for sure subdue the background image like 30 - 40 % ghost of the image. An online research hub researching what? Cancer
if so you have to start adding content to the forum fill it up, get family and friends to join to show some numbers of members. You need to make a content web site then connect the forum to it like x10 they sell and give free hosting, the forum is for support. Go look at our forum you'll see they don't even get traffic.
You need to get a real domain name .x10.mx I believe you can't submit it to the search engines you need to work on your meta tags which description and title are the most important that's what the search engines look for. Keywords aren't that important anymore cause people flooded their keywords just to try and get top position so only a few that match what you site is about. Seach for them to learn more
<meta name="description" content="Online Research Hub" />
<meta name="keywords" content="orh, online research hub" />
<title>Online Research Hub</title>
I've built a site around vintage toy advertisements since I have a look of material on the subject and I sell the ads. Build a niche site and build around that then use a forum. The best niche is something you know like the back of your hand.
Hope some of this helps. Learn something everyday and add something new to your forum or web site daily
http://www.vintagetoyadvertisements.com I work on it everyday plus I have a lot of updates on pages to do. x10 is the best free hosting site I found play by the roles and you won't have any problems.