Getting a new forum off the ground is one of the hardest tasks. The "empty room syndrome" deters real engagement, leaving most early traffic to bounce before ever registering.

Once you hit 100 members - people who actually log in, create topics, and reply - the community usually starts building its own momentum. But getting to that initial milestone requires lots of effort.

What’s the #1 tactic that actually works to get your first 100 members? And what is a complete waste of time?

There’s only been two forums of mine that had over 100 members. The first one was a forum for a game that was funded on Kickstarter, this was in 2013 so forums were still very active and many people were still using them. This was Mighty No. 9 Universe, and I got my members from both Reddit and Twitter but most of them came from Twitter I suspect. My second one is Thee Zone but that took a while to get there, plus it’s three different forums merged together. I mainly got most of my members from promotional forums.

Getting 100 members is a really great milestone for many forum owners. However, just getting 100 members alonebis not enough. You also need active members who would constantly and consistently post threads and post on the forum and stay active. Regardless of that, if you have gained 100 members already, then this man's that your forum has the potential to grow.

A big problem though is whether or not they are spambots or real members. For instance, I got 61 and 78 members for two forums, respectively - but I don’t know if they are spambots. Well, they haven’s posted spam so maybe they’re real - but then again, they aren’t posting anything at all!

I usually ask my immediate forum buddies (a lot of you all) to see if they want to help.

I’d definitely help them.

Then I do post exchanges, now invest in Postloop, and sometimes pay for posts to get things started, as well as post often myself.

After that, I promote the forum where my audience is and emphasize that there are no ads and content doesn’t disappear in 24 hours, as it does on Facebook. Sometimes that’s a big benefit for getting new members.

I think that it would be a really great idea to promote your forum on social media and other forums. This could lead others to join your forum. However, there is no guarantee that all those members will definitely stay active for a long time. This is why not all the forums stay active for a long time.