Hello there!
So you think you're ready to start your own public server huh? Well if you would take the time to just look at these few things you should probably know before getting to far into it. These are in no particular order, other than one came to my mind first.
I updated this a bit! Hey guys! been a while, just came back and read through this and added a few things and removed others. I can't believe it's been a year! I might get back into writing stuff if I have something to go off of!

First off, if you have friends from in real life, or in game and they're causing a problem or starting the server development, GET RID OF THEM! I know what you're thinking, but they're my friend, I can't just make them leave! Trust me, later on when you start getting more serious about your server, they're going to be the ones dragging you behind. Countless times I have let friends stick around far past their welcome and afterwards it bites me in the behind as they refuse to do any work but ask for a title. Of course, the closer the friend is to you the harder it is to get rid of them, but make sure you warn them a few times of what they're doing.

Another important 'warning'; Your server is not going to be popular for the first 2 weeks. Unless you instantly get some famous YouTubers or Twitch streamers on, you're a famous YouTuber or somehow get Jeb to sponsor you, it's not gonna be successful within the first few days. Hopefully, After a while, your server will start appealing to players. If you feel that no-one is interested in your server, maybe try switching up a bit, sometimes a fresh start or an extra game mode is just what you need.

This applies to smaller servers, if you're a big dog, just skip this; So you decided you wanna be a smaller public server, these are mostly factions, towny, or other types of small servers. The one thing I have to say to you, is NO YOU DO NOT NEED THAT MUCH STAFF. If you did not follow my step of quarantining all your friends before, this is gonna be a big problem. A trick I found with needy friends who want staff, give them the highest donator rank! Anyways, if you have less than 25 slots on your server, you can be perfectly fine with 3 staff spots. The worst thing that can happen to your server is that the slots are being filled up with your staff, and not regular players. If your server has more than 25 slots, for every 10 more slots, you can add one more staff member. (Side note: if you plan on having ONLY minigames, you can lower it even more to 1-2 staff members, including yourself!)

Alright this is the part i've been scared to write, donations. Donations. If you are expecting within the first month (heck even the first year!) to make money off of your server, you will be very disappointed. Probably about 90 percent of time (give or take) dedicated players will be the only ones donating. Getting dedicated players is the hardest thing to do. Most of the time, your dedicated players will turn into your staff as you grow, so trying to 'get money out of them' is gonna be challenging. Make your ranks nice and low priced, so your players don't have to break bank to donate to your server, but at the same time, you gotta make sure players are getting about what they deserve from the price they're paying. Factions servers can get away with having low prices for few commands while minigames servers can have even smaller packs for small aesthetic items! That's the hardest part of donations, finding an even balance between perks and money. (The next hardest part is thinking of a name!)

If you're anything like me while making a public server, you live by the quote "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." If you're not like that, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph too. So you wanna do everything yourself? I'll tell you right now as someone who has made a whole server by themselves, it is NOT worth it, whatsoever. I know it's hard for you because you are terrified of another person/player messing up your beautiful server, but you just need to let it go. For you, that's gonna be the hardest part of your server. Heck, I was so tired of everyone not doing their part I taught myself groupmananager, just so I could get my server rolling. You just need to leave your trust in someone else, if they mess up, yeah it's gonna set you back a bit, you gotta either tell them what they did wrong, fire them or just let your instincts kick in and do it yourself. The worst of this is when you have an inactive build team, which will set you back immensely, especially if you yourself can't match their style and do it yourself.

Ok so this is if you're expecting to make a big server. Example, minigames, factions, etc. You're a small server? You got your own paragraph up there! Anyways, big dog server owners. I'm hoping you've saved up for this, because this is gonna cost you a fortune. I'm gonna go ahead and split this paragraph into a few of the main big servers. Just go to the paragraph that applies to you.
Minigames: A giant minigames server? Builders, builders, builders. You my friend, are going to need a proper build team. You are not going to need all that much of a staff team, but you will need a hell of a ton of builders. A minigames server will run itself! You're not going to need a huge staff team. Find yourself a good build team and you determine what kind of plugins/gamemodes you're gonna have before hand, you'll be perfectly fine. Also, what little I know about how servers actually work, I do understand one part of them and that's what they can handle. If you're planning on having multiple gamemodes that are significantly different (Eg: Hunger games, Spleef, Builders, etc.) You're gonna need a whole other dedicated server for your busiest mode. But this isn't something to consider right off the bat, get everything built, then jump into the magic behind it.
Factions: The first thing you need to determine before your faction server takes off is the rules. Rules come first on a factions server no matter what. Cussing? Raiding? Stealing? PVP? Tp/Tpa? Etc. That is the first thing you're going to need. Next comes the staff. Your staff need to be extremely aware of what you believe to be okay and what you don't. The worst you can have on a factions server is a confused staff member that contacts you all the time with "Is this okay??" messages. On a factions server, depending on your rules and how strict they are, you're going to need more staff. Simple rules? less staff. Complex rules? More staff. Then comes the building. All you really need is a rag-tag team of builders, and you can get your server started! (Hell if you're like me, you can build the whole thing yourself!)

Well that's all I have for right now, if I think of anything else, I will be happy to add to this. If you actually read all of that, thank you so much, and i'd love a comment down below with some constructive critisism, or some thank yous if this helped you in anyways.
Another thing i'm sure you're wondering is, "Maya, how the heck do you know all this stuff?" I've owned, been staff on, or played on just about every type of server out there, The only server type I don't have much experience with is factions, but I still know my fair share.

Thanks again for reading!

-Maya

P.S. If you ever have any questions on owning a server, go ahead and shoot me a message on Discord! To get to a channel I'm always in click here.