I've had much experience with servers in the last three years I've been working with them. I once built and maintained three fully functional servers on my laptop with no internet connection just to test my new plugins. I've been staff, moderator, Admin, Plugin Developer (The real type), and Co-owner of quite a few of the many servers floating around waiting for people to join. Only one of those servers I worked for are there today, I have gained a massive amount of knowledge from my experiences and I am now going to share it with you.

In this guide, I will show you how to:
1. get the players

2. keep the players

3. grow your server

One of the biggest questions asked by server owners is: "How do I get players and keep them?"

1). How to get players
This is certainly not an easy task, every player has an expectation that will usually determine whether they come back or not. For example: If you would join a server only to find a half-built spawn, staff that grief the players, the Owner letting random players be staff, and the list keeps going on, you would probably leave right away and never go back. It may surprise you, but there are many servers like this; They usually last about a week before they shut down.

How to avoid a server disaster:
- Try to find pre-staff (builders and devs) before you even think about a hosting subscription.
This way you will save time and money. Once you have the staff you need, you can start a server and have your spawn built and your plugins set up very quickly and efficiently.

- When receiving applications, try to pick out the older, most mature and qualified applicants. Young and immature staff leads to disaster

- Set up permission groups for your new staff that limit the commands they can use. If fake staff (greifers) don't have the permissions to destroy everything, they will leave.

- Do not publish your server in any way until it is 100% set up and ready for players. Almost all players that join a half-done server will leave and never come back.

So now you know how to avoid a server disaster that repels players. Now how to attract players!
- Have a nice open spawn. If a player joins a server that has a big open spawnpoint, easy to find player commands, and easy to find warps (the shop, wilderness, pvp) they will have an enjoyable time. If the spawn is cramped and confined, and nothing is easy to find, they will get confused and leave.

- Have nice, helpful staff. If a player has a problem, it's always great to have someone online to give you some help.

- have at least two different game types (Skyblock, Skywars, Creative, Survival, Hunger Games, Pvp, Prison, Factions)

- Once your server is 100% ready for players, I recommend making a banner (There are free tutorials on youtube) and submitting your server to a online server listing site. You can also post your server here on planetminecraft and on minecraft forums without having to worry about banners.

By following the guide I have laid out so far, you will have a good, average server that will probably have about 10-25 players on it at a time.
Q:What? Only 10-25?
Yes. This is the best way to start out. Your server will have a solid foundation that will stand firm, and possibly even bring in income while you are expanding.

(2). How to keep your players
Part of getting your 10-25 players is keeping them interested so they come back. If you have a factions server, with almost no players, here are some things you need to check:

- are you giving players ridiculous amounts of items? If you give everyone in skyblock ten diamond blocks, four stacks of stone, and a stack of saplings, there is no point of playing. Players will have no set objectives. No goals.


- are you restricting to many privileges or items from the players? Story time! I once hopped on a server that advertised skywars on it's banner on a online list of servers; I knew I was bound to find a good skywars server eventually. I logged in and joined a skywars lobby. When I looked at the kits, every single kit was locked for donator ranks. As I looked around, I noticed just about every other player was fully equipped with full set of enchanted diamond gear at the very start. Guess who the next guy to leave was? Totally Not Me

- are you giving players blocks like bedrock in a factions or survival server? Bedrock in factions is the worst thing I've ever seen. Factions is a game about raiding. If your players can't raid, they will find a server were they can.

- is the open world so big that players can't find bases to raid? Seriously, It's like you walk and walk for days and weeks before you find a dirt house.

These are problems for almost all game types.

Some players are looking for a server dedicated to a certain game like Hunger Games. If a server is dedicated to a certain game, the game will most likely be much better than it is on other servers that use the game as an appetizer. If it is dedicated, that means your server's main focus is that game and making it better. If you start your server like my guide has showed you so far, and you have set up, lets say: Factions, skywars, and prison; Try to start with one of them and find ways to make it better, enhance it, give players a better experience, and make it yours. If you do that with all three of them (or other game types), you are way more likely to get and keep players, because your server will have the best games around.

(3). Grow your server
By now you should have an above average server. You should be making more money from donations than you are spending on the host.

Warning:

When some people think of growing their server, they come up with grand plans and ideas. Once they are done, they have ten different mini games, as well as factions, skyblock/wars, and prison, but not enough players to support them. Take Mindcrack for example; when they added Sethbling's famous MissleWars minigame, players flocked by the hundreds and waited for hours just to play that game. Because of the massive increase, they added more mini games for the players. While they were building the mini-games however, they completely ignored the fact that in MissleWars, hackers with flying hacks were easily flying over to the other team's side, and destroying their portal. No one wanted to play with hackers, so most left. Now Mindcrack is a empty server that no-one plays because there aren't enough players in the many game lobbies to play the games.

So that is what not to do. The "to do's":
- slowly add more games as your server grows and more people join. Spend a lot of time making your games better and more custom.

- start a website for your server. You don't need to pay for a website. You can get a free website that is already set up for a gaming community, like enjin. Why is a website important? You can use your website for error and bug reporting, submitting applications for staff, managing donations and packages, and getting feedback from players (feedback is EXTREMELY important, especially critical feedback).

- If you have some extra cash, consider a teamspeak server Set up a discord server - It's free!

- Install a anti-cheat plugin such as NoCheatPlus! This is extremely important. If you have the extra ram on a factions or survival server, why not install a plugin like ore to client obfuscation To block x-ray clients and texture packs.

- Install the votifier plugin (if you have a bukkit or Spiggot server). To entice players to vote for your server, you will need to give them a reward in return. You need to be careful though; if you give them too much, they will get bored and lose interest.However, If you don't give them enough, they won't vote because it isn't worth it. Two diamonds, 5-10 xp levels, and a small amount of in-game money is usually the way to go.

- have it reviewed by youtubers

- play your own games. If you play your own games with the same advantages and disadvantages as your players, you may discover some issues.

- Take the old style games and give them a little twist.


The End!
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By following this guide, you should be well on your way to the top 500 on the average server list. I hope this guide helped you and I wish all you server owners the best of luck!