Hey guys! I thought this would be helpful for people who want to run a good server, as I've seen alot of servers with unexperienced owners.

1. Don't do a home hosted server! Alot of people, don't have money to run off of a dedicated host and do it off their home computer or laptop, these servers that are ran on home hosted computers are usually not 24/7 and cannot hold a high amount of players. I recommend you save up to be able to pay a few months of a server and then start accepting donations from your players. If you want a good hosting company, I recommend www.mcprohosting.com

2. Don't make people staff for being your friends! A ton of owners make their friends admins/mods, this is not a good idea. Usually your friends may not be experienced and even if they are, they'll feel like they can abuse all they want because they're your friend. Hire people because they deserve it or have majorly helped out in the server.

3. Know your limits Don't try to imagine yourself with a huge server on a 20 slot server, image a medium sized server. Don't think your going to become super popular off your first advertisement. Don't get plugins that require 50 people on your server, when you currently don't have any, wait till you do have 50 players. Though, I'm not saying you can't work up to your expectations, just know your current limitations.

4. Know what your doing I see tons of server owners who don't know what their doing. Make sure you know about plugins, how to treat players, common sense, and the general basic things that all server owners should know. No one likes a server with a bad owner!

5. Be creative! Don't start another regular factions server, there's already a bunch out there! Think of something creative! On my survival server, I made the world a skylands world! Maybe hire a plugin developer to make you some cool plugins, just be original!

6. Make a website Making a website is important, it allows you to accept donations, allow users to post forum threads, stay up to date on server news, etc. I personally recommend www.enjin.com though it does cost a tiny bit of money, but if your truely dedicated to making a good server, you'll do it.

7. Donations Don't do something like "$2 For Moderator", do something like $20 for a rank called Premium with a few perks, but not overpowered perks, add something like /feed. You always want to make sure that your donators and regular players have some kind of balance, otherwise, the regular players will leave!

8. Take suggestions! Always allow players to send in suggestions! If you like someone's idea, try to get it implemented, if you don't, simply ignore it.

9. Don't be rude If someone starts spamming your server saying "THIS SERVER SUCKS", don't be rude back. Simply give them a warning, and if they continue, mute them for a bit. If they still don't stop, ban them. You always want to handle situations calmly.

10. Make sure you can trust your staff Don't hire staff you don't think you can fully trust. And NEVER give users full access to your server such as console.

11. Take daily backups Take daily backups of all your server files, either save them to your desktop or ask your server host if they offer daily backups.

I hope these tips help people grow their servers and keep them protected, if you have any suggestions on things I could add to this list, please message me in the comments.

Want a good way to contact me? Join my server! IP: hub.mcserver.ws