You won't entice members by offering them VIP access, and in the off-chance you do, you'll alienate all future possible members by having 70 VIPs around.
Your forum is unattractive because it's empty. It doesn't look active and for that reason alone people won't sign up. You need to ask yourself why people would join your forum as opposed to a leading Apple forum.
If you can't answer this question, your forum won't be a success.
I don't think you're understanding what I said in my post.
If you have 70 VIPs it will just won't only look silly, but it makes you look desperate for members. You shouldn't have to offer VIP status to get members, if your forum is good enough people will join voluntarily.
You need to make your forum look active, at the moment it looks empty. Get your friends or family to help make your forum look active before continuing to promote. Telling people at school won't really help either, you'll probably find people say "Nice" and then leave you to it.
Where else are you promoting? If you solely rely on promotion forums your forum won't take off.
I'd also reccomend using a different thread title, i mean "VIP Access" doesn't tell us anything about your forum at all, whereas "Apple Fanatics - Free VIP Access!" would 🙂
Therein lies your problem. How many serious Apple fans do you think there are here and at Swapitshopforum? You'll need to be an active member on several other apple communities, clearly displaying your site's link and description in your sig.
That's the only way I think you'll be able to get some decent members.
