No, this isn't a blatant advertisement; I know where those are supposed to go. This is more of a question to anyone here who has their own website.
The internets is a big place, and getting people to find, visit, and participate in your site is a daunting task. Short of buying banners and making blatant advertisements (which everyone obviously hates) what are some methods to increase visibility of your site and hopefully hook some return visitors? Specifically, I'm referring to community-based sites with a message board and other interactive facets, that more or less require other people in order for it to work at all.
Word of mouth is obviously the most important; but how to make people trust you enough to take your word first and get the ball rolling? Frankly, I don't have a whole lot of time to join and hang out on a bunch of message boards all day and make new friends 
My latest thought was to join some sites like LiveJournal and MySpace, mirroring my blog (that I've been doing anyway) and try to attract some more attention that way. Toplists are an option for a lot of sites, but what if you have no theme, or an "open theme" that supports a lot of different things? (If you couldn't tell, the site in question is the one in my sig, Crystal Plains; it's an open art and role-playing community, if that helps responses any.)
On a related note, how to revive a steadily-dying site? I'm also one of the admins at SonicVerse Team, an affiliate of Sonic Stadium, SonicAnime.net, and Shadow of a Hedgehog. Over the past few years we've seen membership take a sharp plunge into the virtual abyss (attributed mostly to some administration issues after the original owner of the site left to pursue his own goals) and is now DOA, leaning decidedly toward the D. While we have internal clockworks a-running over what to do, any input from the membership here would be much appreciated.
Sorry if this all seems like blatant plugs; call it a cry for help. If admins don't agree, do with this what you see fit.
Thank you all for your time and comments to the situation.
This is probably a lame suggestion but get some fresh blood in. Go find promising artsits and such and offer to host them...if they like it, they may tell their friends.
It also could be just a lull in interest in Sonic...though there seems to be quite a lull in a lot of places...
If you're willing to pay, there are plenty of websites that will allow you to put advertisements on their sites for a little a month. Also, try affilating with some sites, as that can help generate some interest.
Really, it's all about persistance. People may not look at a site at first glance, but if you keep your site going and keep advertising it, eventually, more and more people will have a look.
