizzes, contests, badges, humor, and the like.

[cbpayne]

Look up the 90 9 1 principle (ignore the debates about the actual numbers, its the philosophy that counts)

Try this as starters:

The 90-9-1 Principle Applied to Forums