FREE forum promotion?

[domaino]

I have recently constructed a soccer forum (http://www.slidingtackle.com) and have signed up about 20 members in about 9 days just promoting in signatures on forums. Does anyone have a successful forum? If so how long did it take for you to get it properly established and what promotion techniques did you use? I know about adwords etc however i was preferably looking for FREE methods.

I had also thought about offline advertising eg t-shirts, stickers, flyers etc, has anyone had success with this?

I could also do with some input from RJ if possible, as to how you got this place on the map.

Thanks in advance everyone!