Affiliates/Traffic

Hey guys I have just got my forum up and running(and hopefully my site soon), and I want to get some more traffic! I have found a few affiliates that are new sites as well, but they seem to be mainly for graphics and designs. I want my forum to be quite similar to this forum( Won't be as good by a long shot, but hey..Got to start somewhere). I want to get affiliates to sites that are similar to me. I guess link exchange is the more proper word, because I have no money to offer as I am not allowed to use money over the net. :(
Any suggestions?

Thanks,



Joe

Whatever you do, make sure that you're easily found by search engines; other than that, the success of a forum depends on its community, which is hard to enforce. There are so many forums around that it's hard to stand out unless you cater for a topic that isn't already covered by a lot of others.

Linking to, and being linked to from your site only makes sense to affiliates if you have a strong and active community; until that time you haven't got much to offer.

Get it out, get the basics right, try to invite people to come over and have a look and see how things progress. Be active yourself, too: show your community you care.