You can't be expert in a day, taking a free software, applying a free skin and not even taking care of adjusting the program to your own requirements. In that case, you are not even different from other to be an expert. This thing starts from the other end. Probably, at first you need strictly to know what would you like to achieve ;-)

Why not? I tried it. Now this BaBy seems satisfactory for me.

Thanks, glad to know it :)
Just one finishing point - I mean, your task is not to be an expert in the forums software. But the expert in the area you have created your forums for. If I'd run a website/forum with the theme like yours, I'd give myself the primary questions: how could it be different to others? What topics should I create first to attract users attention? At least you may have up to 20-30 fresh topics on board which you have started on your own, which will have a unique content, not duplicated from the other websites. I just don't know the niche of business you are taking, and it's up to you what content you create, but it must be interesting to others, so they come and not just read, but also start to take part in it.

One of the good examples I know, is not running on miniBB, but I has provided an electronic interview for it. Just couple of years ago this was a starting community with just a few unique topics. This forum's owner, mr. Shawn Gossman, just took his time to give regular questions to forum programs developers and got the unique articles, which he didn't even write (interviewed persons did it for him). He also published quite nice original articles on his own, providing few hints and descriptions for any forum owners. I suppose, he also had a mailing list, which constantly reminded forum members about its existence; he advertised it on the other websites and directories; he kept all links permanent - in result, in a reasonable time, he owned thousands of topics. His forum grown rapidly.

With miniBB, you could achieve the same not in a couple of years, but in a couple of months - considering it's more fast, more greedy indexed by search engines, more intuitive in usage. I know examples, when people were forced even to close their forums, because they became too popular, too widely known - not everybody actually wants it.

So it's in your hands... start to publish original interviews, articles, perform advertising on the other websites and search engines, keep your local hyperlinks permanent - you'll see, if it will be useful, interesting and unique to others, you won't need a referral program at all. Users will find you and will work for you at no special invitation.

Good luck!

Thanks for your big message!
Your advices are valuable!