Hello Everyone,

Andrew here. My last blog, the Pro's and Con's of starting your own Minecraft server, gained quite a bit of some recognition/feedback within the blogs section of PMC. Seeing this, I decided to expand my knowledge on servers and give the community and insight on what I believe is the proper way in starting up your own server. I will not be getting into specifics on plugins and such, but I would be highlighting how to plan your server so that it starts up successfully and it's smooth sailing from there.

The first step in planning your Minecraft server/network, is budgeting. Money is essential when starting your own server, if you have the money and are eager to learn how to plan your server, I suggest skipping this and going onto the next paragraph. If you don't have money, these are some ways that I believe you can make some money.

Now that you've got the money to start your own server, you start your research. (NOTE: Everything in this paragraph should be done BEFORE you have started paying for your server.) I start off by looking for a good server host, look around and find the best possible server host for you. There are a few things that you will absolutely need from your server provider, this includes: Good support (24/7 Support is key if you would like your server downtime to be at an absolute miniumum), Good uptime (You don't want a server host that constantly crashes, you want one that stays online almost all of the time), and finally Good specs (RAM is going to be needed when creating a server/network of servers as plugins take up lots of this RAM, and the more plugins you have, the more RAM is going to be needed). Now that you've found your server host, you can think of some basics for your server. You're going to want a name for your server, also you are going to want to scavenge a cheap domain name (this can be done through GoDaddy). Make sure your domain name is easy to type and easy to remember, to make it easier for your players. After you've found a domain and a catchy server name, you move on to the server style. There are many server owners that are not aware of what server they would like to own. It is very important that a server owner knows what they're getting into. You must know what gamemode/style/type of server you will have, as this will help you in deciding what plugins you're going to need. Now that you know what gamemode(s) your server is going to occupy, you begin listing your plugins. Go through Spiggot and Bukkit in search of plugins that will be essential for your server. If you're deciding to start your own mini-games server, I highly suggest that you hire/acquire a group/single plugin developper(s). Why? Well, plugin developpers become very useful when starting your own minigames server as you want to be as unique as possible. The constant Survival Games can get really boring, so by adding your own twists to things will help your server succeed much more, and by doing this you're going to need a/many plugin developper(s). When you have a list of plugins you will be using, I suggest you create your own local server so that you can start configurating. This is not needed, you can do your configs on the server which you have bought, but I am saying this because you will be saving yourself some money as configuartion and permisisons take a large sum of time, so doing this before you have payed for your server will save you some much needed money. Finally, the last thing you are going to need is management. By now, you should post topics in Recruitment threads throughout many of the Minecraft forums to find yourself a strong group of members to help you in managing your server. I recommend you find a strong 5 or more dedicated staff members that will be punching in as many hours as possible into your server during its launch because you want to keep your players happy, and having staff on will be helpful as they can answer any questions/help with anything the players need.

What I did, was that I created a folder on my Desktop named "Minecraft Server", and put in all the information and resources I will need there. I created a .txt named "Server Information" and wrote all of the following inside of it to organize my thoughts and ideas.


After you have all of the above, you can now pay for your server. There are still a few things you need to do before you launch your server, such as setting up BuyCraft/DonationCraft, setting up a website/forums, and advertisement. 

BuyCraft or DonationCraft are very important to your server, even though you're creating this server for fun, you are going to need some sort of income to keep it alive. These plugins allow you to create packages in which you can sell to your players for some money to enhance their gameplay and prolong your server.

Having a website and forums is a must. There are servers out there without them, but having a website and forums will put you and your staff at ease. Players can post complaints on your forums, you can also manage applications on them. There are a lot of pros in having your own website and forums, especially when you're away from your computer and can't play the game, you can still aid your community and manage your server from the website and forums. There are many freelance designers out there, such as IncentDesigns and Rohan McDermott (message me if you're interested and would like their information), that can help you out when creating an attractive website.

Finally, what I believe being the most important part of starting your own server, advertising. I have seen so many servers out there that are being managed very effectively and that should be doing very successful, but are gaining close to no recognition. Advertising your server on forums, server lists, and YouTube will expand your community and will grow your server a lot. Advertising on forums and server lists can be done with banners (preferably animated GIFs as they catch peoples' attention) and effectively explaining your server and why players should join. I recommend you produce/purchase a beautiful server trailer for YouTube to expand your audience. An attractive server trailer can lead to many new players joining every day. You can claim you have an amazing server, but it won't mean much unless you've got the community and players that can support you with such claim.

I really hope you guys enjoyed/learned from by blog today, if you have any ideas you would like to add, please let me know! Also, if you are interested in me creating a blog on going into specifics with server management, let me know below! I welcome all constructive criticism, opinions, and feedback.

Thank you!