1. What I do is create lots of ad groups which each target a specific area of the forums. I have an ad group for each individual forum. Then, for each ad group, I create about 3 highly targeted ads which incorporate keywords into them. i.e. an ad group to advertise the PHP forum will use words such as php, zend, etc. in the ad copy. I get a very low CTR but of those who do click, 5 to 10% of them go on to register on the forums. So I'm happy with a good conversion rate.

2. I'm not sure right now as google is in the middle of some weird type of change to their ranking algorithm. Supposedly PR isn't being weighed nearly as much as it used to. For the most part, better ranking in the SERPS can be achieved by getting more backlinks and lots of em. Expect a decrease in traffic over the summer however.

3. Go on an agressive link-finding campaign. Visit other sites with a subject related to yours, and send a pleasant email over to the webmaster saying that you like their site and would love to partner with them. Try to make it a habit of sending out at least 10 of these e-mails per day for awhile. Now suppose your site is about "widgets". Do a google search for "widgets directory" and "widgets link swap" and "widgets links" - odds are most of the sites that come up are ones that are on your subject matter AND include a link swap directory. However, it's best to swap links on actual content pages instead of in directories.

4. Traffic always declines during the summer and weekends. You may have been blogged by a new site or such where a link to your site appeared on a high PR page for a small period of time. During that time, your rankings went up and you got more traffic. The internet isn't a constantly changing place Things change, so appreciate what you've got when you have it

5. I use AdWords and try to find as many link partners as I can. Getting backlinks helps deliver traffic directly from similar-content pages in addition to raising your ranking in the SERPS.

1. How can one reach a higher CTR using Google AdWords? (I would love to read comments on AdWords from experienced users)

Trial and error mostly. This is a good thing to try with Adwords, because after all if you fail you don't pay for clicks you don't get. Basically I see some difference in my CTR with increase in position (ie paying more) or with the inclusion of the word 'free'. My ads with 'free' in them have nearly twice the CTR of my other ones.

2. What can cause a steep drop of link popularity in Google in only one month?

Could be anything. Google could be changing their algo, competitors of yours could be investing SEO, summer in the US causes traffic drops, who knows. Try monitoring your keywords on www.digitalpoint.com and maybe even track your competitors to see how they are tracking. Check their backlinks and see if things are changing with them.

3. Is there an easy way to swap/find links without a link excahnge software?

Not that I've found. Hard work seems to be the only way unless you have some killer content.

4. What might cause a steep fall in visitors to a certain site without any changes made in strategy of promotion?

See question 2.

5. What do you find as the most effective boosting way to advertise and promote your site so far?

Basic SEO. I followed the tutorial at www.seo-guy.com and doubled my traffic. Didn't cost a cent. The other nice way to increase links and SERPS results is lots of relevant forums posts with a nicely constructed signature.

Thank you both so much for the targeted and helpful answers. A great forum indeed.
I am going to try all your advises right away.

You may get a steep fall in visitors from google if you get banned from google, from doing things such as being a linkfarm and linking to those no no type of sites such as pharmaceuticals, online casinos etc.

You said it bluzman32,

To add to that becareful of running certain traffic scanning scripts that interact with google's PR system on your server. Sites that scan for PR are not sanctioned by google and they do get banned. :evil:

Thanks for the info hysteriaweb I was slightly considering joining Digital Point's link network for awhile, but I decided against it, because you never know what types of sites you'd be linking to. Google never bans you if a bad site links to you, because you can't control who links to you. But they can and do if you link to a bad site.