How does one get traffic to their forum?

Man I spent 2 days setting up m forum and chatroom. I have done all i can to get traffic to them and I do get traffic, but none fricken signs up.  They just show up and look around and then bail. It’s like they don’t want to be the only person posting on a vacant forum. But man, someone has to be the first to go there and post. I am tempted to make fake accounts. but I can’t see how to make posts and not feel like a dillweed.

Heck the forum is the same age as the chatroom. One month.  There is no irc relation at all. My site hosts the full weight of the bandwidth. Heck I have tons of bandwidth and tons of storage . I started a contest and posted the link  while trying to not be spammy.

How in the hell do I get people to post ?