Be active! Yup, I agree. Be active for your members. But what if you don't have any active members? I, as an administrator can only create so much content. I can ask questions, but if there's nobody there to answer back, the forum just becomes an empty void, an echo chamber. Attracting active members is crucial. And I'm not so sure google is such a relable spot to advertise on anymore, not with the trillions of websites that exist. Finding a particular, unknown site is like looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack, and most people today don't invest that kind of time.