There are free forum hosting sites. Google "free forum host" and you should come up with lots and lots. It's a good way to begin. We went with one for a while but it was down ALL the time... so one of our members bought a domain and it's working out much better.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with posting for recruitment on sites like guru ("Introduce your guild" thread). We've gotten many nice members from it.
You say you've had a hard time finding the right guild. Then don't be too impatient in
building the right one. Spend some time doing what you like, be it PvP or PvE, chances are you'll find like-minded people who might want to join.
Just make sure you do get that forum, and get organized. You've probably left guilds because of arbitrary rules or no rules at all, or no one follows them, right? Lay out what you want your guild to be, and make it as public as possible. You'll be much more likely to get good members if you don't keep your guild mysterious.