What worked for me...Actual stats from various programs.

[OtbHunter]

Press Release: Done thru “Professionals� = $600.00 = ( 0 ) new members.

Banner ad on a forum with 225,000 members. The Forum limits the number of ads run each month so that your ad is shown over 1,000,000 times in a month. = $500/month = (10 ) new members.
Banner ad on a forum with 32,000 members. = $450/month = ( 15 ) - new members.
Banner ad on a forum with 25,000 members. = $450/year = ( 22 ) new members.
After spending the $$$, I found this article: Headline of article printed in USA Today… 3/26/2006 = “Screaming banner ads get little notice� Conclusion at end of article = “The study presented echoes the findings of an earlier study that reported “Consumers are Blind to Banner Ads�

Google ad words: $200.00 for ppc program…ran about a month = ( 0 ) new members.

Started and ran my own email program (SPAM). I sent a very honest offer, letting the recipient know a little about the site and a link to it. I complied with all of the CAN-SPAM regulations. Results = Total emails sent ( 101,366 )
Returned/improper address ( 43,135 )
Request to “remove� from future mailings ( 316 )
Complaints sent to ISP ( 10 )
New Members signed: ( 1,696 )… AOL had my site cancelled because of 3 complaints, I had to move to another Registrar and Hosting company.
As the results were so good and I did not want my site shut down again, I decided to spend the money and pay the list brokers on the internet to send a mailing to their “Opt-In� list.
Results:
Purchased opt-in email list (sent by the Seller) $100.00 for 50,000 = ( 0 ) new members. I was able to get my money back.
Purchased opt-in email list (sent by the Seller) $100.00 for 25,000 = ( 0 ) new members. I was able to get my money back.
Purchased opt-in email list (sent by the Seller) $650.00 for 500,000 = ( 0 ) new members. I was able to get my money back.
Purchased a pop-under program… $50.00 for 25,00 pop-under ads = ( 0 ) new members.
Contacted three of the top rated opt-in email list brokers…. (Sit down for this one) Quotes for mailing were: $4,000, $4,500 & $6,000 to mail to 50,000!!! (Each list comes with a toll-free number to the nearest bankruptcy attorney at no additional charge!)

Started a program to list on the Free Classified Ad sites. Listed on the following sites and results.
www.domesticsale.com ( 0 ) site views
http://superads.com/ ( 0 ) site views
www.livedeal.com ( 2 ) site views
http://www.inetgiant.com/ ( 0 ) site views
http://www.olx.com/index.php ( 0 ) site views
http://www.pricelookup.com/ ( 0 ) site views

You draw your own conclusions.... of course each site has its own theme and will draw better from one form of promotion than another.

[sgthayes]

My advice : Make a contest and give away stuff. Make sure the stuff you give away is related to your site as this will somewhat target your signups/ registrations. Make sure to send out an informative newsletter from time to time to the people you draw in this way to try and convert them into regular users of your site.

I am testing this on my new site and so far I have had 350 signups to my newsletter in 2 days. (I added my site to about 5 sweepstakes sites)

[OtbHunter]

Originally Posted by sgthayes

My advice : Make a contest and give away stuff. Make sure the stuff you give away is related to your site as this will somewhat target your signups/ registrations. Make sure to send out an informative newsletter from time to time to the people you draw in this way to try and convert them into regular users of your site.

I am testing this on my new site and so far I have had 350 signups to my newsletter in 2 days. (I added my site to about 5 sweepstakes sites)

Very good advice it would seem.... do you have a more specific recommendation How to offer the sweepstakes program? OR... Do you have the URL of the Sweepstakes sites you use.
Thanks for the input and info.