Ok, I'm not going to write a whole essay here, so i'll give you some tips...
If you want to make a forum, make sure it has a good niche, something unique, but not so unique to the point where only a very small few people are interested in it, don't use free forum software, instead buy some webhosting, get a decent forum (i.e. vBulletin, or if your budget is tight, PHPBB or MyBB), then start to build links, contact other sites (But don't be stupid and contact big companies like EA or whatever) for link exchanges, try to get as many links as possible, make sure your forum design isn't too image heavy, keep it simple. remember the .com bubble has burst, years ago.
