Just a note, this is not a step-by-step guide. It is more of a guide to tell you want to do next and tips on how you should carry things out.
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Introduction

When creating a Minecraft server, the most important thing is to get audience as the key factor for anything to be big is the starting audience. What you want to do is to try to keep flowing new people into your product or service while keeping existing ones.



This can be a very tricky thing to do as there are many other competitors out there who are doing the same. Even yet still, Minecraft has died down since its 1.4 update as the game was going towards single player and its adventure/creative modes.



So, in this guide, I’ll be giving you tips on how you can make a successful Minecraft server. Remember, stuffing up will mean you’ll have a bad reputation which will hinder future attempts and it also means wasting lots of money.

Starting off

Starting off your server isn’t easy. You’ll need a flashy spawn or custom world(s), depending on what you’re trying to do, which is a lot of work. Then after that, you would need to setup all the plugins and make everything inter-link with each other. Then having everything your competitors have; a website, a link between your website and servers, multiple servers to form a network, and that takes time and money. You may think it is easy, but it is actually in fact super hard (and expensive).



Servers network usually take at least 3 months to setup, with at least 3 working on plugins and configuration, 6 on building while 2 creating content for the website, and on top of that, a network containing about 50 servers (presuming they’re not the super-good ones, most of them would only be 2-4GB ones) and this altogether cost about $2,000 a month.



But, the main ‘how’ a server starts off and becomes popular is by getting lots of exposure, after its completion as nobody wants to play on a half-complete server. That’s why it’s essential to get everything done before its launch, even if it takes a year to do so.

The launch

When you’re going to launch your server, you will need to spend money to put your server on the front page of nearly every single server. From there, you would need to give an event, such as limited-edition hats at launch that could be obtained from then or a large tournament involving real items for prizes (like Vechz’s competition asking for a mission of Command and Conquer to be recorded and played on Hard difficulty, which I tried and is nearly impossible, which he offered $60 worth of games on Steam), which had responses (entries) come quickly as he was a semi-well-known YouTuber. Exposure of your server could mean advertising (paying lots of money to have your “Come to my server at W.X.Y.Z” spammed on every single server website) or getting some celebrity to endorse it, such as a famous YouTube star, which is impossible, unless you're a close friend or acquaintance to them.



Your website and server also has to be ready round-the-clock, with competitions going every hour for the first few days and staff online around the clock to help host these competitions them and to moderate things. It needs everything to be working (at least the main items) without any bugs.



During this time, you’ll get most of your player-base. The longer you do it, the more you’ll have to spend, but the more players you would get. It is important that you do not screw up as you would lose at least half of your players, or if not; all your players and turned itself into a freebie disaster.



If you’re able to successfully lure people with a large-enough referral system or enough giveaways or anything you’re aiming to do in its launch days, you’ll have a lot of players on the server.

Gathering feedback
After these launch days, you will want to find out what people like about it, create a through survey and ask them as many questions about what they experienced on the server, what they liked or disliked and why. Maybe offer “free credits” or a reward for completing such surveys as information is valuable when making things better. You could almost call this the alpha-to-beta stage.

Expanding your ground

Now that you have a steady player flow, you can start making money off your server. Start off by offering some basic things such as donation perks, but you also can’t put this too hard on people as people hate pay-to-win, which is the case for many servers, even the good PvP ones.



Take for example, when you have kits, they start off weaker (from the cheaper ranks) to more expensive (the higher ranks). What you have to do is to create balance, where for example an ugly knight could kill a shining knight, both have the same weapons but one looks better than the other. The pay-to-win money method is good but is at the same time bad for getting new players.



What I would suggest is that everything (the bare basics) is available to a player, but to access more things, they would have to pay. For example, donor mines for a prison server with the pay-to-win money method where the donor mines have better things. Instead, maybe have the main mines the same but offer extra mines with materials that normal players would get. Of course it would disrupt the market, but it wouldn’t be too long until they find out that the “premium” stuff would be worthless to them in terms of making mega-bucks from the less fortunate players who don’t have them, and all players could progress through the ranks and eventually unlock them too but it would take longer to get it for those lower/free users.

Collecting donations

Now that your server is large enough with a good enough player-base, it is time to make money, such as offering players free paid ranks (not to give out too much too), in hope others would also want to be like them.



Creating a donation base and online store where people could by ranks or one-time items that would help them significantly in their progress on the server. But you also would not want to make it overpriced as poorer people would not be able to get anything good or worth their money.



Once you have a good flow of money, you could add more perks to existing donor users or lower prices of some of your current store items and/or add some more. It is also important though to not put the “donate for X Y and Z” idea too much in their faces as it would turn away players very easily, due to the annoyance and the fact they don’t want. If successful, you may also want to transfer over some premium-only content and give it to the free players, such as access to previously unavailable upgrades that were premium-only as people would be happy to get something they craved (well those who could not afford *that* rank or perk etc.

Growing in numbers

By now, your player-base should also steadily raise, meaning you would need more server-power to handle all the players that are logged on at the same time. With the donation money, would also want to show them that you are committed to keep the entertained (and that means adding new content) by upgrading servers or adding additional servers for more mini-games (if you’re a mini-game server), which means there’s more variety and thus more content for others.



Forgetting to upgrade will cause players to turn away as your server may lag and spoil the experience (as nobody like freezing), which is the main hate for almost every gamer, even computer jitter; which is a problem on the client, not the server’s side. It means the player has a poor computer.

Special events

Of course, you would need to make people want to play on your server by giving bonuses for the current grinding people go through for enough “credits” to unlock new stuff by giving them bonuses like double drops or free “premium” for the day, and these events would also need to happen on specific days like Halloween or Christmas.



On top of these, you would also need to make your server special by adding extra things such as extra things to do or limited-time content. Even redecorating your server for the event would help, but of course – Doing that will also take time.



You can also make use of these events to introduce sales on your “store” of perks or boosts. Which would create more buyers from those who can’t spend the amount for what they wanted (Chosen perk or item).

Your part

It is also a very good idea for you to get into the development of the server and play with your players. Give them a reason to come on; like to meet the legendary creator and then stand in his face so that he gets so annoyed, he would give you something to go away… That’s never going to happen.

Be kind

You can be kind to your players by helping them out... For the right reasons of course, and not the “no because you’re breaking the rules” as it’s negative. It’ll look bad on you; make your mods do that, as you’re meant to look good.

Get innit!

Why not join your players in their games and enjoy the fun with them? Giving them the chance to be with the legendary creators…

Listen hard

As feedback is the most important thing, watch out for discussions about something people don’t like about the server.

Be a rock

Sometimes, there always those people who want something that they want but the majority (or along the lines of 99.9999% of other) don’t really want or care about. It’s alright to let those few people go as they’ll probably become bossier on what they want or the majority (99.999%) of people won’t like their idea.



It is always a good idea to sought out advice from your players, see what they like or not.

Generosity

Of course, as the owner, you can do anything, but to also do good things, not to annoy or poke fun at others just for your sake (entertainment), however it’d be funny if you do that too, but not for the victim. Sometimes poking at others to annoy is considered bullying.



With your powers, you can also make others happy by giving away secret ranks or something that people would not expect to receive before the “YAY!! THE OWNER JUST GAVE ME X AND Y” screamed out into the chat… Remember not to give too much or everyone would expect something.

The end days

Years would past and there would have course, be the next “best thing”. During that time, it would get old and get lesser appeal; players. These the last days of your server, when it would die and lose lots of players, except for those who are dedicated to it. All you can do then is say thanks for the support and maybe offer one last physical present like a copy of the worlds or maps before you close down, as the cost would be too much to bear.

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If you manage to be successful, with least just a few players (about 4-8, not counting staff) online at a single time, please at least give me some credit or give me a good donor rank to show your appreciation.
And it's better if I stumble upon your server rather than you messaging me about it.