We've discussed this in depth a couple of times. Seems about the right time to do so again!

Different teams have different recruitment strategies. Company teams usually recruit (often involuntarily) from within the company. Some teams recruit solely from the unattached WCG populace. Teams that are interest groups usually recruit from a variety of forums where people sharing that interest hang out. Single community teams (like mine) recruit almost entirely from within that community. Country-specific teams pick up a lot of members from people signing up and looking for a team to join. Some of them cross over into other categories I have described.

So, the single community viewpoint.

It is absolutely essential to get the people or person running the community gunning for you. I was lucky, Illiad has been awesome.

Some of the things that can be done:
* regular features on the site front-page news items
* a constant but low key daily reminder of how to join and how we're doing posted in the comment board
* a small but nifty banner ad on every single page on the site (nearly)
* and the kicker: Illiad signed UserFriendly.Org up as a WCG partner, and added a detailed WCG page in the Community Centre section.

For what works best... strangely I have noticed a link between the position of WCG on the main page and new members. Right at the top works best, with right at the bottom second best.

My experience may not be representative: there are half a million people who read the comic regularly, but only a fraction of these stay around to chat.