Introduction.
Hey guys its Captain here with a blog (long time no see!). Today I will be showing you guys some little tricks and tips for advertising, starting out, and what to do generally with a server. first of all, these tricks are not entirely clean server owner stuff, so if you like growing a player base honest, then I suggest you not read <3

Starting Out.

First of all, when you first make a server, from expierience, you will be discouraged by the people that come and go, don't really worry about who is coming and who is going, almost half of them are just curious folks looking at new things. So before you start advertising its a good tip to make these things first, these are the general things a player would expect on a server. First a shop, either a small one or a big one depending on if your server is based on economy, maybe a secret shop later added into one of your bigger warps for fun (I did this, it was a smash on the players). Second of all, warps to at least 5 biomes, try to make either portal or warps, because the moment alot of players get on at the same time, which I'm going to show you how to do next, they will start slaughtering each other, and to prevent minimum player rage quits, you want to get pvp timer or a auto annoucer to tell them that theres another way, portals! OK, so right to the point, how to get a bunch of players, is Minecraft Server List, I will provide a Link below. The moment you put it on minecraft server list, prefurrably a saturday with 2 or 3 people on with you, maybe alts or just friends, but dont make the people around you moderators, for players will get discouraged by 3 people flying around them with operator powers. Now you have maybe 10 or 20 players on, and how to keep them? first of all interact with them, but do not come up to them and give them items, try to help them in their little own way, like if they are about to be overwhelmed by mobs, kill the mobs with a command or set it to day <3

PMC Advertising.

We all love PMC, but warning when you first deciede to advertise on PMC with a server post, please please don't be moved by the smoothtalkers wanting staff, just either tell them staff is full or that you work solo (which I do <3). Bumping the server is as important as posting the server, its almost like posting the server over and over again, which is good, usually you want 4-8 people on your server for bumping, because if you have too little the post will attract staff askers, but too much and nobody gets on...... Another tip is watch the time, usually sevrer bumping late at night is good, like I usually bump at 6 PM or 7 PM, which gives you less compitition to be outbumped. Fridays and Saturdays, and naturally the best 2 days to bump the server, try getting a bigger playerbase on this time, maybe 8-10 because that will make you look  better, I learned that theres usually a bigger croud on in these 2 days, so be sure to bump. I would also suggest not to come to PMC just to post a server, if you did this, make sure to make yourself at home, make a couple blogs or skins so people won't think "I aint playing this level 1 guy's server)